Central European Training School
on Neutron Techniques

Registration opens on April 1, 2026.

Budapest Neutron Centre (HUN-REN Centre for Energy Research) announces the 16th Central European Training School on Neutron Techniques to be held between 4th and 9th October in Budapest, Hungary. The annual Central European Training Schools are aimed at students and young researchers who are interested in using neutron techniques in their research projects. Following the introductory lectures on the theory and on the different neutron techniques by local experts (in two and a half days), participants may choose five of the BNC instruments to perform three hour hands-on practices each under the tuition of the instrument scientists.  

Registration deadline: 1st June, 2026. 

Workshop will be help after the opening ceremony, where participants will have the chance to display a poster and to give a presentation to highlight their research project described in the poster.  This year, we welcome young researchers to master advanced methods alongside senior scientists who will attend to share their experience. Due to space limitations at the experimental stations, for the hand-on practices CETS 2026 can only accept 30 students.

A registration fee of 100 EUR will be charged from the participants for the meals and the printed course material of the practices. A few grants will be available for students. 

Hands-on practices will be performed on instruments: 

SANS-YS - Small angle neutron scattering 
GINA - Neutron reflectometry 
MTEST - Neutron diffraction 
ATHOS - Residual stress analysis 
PGAA / NIPS / NAA - Elemental analysis 
RAD / NORMA - Neutron imaging 

A visit to Mirrotron Ltd., a spin-off company on the same campus, producing various kinds of neutron instrumentation (supermirrors, area detectors, choppers, velocity selectors, polarizers, etc.) and sponsor of CETS will complete the practical experience of the participants. 

CETS has started to become part of the higher education. The combined theory & hands-on training school of BNC has been accredited by the Doctorate School of Physics of the Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences Budapest, and that of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. Earning credits is now a possibility not only for students of Hungarian universities, but, in principle – through the ECTS – for students of universities Europe-wide. For those participants who request university credits, the oral and poster presentation, completion of the online test and submission of an essay – on how their research could be made more effective using neutrons – will all be required.