On Friday, July 2, at STFC's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), RIKEN President Ryoji Noyori and STFC Chief Executive Keith Mason signed an agreement to extend the RIKEN-RAL muon collaboration agreement until 2018.

The first muon collaboration agreement was signed in 1990, for ten years, and it was extended for another ten years in 2000. This new agreement will extend the period of collaboration until 2018.

The signing of this third agreement marked 20 years of cooperation and took place at a celebratory event attended by approximately 150 people who have been involved in the muon collaboration project over the years. President Noyori delivered a lecture titled "Science and Technology for Future Generations."

Under the RIKEN-RAL muon collaboration agreement, RIKEN and RAL added muon-related experiment equipment to RAL's ISIS proton-synchrotron, enabling research ranging from muon catalyzed fusion and material science to ultra low energy muon beam generation and their applications. As a result, the facility has become a leading center for muon science, drawing scientists from all over the world.