This page gives an overview of the programmes in our partner facilities:
ALBA, Elettra / FERMI, KIT, MAX IV/ESS/LINXS, Petra III / European XFEL, PSI (SLS and SINQ), and SOLEIL.
Note that only 4 of them participate in HERCULES every year, on a rotating basis.
Our 2026 partner facilities are ALBA (Spain), KIT (Germany), MAX IV/ESS/LINXS (Sweden), and SOLEIL (France), from Saturday March 14th to Saturday March 21st 2026.
To have more details about the previous lectures, practicals and tutorials at each facility, see pages 29-36 and 41-45 in the booklet of Hercules 2025. See also pages 47-64 in the booklet of Hercules 2025 for more recent programmes of some of the partners.
Please note that the lectures / practicals / tutorials usually differ from one HERCULES annual session to the other.
ALBA, Barcelona, Spain
The week in ALBA synchrotron consists of:
- 1 day of lectures,
- a visit of ALBA,
- 3 days of practicals and tutorials
- 1 day of group work (preparation then presentation of an experimental report) and one-to-one meetings with ALBA researchers
Petra III & European XFEL, Hamburg, Germany
The week in Petra III synchrotron and European XFEL consists of:
- visits of PETRA III and European XFEL
- 2 days of practicals / tutorials at DESY
- 2 days of practicals / tutorials at European XFEL
- 1 day of group work (preparation and presentation of reports on specific parts of the training)
Elettra / FERMI, Trieste, Italy
The week in Elettra synchrotron and FERMI XFEL consists of:
- 1.5 days of lectures
- visits of FERMI experimental hall, FERMI/Elettra control room, and Labs at Elettra
- 1.5 days of practicals / tutorials at Elettra/FERMI
- 1.5 days of group work (preparation and presentation of reports on the training, proposal writing) and one-to-one meetings with Elettra/FERMI researchers
KIT, Karlsruhe, Germany
The week in KIT light source consists of:
- 0.5 day of lectures
- 0.5 day of practical at KARA, FLUTE, MFE lab or UHV lab
- 4 days of practicals at KIT light source
PSI, Villigen, Switzerland
The week at PSI consists of:
- one and a half days of lectures
- visits of Swiss Light Source (SLS), SwissFEL, Swiss Muon source, Center for Proton Therapy, and Neutron Spallation Source SINQ
- 2 days of practicals at SLS
- a half day of tutorials at SINQ
- 1 day of group work (preparation and presentation of reports on the practicals)
SOLEIL Synchrotron, saint-Aubin, France
The week at Synchrotron SOLEIL consists of:
- one and a half days of lectures
- 2 days of practicals at SOLEIL
- one and a half days of group work (data analysis, preparation and presentation of reports on the practicals, evaluation meeting)
MAX IV SYNCHROTRON & EUROPEAN SPALLATION SOURCE, LUND, SWEDEN
The program for the week at MAX IV, ESS and the LINXS institute is under construction.