Sydney

Synch or swim: one possible design of the synchrotron Australia plans to build. Credit: DESIGNINC MELBOURNE

Plans to build a synchrotron X-ray source in Melbourne could be heading for trouble, researchers say, after federal and state government officials clashed over who should foot the bill.

The state government of Victoria has pledged the A$157 million (US$102 million) needed to build the facility, the construction of which should begin later this year. But project planners need another A$50 million to build the 'beamlines', which will channel the X-rays produced as particles shoot around the synchrotron's central ring.

Victoria had hoped that the federal government would help to pay for the beamlines. “We have punched well beyond our weight, and now its time for the federal government to come on board,” says John Brumby, Victoria's innovation minister.

But on 11 May, the federal science minister, Peter McGauran, said that the government would not allocate money specifically for the synchrotron. It will instead have to compete for funds from existing programmes, such as those of the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council. This means that any federal money for the project looks likely to come at the expense of scientists' grants.

The facility's prospective users fear that squabbling between the conservative, federal government and the Labour-led state government in Melbourne will damage Australia's largest-ever scientific project.

“It is unthinkable that the federal government would not make some contribution to a facility of such great national benefit,” says Peter Darvall, vice-chancellor of Monash University, where the synchrotron is to be built.

Researchers, who hope to use the synchrotron's X-rays to probe three-dimensional molecular structures, are exploring many avenues to find the money. “We envisaged that the scientific community would be principally responsible” for raising it, says Frank Larkins, chair of an advisory committee coordinating the construction of the beamlines and an administrator at the University of Melbourne, which has agreed to fund at least one beamline itself.

Larkins is still hopeful that the money can be found. “Once we have prepared the scientific case, we will be approaching a range of bodies, including the federal government, research agencies, universities and industry,” he says. “If we don't have the commitment of funds in 18 months, then we will start to be concerned.”