Daresbury Laboratory

Daresbury Laboratory is a scientific research laboratory based at Sci-Tech Daresbury campus near Daresbury in Halton, Cheshire, England. The laboratory began operations in 1962 and was officially opened on 16 June 1967 as the Daresbury Nuclear Physics Laboratory (DNPL) by then-Prime Minister, Harold Wilson. It was the second national laboratory established by the British National Institute for Research in Nuclear Science, following the Rutherford High Energy Laboratory (now Rutherford Appleton Laboratory). It is operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, part of UK Research and Innovation. As of 2018, it employed around 300 staff. Paul Vernon was appointed as director in November 2020. Daresbury Laboratory carries out research in accelerator science, bio-medicine, physics, chemistry, materials, engineering and computational science. Its facilities are also used by external scientists and engineers, both from universities and industry.