The Paul Scherrer Institut PSI is the largest research centre for natural and engineering sciences in Switzerland, conducting cutting-edge research in three main areas:matter and materials, energy and environment and human health. PSI develops, builds and operates complex, large research facilities both for in-house research as well as for national and international access for users from academia and industry.

PSI employs approximately 2100 people, with an annual budget of about 380 MCHF, and is primarily funded by the Swiss Confederation. Together with the ETH Zurich and the EPF Lausanne, PSI is part of the Swiss Federal ETH Domain. The Paul Scherrer Institute is located in the Canton of Aargau, in the municipal areas of Villigen and Würenlingen on both sides of the River Aare.

A more detailed summary on facts and figures of the institute is available on the web.

Research facilities：

PSI operates and provides access to its five large-scale research facilities: the Swiss Spallation Neutron Source (SINQ), the Swiss Synchrotron Light Source (SLS), the Swiss Muon Source (SμS), the X-ray Free Electron Laser facility (SwissFEL) and a meson factory for particle physics.

Hence, PSI is the only place worldwide to offer such a broad portfolio of large research infrastructures on one site.

Every year, PSI registers 4500-5000 visits of scientists from around the world, performing their experiments at about 50 experimental stations. These are the only such facilities within Switzerland, and some of the instruments are the only ones in the world.

Open access to the facilities is provided entirely based on scientific merit and a peer review proposal system without any national balancing. Each year 750-900 publications appear based on experiments performed at the PSI user facilities.

In addition to an excellent scientific and technical support for the users by PSI staff, also the necessary infrastructure around the large research facilities is provided with a central User Office, an on-site guesthouse, restaurants and catering facilities, IT services, library, workshops etc.

PSI also hosts a Centre for Proton Therapy (CPT), world leader in the development and clinical implementation of Pencil Beam Scanning (PBS) and Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy (IMPT) for treatment of certain types of cancer. In addition to patient treatment, research and development activities remain at the core of the centre. The work towards the introduction of new clinical indications and innovative therapy concepts for proton therapy is ongoing.