and in 1994, the SERC was eventually divided into three Research Councils (the EPSRC, PPARC and the CCLRC – which took responsibility for RAL from EPSRC in 1995), so that each could then focus its development around one of three incompatible business models – administratively efficient short duration grant distribution, medium term commitments to international agreements, long term commitments to staff and facilities provision. To unify the planning of the provision for UK scientists to access large national and international facilities, in 2007 the CCLRC merged with PPARC and incorporated the nuclear physics discipline from EPSRC to create the Science and Technology Facilities Council which then took responsibility for RAL. Facilities The site hosts some of the UK's major scientific facilities, including: the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source (1984), a spallation neutron source. the Central Laser Facility, providing access to large scale laser systems for researchers from the United Kingdom and other EU countries. the Diamond Light Source synchrotron, which officially opened in January 2007. Also hosted are: Microelectronics Support Centre (MSC) NGS UK national academic computing grid GridPP's Tier1 computing centre Energy Research Unit various other resources and services in microelectronics, atmospheric sciences, spectroscopy and renewable energy research. Programmes In addition to hosting facilities for the UK, RAL also operates departments to co-ordinate the UK programme of participation in major international facilities. The largest of these are the areas of particle physics, and space science. In particle physics the largest international project is the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, but RAL has a major role in the UK participation in several other projects such as: the MINOS – Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search, the T2K – to measure the third type of neutrino oscillation, experiments to measure the electric dipole moment of the neutron at the Institut Laue–Langevin, International Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment, the UK Dark Matter Collaboration experiment at the Boulby Mine in Yorkshire. In space science, RAL builds components for, and tests satellites, as well as receiving, analysing and curating the data collected by those spacecraft. Satellite missions in which RAL has a significant role include: the STEREO Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory, the SOHO Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, Solar-B investigating the Solar Corona, Galileo European satellite navigation system, MSG-2 meteorological satellite, Venus Express investigating the atmosphere of Venus, TopSat taking high resolution pictures of the Earth, Double Star (Polar) investigating the interaction of the Earth and the