The world’s strongest magnet dedicated to studying solids, and the strongest magnet in the country overall, will soon be shutdown because the federal government refuses to fund the project.

“With no feasible options to apply for funding for proper operations and maintenance on the horizon, the Steering Committee reluctantly concedes that the continued operations of the facility are not currently sustainable,” said a memo to staff at the National Ultrahigh-field NMR Facility for Solids, an Ottawa research institution that specializes in magnets, magnetic resonance imaging and how it can be applied to the very atomic structure of solids.

Program director David Bryce told La Presse newspaper that hundreds of scientists at more than 20 universities across Canada will be affected by the loss of the $11 million magnet. “Several research programs will have to be abandoned and the advantage Canada has gained in this field will be lost,” he added.

“Going forward, we need at least $160k for operations plus $100k to pay the lease at NRC” which provided the site for the facility and much of its ongoing support, Bryce wrote in reply to a poster on the Reddit website.

Without a last minute injection of funds, the shut down of the magnet, which has been in operation since 2005, will begin on Dec. 15 and it will be dismantled by next spring.

Funding for the facility was originally arranged by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Ontario Innovation Trust, Récherche Québec, Bruker Canada and the National Research Council. The NRC provided the site for the facility and much of its ongoing support. It’s that support that is now gone and threatens the whole program.

Researcher Jean-Philippe Demers said on Reddit that the closure of the facility is the direct result of the federal government’s moratorium in its 2012 budget on funding for scientific research infrastructure in Canada.

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