Since its discovery winning a Nobel prize in 1960, the radiocarbon (C-14) dating method has expanded far beyond the archaeological applications and has become an inevitable actor of the complex environmental, geological, hydrological, meteorological and climatological studies and nowadays also in drug development, medical researches and nuclear environmental protection.

In the HUN-REN ATOMKI, research and method development based on radiocarbon measurements have a history of almost 50 years. One of the major milestones of development was the installation of a MICADAS AMS type accelerator mass spectrometer in 2011, jointly with the Isotoptech Zrt. Today, an internationally outstanding and high profile AMS laboratory has been established in Debrecen.

The theoretical and technical knowledge acquired jointly by the two parties and the joint laboratory gives a perfect basis for the establishment of an internationally competitive AMS C-14 competence centre which is able to develop and market new and efficient sample preparation devices for the radiocarbon measurements and to provide high-level training regarding measurement technology.

Today, an internationally outstanding and high profile AMS laboratory has been established in Debrecen. The theoretical and technical knowledge acquired jointly by the two parties and the joint laboratory gives a perfect basis for the establishment of an internationally competitive AMS C-14 competence centre which is able to develop and market new and efficient sample preparation devices for the radiocarbon measurements and to provide high-level training regarding measurement technology.

The rationale of the aims set is proven by that even the largest European AMS manufacturer, the High Voltage Engineering Europe (HVE) supports our project plan. Based on the scientific background and professional staff together with the equipment development and manufacturing experience of the Isotoptech Zrt., a knowledge transfer centre promptly adapting to the worldwide rapidly expanding AMS C-14 analytical demands may be established, which is able to serve the recent research approaches and the demands of the market. In the created developing centre, the Isotoptech Zrt. is able to create the developed devices for commercial purposes for the HVE or even for other C-14 laboratories as well.

The research results of the project are published by the HUN-REN ATOMKI and the produced prototypes are used for our research tasks.