The largest and most well-known particle accelerator in the world is the 27-kilometer Large Hadron Collider located at CERN in Switzerland. Scientists are using it to research the structure of matter. In addition to their major importance for fundamental research in physics, accelerators also open up many other areas of application – from production technology to medical applications, for example in tumor therapy and diagnostics. However, today's accelerators are costly when it comes to their setup and operation. If powerful accelerators were considerably smaller, this technology could be used much more often. Therefore, another aim of researchers at KIT is to technically enable initial applications of ultra-compact accelerator systems in material and life sciences. To work on this, KIT will receive funding of 4.5 million euros from the new ATHENA research and development platform for accelerator technologies. “ATHENA provides access to plasma-based accelerators for the Karlsruhe scientists. That’s ideal for accelerator research at KIT where we are pursuing the goal of developing this technology on a broad basis for society,” says the President of KIT, Professor Holger Hanselka.

https://www.kit.edu/kit/english/pi_2018_149_ultra-compact-accelerators-for-science-and-medical-research.php