The Centre for Space and Gravity Research was opened in July 2004 by Professor Ian Halliday, Chief Executive of PPARC as the technical section of the Astrophysics and Space Research Group in the School of Physics and Astronomy.

The Director of the Centre for Space and Gravity Research is Prof Mike Cruise The Centre has five sections led by the following staff

• Experimental Gravitation - Dr Clive Speake
• Ground based Detectors and Data analysis - Dr Alberto Vecchio
• Interferometry and Optics - Dr Andreas Freise
• Technical Support - David Hoyland
• Solar System Instrumentation - Dr Chris Eyles

The Centre has modern accommodation in the basement of Physics West and includes facilities for instrumentation development and manufacture as well as for experimental studies of gravity and other weak forces. Electronic manufacture is carried out in clean facilities which include surface mount capability and ESA qualified staff. Mechanical workshops are provided centrally by the School of Physics and Astronomy and include skilled staff and modern machine tools. The Centre houses design offices, clean rooms and environmental test facilities for space instrumentation, together with a facility for precision carbon fibre structure manufacture.

Specialised laboratories are maintained for cryogenic weak force experiments, optical testing, interferometry and electromagnetic-gravitational studies. Experimental projects currently being carried out include:

1. Cryogenic torsion balances for studying Mass-Spin coupling, the Casimir force and the gravitational 1/R2 law.
2. Interferometric readout of gravitational test masses for space applications.
3. New interferometer topologies for ground based detectors.
4. Gravitational wave detectors working at 100MHz.
5. Experimental holonomy facility for detecting space-time curvature.

Major research collaborations are active with the following institutes on the identified projects:

• Institute for Gravity Research, University of Glasgow ( AdLIGO, LISA PF, LISA )
• Imperial College London ( STEP, LISA PF, LISA , Mass-Spin coupling )
• Bureau Internationale des Poids et Mesures, Paris ( Precision measurement of G )
• Stanford University ( STEP, LISA )
• University of Hannover ( GEO600, LISA PF, LISA )
• University of Trento ( LISA PF, LISA )
• Albert Einstein Institute for Gravitation , Hannover and Potsdam ( GEO600, LISA PF, LISA )

Our active projects: