Cofinancing core facility - Centre for X-ray Tomography – UGCT (UGCT)

The UGCT is an interfaculty consortium that combines UGent activities around high-resolution X-ray CT. The consortium owns several state-of-the-art devices, the majority of which are self-built. For more than 15 years, the facility has bundled all infrastructure present at UGent for high-resolution X-ray CT for non-in-vivo purposes, and is used together with the expertise and knowledge to provide services, both on an academic and industrial level. Consequently, in 2017, UGCT was recognized as a UGent BOF Center of Excellence. UGCT is one of the few facilities with expertise across the imaging chain, ranging from simulation (and associated knowledge around the physics behind the imaging itself), device design and development of both reconstruction and analysis tools. This mix is crucial for delivering best-quality results. In addition, UGCT researchers have experience in applying the technique in an enormously wide range of application areas, which is important to assist the various users in linking their research question with the most appropriate analysis methods to interpret the enormously rich 3D (and sometimes 4D) data. Currently, UGent through UGCT still excels through its expertise, knowledge and infrastructure, but other BENE institutes and research centers are strongly catching up. Internationally, UGCT is still considered the top in terms of laboratory-based X-ray CT applied to all kinds of materials. This is evidenced by the recently approved European network EXCITE (https://excitenetwork.eu/). The requested recognition as "UGent Core facility" increases the strategic added value of UGCT on a national and international level.