The SESAME SUNSTONE Training Programme continues to strengthen scientific capacity across the Middle East, Africa and neighbouring regions by equipping researchers with the knowledge and practical skills needed to effectively use synchrotron radiation techniques in their research. Through a comprehensive training pathway, the programme promotes scientific excellence, international collaboration and the development of future synchrotron users.

Following the successful completion of the first phase of the SESAME SUNSTONE Training Programme, delivered online in April 2025, the second phase of the SUNSTONE Training School on X-ray Tomography for Cultural Heritage was officially launched online on 17 June 2026. This specialised school focuses on tomography applications at the BEATS beamline, highlighting the growing role of advanced imaging techniques in the study, preservation and restoration of cultural heritage.

Five researchers from Egypt, Iran, Türkiye and Zimbabwe are participating in the programme. The school brings together expertise from several leading international institutions, including the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Istanbul University, and the INFN Cultural Heritage Network (CHNet), represented by its nodes in Frascati, Bologna and Turin, together with the Centro Conservazione e Restauro “La Venaria Reale”.

SESAME also plays a key role in the initiative and has been a member of the CHNet network since 2022, strengthening cooperation between synchrotron science and cultural heritage research. This partnership has created new opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge exchange in the region.

The training programme will continue throughout June and July 2026, combining lectures, case studies and practical sessions dedicated to 3D reconstruction, image processing and data analysis. A final module will focus on beamtime proposal preparation, guiding participants through the process of developing competitive scientific projects for synchrotron facilities.

At the conclusion of the programme, each participant will present a beamtime proposal based on their own research interests. The most promising proposal will be selected through a final challenge and may evolve into a real experiment at the BEATS beamline, supported by scientific mentoring and collaboration from the institutions involved in the training.

To encourage wider dissemination of knowledge, supporting materials for participants (including recordings of the training sessions, lecture transcripts and educational resources from the introductory SUNSTONE lectures delivered in April 2025), have been made publicly available through the programme's Indico platform here.

The Cultural Heritage School is part of a broader virtual training cycle under the SESAME SUNSTONE Programme. Additional online courses will focus on Soft X-rays for Environmental Applications (starting on 23 June 2026) and X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy under Operando Conditions (starting on 13 July 2026). These thematic schools will pave the way for future hands-on workshops and practical training activities at SESAME, further expanding opportunities for researchers across the region to engage with cutting-edge synchrotron science.

A complete overview of the SUNSTONE training programme can be found here.