The UKRI/STFC Boulby Underground Laboratory is the UK’s deep underground science facility. Operating in working mine in NE England, it is one of the few special facilities in the world suited to hosting studies requiring ultra-low background radiation experimental space and/or general access to the deep underground environment.
For many years the primary research undertaken at Boulby was the direct detection of Dark Matter - the missing mass of the universe - and it is here that the UK has made many important technological advances in the field that are being used by the most sensitive Dark Matter detectors operating the world today. The search for Dark Matter goes on - and Boulby continues to pay an important role. Meanwhile the range of science hosted at the facility has dramatically grown, to now including pure and applied projects in low background particle physics (Dark Matter, neutrino studies, nuclear security and more), Earth and environmental sciences (sustainable energy storage, seismology, Carbon Capture and Storage), biology/astrobiology, planetary exploration technology development, quantum sensor and quantum computing technologies and R&D. The interest in using Boulby for projects in all of these areas is growing - and Boulby is now looking to expand facilities in the coming decade, creating a new truly world-class underground facility for multidisciplinary sciences in the UK, facilitating impactful future ‘deep science’ - the search for Dark Matter and beyond - from 2030.
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Professor Sean Paling
Director of Boulby Underground Laboratory, UK
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