GREAT is a highly sensitive detection system that will be deployed at the focal plane of some of the worlds most efficient recoil separators (e.g.: RITU at the University of Jyväskylä, the FRS and SHIP at GSI, or VAMOS at Ganil). Such a recoil tagging system must be highly segmented, provide the best energy resolution possible and to have the highest achievable detection efficiency. Furthermore, the large number of detector signals must be read out at high rates and the events of interest selected according to the temporal and spatial associations dictated by the physics of the experiment, without incurring unacceptable data losses.

The GREAT project is a collaboration between the Nuclear Physics Group at Daresbury, and the nuclear physics groups at the University of Liverpool, Manchester University, University of Surrey, York University and Keele University within the United Kingdom. The GREAT collaboration is part of the HENS (Heavy and Exotic Nuclear Studies) collaboration.