European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Creţu came to the Czech Republic on the 31th of March, and accompanied by representatives of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Central Bohemia Region and representatives of the Institute of Physics, she visited the laser centres ELI Beamlines and HiLASE in Dolní Břežany.
Corina Creţu and her delegation arrived to work with representatives of the Czech government on the preparation of the Czech Republic to draw on European funds in the current programming period and the drawdown of previously assigned funds. She also viewed progress in the development of the largest research project in the Czech Republic – ELI Beamlines, to be developed from European Structural Funds. This project will, due to its potential impacts, serve as an example of good practice of use of structural funds.
The beginning of her visit was devoted to the presentation of the project and this was followed by a discussion based on the experience gained from the realization of this extremely large research project. Afterwards, the EU Commissioner visited the ELI laser and experimental halls.
The European Commissioner appreciated the achievements of the ELI Beamlines team in the past four years, and recognised the crucial importance of the structural funds for implementation of large research infrastructures. Corina Creţu said: “Congratulations for everything you have done! ELI is an impressive project, which involves many countries and researchers. I wish you good luck.”
In the autumn of this year the ELI Beamlines facility will be inaugurated and full operation of all experimental and laser devices will be launched in 2017. Jan Řídký, the director of the Institute of Physics, said: “We also discussed with the Commissioner the phasing of the project which will enable us to spread the financial resources available in 2017. She was also very interested in the concept of development of the region based on the creation of a so-called STAR (Science & Technology Advanced Region) linking research institutions and businesses.”
The Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) is one of the 35 large-scale European projects identified on the latest ESFRI roadmap. The main objectives of the ELI Project included the construction of a modern, cutting-edge laser facility and realization of many research and application projects involving interaction of light with matter at intensities that are 100 to 1,000 times greater than the values achieved at present. The total cost of the project is 277 million Euro. 85% of this amount is drawn from the European Regional Development Fund.
