According to the decision of International Steering Committee of ELI Preparatory Phase, which met on 1st October 2009 in Prague, Czech Republic got an official mandate to continue implementing ELI and together with Hungary and Romania to create pan-European consortium, which will build and operate this laser center.
The candidacy of the Czech Republic was submitted by the Institute of Physics AS CR. It is actively supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports; Academy of Sciences; Consortium ELI-CZ (consortium of universities and research institutions) and big international partners like Germany and Great Britain.
ELI (Extreme Light Infrastructure) is an international project within the framework of European Scientific Forum for Research Infrastructures Roadmap. Its target is to build a unique infrastructure of pan-European importance which will operate first multi functional laser for fundamental research of interaction of light with matter in a totally new area of intensity of the laser radiation in so called ultrarelativistic regime.
Meeting of International Steering Committee of ELI Preparatory Phase
1st October 2009, Prague
The International Steering Committee of ELI Preparatory Phase (further Steering Committee) met on Thursday 1st October 2009 in Prague. The Steering Committee is composed by representatives of the European Commission and financing organizations of all 13 partner countries, which are members of the European ELI Consortium. It has a decision making power for choosing the candidate country for ELI project. Its opinion will be recommended to approval of the European Commission.
Czech Republic was represented by Prof. Vlastimil Růžička, Vice Minister for Education, Youth and Sports and vice-President of the Academy of Sciences Prof. Miroslav Tůma.
The Steering Committee accepted Czech proposal of ELI implementation and granted the Czech Republic an official mandate to continue implementation of its concept. Together with Hungary and Romania the Czech Republic was authorized to create pan-European consortium (so-called ERIC – European Research Infrastructure Consorcium), which will build and operate the laser center. Other countries engaged in ELI Preparatory Phase like Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Spain and Greece should also become members of the Consortium. Czech concept of ELI implementation is based on building three big laser centers under one ELI brand.
First center will be placed in the Czech Republic in Dolní Břežany and focuses on research of ultraintensive secondary sources for interdisciplinary applications in Physics, Medicine, Biology and Material Engineering. The second center should be built in Szeged (Hungary) and should focus on Physics of ultra short optical pulses in the order of attoseconds. And finally the last centre oriented at photo-nuclear Physics should be built in Romania in a small town of Magurele north of Bucharest. At the same time these three centers should involve in research and development of laser technologies for the sake or realization of another phase of this project aimed at attaining intensity of optical field of 1025 W/cm2. This will enable laboratory research in the field of exotic Physics.
The target of this concept is to build a single infrastructure on the basis of the three above mentioned pillars which complement themselves. The idea of common model of management is based on this. A new legal entity called ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium) will be adopted. It enables to create and operate this type of international scientific infrastructure.
The implementation of ELI project in the Czech Republic will upgrade fundamental and applied research in Physics, Medicine, Biology, Laser and Material Engineering to world level. It will at the same time be the most important research infrastructure in new EU member countries.
The detailed ELI implementation plan will be submitted by the Czech Republic to the Competitiveness Council in Brussels on 3rd December.
