2009 Research Programmes of the HCMR - Hellenic Centre for ...

Brief Description of the Program: MarinERA is a partnership of the leading Marine RTD
Funding Organizations from 13 European Member States, supported by the Marine Board of
European Science Foundation (MB-ESF). Together, these Funding Agencies represent an
investment of circa € 100 million/annum in marine research. In addition, amongst a range of
Advisory Members, five international networks of research organizations (BONUS, EFARO,
EuroGOOS, European Polar Board, IACMST), and international organization (OICES) and two
further Member State funding agencies have associated themselves with the project.
The MarinERA project will: (1) Map European marine RTD programmes and specialized
infrastructures to contribute towards the development of the marine element of the European
Research Area, facilitating the creation of an internal market and quantifying the existing European
marine research capacity. (2) Facilitate the networking of Marine RTD Funding Agencies in the
European Union, leading to a more cost effective and efficient use of Member State resources
including scientific personnel, specialist infrastructures and planned investments. (3) Contribute to
the development of a European Marine Research Policy, identifying future challenges and
opportunities and the priority research programmes that need to be put in place to address/ benefit
from them. (4) Provide a basis for sharing available resources to address priority issues which are
beyond the capacities of individual member States. (5) Progress the reciprocal opening of Member
State Marine RTD Programmes, which has been identifies as a key objective of the ERA.
Design study for a Deep Sea Facility in the Mediterranean for Neutrino Astronomy and
Associated Sciences (Km3Net/ 594). *
Contract Number: GOCE-CT-2006-011937
Scientific Coordinator: Dr V. Lykoussis
Funding: EU (50%) & GSRT (50%)
Starting Year: 2006
Duration: 45 months (01/02/06-31/10/09)
Total Budget: 802.400 €
Study Area:
Capo Passero, Toulon, Pylos.
Scientific team (ΗCMR): Dr V. Lykousis, Dr E. Balopoulos, Dr D. Sakellariou, M. Alexandri, Dr
A. Karageorgis, Dr H. Kodogiannis, Dr I. Papoulia, Dr N. Lambadariou, Dr P. Polymenakou, Dr I.
Siokou, Dr A. Pavlidou, A. Asimakopoulou, S. Stavrakakis, Dr T. Alves, V. Papadopoulos, G.
Rousakis, P. Georgiou, Dr P. Nomikou, Dr H. Kaberi, P. Mandopoulos, I. Pambidis, D. Balas, P.
Renieris, G. Pappas, A. Morfis.
Other participants: (1) University of Pireus, Prof. A. Tselepidis (till 29/03/06), (2) University of
Erlangen (Overall project coordinator) & 24 partners.
Brief Description of the Program: The primary objectives of the KM3NeT Design Study are the
development of a cost-effective design for a cubic-kilometre sized deep-sea infrastructure housing a
neutrino telescope with unprecedented physics sensitivity and providing long-term access for deepsea
research, the evaluation of procedures for the assembly and construction of the infrastructure
and the preparation of models for its operation and maintenance.
General conditions: The combination of the relatively low flux of high energy cosmic neutrinos and
their weak interaction with matter implies the need for a very massive detector (1012 kg, i.e. a
cubic kilometre of water). The solution pursued is to instrument a large volume of deep-sea water
with a three-dimensional array of photo-sensors (photomultiplier tubes, PMTs) detecting the
Cerenkov light produced by charged particles emerging from neutrino interactions in the water or
sea bed. In order to suppress daylight and background from muons produced in cosmic ray
interactions in the Earth's atmosphere, the telescope must be operated at depths of several
kilometres. In seawater, irreducible background light is emitted by decays of 40K nuclei and by
bioactivity, and environmental processes such as sedimentation or bio-fouling affect the long-term
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