Perspectives of Nuclear Physics in Europe - European Science ...

3. Research Infrastructures and Networking
3.3 Collaboration at
European and Global Level
Nuclear Physics is a field of science that is particularly
well connected at both the European and global level.
3.3.1 Collaboration in Europe
The key players in the field at European level are the
European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures,
ESFRI, the European Science Foundation, ESF, the
European Commission, EC, and the European Physical
Society, EPS. All of them have, of course, a remit that is
much broader than just Nuclear Physics. Still, Nuclear
Physics facilities featured prominently on, for example,
ESFRI’s most recent list of large-scale research infrastructures
to be built in Europe.
European Science Foundation
NuPECC is one of the six Expert Boards and Committees
of ESF, which provide, in collaboration with the five
Standing Committees, scientific advice to ESF’s 79
member organisations. These are research funding and
performing organisations, and academies from nearly all
European countries. NuPECC reports to ESF’s Governing
Council and Assembly and is a member of the informal
ESF Chairs Committee, which is chaired by either the
ESF CEO or President.
NuPECC is autonomous to a high degree (self-financed
by its own member organisations), but collaborates
closely with the Physical and Engineering Sciences
Standing Committee, PESC. NuPECC frequently participates
in “Member Organisations (MO) Fora”; the
most recent ones were held on “Interdisciplinarity” and
“Scientific Foresight for Joint Strategy Development”.
In addition, NuPECC is a member of the ESF Steering
Committee of the EU Framework Programme (FP) 7
Support Action MERIL on research infrastructures, with
representatives from ESF’s member organisations, ESFRI
and the EU Commission.
EU Framework Programme 7
Integrating Activities
The EU Framework Programme 7 (FP7) Integrating
Activities (IAs) offer transnational access (TA) to
Europe’s leading Nuclear Physics research infrastructures,
foster collaboration between a large number of
research groups at universities and national laboratories
via Networking Activities (NAs) and help develop, for
example, new high-tech equipment via Joint Research
Activities (JRAs).
HadronPhysics2
The FP7 Integrating Activity HadronPhysics2 “Study of
Strongly Interacting Matter” builds upon the success
of its predecessor Integrated Infrastructure Initiative
(I3) HadronPhysics in FP6. HadronPhysics2 offers
Transnational Access to four large experimental hadron
physics facilities in Europe and one research infrastructure
for nuclear theory, ECT*. The IA is further structured
in 8 Networking Activities plus the Management of
the Consortium and 14 Joint Research Activities.
Approximately 2500 scientists (both experimentalists
and theoreticians) and engineers from ca. 150 European
research institutions participate in HadronPhysics2.
Transnational Access
The HadronPhysics2 project supports access to five forefront
hadron physics research infrastructures in Europe:
ECT* in Trento, MAMI in Mainz, GSI in Darmstadt, COSY
in Jülich and INFN-LNF in Frascati/Rome. These institutions
are also major players in the IA’s Collaboration
Committee, supporting its networking and joint research
activities. In fact, most of the project’s NAs and JRAs
have been promoted by several infrastructures and each
infrastructure is involved in several activities. This fact
alone is a distinct example of European integration, and
shows a very high potential for structuring this research
field in Europe on a permanent basis.
Networking Activities
The eight Networking Activities aim at coordinating the
work of hundreds of scientists each, and their use of
resources, by promoting meetings, workshops and the
involvement of young researchers. Two of them are theoretical
networks devoted to studies of non-perturbative
QCD and relativistic heavy ion collisions. Three networks
deal mainly with higher-energy experimental projects at
CERN, DESY, GSI and FAIR, three with meson production
and decay, low-energy antikaon-nucleon/nucleus
interactions and hypernuclear physics.
Joint Research Activities
The 14 Joint Research Activities cover innovative technological
aspects of hadron physics experiments and
large-scale lattice QCD calculations. The “theoretical”
JRA Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics has successfully
developed a multi-teraflop computer. The other
JRAs may be grouped into three categories, all of them
essential parts of particle accelerator facilities, namely
beams, targets, and complex detector set-ups. Three
JRAs investigate how best to produce polarised antiproton
beams and (polarised) hydrogen and deuterium
targets. Ten JRAs drive the development of novel radiation
detection techniques to observe emitted particles
as well as photons.
54 | Perspectives of Nuclear Physics in Europe – NuPECC Long Range Plan 2010