BENE efforts for FP7

 

Please contact us and join to help

 

FP7 is finally starting. A first FP7 call, for Design studies, is expected before the end of the year. Proposals will be due in April, a few months later. Approval could bring first funding at the beginnining of 2008 or so.

 

A second call, for Integrating Activities, is expected Nov 07, with Mar 08 as a deadline, with first funding early 2009. This must contain NAs, TAs, JRAs, see below

 

Next relevant calls 2009 !!!  We should not be stalling for two more years !!

 

We need the largest possible consensus and coherence. It will clearly not be easy to assemble all the conditions, support from CERN and National  agencies and  Laboratories, for successful bids.

 

According to the recent ESGARD/CARE preliminary plan, see http://bene.web.cern.ch/bene/Working-groups_mandate.doc, BENE could file bids for

 

Two Design Studies (DS): DS’s are studies of feasibility, to be carried out by a European collaboration, funded (presumably for about 1/3?) by EU and working in collaboration with international partners. Recent news are that the contribution from EC could be larger than originally indicated, as large as 5 M Euros, and R&D work could be included in addition to feasibility studied.

 

1)      NuFact&Superbeam Design Study

Rob Edgecock(RAL) and Marcos Dracos(IN2P3) have taken the responsibility to start  a WG assembling a first skeleton of proposal to be  presented at CARE06 in Frascati (Nov14-17). This was given good priority by ESGARD and is at the moment the most promising immediate option that we have.

 

2)      Betabeam Design Study

A DS study is already in progress in the Eurisol framework. Mats Lindroos (CERN) has taken the task to explore within the present DS a first skeleton of a second phase proposal. At the moment, however, it appears that we will have to delay this to the later FP7 DS call. Mats will present his present thinking at CARE06 in Frascati (Nov14-17).

 

Several Joint Research Activities (JRA), JRA’s are technical R&D projects on realization of key prototypes, demonstrations of performance and the like, to be carried out by a European collaboration , funded (presumably for about 1/3?) by EU and working in collaboration with international partners.

 

Bids for JRA’s should take place within the framework of one of the Integrating Activities that ESGARD intends to promote. Many LOI’s have been received by ESGARD and more are coming. The task is now the one to select the ones to be actually proposed as JRA’s within Ia’s. At the moment, three IA’s are envisaged, but a different format is not excluded.

 

A first meeting of the task force preparing these proposals took place at CERN on Oct 30. A brief summary of the state of each follows Presentations from the three coordinators will be presented at CARE06 on Thu Nov 16 afternoon.

 

a)      IA1- European proton accelerator R&D

 

            R. Garoby is coordinating the preparation of this proposal.  The general theme is proton accelerator R&D, strengthening LHC and the CERN p 
            complex. The total cost of related LOIs is well above 60 M, a reasonable goal is applying for 15 M from EU, with 45 M as total budget. Activities 
            relevant for future neutrino beams would take place in the 
            high power proton driver sector (a JRA being proposed in this area under the responsability of Garoby and collaborators). M. Zito/CEA and 
            J. Pozimski /RAL and others will follow this for BENE exploring  also opportunities in the sector of Rapid Cycling Synchrothrons for neutrino 
            applications (NB we need them to be truly rapid, 50 Hz eventually, and therefore NC!).) and 
            target sector (where a WP on high power targetry & collection can be envisaged within a JRA on high power and radiation deposition in 
            materials, chiefly motivated by the R&D for a high quality collimators for LHC). C. Densham/RAL and M. Dracos/IN2P3 have taken the charge 
            of establishing contacts with all EU experts, in and out of the particle physics community, in particular the CERN CNGS and ISOLDE experts, 
            and to try to define the content of such a WP. 
            CARE06 in Frascati should help these contacts.
            A Networking Activity (NA) containing a fraction of BENE areas of interest could be accommodated in this IA. 
            Transnational Access options have not yet been seriously considered yet. 
 
  b)   IA2-Novel accelerating techniques
 
          E. Jensen is coordinating the preparation of this proposal. This is much less advanced than IA1 
          The total cost of related LOIs is 85 M. It has to be reduced dramatically. The leitmotif of the IA is strenghtening CTF3. 
          But strengthening "our" new RAL muon facility could be part of it too. A MICE JRA is being prepared by K. Kyberd and A. Blondel. 
          A JRA on FFAG’s appears negotiable, if downsized. Francois Meot (IN2P3/CEA) has accepted the task, in collaboration with R. Edgecock,   S. 
          Machida and other experts of pushing this within the team preparing this IA proposal.

          Discussion at CARE06 should prove very instrumental.

          No discussion on any Networking Activity (NA) or Transnational Access  has yet taken place in this IA.

 

    c)   IA3 Superconducting RF (SCRF) accelerators R&D:

 

          O. Napoly is coordinating the preparation of this proposal. This is also less advanced than IA1.
          The total cost of related LOIs is 31 M, with more big ones  still coming. One is a JRA for a big RF testing facility. 
          A JRA on 200 Mhz muon acceleration cavities could be accommodated in this.  R&D on p acceleration cavity may instead go to WG1, will see

          Rebecca Saviour of Lancaster has accepted to be BENE’s RF expert that will foster BENE interests in this IA.

          Discussion at CARE06 should again prove very instrumental.

          No discussion on Transnational Access  has yet taken place in this IA. Olivier has in mind a single large SCRF NA. 
 

Finally, outside the framework of CARE, we intend to propose also a neutrino detector test facility at CERN. Paul Soler will be in charge of fostering this in connection with the BENE steering group. The right FP7 framework will have to identified, while contacts begin, starting with  the (few !) neutrino physicists left at CERN.

 

Timeline

 

At CARE06 we will plan work on all of this. Design Studies being the most urgent priority. Deadline is April, remember!

A detailed calendar will be issued.

 

We already know that one next major appointment will be a meeting on the transition from the International Scoping Study (ISS) to the International Design studi(es), the IDS’s.  This will be Feb 19-21 at CERN. This will focus on our plans in the frame of our international collaboration with pur US, Japanese, Indian collaborators. That clearly we need to harmonise with our FP7 plans.