Third HiLumi Industry Day in the UK
by Isabel Bejar Alonso (CERN) and Panos Charitos (CERN)
Lucio Rossi, HL-LHC Project Coordinator, addresses participants at the HiLumi Industry Day (Image: CERN)
The cost of the upgrade, which will be realised within the regular CERN Budget, is estimated to close to 950 MCHF. The study phase of the upgrade started in 2010 and the commissioning phase will finish in 2026. The upgrade phase is crucial not only to be able to exploit fully the physics potential of the LHC, but also to continue to enable operation of the collider beyond 2025.
More than 1.2 km of the present LHC will be replaced, bringing with it new technical infrastructures - a challenge that can only be accomplished with the strong involvement of European industry. Since 2012, HiLumi, the HL-LHC upgrade project, has organized events to connect CERN with potential industrial partners able to handle the specific technical challenges of HL-LHC.
The third edition of the HiLumi Industry Day took place in Warrington, UK (close to Daresbury Laboratory) in May 2017. The two-day event jointly organised by CERN and STFC gathered some 200 participants from 17 European countries. Key engineers and physicists from CERN and STFC presented the technical challenges of the HL-LHC project to the numerous company delegates attending this event.
The face-to-face meetings arranged with the CERN engineers were also a nice opportunity for these companies to learn more about the key components of the HL-LHC upgrade and the upcoming calls for tender. The business to business meetings enhanced the creation of a community of industries wishing to work for large scientific infrastructures. In total, more than 1,000 face to face meetings were organized. The event finished with a visit to the STFC installations at Daresbury.
Industry will have a crucial role within the HL-LHC Project as the main provider of the technologies and the equipment that are required to successfully achieve the goals of this upgrade.
The HL-LHC project will collaborate with different types of industries and businesses to pursue its goals. Knowledge and technology to be developed during the HL-LHC project will make a lasting impact on society. These events allows scientific institutions to find the right industrial partners within our member states on schedule and for the best added value.
For the first time, ESS, ILL, ESO and SKA procurers also participated in the event, as it provided a great opportunity to discover new potential suppliers and to show the increasing global potential of the science market.
In 2018, HL-LHC will participate in the Big Science Business Forum 2018. In 2019 the event will be mainly focus to technical services.
More information on the event, including the technical presentations, are available on Indico event page, and more information on the HL-LHC industrial challenges can be found at the HL-LHC project website.
