accelerating-news-arc.web.cern.ch - innovation

ARIES to launch innovation fund

Jennifer Toes — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 15:28:32 +0000

ARIES to launch innovation fund
by Jennifer Toes (CERN)

ARIES Proof-of-Concept fund opens in December 2017 (Image: CERN)

In December 2017, the ARIES project will launch a call for proposals to its Proof-of-Concept (PoC) fund. By offering funding to new and novel projects, the fund aims to foster innovation and enhance the impact of accelerator technology in society.

By bridging the gap between the seed stages of research and their full commercial application, the fund will reduce the financial risks associated with early-stage innovation.

A total of €200,000 will be initially available for up to four projects based on accelerator science, with clear potential to go beyond the realm of scientific research within particle physics.

Selected projects should focus on the possible societal and commercial applications of their ideas within fields such as medicine, energy, security, and any others of relevance where accelerator technology may be of use.

ARIES will manage the fund through a dedicated Work Package, WP14 Promoting Innovation, led by Marcello Losasso of the CERN Knowledge Transfer Group. WP14 will foster technology development in key areas, strengthen relationships with commercial partners, and provide advice to ARIES members on intellectual property (IP) management and licensing.

With this in mind, the PoC funding may be used to investigate the commercial feasibility of a new concept, as well as identifying opportunities for partnerships, licences and IP positions.

Via a competitive two-step selection process, projects will shortlisted for interview based on the quality and potential impact of their project, as demonstrated in their proposal. The Evaluation Panel will make their final recommendations following the presentation and interview of shortlisted candidates.

“The Proof-of-Concept fund is a key component of the ARIES innovation strategy,” says Maurizio Vretenar, ARIES project Scientific Coordinator, based at CERN in Switzerland. “Our community is very creative and it is important to stimulate this talent towards applications that could have an impact on society.”

The fund will officially open its call for proposals as of 14^th December 2017, and will remain open for at least four months. The final deadline for submissions is expected in April 2018.

Further information about the fund will be posted on the ARIES project website soon. Interested parties are invited to check the site regularly for updates.

Tags:

issue 22

ARIES

proof of concept

innovation

From EuCARD-2 to ARIES

Sabrina El Yacoubi — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 14:29:31 +0000

From EuCARD-2 to ARIES
Jennifer Toes (CERN)

ARIES project members attend the kick-off meeting talks at CERN, 4-5^th May 2017 (Image: CERN)

As the particle accelerator R&D project EuCARD-2 comes to an end, its entrepreneurial and collaborative spirit lives on in ARIES, Accelerator Research and Innovation for European Science and Society, which kicked off at CERN in May 2017.

EuCARD-2 officially ended its activity in April 2017, after four years of international collaboration between academics and members of industry. The project aimed to connect different European actors in accelerator science, enhance collaboration and concentrate common resources on shared goals.

Mobilising more than 350 people, EuCARD-2 produced a wealth of novel ideas for future accelerators and their energy management and applications. Highlights of the final results include patents and crucial advances in four fields: high-temperature superconductivity, materials for accelerators, superconducting coatings, and high-quality plasma-accelerated beams.

EuCARD-2 results in numbers (Image: CERN)

Building on the knowledge, technology and partnerships established under EuCARD-2, ARIES will bring together 41 participants from 18 European countries, including 7 industrial partners. The project officially launched its four-year activity programme as of 1^st May 2017 and gathered at CERN over 4-5^th May for a kick-off meeting. The project is co-funded via a contribution of €10 million from the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme.

The project participants include major European accelerator laboratories, universities, scientific and technical institutes, and industrial partners. This consortium increases the opportunities for international collaboration, knowledge and technology transfer across different fields of scientific research and to society, and puts particular focus on innovation of new technology, with a view to maximising its attractiveness to industry.

This effort ultimately aims to upgrade and enhance current accelerator infrastructures and their related technology, secure the sustainability of accelerator science for the future, and further integrate the accelerator research community in Europe.

The work programme of the project will pay particular attention to developing new accelerator concepts, creating new technology for superconductors and superconducting coatings, and optimising accelerator energy efficiency and thermal management.

The ARIES Coordinator, Maurizio Vretenar (CERN), said, “ARIES is a new major step in collaborative research for particle accelerator R&D. By integrating more countries and more industry and by enhancing innovation, training, access to test facilities and societal applications, the project will have a strong and long-term impact on European science and society.”

Under the ARIES Transnational Access programme, 14 facilities will be made available to researchers for material, magnet, radio-frequency, plasma acceleration, and electron and proton beam testing.

Transnational Access facilities

Developing partnerships with industry and understanding areas of common interest is crucial for transferring knowledge and technology between fields, and ensuring future technologies are viable in the market.

As such, ARIES will organise a series of “Academia meets Industry” events, and will provide of a “Proof of Concept” innovation fund, which will offer researchers the opportunity to develop spin-off technology with societal applications.

Tags:

Fourth meeting on innovative RF technologies

Jennifer Toes — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 07:42:41 +0000

Fourth meeting on innovative RF technologies
by Peter McIntosh (STFC)

Participants of the EuCARD-2 WP12 gathered at NCBJ in Warsaw, Poland (Image: Peter McIntosh)

As EuCARD-2 came to the end of its four-year duration, the Work Package 12 (WP12) Innovative Radiofrequency (RF) Technologies activity held its fourth and final group meeting at the National Centre for Nuclear Research (NCBJ) in Warsaw, Poland in March 2017.

The group organised previous Annual Meetings at CEA Saclay in France, DESY in Germany, and the STFC Daresbury Laboratory in the United Kingdom. The events aimed to provide specific updates on its areas of activity, which included: Superconducting RF Thin Films, High Gradient Normal Conducting Technologies, Superconducting RF Higher Order Mode Diagnostics, and RF Photocathodes.

The 2017 meeting drew 23 participants from 11 of the 13 collaborating organisations, encompassing representation from the UK, France, Germany, Poland and Sweden. In terms of the diversity balance of the attendees, five (22%) attendees were women and three (13%) were from ethnic minority groups.

It was coordinated by Peter McIntosh (STFC Daresbury Laboratory), who has led the 5M€ WP12 delivery programme since its inception in 2013. The meeting itself was organised by Robert Nietubyć (NCBJ) who provided all of the local logistics.

Professor Krzysztof Kurek addresses participants of the EUCARD-2 WP12 2017 Annual Meeting
(Image: Peter McIntosh)

The event kicked off with an opening address and welcome from the NCBJ Director, Professor Krzysztof Kurek, who placed the capabilities of NCBJ firmly in the context of Innovative RF and accelerator technologies. Peter McIntosh then gave a management overview for the WP12 project as the EuCARD-2 programme comes to an end, before each of the WP12 task leaders presented their respective activity areas.

In the activity focused on SRF Thin films, the first high temperature SRF thin film deposition using Nb3Sn was realised at CERN. In addition, the highest Tc ever reached achieved 17.06K using CVD deposition of NbN by INP Grenoble. A new high precision magnetometry system for larger RF samples was validated at CEA Saclay.

For High Gradient Normal Conducting Technologies, University of Manchester developed an optimised X-band Damped Detuned Structure for the 380 GeV CLIC facility, whilst the first high efficiency ‘Kladistron’ developed by CEA Saclay began fabrication with Thales. Lancaster University also contributed in the development of a new high precision RF distribution system, able to provide ultra-precise timing synchronisation for a pair of CLIC X-band crab cavities.

Regarding the SRF HOM Diagnostics task, the Universities of Rostock and Manchester reported on the optimisation of simulation tools able to model very long linac structures using concatenated analysis and generalised scattering matrix techniques. In addition, the electronics needed to monitor cavity HOM signals have been prototyped and tested on FLASH, and have been implemented on XFEL by DESY.

For the RF Photocathodes activity, STFC has installed a new High Repetition Rate RF gun and cathode exchange system at the CLARA FEL test facility at Daresbury Laboratory. In addition, NCBJ has made optimised lead photocathode surfaces, and their operation was validated by DESY. Furthermore, the performance of magnesium photocathodes was demonstrated at HZDR-Rossendorf.

The local NCBJ organiser also invited the participants to visit the Warsaw Neon Muzeum as well as to tour the NCBJ facilities, including radiotherapy systems developed by NCBJ specialists and provided to commercial organisations.

In the summary of the final WP12 meeting, Peter McIntosh stated that he was tremendously impressed by the depth and breadth of work undertaken over the past four years by the collaborating institutes. The objectives of WP12 to break new ground on RF technologies were certainly ambitious when set-out back in 2013, yet in many areas the teams involved succeeded, laying the groundwork for a long-standing legacy for the international RF and accelerator communities for years to come.

The 2017 EuCARD-2 WP12 Annual Meeting was covered in live time via the ASTeC Twitter account.