Tag Archives: News

ELGAR featured in PhysicsWorld.com

Our ELGAR proposal to build a ground-based detector for Gravitational Waves has been featured in PhysicsWorld.com: “Physicists from across Europe have revealed plans for a huge underground gravitational-wave observatory that, if funded, could be operational by the mid-2030s. The European Laboratory for Gravitational and Atom-interferometric Research (ELGAR) could be located in either France or Italy and would cost around €200m to build. Those involved in the project have now applied for European funding to carry out a detailed design and costing for the facility.”

ATTRACT Grant For Cavity Enhanced Microscopy

The BEC and Matterwaves group has won an ATTRACT grant worth 100kEU to develop a novel cavity enhanced microscope (CEMic), which will be capable of detecting minute changes in refractive index or absorption.

What is ATTRACT?

Why is there no European Google or Amazon? Why have some of Europe’s hottest start-ups, such as Sweden’s Spotify, moved to Silicon Valley? It is not for lack of great technology or breakthrough science. It is because the mechanism for scaling up promising ventures to global markets is simply not working. Many technologies leading to breakthrough innovations with a big impact on people’s lives stem from fundamental research. ATTRACT is a pioneering initiative bringing together Europe’s fundamental research and industrial communities to lead the next generation of detection and imaging technologies. For the first time, a consortium of big research organisations– that build and operate telescopes, particle accelerators and other capital-intensive scientific instruments – will be explicitly leveraged to capture value and create jobs and growth. For this, ATTRACT will enlist large companies, experienced venture capitalists, and individual investorsalike. The aim is to create an entirely new, European model of Open Innovation that can become an engine for jobs and prosperity for all.