THE ATTRACT

INITIATIVE

Marzio Nessi, Markus NordbergCERN

What is ATTRACT?

• ATTRACT (breAkThrough innovaTion pRogrAmme for deteCtor / inrAstructure eCosysTem)

• A proposal for a dedicated EU-funded program to co-develop together with industry new radiation sensor & imaging technologies for scientific purposes

• In parallel, addressing societal challenges in the domains of health, sustainable materials and information and communication technologies (ICT)

• Involving detector R&D communities from the fields of physics, astronomy, space exploration, nuclear engineering, and medical imaging

• Co-developing detectors together with (mostly) Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SME)

• Part of the Horizon2020-programme, cutting across several EU Directorate domains (research, energy, connect, sanco, enterprise)

• An ambitious idea for scaling current EU-funded activities by an order of magnitude• Note: This is not an ATLAS initiative, rather a collective initiative launched by members

of detector R&D communities, also outside HEP

• The radiation sensor R&D community or communities have found it difficult to find a suitable platform within the Framework (7) programme that facilitates the specific use of radiation detectors & imaging for addressing societal challenges

• The detector R&D community in e.g. HEP has many ideas of suitability of their technologies in other fields, but few contacts and mechanisms available to reach out

• Arguments for demonstrated use of developed technologies outside HEP are also being asked by national funding agencies funding detector upgrades and R&D

• Developing new technologies for improved physics research programs or new initiatives (e.g. LHC at CERN, CLIC) could make good use of complementary (pre) R&D funding possibilities offered by H2020 programme

• The European industry, in particular SMEs, do not have available the necessary supporting (scientific) infrastructure to support advanced technological innovation efforts. HEP community has the experience and expertise to help

Why ATTRACT?

• ATTRACT would consist of a number of radiation sensor & imaging related calls that the (extended) detector R&D community would manage, together with industry

• As a rough estimate, some 200 funded projects over seven to ten years• Calls would be competitive, reviewed and assessed based on highest selection criteria• CERN could play an administrative role if asked (taking care of the admin, project

management, financial reporting etc. – but *not* deciding on the allocation of funding)– CERN does have a mechanism in place for high level interactions with the Commission. Could this be used?

How ATTRACT?

• The EU intends to externalize 75% of the financial and project management of the H2020 programme - but does that mean it can or needs to extend beyond its present Executive Agency arrangements? Is there a time line?

• What does EC mean by “co-funding schemes”? New dedicated structures our community could be part of? What order of magnitude in funding?

• Cross-disciplinary programs or calls across the different EU Directorates – are there any such plans or priorities?

• An effort of this magnitude will require the different radiation sensor & imaging R&D communities to come together – is this realistic and worth the effort?– ATLAB, CMS…– ERDIT (https://indico.cern.ch/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=244890)

• Note: these efforts do not (yet) go as far as to manage the entire program or calls…

Will ATTRACT?

Summary

• ATTRACT is an initiative to keep our R&D engine running over the next ten years (~DRDC2?)

• It is as a proposal to bring together the detector R&D communities from the fields of physics, research, astronomy, space exploration, nuclear engineering, and medical imaging within the scope of the Horizon 2020 programme

• It is about co-development together with industry (mostly SMEs)• It is about demonstrating the use and benefit of large-scale physics R&D projects as a

platform of innovation• Our community needs now to decide whether this type of approach is worth while

seriously exploring with the EU, within – or even beyond – the H2020 programme