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Research and innovation
News article22 June 2021Directorate-General for Research and Innovation

ELI granted ERIC status

On 30 April 2021 the Commission granted the legal status of European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) to the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) which will provide access to world-class high power and ultra-fast lasers for science.

The decision and the ERIC statutes have now been published in the EU Official Journal.

ELI ERIC will enable fundamental studies in atomic, molecular, plasma and nuclear physics. Impacts are expected in fields as diverse as oncology treatment, imaging for personalised medicine, nuclear waste processing or questions about the origin of matters.

The  Czech Republic is hosting the ERIC statutory seat and the ELI-Beamlines facility. A second facility, ELI-ALPS, is hosted by Hungary. The other founding members are Italy and Lithuania while Germany and Bulgaria are observers. The observers and other countries expressed interest to join the ERIC in the future. In particular, a third ELI facility is under construction in Romania in the field of nuclear photonics and is expected to complement the current ELI ERIC facilities.

With this decision, the EU provides ELI with a stable legal structure that brings also administrative advantages enjoyed by international organisations, thus contributing to the long-term sustainability of ELI.

The European Regional Development Funds provided major support to the construction of the ELI facilities (about 300 million euro each).

The current Horizon 2020 IMPULSE project (about 20 million euro) aims to accelerate the transition to the operational phase of all ELI pillars and to mitigate technical risks.

ELI ERIC is the 22nd ERIC established since the very first one ten years ago. It is also the third ERIC with large physical facilities after the European Spallation Source-ERIC and CERIC-ERIC both in the field of material sciences.

ELI ERIC and other open European research infrastructures contribute to the new European Research Area (ERA) objectives with larger R&D investments, more evenly distributed capacities and access to excellence across Europe,  better circulation of knowledge and technology and finally increased EU competitiveness.

Details

Publication date
22 June 2021
Author
Directorate-General for Research and Innovation