Industries and businesses for Einstein Telescope, a two-day meeting at EGO

Today the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO) in Cascina, home to the Virgo interferometer, hosted the ETIC Industry day, a two-day meeting aimed at Italian companies and industry representatives to discuss opportunities for collaboration in research and technological development for the Einstein Telescope, in particular within the ETIC consortium.

More than 50 companies and industry representatives attended the ETIC Industry day today at the European Gravitational Observatory in Cascina, Italy, to discuss collaboration opportunities and scientific and technological challenges for the next-generation Einstein Telescope (ET) gravitational interferometer.

ETIC (Einstein Telescope Infrastructure Consortium), proposed and coordinated by the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics), is a consortium that brings together national universities and research organisations to support Italy’s candidacy to host ET.

Financed with 50 million euros, as part of PNRR Mission 4 coordinated by the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research, the ETIC consortium will be responsible for the preparation and implementation of the feasibility study and characterisation of the site identified for ET, the disused mine of Sos Enattos, in the Nuoro area, and the creation of a network of research laboratories for the development of the technologies that will be adopted by the new gravitational observatory.

The ETIC Industry Day has been organised by the INFN sections and university departments of the ETIC consortium, in collaboration with CERN’s Industrial Liaison Officer (ILO), and is structured in two days. On the first day the attending entrepreneurs will be able to visit the European Gravitational Observatory and the experimental infrastructures of the Virgo interferometer, and then delve into the scientific and technological challenges of ET. The second day will be dedicated to B2B meetings between companies and researchers at the San Ranieri Hotel in Pisa.

“The world of business and industry has responded with great interest to our invitation to meet and discuss the scientific and technological challenges of ET, with an eye to future collaborations,” said the international coordinator of the ET Scientific Collaboration and INFN researcher Michele Punturo. “We have collected more than 50 applications, covering technological fields that are fundamental for cutting-edge research linked to gravitational waves, such as high-precision optics, electronics or precision mechanics: from small and medium-sized industries, already active in this field of research, such as Gestione SILO, Galli e Morelli or SAES to real giants of the Italian industrial world such as Leonardo. “

“We strongly shared and supported the choice of the ET Scientific Collaboration and INFN to host the Industrial ETIC day at EGO today,” said EGO director and professor at Milano Bicocca University, Massimo Carpinelli. “Virgo is the only interferometer in Europe capable of detecting gravitational waves, and this gives EGO and Virgo an exclusive role in the training of future scientists working on ET, but not only. EGO will necessarily be one of the privileged sites for research and development of future detector technologies, such as those, decisive, related to vacuum, optics or suspensions.”