After introducing the institutions within the framework of a hybrid event - colleagues of ELI ALPS could join online to the meeting - Prof. Gábor Szabó, Managing Director of ELI ALPS and Prof. Katalin Varjú, Science Director of ELI ALPS guided the guests around our facility. The event was attended by Allen Weeks, Director General of ELI ERIC, Dr. Zsolt Fülöp, Special Envoy and Minister Plenipotentiary for the International Coordination of the ELI Consortium, Dr. Ádám Börzsönyi, Head of Laser Sources Division of ELI ALPS and Dr. Subhendu Kahaly, Head of Secondary Sources Division of ELI ALPS, as well.
Dr. Jana Kolar, Chair of ESFRI talked about the mission and future plans of the Forum. The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures was established in 2002 with a mandate from the EU Council to support a coherent and strategy-led approach to policy-making on research infrastructures in Europe, and to facilitate multilateral initiatives leading to the better use and development of research infrastructures. European research infrastructures – as the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) – play a crucial role in Europe’s ability to produce new knowledge and innovation to help understand and tackle the environmental, societal and economic challenges that we face. ESFRI is establishing a European Roadmap for Research Infrastructures, and aim to increase cooperation between research infrastructures, e-infrastructures and stakeholders.
Dr. Ádám Börzsönyi, Head of Laser Sources Division (ELI ALPS), Dr. Subhendu Kahaly, Head of Secondary Sources Division (ELI ALPS),
Prof. Andrew Harrison, Director of Diamond Laser Sources, Dr. Jana Kolar, Chair of ESFRI (from left to right)
Prof. Andrew Harrison, Director of Diamond Light Source introduced the institution located in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. Diamond is a national synchrotron science facility driving and supporting science at UK universities and research institutions. Over 14,000 researchers from across life and physical sciences both from academia and industry use Diamond to conduct experiments, assisted by approximately 750 staff members. The institution's highly developed remote access enabled many operations to continue during pandemic. SARS-CoV-2 related research started at Diamond in February 2020 - a quater of all SARS-CoV-2 related structures in the world have come out of Diamond.
In the second half of the meeting our guests visited ELI ALPS facility where Prof. Gábor Szabó, Prof. Katalin Varjú and Prof. Károly Osvay, Technical Director of the SZTE (University of Szeged) National Laser Transmutation Laboratory showed them the experimental equipment of the Laboratory.