On 30 April 2021, the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) was granted the legal status of European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) by the European Commission. ELI ERIC will provide access to world-class high power and ultra-fast lasers for science and enable cutting-edge research in physical, chemical, materials, and medical sciences, as well as breakthrough technological innovations.
The ERIC is a specific legal form designed to facilitate the establishment and operation of Research Infrastructures of European interest. ERICs are participated by States and international organisations as members. As a main statutory mission, ELI ERIC is responsible for making the ELI Facilities available to the scientific community as a single international organisation, with unified governance and management.
The Czech Republic hosts the ELI ERIC statutory seat in Dolní Břežany, in the South of Prague, at the ELI Beamlines facility. A second facility, ELI-ALPS, is hosted by Hungary in Szeged. The Czech Republic and Hungary are joined by Italy and Lithuania as founding members, while Germany and Bulgaria are founding observers. 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 in the future.
The newly formed ELI ERIC is tasked with enabling scientists to access the state-of-the-art lasers at the ELI facilities. Access is open for all scientists and based on proposals evaluated by an independent panel.
The decision by the European Commission and the ERIC statutes are publicly available in the EU Official Journal.
General Assembly and Appointed Representatives
On 16 June 2021, the first General Assembly of ELI ERIC was held with delegates and experts from each member and observer country. Allen Weeks, former Director General of ELI DC (Delivery Consortium, an international non-profit association that supported the coordinated implementation of the ELI research facilities) was appointed the Director General of ELI ERIC, while Prof. Caterina Petrillo was appointed Chair of the General Assembly.
Allen Weeks Caterina Petrillo
Director General of ELI ERIC Chair of the General Assembly
Delegates and Experts of the General Assembly
Founding members
Czech Republic
Lukáš Levák (Delegate)
Director of the Department for R&D, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
Jan Řídký (Delegate)
Vice President, Czech Academy of Sciences
Marek Vyšinka (Expert Advisor)
Head of Unit for Research Infrastructures, Department of Research and Development, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
Michael Prouza (Expert Advisor)
Director of FZU - Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Hungary
Tibor Gulyás (Delegate)
Deputy State Secretary for Innovation, Ministry for Innovation and Technology
Zsolt Fülöp (Delegate)
Chairman, National Research Infrastructure Committee
Dániel Gaál (Expert Advisor)
Ministry for Innovation and Technology
Italy
Sandro De Silvestri (Delegate)
Associate member of the “Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnology” of the National Research Council
Chairman of the General Assembly of Laserlab-Europe AISBL
Alessandro Boero (Delegate)
Officer of the Italian Ministry for Universities and Research
Eugenio Nappi (Expert advisor)
Director of Research, National Institute for Nuclear Physics
Giorgio Rossi (Expert advisor)
Professor of Physics Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Milano
Lithuania
Gediminas Račiukaitis (Delegate)
Head of Department of Laser Technologies at the Center for Physical Sciences and Technology in Vilnius
Aidas Matijošius (Delegate)
Director of the Laser Research Center in the Faculty of Physics at the Vilnius University
Arūnas Varanavičius (Expert advisor)
Chief Researcher, Laser Research Center, Vilnius University
Tadas Juknevičius (Expert advisor)
Head of Science Division at the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of Lithuania
Founding Observers:
Bulgaria
Milena Damyanova (Delegate)
Director of the Science Directorate, Ministry of Education and Science
Lubomir Kovachev (Delegate)
Head of Nonlinear Optics Laboratory, Institute of Electronics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Germany
Eckart Lilienthal (Delegate)
Head of Division, Universe and Matter, Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Sebastian Schmidt (Delegate)
Scientific Director, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf
Bernadette Klose (Expert advisor)
Scientific Officer, DLR Project Management Agency
Barbara Schramm (Expert advisor)
EU-Liason Officer, Head of Department Research Programmes & Inl. Projects, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf
Administration and Finance Committee (AFC) members
Chair: László Jakab
Jan Buriánek, Ministry of education, youth and sports, Czech Republic
Petr Lukáš, Institute of Physics of Materials Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
István Szabó, National Research Development and Innovation Office, Hungary
Ileana Gimmillaro, Elettra - Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A., Italy
Antonella Tajani, National Research Council, Italy
Tadas Juknevičius, Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, Lithuania
Svetoslav Valachev, Ministry of Education and Science, Bulgaria
Bernadette Klose, DLR Project Management Agency, Germany
Barbara Schramm, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany
International Scientific and Technical Advisory Comittee (ISTAC) members
Angela Bracco, Università di Milano/National Institute for Nuclear Physics, Italy
Francesca Calegari, Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, Germany
John Collier, Central Laser Facility - Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK
Colin Danson, AWE Aldermaston, UK
Marta Fajardo, Istituto Superior Tecnico, Portugal
Roger Falcone, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Sylvie Jacquemot, École Polytechnique, France
Wim Leemans, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Germany
Claudio Masciovecchio, Elettra (Fermi), Italy
Mauro Nisoli, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Ulrich Schramm, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany
Thomas Tschentscher, European XFEL, Germany
Arünas Varanavicius, University of Vilnius, Lithuania
Jon Zuegel, University of Rochester, USA
For more information, please contact:
ELI ERIC Seat:
Za Radnicí 835
Dolní Břežany, 252 41
Czech Republic
For more information about ELI Beamlines, please visit eli-beams.eu, while you can reach the ELI NP Facility at eli-np.ro.