LAUSR

The main motivation for the European Commission (EC) to fund Integrating Activities (IAs) is to offer transnational access to Europe’s leading research infrastructures, including those of Nuclear Physics; foster interaction and collaboration between a large number of research groups at universities and national laboratories via Networking Activities; and help to develop, for example, new high-tech equipment and methods for research and applications via Joint Research Activities. Within the field of Nuclear Physics, two different IAs serving different sections of the Nuclear Physics community have been active since 2004, one focusing on the study of strongly interacting hadronic matter (Hadron Physics) and the other focusing on the study of Nuclear Structure, Nuclear Astrophysics, and Applications of Nuclear Science. The latest IA concerning Hadron Physics research is STRONG-2020, which was approved in late 2018 and will be active from 1 June 2020 to 31 May 2023, while for Nuclear Structure, Nuclear Astrophysics, and Applications of Nuclear Science the ongoing IA is ENSAR2, expected to end in 2020. In March 2019, following a targeted call by the EC and considering that ENSAR2 was approaching the end of its funding period, a new proposal, denoted as ERINS (European Research Infrastructures for Nuclear Science: Nuclear Structure, Astrophysics and Applications), was submitted as the successor to ENSAR2. The ERINS project was constructed having as a guiding line the fulfillment of what was reported in the call. The activities were defined in the best possible way via a bottom-up approach, and decided on after consultation and several ad hoc meetings involving the community at large. ERINS aims at further integrating the key nuclear physics research infrastructures in Europe for studying the properties of nuclear matter at extreme conditions, and developing nuclear physics instrumentation and experimental techniques to open new scenarios for fundamental research and to employ them for new societal and industrial applications. Special attention was also given to the long-term sustainability perspective of the integration of relevant facilities and related resources. Furthermore, the project was also targeted to new users in order to take full advantage of new possibilities/opportunities offered in particular by the participating infrastructures within the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures. The evaluation report of ERINS emphasized that the proposal builds on the rich experience and successes of the previous IAs and it recognized the scientific value of the research. However, the available European Union (EU) budget for this call could cover only the projects at the very top of the ranking list, and unfortunately ERINS was not placed there. We think that it is important to inform the community about the efforts made to improve our facilities and their access for the users, not only when the news is very positive, but also when we are faced with setbacks, in order to learn something from these and to find ways to be ready for future actions. This is the motive behind this editorial. We are convinced that the efforts put into writing this proposal could be partly used for the preparation of a future project. Furthermore, we are certain that many useful discussions made together with several members of the community on how to plan and conduct improvements to the performances of the facilities and on how to attract new users are not wasted; rather, on the contrary, they will form the basis for future discussions and actions. In spite of the great success obtained up to now with the ENSAR2 project and more recently with STRONG-2020, we think it is important to continue to also receive EU support for IAs in the years to come. This is not because of the funds per se but rather because of the very high value that this funding has for the community in sowing the seeds for new excellent scientific research and developments to be carried out jointly by several facilities. Ever since we started receiving EU funds under these types of EU calls the collaborative spirit in our community has increased and strengthened considerably. Furthermore, smaller-scale facilities have been motivated to improve their standards in order to comply with EU regulations to obtain funds for transnational access. This very important goal for our community has to be realized when the next opportunity arises and thus the striving (as a common effort!) toward achieving this goal has to continue in the near future. We are counting on the community to join us with the greatest enthusiasm in pursuing this goal!