LNGS: a low background facility for Particle Physics, Astrophysics, Nuclear Physics and Biology
In November 2001 Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) have been recognized by the European Union (EU) as a Major Research Infrastructure. A contract (PRI-CT-2001-00149) between LNGS and EU allows European research teams willing to perform or plan experiments at LNGS to apply for free access to the LNGS facilities supported by fundings from the European Union.
TARI is the acronym for Transnational Access to major Research Infrastructures which is one of the three schemes of the action line called "Enhancing Access to Research Infrastructure". This action is part of the research and technological development programme "Improving the Human Research Potential and Socio-Economic Knowledge Base" within the Fifth Framework Programme of the European Union.
The aim of the TARI scheme is to provide researchers from the European and Associated Countries with free access supported by the European Union to the Major Research Infrastructures in Europe. The term "research infrastructures" refers to facilities and establishments that provide the research community with essential services such as: singular large-scale research installations, collections, special habitats, libraries, data-bases, integrated arrays of small research installations, as well as infrastructural centres of competence which provide a service for the wider research community based on an assembly of techniques and know-how.
The TARI scheme is implemented with contracts between the European Commission and major European research infrastructures. These contracts support the mobility costs of visiting scientists and the expenses for the infrastructure.
The Gran Sasso National Laboratories of INFN have been recognized as a Major Research Infrastructure.
Who can apply
The only eligible research teams (made of one or more researchers) are those that conduct their research activity in the E.U. Member States (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Finland, Sweden and United Kingdom) other than Italy, or in the Associated States (Bulgaria, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania Slovakia, Slovenia, Malta, Turkey, Iceland,Lichtestein, Norway, Israel, Switzerland). They must be entitled to disseminate or arrange dissemination of the knowledge generated under the project carried out at the Infrastructure (exception may be made for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises - SMEs - teams). Furthermore, their interest should lie in one of the LNGS Facilities. As far as LNGS is concerned, Italian groups cannot be funded.
LNGS facilities
TARI projects can benefit from the following facilities available at LNGS:
- Infrastructures for low background measurements : LNGS provides a large variety of low background facilities: experimental underground areas equipped with all supplies (electricity, water network connection, etc.) where users can operate with their own instrumentation; the Counting Test Facility (CTF) for the study of low level radioactivity scintillator applications; the LENS Low Background Facility (LLBF) for the study of test instrumentation or detector prototypes in the ultra-low background shield; a gamma ray spectrometry laboratory for measurement of ultra-low radioactivity samples.
- Instrumentation for Radon monitoring and geophysics : A variety of instrumentation for study of low concentrations of Radon, Krypton, Tritium, etc. inside liquid and gasses is available at LNGS. Research applications cover environmental physics, geophysics and applications to rare-event physics. An interferometric seismic station is installed inside the underground lab, for seismic studies.
- Cryogenic facilities
- LUNA accelerator facility: The 400 kV LUNA2 accelerator facility installed at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso provides a unique possibility to study nuclear reactions at very low energies, with applications in nuclear astrophysics and low energy nuclear physics.
- Computing infrastructures and PC arrays: At LNGS a big computing center is available for applications in the fields of nuclear and particle astrophysics (for instance simulations of background for underground experiments, theoretical astrophysics and cosmology). In particular two high performance machines for parallel calculus have been recently installed.
Financial Support
The financial support will be provided by the European Community through the INFN. Economic support will cover travel and subsistence expenses of the participating researchers. Italian Administrative rules will be applied.