The most powerful accelerator ever built, the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, in Switzerland, creates the hot and dense conditions just after the Big Bang in an attempt to answer fundamental questions in physics and the universe. Due to the challenges associated with advancing accelerator technology, 39 European and international partners were involved in the European Union (EU)-funded project EuCARD - helping further develop research by upgrading its accelerator infrastructures and strengthening collaboration between its participants and industrial partners.  

“The EuCARD networks have led to world-renowned platforms for the international exchange of ideas and expertise from Europe, Japan, the United States and beyond,” says EuCARD project coordinator Dr. Jean-Pierre Koutchouk at CERN in Geneva. “The research team held over 50 workshops on the main accelerator systems, accelerator performance and innovative approaches,” he adds.

Two test facilities were open to specialist research teams in the field as part of EuCARD, including the Muon Ionisation Cooling Experiment (MICE), a device that provides precision charged particle beams and High Irradiation to Materials Facility (HighRadMat). The latter device is used for analysing material samples for accelerator components.  

This transnational access element of EuCARD saw a total of 19 research teams from 8 institutions carrying out their own research in these test facilities during the project’s lifetime.

Progress has been made in developing significantly higher field accelerator magnets, new devices and more robust materials for collimation . Significant contributions were also made to the goal of achieving higher accelerating fields.

Another important impact of EuCARD project is the added-value that came from the fruitful collaboration between scientists of different organisations, including large accelerator centres, universities, specialised institutes and two industrial companies.
 

The project ended in July 2013, but its legacy lives on with EuCARD2 – a four-year project that is building on EuCARD's research work and results.