Preparations for the Einstein Telescope can continue
The Einstein Telescope will definitely receive 42 million euros from the National Growth Fund. The government previously granted the amount subject to conditions. Those conditions - the drawing up of a valorisation strategy and a plan for monitoring and evaluation - have now been met. With the definitive allocation, the preparatory work, such as innovation of the necessary technology, site research, building a high-tech ecosystem and organisation, can continue.
In addition to this, the government is also reserving 870 million euros from the National Growth Fund for the Einstein Telescope. This reservation provides the Netherlands with an excellent basis for applying in the future, together with Belgium and Germany, to realise the Einstein Telescope in the border region of South Limburg.
The Einstein Telescope is a future underground observatory for measuring gravitational waves. Powerful laser beams will soon bounce between deep-cooled, vibration-free mirrors at the ends of kilometre-long vacuum tunnels. The instrument will be much more sensitive than existing detectors. As a result, it can detect many more sources and scan a volume of the universe thousand times larger. Researchers will use this instrument to look for instance for the precise structure of neutron stars, the birth process of black holes and the structure of the universe immediately after the Big Bang.The border region of South Limburg - the Maas-Rhine Euregion - is one of the possible locations for this observatory. Watch more info on this video.
The growth fund proposal was prepared by the Dutch National Institute for Subatomic Physics Nikhef, the Province of Limburg and regional development agency LIOF, and was supported by the Dutch Ministries of Education, Culture and Science and of Economic Affairs. Maastricht University is a partner of Nikhef.
