Between Tuesday, March 18, and Thursday, March 20, the Einstein Telescope (ET) project and the Sardinian candidacy to host it will take center stage in Sardinia with three events scheduled across Cagliari, Nuoro, and Lula (NU), aimed at the scientific community, businesses and the citizens.
It starts on March 18 and 19 in Cagliari: the Manifattura Tabacchi will host the workshop “ET in Italy: science and technology for the candidacy“, providing the entire Italian scientific community with an opportunity to discuss the many challenges related to the candidacy of the Sos Enattos site, in the Nuoro area, to host the future gravitational wave observatory. The meeting will feature several presentations and panel discussions, covering key scientific-technological as well as administrative and managerial topics related to Italy’s strategy in the “race” to get ET.
Simultaneously, at the Nuoro Chamber of Commerce on March 19, the event “Einstein Telescope and enabling technologies (KET): innovative challenges, opportunities, and future prospects” will take place. This meeting will present the recently launched call for expressions of interest for Sardinian businesses interested in conducting research and development activities for ET, issued by Sardegna Ricerche and open until April 3. The event starts at 11:00 AM, with institutional greetings from Sardinia Region’s President Alessandra Todde, Vice President Giuseppe Meloni, and Alessandro Cardini, Director of the Cagliari section of the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN). A technical session will follow, discussing the current status of the candidacy and site characterization, featuring contributions from INFN experts Giovanni Bisoffi, Michele Punturo, and Gaetano Schillaci. Mara Mangia (Sardegna Ricerche) will then present the call for expressions of interest. The program will conclude in the afternoon with an in-depth session on technological aspects curated by INFN.
On Thursday, March 20 at 5:00 PM, the Palestra Comunale in Lula (NU) will host a public meeting dedicated to the ET-SUnLab (Einstein Telescope Sardinia Underground Laboratory) project, which involves the construction of a visitor center and new research laboratories at the former RI.MI.SA. building, the current site of the SAR-GRAV laboratory in the Sos Enattos area, along with the construction of a multidisciplinary underground laboratory. The ET-SUnLab construction – funded by the Sardinia Region in collaboration with INFN, the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), and the National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), with support from the Universities of Cagliari and Sassari – is set to begin in 2025 and be completed by 2026.
Following institutional greetings by Lula’s Mayor Mario Calia and President Alessandra Todde, a panel discussion will be moderated by Rossella Romano (RAI TGR Sardegna), featuring contributions from Alessandro Cardini (INFN), Marco Pallavicini (INFN), Monique Bossi (INFN), Massimo Faiferri (University of Cagliari), and Raffaele Marras (Sardinian Region).
As part of the three-day ET-focused event, on the morning of March 20 in Nuoro, at the ISRE (Istituto Superiore Regionale Etnografico), headquarters, President Alessandra Todde will sign a program agreement on the Einstein Telescope with mayors from local communities and provincial capitals, establishing a multi-level governance framework to support and promote Sos Enattos’ candidacy.
Program of the ET-SUnLab event