TA6-Transnational Access to ECT*

The goals of the Centre are: performing in-depth research at the forefront of contemporary developments in theoretical nuclear and hadron physics; fostering interdisciplinary exchange with fields such as particle physics, astrophysics, condensed matter physics and quantum physics of small systems; promoting talented young physicists through training projects and networks of active young researchers; strengthening interactions between theoretical and experimental research. ECT* is unique and the only Centre of its kind in Europe. It operates in the context of European Universities and Laboratories. It has been recognized within previous EC Programmes as a “Major Research Infrastructure”. ECT* received EC funding for TNA within the FP7 projects HadronPhysics2 (2009-2011) and HadronPhysics3 (2012-2014) and it is at present involved within Horizon 2020 in the project ENSAR2 (2016-2020). The Centre is operated and sponsored by the Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) in Trento from which it receives about half of its annual budget. Major funding agencies in France, Germany and Italy, and other institutions of (at present) ten European countries provide the other half.

The Centre is based in Villazzano (Trento, Italy) in a property called Villa Tambosi. The total user space available is about 2.500 sqm. This includes office space, a lecture hall (70/80 seats) equipped with high-tech multimedia facilities, a conference room (40 seats), three seminar and meeting spaces (15-20 seats each), three computer rooms (about 25 seats), three discussion rooms (about 35 seats), a library and a canteen. The computing facilities of the Centre include arrays of workstations and PCs, and access to High Performance Computing (HPC).

From 2015 part of the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Computational Science (LISC) of FBK has been integrated into ECT* as a Research Unit, ECT*-LISC, with separate budget and administrative support provided independently by FBK. ECT* has established its strategic partnership with the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) through its association with the Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Applications (TIFPA) and a TIFPA researcher who is hosted by the Centre and contributes to the research of ECT*.

The scientific activities of ECT* are carried out under the responsibility of the international Scientific Board and with the supervision of the Director. The acting Director is Professor Jochen Wambach (TU Darmstadt, Germany). The ECT* research group includes at present the Director, six Postdoctoral Researchers (2 Senior Research Associates, 4 Junior Postdocs) holding positions at the Centre, six ECT*-LISC Researchers, and several short- and long-term visiting scientists.

Services currently offered by the infrastructure: Specific benefits for users result from the unique opportunities provided by the ECT* International Projects series (workshops, collaboration meetings, training programs) to transfer and update information on theoretical and experimental research at the frontiers of the field; its excellent computing facilities and links to European computing networks; the cooperation agreements conducted by ECT* with major research centers abroad, such as RIKEN and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), the Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) of JAEA in Japan, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) through its Institute of Theoretical Physics in Beijing (ITP), the Asian Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics (APCTP) in Korea, the Jefferson National Laboratory in USA, the Goethe Universität Frankfurt, the Helmholtz International Center FAIR, the Technische Universität of Darmstadt, the Extreme Matter Institute of Darmstadt (EMMI) ant the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna.

Since its opening in 1993, ECT* has hosted about 18.000 visitors from over 50 different countries. In 2017 the pattern of visitor-days was as follows: of the 777 visitors about 75% came from EC member states, with 47% from France, Germany and Italy, 14% from the USA, 5% from Japan and 34% from the rest of the world.