On the afternoon of Thursday 20 March, at the Municipal Gymnasium of Lula (NU), the project was publicly presented ET-SUnLab (Einstein Telescope Sardinia Underground Laboratory), a future research center that will be built in the area of the Sos Enattos mine, a candidate to host the gravitational wave observatory Einstein Telescope (ET).
The event was opened by greetings from Mayor of Lula, Mario Calia, And the President of the Sardinia Region, Alessandra Todde, followed by the interventions of the President of the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Antonio Zoccoli, from the Board Member of the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), Andrea Comastri, from the Director of the Environment Department of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), Massimo Chiappini, from the Vice-Rector for Research at the University of Cagliari, Luciano Colombo, from the Rector of the University of Sassari, Gavino Mariotti, And the Director of the GARR Consortium, Claudia Battista.
The second part of the event was dedicated to a round table on the SUnLab project and local and national investments for ET, moderated by Rossella Romano (Rai TGR Sardegna), with speeches by Alessandro Cardini (INFN), Marco Pallavicini (INFN), Monique Bossi (INFN), Massimo Faiferri (University of Cagliari) and Raffaele Marras (Regione Sardegna), followed by a question and answer session from the audience.
The ET-SUnLab project - whose architectural and landscape design was developed by a working group of the AT Lab of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering (DICAAR) of the University of Cagliari, coordinated by Massimo Faiferri - involves the creation of a reception center and new research laboratories in the area occupied by the building ex-RI.MI.SA., current home of the SAR-GRAV laboratory, together with the construction of a multidisciplinary underground laboratory. SUnLab will host research and development activities for ET and low-noise physics experiments, in addition to a geophysical observatory for the study of the geodynamics of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the internal structures of the Earth. The facility will also become a reference center for dissemination projects aimed at schools and professional training. The current roadmap of the project – financed with approximately 10 million euros by the Sardinia Region and the same amount divided between INFN, INAF and INGV, and whose activities will also involve the collaboration of the Universities of Cagliari and Sassari – includes theconstruction works to start in 2025 and be completed by 2026.
The ET-SUnLab presentation event closed a week full of important events in Sardinia for the Einstein Telescope project. On March 18 and 19, the Manifattura Tabacchi in Cagliari hosted the workshop of the Italian ET community, aimed at discussing the most recent scientific and management developments related to the Italian candidacy, while on March 19, at the Chamber of Commerce of Nuoro, a notice was presented for the collection of expressions of interest for Sardinian companies interested in carrying out research and development activities for ET. Finally, on the morning of Thursday, March 20, the President of the Region Alessandra Todde signed the program agreement on the Einstein Telescope with the mayors of the local communities and capital cities, for the establishment of a multilevel governance for the support and promotion of the candidacy of Sos Enattos.
"In recent years we have talked about the future, about what we could have done, about what the Einstein Telescope project could have meant for the territory. Today we meet here in Lula to talk about concrete things, such as the creation of the ET-SUnLab research center, which, as a Region, we have co-financed with 10 million euros. Resources that are in addition to the 350 million that we have already allocated, available immediately, not in the near future", comments the President of the Sardinia Region Alessandra Todd. "I am pleased to underline the unity that we are registering at all institutional levels in carrying forward the candidacy of Sos Enattos. I am in constant contact with the Minister of University and Research Anna Maria Bernini, all together we are putting heart and soul into achieving the objective, beyond individual political affiliations".
«The SUnLab project is the first seed of the future great research infrastructure of Einstein Telescope, a seed that today we are planting all together in the Sardinian territory»Comments Anthony Clogs, President of INFN. "SUnLab will be a multidisciplinary center where research institutions and universities can do science in an environment with unique characteristics, where we can develop and test the cutting-edge technologies needed for Einstein Telescope and where the scientific community and the civil community can meet, get to know each other and discuss. We will work to make SUnLab a cutting-edge scientific center, a place of participation and dialogue, an important first step to bring Sardinia to the center of Europe with Einstein Telescope", concludes Zoccoli.
«The National Institute for Astrophysics confirms its presence in Sardinia - where the SRT radio telescope of San Basilio already operates - bringing to the SUnLab some of its best technologies, such as adaptive optics for the precision control of starlight»Says Roberto Ragazzoni, President of INAF. «We will also create the prototype of an innovative telescope, capable of simultaneously capturing the electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational waves with the Einstein Telescope, confirming the effort of our Institute in that new astronomy - called multi-messenger - which aims to scrutinize the cosmos using the most diverse and innovative machines conceivable today».
«INGV joins ET with great enthusiasm, contributing its resources, personnel and scientific expertise», points out Massimo Chiappini, Director of the Environment Department of INGV. "The Institute's contribution will be mainly oriented towards the geophysical and environmental characterization of the area of interest of the site. In addition, INGV has launched a major project, Earth Telescope, which will allow an ever-improving understanding of the phenomena that govern the complex dynamics of the Earth system and the circumterrestrial space".
"The SUnLab laboratory project that is being presented today is the result of a broad and in-depth research and conceptualization work that the University of Cagliari has conducted thanks to its expertise in architectural design. A concrete and effective example of the value that our University brings to the broader Einstein Telescope project", he adds Luciano Colombo, Vice-Rector for Research at the University of Cagliari.
"As the University of Sassari, we strongly feel the weight and expectations of this initiative. ET-SUnLb is not just a simple research center, but a real rebirth plan for the Sardinians and Sardinia. The possibility of having the Einstein Telescope in this territory in the future would coincide with not only scientific development, but also territorial and economic development. The University of Sassari is ready to answer the call for this great collective enterprise", concludes the Rector of the University of Sassari Gavino Mariotti.
Image 1: A moment of the works during the presentation of the ET-SUnLab project (Einstein Telescope Sardinia Underground Laboratory)
Image 2: Rendering by SUnLab
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