One of the highlights of the European research infrastructure landscape is the world's most powerful X-ray-laser, the European XFEL. The ELBEX (Extracted Lepton Beam at the European XFEL) proposal builds on this strength and will set up new opportunities for European scientists and innovators, by providing an extracted high energy electron beam for experiments. With ELBEX we propose a pathfinder project to demonstrate the feasibility of such a facility at the European XFEL. This unique new possibility would strengthen the global competitiveness of the European Research Area and create opportunities for new user groups. The high energy, high charge density and excellent quality of the electron beam, if brought into interaction with a strong laser beam, opens up the study of a range of scientific topics, most prominently, of strong field Quantum Electrodynamics (QED). For the first time, the Schwinger limit for the electromagnetic field strength, at which non-perturbative QED effects become relevant, could be reached experimentally in this facility. Studying the particles created in the photon beam dump opens up the possibility to search for feebly interacting particles, complementing current or planned experiments like FASER II or SHiP. In addition, the electron beam itself is at the centre of a range of highly relevant and ambitious experiments in the area of accelerator science and detector science. Within the ELBEX project, the installation of a facility to extract an electron beam from the European XFEL using a fast kicker magnet and to transport it into a multi-purpose experimental area will be prepared. On the condition that a positive decision by the European XFEL council is reached to grant an extended 12-week XFEL shutdown, the installation of the ELBEX facility is an option.

OpenDreamKit will deliver a flexible toolkit enabling research groups to set up Virtual Research Environments, customised to meet the varied needs of research projects in pure mathematics and applications and supporting the full research life-cycle from exploration, through proof and publication, to archival and sharing of data and code. OpenDreamKit will be built out of a sustainable ecosystem of community-developed open software, databases, and services, including popular tools such as LinBox, MPIR, Sage(sagemath.org), GAP, PariGP, LMFDB, and Singular. We will extend the Jupyter Notebook environment to provide a flexible UI. By improving and unifying existing building blocks, OpenDreamKit will maximise both sustainability and impact, with beneficiaries extending to scientific computing, physics, chemistry, biology and more and including researchers, teachers, and industrial practitioners. We will define a novel component-based VRE architecture and the adapt existing mathematical software, databases, and UI components to work well within it on varied platforms. Interfaces to standard HPC and grid services will be built in. Our architecture will be informed by recent research into the sociology of mathematical collaboration, so as to properly support actual research practice. The ease of set up, adaptability and global impact will be demonstrated in a variety of demonstrator VREs. We will ourselves study the social challenges associated with large-scale open source code development and of publications based on executable documents, to ensure sustainability. OpenDreamKit will be conducted by a Europe-wide demand-steered collaboration, including leading mathematicians, computational researchers, and software developers long track record of delivering innovative open source software solutions for their respective communities. All produced code and tools will be open source.

Advanced optical laser light sources and accelerator-based X-ray sources, as well as their technologies, scientific applications, and user communities, have developed independently over more than five decades. Driven by the developments at each optical laser and free-electron laser research infrastructures (RIs) in recent years, the gap between the optical laser and accelerator-driven light sources has diminished significantly. Both communities operate, implement, or plan advanced laser light source RIs, combining high-power optical and high-brightness X-ray light sources operated as dedicated user facilities. Operational and technical problems of these RIs have become very similar, if not identical. In specific cases, joint projects by the two communities have been initiated, but a closer and more structured collaboration of the corresponding communities and light sources is urgently required and shall be developed through this project. The present proposal for a European Cluster of Advanced Laser Light Sources (EUCALL) is the first attempt to create an all-embracing consortium of all (optical and X-ray) advanced laser light source RIs in Europe. Besides addressing the most urgent technical challenges, EUCALL will develop and implement cross-cutting services for photon-oriented ESFRI projects, will optimize the use of advanced laser light sources in Europe by efficient cross-community resource management, will enhance interoperability of the two types of light sources, will ensure global competitiveness, and will stimulate and support common long-term strategies and research policies for the application of laser-like short-wavelength radiation in science and innovation. The EUCALL consortium includes the three ESFRI projects ELI, European XFEL, and ESRF(up), several national RIs, and the LASERLAB-EUROPE and FELs OF EUROPE networks as representatives for the nationally operated optical laser and free-electron laser RIs.

The ATTRACT Phase-2 project aims to consolidate a European innovation ecosystem focused on breakthrough Detection & Imaging technologies. This ecosystem is backboned by three types of actors: National and European RIs, Industrial organizations and their associated communities. Although these actors understand and practice innovation under different rationales, the goal of ATTRACT Phase-2 merges their common aim for overcoming the innovation “Valley-of-Death”. Departing from the success of the ongoing project ATTRACT Phase-1, this project will focus and fund the proven and most promising breakthrough technology concepts from the previous phase showing a strong potential for scientific, industrial and societal applications. ATTRACT Phase-2 is conceived as an instrument to further support their development and substantially raise their Technology Readiness Level towards the market. ATTRACT Phase-2 is also scaling up the opportunities for young entrepreneurs with respect to the previous phase. Following from ATTRACT Phase-1, this project will provide up to 400 young innovators the opportunity, methodologies and mentoring for developing novel concepts and prototypes of technological solutions addressing Societal Challenges inspired and in collaboration by the detection and imaging technologies developed within the funded projects. Additionally, ATTRACT Phase-2 will deliver a first of a kind Socio Economic Study of an innovation ecosystem in the making, realised by top experts and addressing different points of view and practices. ATTRACT Phase-2 will also undertake serious efforts for exploring the possibility of blending public and private financing in an open dialogue with their respective stakeholders in order to provide future models to streamline innovation funding.

This CREMLIN proposal is to foster scientific cooperation between the Russian Federation and the European Union in the development and scientific exploitation of large-scale research infrastructures. It has been triggered by the recent so-called megascience projects initiative launched by and in the Russian Federation which is now very actively seeking European integration. The proposed megascience facilities have an enormous potential for the international scientific communities and represent a unique opportunity for the EU to engage in a strong collaborative framework with the Russian Federation. The CREMLIN proposal is a first and path finding step to identify, build and enhance scientific cooperation and strong enduring networks between European research infrastructures and the corresponding megascience facilities to maximize scientific returns. The proposal follows the specific recommendations of an EC Expert Group by devising concrete coordination and support measures for each megascience facility and by developing common best practice and policies on internationalisation and opening. CREMLIN will thus effectively contribute to better connect Russian RIs to the European Research Area.