Flemish government reserves 200 million euros for construction Einstein Telescope
The Flemish government has reserved 200 million euros to build the Einstein Telescope. That announced Flemish minister-president Matthias Diependaele, also responsible for innovation, at the occasion of the fourth ministerial summit of ministers from Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany on the project. The total promised support for the construction exceeds one billion euros.
The Einstein Telescope will be a huge underground telescope in Europe designed to monitor gravitational waves. These are tiny fluctuations in the gravitational waves travelling through the universe that, according to Albert Einstein's theory, can tell us more about our universe. The new telescope should thus provide access to phenomena, processes and areas of the universe hitherto inaccessible to science.
Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany are joint candidates to install the telescope in their border region, as is Italy, which wants to build the telescope at Sardinia. The decision on the location is expected to be made in 2026 or 2027. The telescope should be operational by the end of the next decade.
Feasibility studies concerning the project started this year in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, with exploratory drilling to find out whether the subsurface is suitable for the project. The initial results look promising, according to Diependaele. “The stakes are high: we want to be able to dig tunnels at a depth of about 250 metres in order to build a triangular detector with sides of 10 kilometres long,” he said. “A study on the civil techniques to build this colossus is also currently underway, while in parallel we are mapping the situation above ground.”
To fund the feasibility studies, the previous Flemish government made funds available earlier this year. Funds have also already been provided by the federal government, Wallonia, the Netherlands and Germany.
With the belief growing that the three countries will actually be able to bring in the project, the Flemish government felt the time was right to turn its attention to the next phase, the construction phase, for which it is reserving 200 million euros. Together with the financial reservation in the Netherlands, a total of more than a billion euros is available for the future construction phase of the Einstein Telescope in both countries.
“The Einstein Telescope links fundamental science, technological innovation, attraction of STEM fields and international appeal,” declared Diependaele. “A strong commitment from all governments involved will enable us to actually bring this unique scientific infrastructure to the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion. This will enable us to attract top scientists and companies, develop new technologies and put our countries on the world map.”
#FlandersNewsService | Previous Flemish minister of innovation Jo Brouns (C) during a visit to the ETpathfinder R&D infrastructure in Maastricht, where a scale model of the Einstein Telescope is to be built, January 2024 © BELGA PHOTO Marcel van Hoorn / ANP / AFP
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