NRF-iThemba LABS (Laboratory for Accelerator Based Science)

At the tip of Africa lies the largest particle accelerator facility in the Southern Hemisphere and the only cyclotron facility of its kind on the African continent.
iThemba Laboratories for Accelerator Based Science (LABS), a research facility of the National Research Foundation (NRF), operates from sites located in Cape Town and Johannesburg offering applied and fundamental research capacity and infrastructure for accelerator-based sciences.
iThemba LABS has been producing radioisotopes for both the local and international market according to current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) in specialised facilities and supplied for clinical application, for more than 30 years.

Research in high energy physics is carried out mainly at four institutes in Bratislava and Košice, and focuses on the ATLAS and ALICE experiments at the LHC. Research groups from Bratislava, active in nuclear structure studies, perform their experiments at ISOLDE facility at CERN. Smaller groups or individuals participate in other collaborations at CERN (NA49, NA57, NA62), and in experiments at other accelerator laboratories. Recent outreach events include International Particle Physics Masterclasses for high schools, a competition of videos about particles „Cascade“ projects, Physics tent at Pohoda, the largest music festival in Slovakia and a virtual visit of ATLAS experiment.

Particle physics outreach in Portugal is mainly pursued by LIP, the Laboratory for Instrumentation and Experimental Particle Physics. LIP is a nation-wide research institute with 3 nodes associated with the universities of Lisbon, Coimbra and Minho, and connections to other universities. It covers areas of experimental physics, collaborating in particle and astroparticle experiments at CERN and around the world,  radiation detectors and technological developments for particle physics, and their application to societal issues. LIP also collaborates with theoretical groups around the country.

In Poland the particle physics research is concentrated in two biggest cities, Warszawa and Krakow, but there are also smaller groups in Kielce, Lodz and Wroclaw. The leading institutions are: AGH University of Science and Technology and Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences (Krakow), National Centre for Nuclear Research (Warszawa and Lodz), University of Warsaw and Warsaw University of Technology (Warszawa).

Polish physicists take part in many different experiments. At CERN they are among members of all large experiments at LHC: ALICE, ATLAS and LHCb (Krakow) ALICE and CMS (Warszawa), but also in NA61/SHINE. Similar studies are also performed at lower collisions energies available from smaller accelerator for STAR experiment (in USA) and Belle II experiment (in Japan). Other groups work in neutrino experiments in Japan (T2K, Super Kamiokande), USA (Minos) and Russia (Baikal GVD). There is also extensive involvement in cosmic-ray studies in observatories on the ground (Auger, HESS, HAWC, CTA and CREDO) or in satellites in the space.

All universities and research institutes organize outreach activities. Physicists from Krakow, Lodz, Poznan and Warszawa are involved in the International Masterclasses for high school students. Each year over 500 of them can listen to lectures and perform the measurements using the data from LHC experiments. They also take part in public events like Scientific Picnic in Warszawa or Researchers Night in Krakow.

Content to be provided

In the Netherlands, (astro)particle physics is coordinated by Nikhef, which is a collaborations between the NWO-I institute for subatomic physics and six universities. Within Nikhef, ~75 technicians and engineers, ~185 physicists and ~25 support staff work together which enables the institute to engage in the design and building of detectors, the analysis of the data from these detectors, and the development of scientific theories. Nikhef has a long history in outreach, with participation in Masterclasses, open days, high school visits, etc. These events are organised by the Nikhef scientists and the communications department. Nikhef was the first organisation signing the IPPOG MoU in 2016.

The Italian research agency dedicated to the study of the fundamental constituents of matter and the laws that govern them, under the supervision of the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR), is the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN). It conducts theoretical and experimental research in the fields of subnuclear, nuclear and astroparticle physics. Groups from the Universities of Rome, Padua, Turin, and Milan founded the INFN on 8thAugust 1951 to uphold and develop the scientific tradition established during the 1930s by Enrico Fermi and his school, with their theoretical and experimental research in nuclear physics. In the latter half of the 1950s, INFN designed and built the first Italian accelerator, the electron synchrotron developed in Frascati, where its first national laboratory was set up. During the same period, INFN began to participate in research into the construction and use of ever-more powerful accelerators being conducted by CERN, in Geneva. Today INFN employs some  6000 scientists whose work is recognized internationally not only for their contribution to various European laboratories, but also to numerous research centres worldwide. All of INFN’s research activities are undertaken within a framework of international competition, in close collaboration with Italian universities on the basis of solid academic partnerships spanning decades.

As an Institution working on cutting-edge scientific issues, INFN has a significant impact on the progress of knowledge, on technological development and on the economy of the country. Aware of this role, and of the fact that it is the duty of a public body to share its activities and the results that derive from them with society, the Institute is increasingly committed to outreach and public engagement. The Institute plays an important role in the communication of physics at the national and local level, by promoting, designing and implementing initiatives for the dissemination and promotion of scientific culture, both for the general public and for specific targets. In addition to traditional initiatives, it studies and experiments new forms of communication, emphasizing the fundamental relationship between physics and other areas of knowledge. The Institute also contributes a lot to the training of high school students through scholarships, internships, teacher training and school-work projects.

Content to be provided

In France, introducing young people and the general public to basic science (nuclear physics, physics of elementary particles, cosmology and astrophysics), the technological advances they require and their related applications (energy, health, etc.), is a key mission for the 25 CNRS/IN2P3 national research laboratories and platforms, and the CEA/IRFU. Our educational and outreach activities are carried out in close collaboration to teaching staff and take many forms: visit to laboratories, “Masterclass” discovery days, teacher-training courses, loans of cosmic-ray detectors for use in classrooms, teaching aids, exhibitions, websites, virtual visits, audiovisual productions, books, etc.

Our goal: to give people a taste for science and physics

The Helsinki Institute of Physics (HIP) is a physics research institute that is operated jointly by the University of Helsinki, Aalto University, the University of Jyväskylä, the Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology, and the Tampere University. The research activity at the institute covers an extensive range of subjects in theoretical physics and experimental subatomic physics. The mandate of the institute is to carry out and facilitate research in basic and applied physics as well as in physics research and technology development at international accelerator laboratories. The institute is responsible for the Finnish research collaboration with CERN. Also, the institute coordinates the Finnish contribution to the FAIR laboratory (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research) currently under construction in Darmstadt, Germany.

The Helsinki Institute of Physics organises continuing education for Finnish subject teachers as well as science camps for Finnish general upper secondary school pupils at CERN. HIP’s three-year Education and Open Data project is responsible for the above activities and their development. The project uses CERN’s open data in comprehensive and general upper secondary education and trains Finnish teachers throughout Finland in the use of open data and tools. Each year, approximately 15 students from Finnish universities and other higher education institutions participate in HIP’s summer traineeship programme at CERN and ESRF. The summer trainees typically acquire three months of international work experience and have the opportunity to participate in top-level scientific lectures aimed at the trainees.

The CERN Bootcamp, intended for master’s students, was organised together with three universities of applied sciences in summer 2018 and 2019, and another bootcamp is being planned for 2022. The places for Bootcamp are filled with 20 master’s degree students from Haaga-Helia/Laurea/Metropolia and 2-5 students from Universities of Helsinki/Aalto/Jyväskylä/Lappeenranta-Lahti/Tampere. During the bootcamp, students work in groups to resolve current societal problems that often relate to sustainability.