"EuroCirCol inspired and supported the development of a global 16T magnet R&D programme and the FCC global Conductor Development Programe. Results could find direct applications in other fields including medical imaging and treatment facilities, industrial applications of particle accelerators.
Certain national research laboratories including CEA (France), CIEMAT (Spain), INFN (Italy) and CHART (Switzerland) have recently signed agreements in the framework of the FCC 16T programme with the aim of manufacturing 1 m long prototypes of the designs developed within EuroCirCol, as a step towards building full-scale models. The Swiss Chart-II roadmap also foresees significant contributions to the design of high-field magnets. The programme has also strengthened ties with institutes in US, Russia and several Asian countries. The US Magnet Development Programme (MDP) announced the successful tests of a 14T cosine-theta accelerator-type dipole magnet – the highest field ever achieved for such a device at an operational temperature of 4.5 K. The results send a positive signal for the feasibility of next-generation hadron colliders.
Significant advancements have been achieved by additional research carried out by STFC for dealing with the electron-formation cloud – one of the key limitations in today’s particle accelerators. The Laser Engineered Surface Structures (LESS) has been identified as one effective method to fight the formation of electron clouds in the FCC beam vacuum system. Progress on laser engineered surface treatment technology can also help improve the performance and availability of LHC/HL-LHC and the designs of other proton and hadron accelerators (e.g. at FAIR) improving their performance while relaxing refrigeration requirements and thus leading to more sustainable operation costs.
Based on EuroCirCol results, a long-range R&D programme has been launched to develop an alternative approach for cryogenic refrigeration, as the traditional technologies used today at the LHC cannot cope with the FCC requirements in a sustainable way.
EuroCirCol also lead to the development of an R&D programme on the reuse of the 10 million cubic-metres of excavation material that should be efficiently managed in line with the principles of ""circular economy"". Results could be of outermost importance for the civil engineering and tunneling industry as the problem of reusing excavation materials is a key challenge for Europe.
Motivated dedicated studies on the assessment of the socio-economic impact of Research Infrastructures. A study on the socio-economic impact potentials has been launched with the University of Milano, Italy (additional matching resources), gradually attracting other partners including CSIL (Italy), University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain), L.S.E(UK) as well as other research organizations such as ESS, ESA and SKA.
Thanks to EuroCirCol, a group of collaborating institutes exists today with a much larger scope than the project originally foresaw. This group lives and acts beyond the project duration to prepare for the next phase of an integrated programme with a lepton circular collider (FCC-ee) being the first step. The EuroCirCol consortium members, taking into account the finding of the FCC study, the discussions during the EPPSU Open Meeting and the recommendations of the FCC International Advisory Committee and CERN's Directorate, have decided to move forward with the design of a future highest-luminosity lepton collider, the potential first step for a new 100 km long underground accelerator infrastructure."
