Periodic Reporting for period 6 - IMPULSE (Integrated Management and reliable oPerations for User-based Laser Scientific Excellence) Reporting period: 2023-05-01 to 2023-10-31 Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project The main objective of the IMPULSE Project is to support the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) transition quickly and effectively into steady-state operations and provide quality access to users, while establishing itself as an efficient organisation under the single governance and management of a newly established European Research Infrastructure Consortium, ELI ERIC. This smooth transition from construction to operations ensures a return on the 850 million EUR from European Structural Investment Funds invested into the construction of the ELI facilities, leveraging synergies between European funding mechanisms while addressing the risks of integrating three large-scale, geographically separated facilities. The ELI facilities serve laser science and many other fields: materials science, engineering, medicine, biology, chemistry, and astrophysics to name a few. This diversity, combined with unprecedented instrumentation, will produce significant scientific results for decades. However, if the beginning of the user programme does not deliver as promised, users may turn to other analytical instruments. The risk is that it could take years to recover the interest of leading researchers, thus leaving the facilities under-utilised and the reputation of ELI damaged.Strengthening interest in laser-based research is important for ELI, the broader community in Europe, and Europe’s continued competitiveness and leadership in this field. The IMPULSE Partners collaborate closely with Laserlab Europe and its H2020 project. This strengthens the European Research Area and leads to increased membership of countries in ELI. That supports the sustainable operations of ELI, ensuring world-class reliability for its lifecycle. Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far To date, the most significant developments of IMPULSE have been the establishment of ELI ERIC, a new legal entity that enables the membership of member countries, the signature of Operating Agreements with two of the ELI facilities, ELI Beamlines in Dolní Břežany (Czech Republic) and the ELI ALPS facility in Szeged (Hungary) and the effective transfer of direct operational responsibility to ELI ERIC. The operating agreements were designed to allow the operations of the ELI facilities under the governance of ELI ERIC until eventual handover of direct operational responsibility to ELI ERIC. The handover of the ELI Beamlines Facility, involving the transfer of all activities, staff, assets and liabilities was successfully completed effective 1 January 2023. The legal integration of the ELI ALPS Facility is expected to take place in January 2024 by means of the acquisition by ELI ERIC of a controlling share in ELI-HU Non-profit Ltd, the company responsible for the operations of ELI ALPS. In addition, an Access Agreement was signed with ELI-NP, the third ELI facility, located near Bucharest (Romania), to organise its inclusion and participation in the calls for proposals organised by ELI ERIC. Following Romania’s accession as a Founding Observer in ELI ERIC as of January 2024, work will continue on the preparation of ELI-NP’s integration. The process of establishing ELI ERIC, and countries joining, is political and outside the scope of IMPULSE, but the IMPULSE activities are planned to facilitate that process and anticipate opportunities and risks related to it. Also, the IMPULSE activities help accelerate decision-making on common policies to ensure faster integration. In that regard, IMPULSE is a clear success, putting 12 statutory and other policies in place in months, where this took years to other ERICs.As IMPULSE reached 36 months, focus shifted towards a) the setting-up of ELI’s management system with the development of operating processes and procedures and the specification of ELI ERIC’s future Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and b) the development and implementation of a joint spare parts database. In addition, the ELI facilities are jointly prototyping key technologies for improved operations with other partners and progressing in the standardisation of metrology procedures. The definition of a single workflow for user access, the development of the ELI ERIC user portal, and the launch of three user calls and of a user training platform are critical contributions of IMPULSE to the opening of ELI to users. Finally, flagship experiments are being implemented to demonstrate ELI’s capacity to deliver world-class science. The Covid-19 pandemic critically affected IMPULSE at the launch, hardly allowing any in-person meetings. The situation improved in the second and third years allowing for more and more in-person meetings. A wide range of tools are being used to ensure efficient communications and interactions among partners and outside stakeholders. The project has gained steady-state traction and is being implemented with strong leadership and engagement of all partners. Outreach activities are implemented based on the IMPULSE communication and dissemination strategy. While there is active engagement at conferences, seminars, etc., ELI also hosts several key events for outreach and promotion of ELI ERIC membership, internationalisation, and establishment of strategic partnerships. The IMPULSE and ELI websites, main external communication tools for the sharing of results and providing visibility to the partners and their activities, are regularly updated and have been viewed by circa 38,000 visitors. Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far) The Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) is the world’s most advanced laser-based user facility, an ESFRI Landmark since 2006. More than 850 million € were invested into the construction of three facilities in Central and Eastern Europe, using European Regional Development Funds. The integration of the ELI facilities into a single organisation is key to ensure the sustainability of that investment. In addition to significant scientific impacts, IMPULSE brings technical resources and the experience of leading European laser facilities to bear on operational issues. It enhances competitiveness for Europe in this field. Partners develop best practices together to support best-in-class user experience. The project consortium is developing leading technologies and positioning ELI, and Europe, as a leader in high-power laser development, driving innovation in the field.In collaboration with Laserlab Europe, IMPULSE conducted an analysis of the community to exploit ELI and other laser facilities. Extensive outreach activities in all 9 of the IMPULSE consortium partner countries have been carried out since the beginning of the project and will continue to its end and beyond. IMPULSE also has a unique position in the ELI host countries, in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania. Activities already started in the second reporting period lead to increased collaboration with SMEs, significant increases in training, and possible spin-offs. The ELI facilities focus collaboration with industrial partners able to disrupt the present technology with innovative solutions. The innovation content focuses on the immediate technical needs of ELI, but will also address the long-term sustainability of the solutions to guarantee to ELI the best performance, highest operational uptime and maximum cost efficiency. This is already leading to improvements and developments that trickle down to commercially available large-scale laser systems. IMPULSE
