EU Initiative Forges Czech and UK Laser Facility Partnership

A laser facility currently under construction in Prague is on the road to becoming one of Europe’s Centres of Excellence, after forming a partnership project with the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)

The Czech Institute of Physics’ HiLASE facility and the UK’s STFC Central Laser Facility (CLF) have been awarded around €500,000 in the first phase of funding for a new Teaming initiative under the EU’s Horizon 2020 framework programme. Competition for the funding is fierce and less than 20 percent of bids made it through this first stage.

The funding will be used to build a strong business case for the taking the partnership through to the next stage – and funding of possibly up to €20M – to transform HiLASE into a technologically advanced Centre of Excellence, with capability to access the world-leading expertise and technology already available within the CLF. It will also establish the Centre as an innovation hub, raising the region’s scientific and economic performance..

Professor Jan Ridky, Director of the Institute of Physics in Prague said: "We are delighted that we have been selected for the first stage of funding to develop a full business case for the implementation stage of our project. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to develop our HiLASE laser into a world class Centre of Excellence as a user facility. We are greatly looking forward to working with our STFC partners over the coming months."

John Collier, Director of STFC's Central Laser Facility, said: "Selection of our stage one proposal is excellent news. CLF and the Institute of Physics in Prague have a long and highly productive history of collaboration and partnership in many areas of laser development, and our user communities have conducted many successful experiments together. I congratulate the project team on their success and look forward to the next stage in the collaboration.”