Adriaan van der Meer
ISTC Executive Director

Address to the ISTC-CERN Cooperation Meeting
Geneva, Switzerland

Dear Colleagues,

It is a real pleasure to be here at CERN and to offer the support of ISTC to your important activities. 

As you know, Russian scientists, engineers and technicians have played an important role in the construction of the LHC and its four detectors. 

I am proud that the International Science and Technology Center (ISTC) in Moscow is able to mobilize support to this world class science project. Since 1995, when ISTC-CERN collaboration started, 45 ISTC projects to develop different technologies for the collaboration with CERN have been funded, and many of them have now been successfully completed. At present, 9 projects are ongoing. The total project volume is $31 million, of which ISTC contributed $12 million.

Several ISTC-sponsored start-up projects, for example, with the enterprises “Lutch”, “Mashinostroitel” and the Bogoroditsk Technical Chemical Plant (BTCP), led to further projects and commercial orders, as well as expanded common work between CERN and other scientific centers.

The enterprise “Lutch” started to collaborate with CERN through ISTC in 1996, with a project for the development of scintillating tiles for the ATLAS detector. Subsequently, it provided a unique technology for the production of titanium alloy tie rods for the same detector; and in parallel, the development of similar scintillating tiles was carried out for the detector LHCb and the last spin-off was a commercial order of different titanium support elements for the CMS experiment. More than 40 “Lutch” specialists had the opportunity to use their scientific and technological skills on CERN projects.

Another example of collaboration is a project for the development of scintillating crystals for the CMS detector. The initial ISTC investment of $1,9 million in the project with Bogoroditsk Technical Chemical Plant led to a series of commercial contracts for a total value of $36 million. 

I would like to also mention the successful CERN collaboration between ISTC and two leading Russian institutes: the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics (BINP), Novosibirsk and the Russian Federal Nuclear center – Russian Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics (VNIITF), Snezhinsk. 

One of the projects conducted by these institutes is worth highlighting today
The Project, which has the official title: “Linear Accelerators for High-Power Proton Beams Generators”, was successfully realized by the Budker Institute and VNIITF. This project was one of the examples of ISTC co-funding mechanism: 80% was funded by EU and 20% by CERN. The objectives of this project are heading beyond the startup of the LHC and are already focusing on a future upgrade of the LHC.

A prototype construction of the essential part of the linear accelerator – Linac4 - Coupled Cavity Drift Tube Linac (CCDTL) – is built, tested and delivered to CERN. Further tests at CERN proved a suitability of this prototype for a Linac4 construction.

We meet today for the official and technical start of the successor to this project – two complementary projects, which are a logical follow-up aimed at the further development and practical realization of CCDTL (Coupled Cavity Drift Tube Linac) structures covering the energy range between 50 and 100 MeV and thus constituting a substantial part of the new 160 MeV Linac4 Accelerator.

Both projects are vital for the upgrade of LHC injector complex and, consequently, will lead to a better exploitation of the LHC potential.
The successful and timely completion of these projects is obviously of the highest priority to ISTC. It will, of course, require that all the parties involved in the projects act swiftly and effectively. 
ISTC is pleased to continue its contribution to the LHC project, one of the most exciting experiments in the world and which is of benefit to both CERN and the Russian science and technological community.

I look forward to our continued cooperation and I wish you all a successful meeting. 
Adriaan van der Meer
ISTC Executive Director
29 October 2009