The kick-off meeting of the IRIS project took place at the INFN Headquarters during two days on November 14th and 15th. The project has recently received a grant from the PNRR (Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza) funds for the Research Infrastructure mission.
IRIS, of which INFN is both the proponent and the lead institution, will create a distributed infrastructure throughout the national territory, focusing on developing high temperature and high magnetic field superconducting technologies both for civil applications, such as connection cables for electricity transport and for the reduction of energy losses, as well as for the construction of magnets for next generation particle accelerators, in particular for the Future Circular Collider (FCC), the large particle collider proposed to replace LHC at CERN. The project has an estimated duration of 30 months and the project is financed by a contribution of 60 million euros, where over 50% will go to the laboratories in the South of Italy.
Pierluigi Campana, member of the INFN council and scientific coordinator of the project, explains that “IRIS is a virtuous example of how basic research, and in this case particle and accelerator physics, can provide an important application in other science areas, such as the development of new materials for energy saving that is essential for the creation of high-power cables without dissipation and suitable for the needs of future electricity networks serving new energy sources.”
One of the main objectives will be the construction in Salerno of a large infrastructure that will host not only the superconducting connection line, but also a future centre of excellence in the field of testing future industrial products for high power connections, with the aim of developing the promising technology called “high-temperature” superconductivity, able to be operated at low temperatures (-200 0C), less difficult and expensive to reach with respect to the ones used nowadays for the “cold” superconductivity (-200 0C).
"With the IRIS project", explains Lucio Rossi, full professor at the University of Milan associated with INFN and technical coordinator of the project, "Italy assumes a leading position in Europe and in the world in the field of applied superconductivity, creating a real synergy between research institutions and universities, which will offer an important collaboration opportunity for particle physicists and those involved in the fields of superconductivity and magnetism. An aspect not to be overlooked is also the high educational value of the project, which will guarantee numerous doctoral and high level training opportunities for about a hundred among doctoral students, young researchers and specialized technicians.”
INFN will participate to the project through the sections of Genova, Napoli with the connected group of Salerno, the National Laboratories of Frascati and the Laboratory of Accelerators and Applied Superconductivity (LASA) of section of Milano. The latter will carry out the role of coordinating the activities of IRIS. Many partners will support INFN: the Universities of Genova, Milano, Naples, Salento and Salerno, and the CNR Institute for Superconductors, Innovative Materials and Devices (SPIN). All the participants will have the objective of studying superconductivity at high temperatures, also from the point of view of the structure of matter, of developing new technologies in this area and of verifying their possible applications.
