Einstein Telescope at the Hannover Messe
24-04-2024
On the 24th of April, at the initiative of Ellen Ipenburg Tomesen, the Science and education Counsellor at the Netherlands Embassy to Germany, an event was organised to introduce the Einstein Telescope and its technological challenges to the industry representatives present at the Hannover Messe with the aim to increase the knowledge of the German companies about the possibility for them to become involved in solving the challenges to build the Einstein Telescope.
An introductory speech was held by Sandor Gaastra the Secretary General of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate. Followed by a presentation by Gideon Koekoek, scientist from the University of Maastricht, about the nature of gravitational waves and how they can be measured and what we learn about the universe from those measurements and why we need to build the Einstein Telescope as a means to look back towards nearly the Big Bang.
The last presentation was given by Jan Visser, the Industrial Liaison Officer for ET and CERN from Nikhef, who explained why industry could be interested in getting involved in developments in the domain of Big Science such as the Einstein Telescope. He also presented a number of challenges for which scientists need the involvement of industry both during the development phase as well as the production phase. For specific challenges funding instruments are available both in The Netherlands and in Belgium.
The morning was closed with a panel discussion with the following participants: Tjerk Opmeer, deputy Director General Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate (NL), Pieter Lerou Demcon CTO (NL), Marion Purrio, FEF Aachen GmbH (D), Maxime Corvilain POM Limburg (B), Annick Pierrard University Liège (B), Isabelle Tolleneer CRM Group (B). They discussed why the Einstein Telescope could be so important and valuable from a regional - country/ federal – political - economical / business - European perspective.
In summary, a valuable event where representatives from various organisations gave their input in a constructive manner to continue to engage more industrial partners in the ongoing developments.
