CERN and GSI sign new agreement
CERN and GSI have a long and successful history of collaboration, which started even before CERN launched its programme for fixed-target physics with heavy ions at the Super Proton Synchrotron in the 1980s, culminating with the prospect of collisions between beams of lead ions at the LHC. GSI has made major contributions to the LHC – in particular to the ALICE experiment, which is designed principally for the study of lead–lead collisions.
Now, GSI is to become the host laboratory and major partner for the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research, which is scheduled to start construction at Darmstadt next year.
CERN and GSI have decided to continue as well as strengthen their co-operation in the fields of heavy-ion and hadron physics, accelerator physics and technologies, educational programmes and high-performance computing.
On 14 April GSI's director, Horst Stoecker, and CERN's director-general, Rolf Heuer, signed a newly enlarged agreement to enhance the co-operation between the two laboratories. The agreement was also signed by the two accelerator directors, Hartmut Eickhoff for GSI and Steve Myers for CERN.
ITU and CERN strengthen their relationship
On 10 May CERN and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) signed a framework agreement that is intended to strengthen the collaboration between the two organizations on scientific and technological issues. The ITU is the leading UN agency for information and communication technology issues. For nearly 145 years it has co-ordinated and promoted international co-operation in telecommunications, from the shared global use of the radio spectrum to efforts to improve telecommunications infrastructure in the developing world and to strengthen cybersecurity.
The agreement will facilitate the setting up and implementation of joint initiatives that are of mutual interest. These are expected to concern the following fields in the near future: citizen cyberscience; the extension of broadband-communication systems to developing countries; training in the use of "digital library" methods in these countries; and cybersecurity.