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During its December meetings, CERN Council announced that an Open Symposium will be held in Cracow on 10–13 September 2012 for the purpose of updating the European Strategy for Particle Physics. Council adopted Europe’s current strategy for the field in July 2006 with an understanding that it be brought up to date at appropriate intervals of typically five years.
The Open Symposium is part of a process designed to get the maximum input from the particle-physics community, as well as from other stakeholders both inside and outside Europe, as Europe’s strategy forms part of a global whole. Opinion will be solicited from the individual scientists who carry out the research, the communities that stand to benefit and the research ministries that will foot the bill. With help from the local organizing committee, the Open Symposium will be arranged by a preparatory group appointed by Council and provide an opportunity for the global particle-physics community to express its views on the scientific objectives of the strategy.
Submissions will be solicited for written statements from individual physicists, groups of scientists representing specific interests – such as an experiment or a topic of theoretical research – together with contributions from institutions and organizations, such as funding agencies and science ministries. After discussion in the Open Symposium, these statements will be made available to the European Strategy Group tasked by Council with drafting the updated strategy document under the chair of the Scientific Secretary of the Strategy Session of Council.
Council will discuss the draft of the updated European strategy in March 2013 and will hold a special session in Brussels in early summer 2013 to adopt the updated strategy. It is also expected that the update of the strategy will become an agenda item for the EU Council of Ministers meeting to be held at the same time.
• Further information on the update of the European Strategy of Particle Physics, including announcements and details for participation at the Open Symposium, may be found as it becomes available at https://europeanstrategygroup.web.cern.ch/EuropeanStrategyGroup/.
