Dutch company receives commission from CERN for upgrade of the ALICE detector
The Dutch company IBS has received a large order to develop precision equipment for positioning and connecting sensor elements for the ALICE experiment, one of the four big experiments in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.
The experiments of the LHC particle accelerator have made important contributions to the understanding of the subatomic world and researchers are still busy with analysing the large volume of measurement data that were collected. Nevertheless it is important to keep the detectors up-to-date so that also in the future optimum use can be made of the largest accelerator in the world. All of the experiments are therefore busy with preparations to replace parts of the detectors with instruments that are even faster and more accurate still once Run 2 of the LHC has been completed in 2018.
Where necessary, laboratories and similar institutes such as Nikhef are working together across the world to design and build new detectors. If possible the experiments also make use of knowledge and experience from industry. This often leads to interesting collaborations in which industry is challenged to work on the boundaries of what is possible, whereas science gets to use the latest technologies and the knowledge from large-scale production.
Apart from closer ties with CERN, this success of IBS is also thanks to the intensive coaching by the ILO throughout the entire tender procedure, which can easily take more than six months in a case like this. In recent years there has been more attention for the importance of sufficient 'Return' of Big Science for the Netherlands. Return is an increasingly more important argument for maintaining societal support and increasing investments in science. Due to this increasing attention for Return, Dutch ILOs are gaining more capacity to make a stronger effort in this respect. The ILO Network established by NWO in 2012 is partly responsible for this.
Rob Klopping, appointed by Nikhef, is the ILO (Industrial Liaison Officer) for the Netherlands at CERN: "This is the biggest High-Tech order that the Netherlands has won in the past 12 years. It is the result of five years of working at improving the Return that the Netherlands acquires from the subscription costs that we pay for membership of organisations like CERN. Traditionally, the Netherlands is mainly successful in lots of small orders but in recent years it has also managed to regularly win some really large tenders as well and that will happen more often in the coming years. This is because Dutch companies have become better known at CERN and a lot of effort has been put into building up good relationships between CERN engineers and Dutch industry. For example, a few years ago Holland@CERN was organised during which 30 Dutch companies participated in a trade mission to CERN. The Dutch Permanent Representative to the United Nations played an important role in that. Next year a new edition of Holland@CERN is planned" .
In the Netherlands an active policy is realised to keep companies informed about what is happening at CERN, and where necessary contacts are made or background information is provided. See for example, www.bigscience.nl and https://www.nikhef.nl/bedrijfssamenwerking.
Further information about IBS can be found here: www.ibspe.com.
Further information
For further information please contact the science communication department of Nikhef: Surya Bonam, +31 20 592 5075.