CTA – Opportunities for Slovene SME’s workshop
As an engineering company with experience in the radio-telescope field, Cosylab is eager to contribute to the development and the construction of the Cherenkov Telescope Array observatory (CTA).
The workshop was hosted by the University of Nova Gorica (UNG), the representative of the Slovenian share in the CTAO GmbH, and co-organised with the ScienceTech association of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia (SCIS).
Cosylab was part of the group of Slovenian SMEs that answered the call of SCIS and presented their interest in participating in the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) observatory activities in the future.
Slovenia is involved in the CTA project following the National Research Infrastructure Development Plan (NRRI 2011-2020) which is aimed at enabling groundbreaking discoveries in the field of highest-energy astrophysics. In line with the NRRI, the workshop aimed to investigate the potential, the capability and the willingness of Slovenian high-tech companies to contribute to the development and the construction of the CTA observatory.
Based on the presentations of the CTAO representatives (Dr. Wolfgang Wild, Dr. Igor Oya and Dr. Stefan Schlenstedt) and the presentations of the group of SMEs, the participants concluded that a clear match exists between the needs for the CTA construction and the fields of expertise of Slovenian SMEs, in particular in the:
• Integration of control systems of big physics infrastructure;
• Data management and Big Data computing, storing and managing;
• Specific scientific high-end analog and digital instrumentation development;
• Implementation of the SW development lifecycle for the development of control systems and the development of other SW subsystems;
• Industrial automation;
Cosylab will closely follow and support the efforts of the SCIS and UNG to appeal to the Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport and the Slovenian Ministry of Economic Development and Technology to formulate the national benefits of the continued involvement in the CTA project and to proceed with the activities of Slovenia in CTA board of government representatives.
Namely, Slovenia can join the CTA ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium) as a founding member, which will lead towards clearly defining the extent of Slovenian scientific and industry in-kind participation in the CTA construction and development.
