The CARE project was triggered by a report made by ECFA ( European Committee for Future Accelerators) in 2001, concerning the long term future on accelerator based physics in Europe. The main idea was to strengthen interactions between accelerators experts and physicists. Cultural traditions in Europe led to only a few physicists doing R&D on accelerators. Therefore, a new generation of engineers and physicists needed to be trained. Laboratories directors and ECFA jointly proposed to set up ESGARD, the mandate to develop a structured plan to promote and conduct accelerator R&D in Europe. The first FP6 call was issued at the end of 2002, the CARE proposal was made by spring 2003 and started in 2004 for a five-year period. At that time, 22 institutes from 9 countries signed the EU contract together with 58 associate institutes, including several non European countries.

CARE’s mission is carried out through three Networking Activities, which sponsor meetings and workshops (BENE for neutrino and muon beams, ELAN for linear collider and electron accelerators and HHH for hadron beams) and four Joint Research Activities, which focus on the most relevant R&D topics in the existing European infrastructures -- namely Superconducting RF technologies (SRF), high performance Photo-injectors for electron beams (PHIN), High Intensity Pulsed Proton Injector (HIPPI) and high field magnet technologies (NED). The developments of the SRF Joint Research Activity consist of a major contribution to the European research effort towards the ILC project. They aim at improving the existing infrastructures such as the TESLA Test Facility at DESY, the Coupler Test Stand at LAL-Orsay or the Cavity Test Stands at CEA-Saclay and INFN Legnaro, dedicated to advancing the Superconducting RF Technology.

ESGARD and CARE webpage

--Perrine Royole-Degieux