PRESS RELEASE: Science at CERIC 2024: a scientific event to celebrate 10 years of the Consortium
Trieste – 15 October 2024 – The symposium ‘Science at CERIC 2024 – Celebrating 10 years of scientific excellence’ organised by the European Research Infrastructure Consortium CERIC-ERIC will be held in Lecce, Italy, on 16 and 17 October.
CERIC-ERIC provides, through a single point of access and the development of joint research and development projects, the opportunity to use some of the most advanced analytical techniques in Europe to help science and industry advance in materials, biomaterials and nanotechnology research, with a focus on energy and life sciences.
Science at CERIC is a great opportunity to bring together directors and researchers from all CERIC facilities, increasing interaction between stakeholders on current activities, common research topics, achievements and future development plans. In particular, this year’s edition will celebrate 10 years of scientific excellence supported by CERIC: the symposium will be attended by more than 20 researchers who, since 2014, have used the techniques and instruments available at the consortium’s facilities for cutting-edge research with a high scientific impact. In addition, 15 PhDs whose grants were supported by CERIC will present posters illustrating their research.
The event is co-funded by the Central European Initiative (CEI), a regional intergovernmental forum of 17 member states from Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, whose main strategic objectives are the promotion of European integration and of sustainable development through regional cooperation, and which has been crucial to CERIC from its outset: ‘CERIC is the first European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) which has been dedicated to support the scientific growth of Central Eastern Europe, and the first with seat in Italy. Its setting-up has been incubated by the CEI in Trieste and by the Salzburg Group of Central Eastern Countries in Vienna’ explains Carlo Rizzuto, President of CERIC’s General Assembly ‘with a direct involvement of the Governments participating in it. This has been a successful and important joint effort of Italy and Austria towards speeding-up the full integration of the eastern part of the so-called European Research Area (ERA)’.
Both talks and posters will cover very different scientific topics, underlining the high multidisciplinarity of the studies supported by CERIC: from advanced materials to energy, from heritage conservation to genomics and medicine. Furthermore, the event will be an important opportunity to reflect on the impact CERIC has had on the scientific community, and on the strategy the consortium will follow in the coming years to further increase its influence on the international scientific scene.
The symposium will take place at the University of Salento’s ISUFI College, which together with the CEntro di Fisica Applicata, DAtazione e Diagnostica (CEDAD) houses some of CERIC’s instruments and techniques, and at MUST-Museo Storico Città di Lecce: ‘It is an honour to host in Lecce the directors of the Consortium’s laboratories and the researchers who have carried out important research in recent years,’ explains Lucio Calcagnile, Full Professor of Applied Physics in the Department of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Salento, founder and director of CEDAD: the atomic resolution holographic microscope laboratory, the ultrasensitive mass spectrometry (AMS) facility for radiocarbon measurement, the IRMS stable isotope measurement system, and the IBA particle beam lines connected to CEDAD’s Tandetron accelerator. The investigations that researchers from all over the world can carry out in the Department’s laboratories range from new materials to the environment, from cultural heritage to life sciences.
More specific information on the event programme can be found here