Particle accelerators are a key asset of the European Research Area. Their use spans from the large installations devoted to fundamental science to a wealth of facilities providing X-ray or neutron beams to a wide range of scientific disciplines. Beyond scientific laboratories, their use in medicine and industry is rapidly growing. Notwithstanding their high level of maturity, particle accelerators are now facing critical challenges related to the size and performance of the facilities envisaged for the next step of particle physics research, to the increasing demands to accelerators for applied science, and to the specific needs of societal applications. In this crucial moment for accelerator evolution, I.FAST aims at enhancing innovation in and from accelerator-based Research Infrastructures (RI) by developing innovative breakthrough technologies common to multiple accelerator platforms, and by defining strategic roadmaps for future developments. I.FAST will focus the technological R&D on long-term sustainability of accelerator-based research, with the goal of developing more performant and affordable technologies, and of reducing power consumption and impact of accelerator facilities, thus paving the way to a sustainable next-generation of accelerators. By involving industry as a co-innovation partner via the 17 industrial companies in the Consortium, 12 of which SME’s, I.FASTwill generate and maintain an innovation ecosystem around the accelerator-based RIs that will sustain the long-term evolution of accelerator technologies in Europe. To achieve its goals, I.FAST will explore new alternative accelerator concepts and promote advanced prototyping of key technologies. These include, among others, techniques to increase brightness and reduce dimensions of synchrotron light sources, advanced superconducting technologies to produce higher fields with lower consumption, and strategies and technologies to improve energy efficiency.

The magnetic field is a powerful thermodynamic parameter to influence the state of any material system and such is an outstanding experimental tool for physics. To go beyond the conventional commercially available superconducting (SC) magnets, very large infrastructures such as the ones gathered within the European Magnetic Field Laboratory (EMLFL) are necessary. EMFL provides access to static resistive magnets (up to 38 T) and pulsed non-destructive (up to 100 T) and semi-destructive (up to 200 T) magnets for all qualified European researchers. Some recent advances open the way for the implementation of high temperature superconductor (HTS) magnets at the EMFL facilities. The SuperEMFL design study aims to add through the development of the HTS technology an entirely new dimension to the EMFL that go beyond the commercial offer, providing the European high field user community with much higher SC fields and novel SC magnet geometries, like large-bore-high-flux magnets or radial access magnets. The development of SC magnets that can partly replace current high-field resistive magnets will result in a significant reduction of the energy consumption of the static field EMFL facilities. This will strongly improve EMFL’s financial and ecological sustainability and at the same time boost its scientific performance and impact. The high field values, the very low noise and vibration levels, and the possibility to run very long duration experiments will make high SC magnetic fields attractive to scientific communities that so far have rarely used the EMFL facilities (NMR, scanning probe, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopies, ultra-low temperature physics, electro-chemistry …). All these new research possibilities will strengthen the scientific performance, efficiency and attractiveness of the EMFL and thereby of the European Research Area (ERA). The implementation of this strategy should therefore be considered as a major upgrade of the EMFL.

One of the great challenges of society is innovation through the development of new and advanced materials. Such tailored materials are needed in all key-technological areas, from renewable energy concepts, through next-generation data storage to biocompatible materials for medical applications and many of these future materials will be synthesized on a nano-scale. In order to reach these goals, state-of-the-art analytical tools are needed. High magnetic fields are one of the most powerful tools available to scientists for the study, modification and control of states of matter, and in order to compete on the global scale, Europe needs state-of-the-art high magnetic field facilities which provide the highest possible fields (both continuous and pulsed) for its many active and world-leading researchers. The European Magnetic Field Laboratory (EMFL) is a legal entity in the form of an AISBL under Belgian law. Its current members are CNRS, HZDR and RU as facility operators and the University of Nottingham, the latter on behalf of the UK user community, funded through an EPSRC Mid-scale Facility Grant. It represents all high-field infrastructures in Europe and constitutes a distributed research infrastructure of global impact and importance, which was added to the ESRFI Landmark list in 2016. The ISABEL project aims to strengthen the long-term sustainability of the EMFL through the realization of three objectives : - strengthening the EMFL structure by enlarging its membership and by improving several organisational aspects, such as data management, outreach and access procedures. - strengthening the socio-economic impact of the EMFL, by bridging the gap with industry. - strengthening of the role of high magnetic field research in Europe.

Despite the high expectations and numerous announcements that have been made over the past ten years, the spread of Quantum Computers (QCs) is still in its infancy. The major factors limiting the diffusion and market penetration of QCs are their low scalability and high cost. Both issues are connected to the bulkiness and complexity of the signal lines that operate the QC. The required large amount of cables undermine the scalability and decrease the thermal stability of the Quantum Processing Units (QPUs). With this project, we aim to increase the scalability and reduce the thermal issues of QPU developing a radiofrequency (RF) switch, QueSt, that allow to simultaneously control the state of multiple qubits through the same cable. QueSt goes well beyond what is achieved with state-of-the-art electronics that typically provide bulky, slowly and energy inefficient solutions. The core component of QueSt is an all-metallic superconducting transistor-controlled via gate voltages. This transistor exploits the peculiar characteristics of a superconducting material to work at frequencies (~1 THz) unachievable with classical semiconductor electronic components and with nearly zero power dissipation. During SPECTRUM we are going to build a complete test platform QueSt devices. The state-of-the-art nanofabricated prototype of QueSt will be tested in a custom made cryostat able to unleash the true potential of this technology. Furthermore, ultra-fast FPGA-based electronics will take the case of the control of multiple switches, providing an affordable and performant control over the prototype. This platform will be the environment in which QueSt will be studied at strict contact with the state of the art Quantum Processing Units. The experiments performed in real Quantum Computer under the EU-funded Spectrum project will be the first step to the true Quantum Revolution.