The next ECFA Chair election: call for nominations
The term of Paris Sphicas as chairperson of ECFA is coming to an end in Dec 2026. RECFA has appointed a search committee to organize and oversee the election of the next chairperson, whose term will commence in Jan 2027. The election will be conducted by the 31 RECFA country representatives at the RECFA meeting in September 2026.
With the current message, we would like to call for nominations of candidates for ECFA chairperson. All nominations should be submitted to the three members of the search committee by the RECFA representative of each country and should include a short outline of the motivation for the nomination.
In order to ensure ample time for contacting the nominees, and for distributing all material well ahead of the planned election in September, the deadline for nominations is set to May 9.
With best regards,
Celso Martinez Rivero, Justyna Łagoda and Lidija Zivkovic (Search Committee)
Paris Sphicas and Lidija Zivkovic (Chair and Scientific Secretary of ECFA)"
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ECFA Early-Career Researcher Awards: call for nominations
ECFA (https://ecfa.web.cern.ch/) is pleased to announce the call for nominations for the 2026 ECFA Early-Career Researcher (ECR) Awards. The awards are presented annually in order to recognise outstanding contributions to future accelerator-based experimental projects, in the following three sub-fields:
● Physics prospect studies and analysis tools, including the development of novel analysis methods, simulation and/or reconstruction methods and software, identification of distinctive experimental signatures, and novel discrimination techniques;
● Detector/instrumentation development;
● Accelerator physics at large, including concept development, beam dynamics and research on technologies for accelerators.
The ECFA ECR Awards recognise significant achievements by individuals at an early stage in their careers. The corresponding work must demonstrate clear promise or have contributed meaningfully to advances in particle physics at future experimental facilities. Early career refers to the first 10 years following the award of a PhD or other last degree, with appropriate extensions for eligible career interruptions. Nominees should have carried out the majority of the work recognised by the award in an ECFA country.
The particle physics community is diverse and global, and nominations should reflect this. Nominations of women and members of other underrepresented groups within the particle physics community are therefore strongly encouraged.
Award ceremony:
The recipients of the 2026 ECFA ECR Awards will be invited to deliver a short talk at the plenary meeting of ECFA at CERN on 19-20 November 2026. A reward of 1000 CHF will accompany each of the three awards.
Nominations:
● A nomination letter, no longer than 2 pages, submitted on headed paper, that includes key outputs relevant to the nomination, each accompanied by a brief statement that outlines its relevance, impact, and contributions from the nominee. Self-nominations are not accepted.
● A CV for the individual included in the nomination letter (maximum of 3 pages, including selected publications).
● A support letter, no longer than 2 pages, submitted on headed paper by an individual other than the nominator.
Complete nominations are due by 15 June 2026 and should be sent electronically to ecfa-ecr-prizes@cern.ch. Nominations remain only active for one selection round.
For inquiries related to the award and nominations, please contact ecfa-ecr-prizes@cern.ch.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ECFA Newsletter #16 (Winter 2025)
The ECFA Winter Newsletter, reporting on the full-day open session of Plenary ECFA, held at CERN, on 20 and 21 November 2025, has been released.
January 2026.
ECFA Newsletter #15 (Summer 2025)
The ECFA Summer Newsletter, reporting on the ECFA Plenary session, held at the EPS-HEP 2025, on 10 July 2025, has been released.
August 2025.
ECFA Newsletter #14 (Winter 2024-2025)
The ECFA Winter Newsletter, reporting on the full-day open session of Plenary ECFA, held at CERN, on 14 and 15 November 2024, has been released.
January 2025.
ECFA Newsletter #13 (Summer 2024)
The ECFA Summer Newsletter, reporting on the full-day open session of Plenary ECFA, held at Frascati, Italy, on 4 and 5 July 2024, has been released.
October 2024.
ECFA Newsletter #12 (Winter 2023)
The ECFA Winter Newsletter, reporting on the full-day open session of Plenary ECFA, held at CERN and via Zoom on 16 and 17 November 2023, has been released.
December 2023.
ECFA Newsletter #11 (Summer 2023)
The ECFA Summer Newsletter, reporting on the joint ECFA-EPS session organised at the occasion of the EPS-HEP conference, held in Hamburg on the 24 of August, has been released. It contains also reports from the Plenary ECFA meeting, held via zoom on the 12 of July 2023.
ECFA Newsletter #10 (Winter 2022)
The ECFA Winter Newsletter, reporting on the full-day open session of Plenary ECFA, held at CERN and via Zoom on 17 and 18 November 2022, has been released.
December 2022.
ECFA Newsletter #9 (Summer 2022)
The ECFA Summer Newsletter, reporting on the full-day open session of Plenary ECFA, held at CERN and via Zoom on the 21 and 22 of July 2022, has been released.
July 2022.
ECFA Newsletter #8 (Winter 2021)
The ECFA Winter Newsletter, reporting on the full-day open session of Plenary ECFA, held at CERN and via Zoom on the 19th of November 2021, has been released.
December 2021.
ECFA Detector Research and Development Roadmap
In the 2020 Update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics, ECFA was mandated to develop a roadmap to balance R&D efforts in Europe, to identify and describe a diversified R&D portfolio that has the largest potential to enhance performance of the particle physics programme in the near and long term. After an extensive expert and community consultation phase the final roadmap was approved by Plenary ECFA in November 2021 and presented to CERN Council in December.
Overall it was very well received, the great value of the roadmap in documenting the status of the field as well as the needs for the future were stressed and the recommendations were supported. It was also stressed that the next important step is the implementation.
The final Roadmap Document as well as a short Synopsis Document are available under this link:
https://cds.cern.ch/record/2784893
The preparation of the Accelerator and Detector R&D Roadmaps is in full swing. The joint ECFA-EPS session organised at the occasion of the EPS-HEP conference, held online on 30 July 2021, was an important moment to further the discussion. The newsletter reports on the status of these roadmaps, on the recently approved FCC feasibility study and on ongoing Joint ECFA-NuPECC and APPEC activities.
Professor Patricia Conde Muino elected as the new ECFA Secretary
During its plenary meeting on 23 July, Patricia Conde Muino (LIP Lisbon) was appointed as the next Secretary of ECFA, the European Committee for Future Accelerators. For the period from July 2021 to December 2023 she will support the ECFA Chair Karl Jakobs in the day-to-day running of the ECFA activities.
July 2021
ECFA Newsletter #6 (Winter 2020) is out
On 19 and 20 November 2020, ECFA had its plenary meeting including report of major future collider projects and related aspects. This newsletter reports on the presentations including the status of the developments of Accelerator and Detector R&D Roadmaps.
December 2020
ECFA Newsletter #5 (Summer 2020) is out
On 13 July 2020, we welcomed ECFA members for our first meeting after the update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics and our first ever Plenary ECFA meeting held entirely by videoconference. In this newsletter, you will find reports on the talks presented including some announcements in response to the updated strategy, as well as two dedicated articles on important activities related to accelerator R&D and future colliders.
August 2020
Call for venues for the next JENAS event
The many synergies between astroparticle, nuclear and particle physics were addressed in the first Joint ECFA-NuPECC-APPEC Seminar (JENAS) at Orsay in 2019. Based on this success, a call was launched for candidate venues for the next session of this three-day biennial JENAS event. The Joint Seminar is intended to inform our communities about each other's scientific, technological and organisational challenges and opportunities. Proposals should be communicated to the three chairs of APPEC, ECFA and NuPECC, and reach them no later than 21 September 2020.
August 2020
ECFA Newsletter #4 (Winter 2019) is out
The full-day Open Plenary ECFA session revolving around novel accelerator technologies, i.e. towards colliders using plasma wakefield acceleration, towards colliders with muons and towards high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets, culminated in a comprehensive ECFA Newsletter.
December 2019
JENAS: call for Expressions-of-Interest
The JENAS2019 event at Orsay allowed astroparticle, nuclear and particle physics researchers to sniffle into each other’s activities. The identified overlapping challenges might transform via joint programs into stronger opportunities to further our understanding of both the smallest and the largest structures in nature. With a view to further explore topical synergies a call for Expressions-of-Interest has been issued.
Early Career Researchers debate the European Strategy for Particle Physics
(15 Nov 2019)
With the input from the Physics Briefing Book due by the end of September, the next step in the European Strategy process is to define some overall long-term scenarios, keeping an eye on evolutions in the global landscape, and to discuss within the European Strategy Group (ESG) their scientific coverage, feasibility and community support. Given the long-term impact of these strategic choices, ECFA is organising a full-day event in the Main Auditorium at CERN on 15 November 2019, to enable early-career researchers to debate the Strategy. Participation in the meeting will be limited to invited early-career researchers (see ECFA Newsletter #3). Both PhD students and postdocs active in particle physics and/or adjacent fields are eligible. After the event, the early-career researchers will be mandated to deliver a brief document overviewing their thoughts on the Strategy. There will be no need to reach a consensus on all aspects, but the document must cover all the topics that were discussed during the meeting. The ECFA Chair will bring this document to the attention of the ESG.
Open Plenary ECFA meeting (14 Nov 2019)
A full-day open session of Plenary ECFA will be held on 14 November 2019 in the Council Chamber at CERN. The session is open for all to participate with seats reserved for registered ECFA members and will revolve around novel accelerator technologies: towards colliders using plasma wakefield acceleration, towards colliders with muons and towards high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets. The presentations will be webcasted and the recordings shared with the community (recordings are available in CDS).
ECFA Newsletter #3 (Summer 2019)
The process of updating the European Strategy for Particle Physics is in full swing. The joint ECFA-EPS session organised at the occasion of the EPS-HEP conference in Ghent (Belgium) on 13 July 2019 was an important moment to further the discussion. The newsletter reports on the status of the process.
September 2019
First JENAS event (14-16 October 2019)
With a view on exploring synergies in research and organisation, the European communities of particle, nuclear and astroparticle physics participate for the first time in a joint three-day seminar with more than 200 participants. The Joint ECFA-NuPECC-ApPEC Seminar is organized on 14-16 October 2019 at Orsay (France) by ApPEC, ECFA and NuPECC together with LAL, IPNO, IRFU and LPNHE. The event is webcasted for which you find more information at https://jenas-2019.lal.in2p3.fr .
1 October 2019
ECFA Newsletter #2 (Winter 2018)
Following the Plenary ECFA meeting of 15-16 November 2018, in the ECFA Newsletter we report on the topics discussed. Amongst others we have the outcome of the ECFA study on the recognition of individual achievements in large collaborations, and the ECFA survey of detector R&D. With comprehensive overviews on accelerators R&D we aim to inform the community as well on the work done toward potentially future colliders inside and outside Europe. Those with at least a CERN lightweight account have an opportunity to receive automatically the ECFA Newsletters that will appear twice per year. Under "Member" you can add yourself via the following link: https://e-groups.cern.ch/e-groups/Egroup.do?egroupId=10319139&AI .
23 January 2019
ECFA Detector Panel Report
The ECFA Detector Panel compiled a document summarizing the findings of the survey on Detector R&D conducted over the summer of 2018, concluding with recommendations concerning future developments. The document was submitted as input to the European Particle Physics Strategy Update.
20 December 2018
Results of the ECFA survey on the recognition of individual achievements in large collaborations
The results of the recent ECFA survey on the recognition of individual achievements in large scientific collaboration discussed at the latest Plenary ECFA meeting are available at this weblink.
19 November 2018
ECFA Newsletter #1 (Summer 2018)
During the Plenary ECFA meeting at ALBA (Barcelona, Spain) several topics were discussed. With the aim to inform the community a newsletter is created overviewing the outcome of the meeting.
26 September 2018
ECFA Survey on Recognition of Individual Achievements in Large Collaborations
ECFA created a working group to examine the recognition of individual achievements in large scientific collaborations. Based on feedback from an initial survey of the leaders of 29 CERN-based or CERN-recognised experiments in particle, nuclear, astroparticle and astrophysics, ECFA found that the community is ready to engage in dialogue on this topic and receptive to potential recommendations. In response, ECFA has launched a community-wide survey to verify how individual researchers perceive the systems put in place to recognise their achievements. The deadline for responses is 26 October 2018.
26 September 2018
Open Plenary ECFA meeting at CERN - 15-16 November 2018
On Thursday, 15 November, the full morning will be devoted to a workshop to disseminate the results of the ECFA survey on the recognition of individual achievements in large collaborations. The afternoon session will start with the brief standing items of Plenary ECFA, followed by a 1.5-day session including comprehensive overviews of all of the main future collider projects in and beyond Europe and related accelerator technologies. The venue will be the main auditorium at CERN. The auditorium will be open to the community, with reserved seats for registered ECFA members. The presentations will be webcast and the recordings shared with the community.
26 September 2018