The HL-LHC collaboration office continues to update existing and put in place new agreements. Since the beginning of 2023 we have been busy updating UK Phase 1 agreements allowing for the final invoicing to take place. Many of the planned deliverables were delayed during COVID so several dates for the expected invoices and a few amounts had to be amended. For contracts involving payments this process is very time consuming and, in some cases, requires several iterations to reach a common understanding before the documents can be finally signed and archived.
The main delivery still expected for UK Phase 1 is the prototype RFD cryo-module that will undergo final qualification tests at cold at CERN's SM18 test facility before it can be installed in the SPS during the year-end-technical-stop of 2023/2024 . We are expecting final confirmation for the delivery date to CERN during the coming months. We have also produced an official hand-over document for the D1 cold-masses produced by KEK/Japan.
In terms of new agreements, we have recently received the commitment that Japan will produce and deliver the full set of quench heater power supplies required for the protection of the new HL-LHC magnets to CERN. The exact details concerning the delivery schedule and expected parts exchange between KEK and CERN will be clarified in the coming months. There are in parallel on-going discussions about the possibility of Japan being granted observer status with respect to the HL-LHC project.
Brazil has shown a clear interest in joining the list of CERN associate member states and first discussions have taken place with the international relations office. We are now awaiting high-level decisions that could eventually lead to the creation of additional agreements for the in-kind delivery of material and personnel for the HiLumi project.
We have also started to produce agreements allowing experts from collaborating institutes to come onto the CERN sites helping to assemble, install and commission the final systems.
Collaboration steering meetings take place annually with each contributing institute to discuss status and plans between the project management and work-package leaders at CERN, allowing to resolve eventual issues before they become critical. We have since the beginning of 2023 held meetings with IHEP/China, KEK/Japan, United Kingdom, and FNAL/USA. During June we will have steering meetings with Uppsala/Sweden and CIEMAT/Spain. The very first steering meeting with TRIUMF/Canada will take place during the annual collaboration meeting hosted by TRIUMF in Vancouver during the last week of September 2023. Finally, we are planning on follow-up meetings with FNAL/USA and INFN during the last 3 months of the year.
