The still unresolved COVID-19 pandemic, which defined the year 2020, has unsurprisingly had an impact on our collaborations. However, the impact appears to be contained to a few months, with delays that can be reabsorbed and are also partially mitigated by the decision taken after the 2019 C&SR to delay the start of LS3 by one year.
After the 10th (and first virtual) Annual Meeting in October 2020, a lot of effort has been dedicated to the finalization of all pending collaboration agreements. The Collaboration Agreement with TRIUMF for the construction of the RFD Crab Cavities cryomodules has been finalized. The Fermilab-CERN MoU for the construction of the Q1/Q3 magnets and the RFD Crab Cavities has been signed at the end of March, formalizing a long-standing collaboration that has already been in existence for many years.
The design of the DFHX/M cryostats has been finalized this year and the Collaboration Agreement with the University of Uppsala for the construction of the components of these assemblies is expected to be signed in September 2021. The HL-LHC-UK collaboration is in the process of conclusion with the last pending work for the RFD cryomodule expected to finish this summer. Phase 2 of the HL-LHC-UK collaboration, with five Addenda to a new Framework Collaboration Agreement between University of Manchester-CERN, is currently being finalized.
The design of the HL-LHC jacks for magnets, crab cavity cryomodules and TAXNs, is being completed and contacts with industry in Serbia started for the series construction of the support jacks as a fully in-kind contribution of the Republic of Serbia with the intermediary of the Faculty of Physics and Institute of Physics of Belgrade for the technical aspects.
Last but not least, the special contribution of the Russian Federation, that has generated ten different collaboration agreements is converging towards the release of funds and the start of the agreements’ execution. The scope and the updated schedule will be worked out in detail this summer.
Whilst finalizing the agreements mentioned above, many ongoing collaboration agreements have already entered a phase of construction of the series elements. The final elements that will be part of the HL-LHC machine are taking shape. This also requires a new phase of close monitoring of the collaborations’ executions through more frequent Steering Committee meetings. The Collaboration Office is supporting the Project Office and the individual work-packages for this new phase.
The following table summarises the numerous active Collaboration Agreements and those still being finalised for the HL-LHC.
