The HL-LHC Project is entering the series construction phase and therefore most of the collaboration agreements are now focused on the production of final elements that will have their destination in the LHC tunnel and in the set of operational spares. The in-kind contributions account for about 10% of the total project cost, but at the same time the collaborations are invaluable in terms of sharing knowledge and work. During the construction phase, there are always surprises that lead to a refinement of the production and new lessons learned. Generally, what we build is always unique, and therefore challenging and rewarding.

In this new phase we must take into consideration also unexpected external factors like the pandemic and the political crisis currently ongoing. Delays and higher costs must be factored in along with technical challenges. Despite these difficulties, there are clear successes in the delivery of several pre-series elements that have been built, several of which will soon be part of the IT String.

The collaboration agreement with the University of Uppsala to produce the mechanical parts for the series DFHX/M units has been signed at the beginning of 2022. The signatures of the five UK-Phase 2 agreements are being finalised. Good progress has also been made with the Jacks, originally foreseen as an in-kind hardware contribution from the Republic of Serbia and which eventually materialised as an in-kind cash contribution.

What will now be the next challenge in the collaborations? There are two main aspects that we need to face soon:

• The Collaboration agreements have been focusing on the construction phase with clear deliverables and acceptance criteria. Once delivered, these items will have to undergo a final acceptance test before being installed in the tunnel during LS3. We see the necessity of amending the agreements as some delays have accumulated. At the same time, we will need to extend the scope and duration to cover the post-delivery phase for final testing and installation, where the presence of collaborators at CERN is very important to assist with their accumulated knowledge. We can either cover this in the existing agreements, which also extend the scope, or we can conclude new agreements. Ideally, the collaborations could be extended until the end of LS3 or until the end of the project. It will be possible to use the HL-LHC MoU or general framework agreements to make this possible.
• In the last Newsletter we mentioned that discussions with our Russian collaborators were converging following fruitful exchanges at the end of 2021. Since then, the current political situation that emerged at the beginning of 2022 stopped this collaboration, requiring the project to explore alternative solutions. Already in 2021, due to the delays accumulated in the disbursement of funds to the institutes, the project started to internalise the procurement and construction of a few urgent items, such as the crystal collimators mechanics and the procurement of the raw material for the resistive part of the current leads. For the remaining items, the project is proceeding in line with the recent decision of the CERN Council to terminate CERN’s International Cooperation Agreements with Russia and Belarus at their expiration dates in 2024. According to deadlines agreed with the CERN management, this will imply the internalisation of production where the HL-LHC schedules requires it or exploring the possibility of new collaborations or descoping. A complete analysis of the financial and performance impact is ongoing.

The list of the collaborations currently successfully underway continuous to evolve from year to year, with the constant hope of adding new collaborations to further strengthen our truly international foundation.