EURO-LABS is a network of 33 research and academic institutions from 18 European and non-European countries, involving 47 research infrastructures in the nuclear physics, accelerators and detectors pillars. Within this large network, EURO-LABS will ensure diversity and actively support researchers from different nationalities, gender, age, grade and variety of professional expertise.

The participation of ATOMKI in EURO-LABS is realized through the CLEAR cluster. CLEAR is a consortium of three installations:

• ATOMKI in Debrecen (support: 93,125.00 EUR),
• CNA in Seville (357,506.25 EUR) and
• IST in Lisbon (65,000.00)

offering access to stable-ion and neutron beams. The consortium has a common Program Advisory Committee. The homepage of CLEAR contains all the rules of the Transnational Access services.

Accelerators offered by ATOMKI:

• 2 MV tandetron (tandem type accelerator),
• 18 MeV cyclotron (MGC-20E),
• ECR Ion Source.

The aim of the project is to establish an internationally competitive AMS C-14 competence centre which is able to develop and market new and efficient sample preparation devices for the radiocarbon measurements and to provide high-level training regarding measurement technology.

Based on the scientific background and professional staff of Atomki, together with the equipment development and manufacturing experience of Isotoptech Zrt., a knowledge transfer centre promptly adapting to the worldwide rapidly expanding AMS C-14 analytical demands is going to be established, which is able to serve the recent research approaches and the demands of the market.

Europlanet links research institutions and companies active in planetary research in Europe and around the world. Planetary science is an interdisciplinary field of research that covers astronomy and geophysics, robotic and human exploration of other planets, as well as the search for extra-terrestrial life.

Coordinated by: University of Kent, United Kingdom

Website: https://www.europlanet-society.org/europlanet-2024-ri/

Atomki budget: 399 500 EUR

In the two experimental end-stations, the Ice Chamber for Astrophysics/Astrochemistry (ICA) and the Atomki - Queens University Ice chamber for Laboratory Astrochemistry (AQUILA), by means of Atomki’s particle accelerators, the ice analogues of Solar System and interstellar medium are modelled. The chemical and physical changes due to the charged particle radiation are studied in the frozen solid materials, ice analogues.

Website: https://europlanet.atomki.hu/

The aim of the project is to enhance the Hungarian research opportunities related to the ELI-ALPS Laser Institute, while also trying to establish new research topics (e.g. time resolved atomic processes). The University of Pécs who is the leader of the consortium, together with the Centre for Energy Research is developing a new kind of electron acceleration method that could be adapted for usage at the ELI-ALPS. The Institute for Nuclear Research (Atomki) develops an experimental tool and wants to realize a scientific program based on it using the available infrastructure at Szeged. The scientific goals include studying the effects of few-cycle laser pulses in ionization and investigating the timescale dynamics of complex processes of atomic electrons.

• Total financial support: 297.096.952 Ft
• University of Pécs (leader of consortium): 134.185.137 Ft
• Institute for Nuclear Research: 118.906.383 Ft
• Centre for Energy Research: 44.005.432 Ft

In the frame of the GEOCORE project, the drill core library of the Mining and Geological Survey of Hungary at Rákóczibánya (Nógrád county, Hungary) will be developed to a geological education and research centre. As a part of the project, a noble gas mass spectrometer developed for dating of rocks and minerals will be purchased and installed in the Instute for Nuclear Physics (MTA Atomki). The ARGUS VI is designed to measure small quantities of all isotopes of the argon noble gas, with high precision. Therefore, the new instrument will enable us to apply the K/Ar and ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar radiometric age dating methods. With respect to the 40 years age dating traditions at Atomki, our aim is the maintenance and further development of our outstanding geochronological activity in the Central-Eastern European region.

The European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science (E-RIHS) initiative combines laboratories and museums to create a unique pan-European research infrastructure in the field of the study of tangible cultural and natural heritage. Our goal is to become a node of this multidisciplinary, distributed research facility. The first pillar of the project is to establish an advanced analytical-imaging toolpark that provides information at various size scales on art objects and archaeological findings, without the need for sample preparation. Additionally, we increase the capacity of the AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometer) Laboratory to analyze archeological findings and extend the scope of such studies. The new graphitization unit allows for even more reproducible age determination, which can be extended with the carbonate handling option to examine cremation burials. The introduction of the measurement of stable isotopes in bones opens the way for studying past eating habits, too.

The scope of the project is the development of Materials Research Laboratory of Atomki into a higher research level. The realization of the project takes place in the form of a consortium with the University of Debrecen. The leader of the consortium is the University of Debrecen. In the frame of the project an improvement of the technical level of the Laboratory and a research program will be carried out. New scientific instruments will be installed in the Laboratory: X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD) and an electron microscope equipped with a focused ion beam source. The main research areas of the project are: study of interactions between an optical sensitive material and light (or ions and electrons); study of surface atomic layers prepared in ultrahigh vacuum; preparation of 1D objects and 2D atomic layers; study of ion-surface interactions and ion beam surface modification; surface functionalization of silica aerogels and investigation of their fracture mechanism.

Study of exotic nuclear phenomena at Atomki and ESFRI roadmap institutes

In the frame of this project, research infrastructure units of Atomki are set into a control software framework thus establishing a remotely controllable virtual laboratory. The aim of the system integration is to create a complex infrastructure suitable to make radiobiological and radiation hardening measurements. The subsystems involved in the integration: cyclotron accelerator - neutron source and vertical beam-end for isotope production, tandetron accelerator, Van de Graaff accelerator, Co-60 source, MiniPET-3 small animal Positron Emission Tomograph and radiochemical laboratory, ESCA (Electron Spectrometer for Chemical Applications), MGGL (Matra Gravitational and Geophysical Laboratory), ECR ion source, PEM (Physical Environment Monitoring) system.

Leader of consortium:

• Evopro NPA Kft, former Evopro Systems Engineering Kft (support: 398.725.723 Ft, 57%)

Members of consortium:

• Atomki (support: 185.500.010 Ft, 100%)
• Biological Research Centre (support: 145.561.008 Ft, 100%)
• University of Szeged (support: 239.834.823 Ft, 100%)

The aim of this project is to investigate the geo-, hydro- and biosphere of the past and present using isotope geochemical tools in climatology. These techniques are essential to understand the extent and impacts of past and present climate changes. The research direction of the newly-established Isotope Climatology and Environmental Research Centre covers many fields of science; the broad spectrum of state-of-the-art scientific research methodology will include physics, geology, geochemistry, hydrology, atmosphere and climate studies. The project aims to develop and/or phase in new isotopic geochemical methods in our country and in the region. A world-class isotopic climate research centre and knowledgebase will be created as part of the systematic research program in Hungary.

The research project is implemented in the MTA Atomki in Debrecen in close scientific cooperation with local and foreign researchers building on existing infrastructure and methods.