Minutes of the 103rd Meeting of the ISOLDE Collaboration Committee

held on June 18^th 2025

Present: J. Cederkäll, L.M. Fraile, S. Freeman, G. Georgiev (P.T.), A. Herzan, H. Heylen, M. Kowalska (P.T.), K. Lynch, W. Nörtershäuser, J. Pakarinen (P.T.), M. Pfützner, C. Mihai (P.T.), E. Siesling, N. van der Meulen, J. Vollaire, D. Yordanov (P.T. replacing G. Georgiev)  

Via Zoom: D. Naidoo, A. Nannini, I. Martel, G. Rainovski, J.A. Rodríguez, N. Severijns (P.T.), L. Pereira (P.T. replacing N. Severijns), P. Greenless (P.T. replacing J. Pakarinen),

Excused: H. Fynbo

Absent: S. Siem

The meeting starts at 09:00 h

1. Welcome, minutes, matters arising– S. Freeman

The ISCC Chairperson, L.M. Fraile, opens the 103^rd meeting of the committee and welcomes the participants. The agenda of the meeting and the minutes of the previous meeting are approved.

2. New ISCC Chair Selection

L. Fraile briefly summarises the responsibilities of the ISCC Chairperson and reminds the committee that the procedure followed to select the new chairperson is that which was recently defined by S. Freeman and approved by the committee. The ISCC Chairperson is selected for a period of 3 years.

M. Kowalska who along with J. Cederkäll made up the search committee, explains that country representatives on the ISCC were contacted individually to arrange discussions via email or Zoom. If the ISCC member themself was not interested in applying for the position then they were asked to provide the name of someone else from an institute in their country that would make a suitable candidate. This process led to two excellent candidates applying for the position.

The ISCC selects J. Pakarinen by vote as next ISCC Chairperson. He will take over the position from L. Fraile on 1st July 2025. The committee congratulates J. Pakarinen on his selection.

L. Fraile thanks the candidates for applying and the search committee for their efforts during this process.

<3. Safety Matters– S. Freeman

S. Freeman explains that CERN approaches to safety management are not dissimilar to those used at laboratories in institutes or universities. However, the difference between ISOLDE and an institutional laboratory is that, rather than several local institutional staff performing activities, the visiting researcher population is large and transitory with 500-600 researcher visits per year and the total number in the collaboration around 900. Also, the difference between ISOLDE and other large nuclear-physics user facilities is that users build and maintain instruments at ISOLDE and there is not a large local group of staff that insulate users from details of instrument safety requirements. This means that developing a safety culture at ISOLDE is a challenge. S. Freeman mentions that dealing with safety issues at ISOLDE is complicated when being both part of the CERN hierarchy as a CERN Section Leader and also being the ISOLDE Collaboration spokesperson.

A brief description of the safety organisation at CERN is given. HSE make the rules for the entire organisation e.g. requirements for entry to controlled areas; PPE requirements; approaches to chemical safety and radiological protection; etc. Hence, the RP unit is part of HSE and covers the entire organisation, but they only address radiological risks in isolation from other hazards; RP sometimes appears to users as the first line of contact for safety. However, CERN users are under EP in terms of organisation and so EP Safety is the primary contact for safety matters for users; they advise and check that users and instruments follow HSE rules. ATS-BE Safety are responsible for the ISOLDE hall beyond the instruments so EP and BE Safety work closely together on overall safety in the hall. S. Freeman assures the committee that EP Safety know very well how the ISOLDE users work and they are there to help users (given sufficient notice) to do what they need to do safely and in accordance with the rules set by HSE. It is explained that over the past few months EP Safety has experienced temporarily lower staffing levels than normal, causing some delays but these should now have eased.

The committee is informed that the CERN definition of an “incident” is an unintended event or situation that has non-negligible, negative consequences or potential consequences from the point of view of safety. Hence, a CERN incident is any event where something can be learned to improve safety; it doesn’t necessarily imply bodily injury or harm.

S. Freeman then gives an update of the safety situation at GLM/GHM. There have been many issues over the years with experiments that involve a lot of handling of radioactive samples. An incident in 2016 required reporting to the Swiss OFSP and led to the remodelling of the GLM and GHM area. A series of contamination events since then (two in June 2024 accompanied by the unfortunate misplacement of a CdV2O6 sample; June 2023; October 2018) raised management concerns and a pause in activity in GLM/GHM was imposed in 2024 to give time to revisit safety procedures. These repeated events, while perhaps individually not so significant, can be seen as a pattern that generates concerns. Hence, actions taken should not be seen as punishment to those involved in the last incident of this series of events. In late 2024 a revision of safety protocols for collections and other work in GLM/GHM was approved by management and the suspension removed. Unfortunately, in April 2025 an incident in the very first experiment in GLM/GHM led to the reimposition of the suspension. Constructive discussions between users, local ISOLDE staff and EP Safety led to experiments using fixed instruments being permitted at GHM with the same controls as instruments elsewhere at ISOLDE; an emission-channelling experiment was performed in May (although transport of samples to the offline photoluminescence laboratory was not possible). Discussions are continuing to develop protocols to enable collection activities later in the year, with a view to revise and revisit the protocols during LS3. It should be noted that, while previously there were general procedures for activities in GLM/GHM, now each experiment at GHM/GLM needs specific procedures.

The committee is reminded that after the flash fire incident at VITO in October 2023, HSE launched a SIAG review, in conjunction with EP and BE Safety, to investigate potential common causes of incidents at ISOLDE. The committee is shown a list of incidents that have occurred at ISOLDE and were considered by SIAG since 2014. The report produced by SIAG, that has only recently been received, contains recommendations, grouped under “Organisation” and “Specific safety domains”, that are directed at many actors such as ISOLDE, EP, ATS etc. Many of the specific safety domain recommendations are already complete or being actioned (e.g. management of sources; control and reduction of stock of chemicals; pressure vessel management; UPS rationalisation/management) or reiterate good practice that is already happening. The organisational recommendations are mainly clarification or formalisation of existing structures. The report recognises that the workload of “physics coordinator” including safety responsibilities has grown significantly in recent years. While the report of the review to the CERN high-level safety committee SAPOCO, that included the status of progress on the recommendations, went well, the remaining recommendations still need to be looked at in detail.

A discussion follows about safety culture at ISOLDE. The committee agrees that it is important to move forward in a constructive manner in collaboration with EP Safety and stresses the following points:

• The ISCC noted the importance of improving the safety culture, but noted the challenge presented by a large user community, where there are large numbers of researcher visits each year with relatively short duration
• Safety should be a regular item in the ISCC agenda
• It could be useful for a smaller group from the ISCC to meet with EP Safety to discuss how the collaboration might help with safety at ISOLDE
• There is a need for better communication and contact with safety offices at CERN; it would help to have more regular contact between ISOLDE users and EP Safety. It is important that EP Safety be seen as part of the wider ISOLDE community.
• The creation of a specific timeline, to be followed by both experiments and EP safety, for the safety procedure would remove stress for users and allow time for experiment spokespersons to make their teams aware of what to do and why before their experiment starts.
• At present, different safety levels are treated under the same umbrella, however, some incidents are less dangerous than others so could be treated accordingly. 
• Communication of safety issues to users should be improved; while meetings between local groups and EP safety already take place, how communications with the wider user community could be improved needs to be considered.
• In the case of an incident, the chain of decision making and communication should be clarified with the user community, so it is clear what actions they need to take in the event of an incident. The committee was informed that the ISOLDE Physics Coordinator undertakes the role of experimental safety officer at ISOLDE and can give advice and act as liaison if incidents occur.
• It might be helpful to inform users about the kinds of incident that have been experienced at ISOLDE so they are aware of what could happen and to ensure that the lessons learnt from incidents can be communicated to the wider user community.
• It is important to build trust by working together towards a common goal.
• A wider safety culture should be developed within the national communities.

S. Freeman explains that specific suggestions can be made to EP safety for investment in safety at ISOLDE. It is stressed that at CERN users have a responsibility to remain safe and the Home Institutes is ultimately responsible.

4. Collaboration Matters and Local Group– S. Freeman

The committee is informed of the recent high level Slovak visit of ISOLDE and the ISCC asks A. Herzan to pass on its congratulations to M. Venhart on his new position as President of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

S. Freeman reminds the committee of the funding so far achieved for the ISOLDE Improvement Program from the 2023 and 2024 MTPs as well as the Consolidation budget. The total up to 2024 not including the elements in the 2025 MTP (discussed below) is about 22.2 MCHF which is quite an achievement due to the close collaboration between physics and technical stakeholders. An overview of the co-fund request submitted to the 2025 MTP for 9.495 MCHF is shown which consists of 5.755MCHF from CERN and the 3.740 MCHF from the ISOLDE Collaboration approved at the March 2025 ISCC meeting. The committee is then informed of the outcome of the MTP after CERN Directorate Arbitration that is subject to approval from the CERN Council. The 2025 MTP allocated a total of 3.015MCHF, which with the 3.740MCHF from the Collaboration, adds another 6.755 MCHF to the ISOLDE Improvement Programme. This was less than the request, but freedom was given to rearrange the co-fund plan according to the Collaboration priorities. Discussions took place between the SY Deputy Department Leader, the RF Group leader, A. Rodriguez, E. Siesling and J. Vollaire and S. Freeman, keeping the new ISOLDE Physics Section Leader, L. Fraile, updated. The strategy and the redistribution of the allocated Collaboration funds that emerged from these discussions is presented to the committee. The adopted strategy preserves the BTY line and the HIE-ISOLDE linac refurbishment as priorities and identifies items that could be delayed or started later, such as the offline and R&D projects. It also looks for savings in the remaining items where funding might be found elsewhere e.g. from a future Consolidation call. The redistribution of Collaboration funding prioritises items close to the impact on physics and related to previous investment by the Collaboration. S. Freeman presents how the redistribution of the 3.740 MCHF allocated to the improvement program will affect the Collaborations finances; the spending profile will be pushed further into the future as the delayed projects were front-loaded, but the account balance should still not go below 1 MCHF over the next five years, assuming that income and other expenditure remain similar to recent years. However, it will be necessary to monitor for risks of costs changes; discussions are underway about how to transfer the funds to ATS. The committee approves the suggested rearrangement of the Collaboration funds allocated to the Improvement Program. An organigram of the ISOLDE Improvement Program is also presented to the committee.

S. Freeman explains that when the approved spending profile mentioned above is presented to the FRC it will also be necessary to have a plan for the addition savings made of the period concerned. Possible costs that could be foreseen during this period are presented such as short-term user support after the EURO-LABS TNA project ends, contributions to platform construction, postponed elements of Offline projects and R&D etc. The committee agrees that the wish-list for future projects and LS4 should be revisited so that a financial plan can be further developed.

A revised overview of the Collaboration financial contributions for the period 2021 to 2028 is presented; the FRC agreed that the outstanding Greek contributions could be written off. S. Freeman notes that yearly income is relatively stable and that the fee of 60kCHF a year has been unchanged since the 1960s.

It is explained that South Africa’s membership contribution to the ISOLDE Collaboration is due to rise from 30kCHF to 60KCHF from 2026. D. Naidoo explains that the next round for funding requests in South Africa is in 2027, and an increase would have to be approved by the South African CERN Collaboration. The committee is made aware that USAID cuts to South Africa mean there are less funds available to South African research. The ISCC agrees that the South African contribution to the ISOLDE Collaboration will be kept at 30kCHF a year up to and including 2028, after which it will be reviewed again; the justification to the FRC can be based on the value of South Africa to the Collaboration and the difficulties of the South African economic situation.

S. Freeman informs the committee that the membership fee paid by Bulgaria is due to increase from 30kCHF to 60kCHF a year from 2025.G. Rainovski explains that any increase in contribution is subject to ministry approval in Bulgaria and, even though a recent review of activity at ISOLDE was positively received, Bulgaria has been in a period of political turmoil and that there are economic uncertainties over the transition to the Euro. Funds are available to pay the outstanding 2024 invoice for 30kCHF but, due to a restricted budget allocation, it is unlikely that an increase in contribution above 30kCHF could be fulfilled. The committee agrees to keep the Bulgarian contribution at 30kCHF a year up to and including 2027 due to the importance of Bulgaria to the ISOLDE collaboration, particularly its scientific importance to MINIBALL and the background of political and economic uncertainty restricting the available funding.

The committee is informed that the report made to the FRC, using the material circulated to the committee members in April, seemed to be well received. The next ISOLDE Physics Section Leader, L. Fraile, was able to attend the meeting to aid continuity.  During the meeting, the matter of how to formalise in-kind contributions was raised; a formal online procedure to register in-kind contributions was introduced in 2024. The question of investing in safety at the facility was also mentioned during the FRC; the Collaboration already does this. A series of detailed questions received from the BMBF after the meeting have now been answered.

It is reported that ISOLDE is on track to use all its EURO-LABS TNA allocation (330KCF) and deliver more than the committed beam time (4500 hours) by the start of LS3. At the end of March 2025, 6940 hours of beam time had been delivered to 105 experiments and TNA payments made to 428 users, 27% of which were woman. The committee is reminded that the obligations of TNA support are that experiments must have Open Data and that resulting publications should be GOLD Open Access and acknowledge EURO-LABS support. After using some of the access funds to support a fellow, about 100kCHF remains to be spent before the end of the EURO-LABS project in September 2026.

S. Freeman explains that the EU INFRA-SERV-03 funding call, that would follow EURO-LABS, focuses on hadron physics but “proposers should fully exploit transversal links to and identify common developments with neighbouring communities within the field of particle and nuclear physics building on the work of recent Horizon projects where applicable.” Hence, discussions amongst EURO-LABS facilities have led to a decision to submit a single letter of intent for 2.5 MEuros, highlighting “broad” areas that link to hadron physics with a central administration possibily through GANIL with single User Selection Panel after individual facility PACS. This action is being led by P. Greenless, S. Leoni and M. Lewitowicz. The committee agrees that the community, led by NuPECC, should be lobbying the EU to have a proper replacement for EURO_LABS in the future

The present manpower situation in the ISOLDE Physics Group is summarised:   

•           Research Fellows = “Research Fellowship Experimental Physics (Category 1)”: Jessica Warbinek – CRIS (January 2024 – December 2025), Peter Plattner – COLLAPS (November 2024 – December 2026). Victoria Vedia – IDS (March 2025 – February 2027)

•           Applied Fellows = “Research Fellowship In Applied Physics and Engineering (Category 2)”: Carlotta Porzio – MINIBALL (March 2024 – February 2027), Patrick Macgregor – HIE-ISOLDE (Nov. 2022 to Oct. 2025), Michael Pesek - VITO (November 2022 – November 2025), Lukas Nies – MR-TOFs/PUMA (Sept. 2023 – May 2025), Nikolay Azaryan – VITO/ATLAS (December 2023 – November 2026).

•           QUEST Fellows = “like an Applied Fellow hired directly to a specific project in advert”: Amy Sparks – VITO/medical imaging (May. 2023 – April 2026)

•           Scientific Associates: Joakim Cederkäll (Oct 2024 – Nov. 2025), Deyan Yordanov (July 2025 – June 2026)

•           Corresponding Associate:  Mikołaj Baranowski (March 26 – June 26)

•           Doctoral Students: Ilaria Michelon (CERN via VITO EU+EP Quota) (April 2023 – February 2026), Daniel Paulitsch (CERN via Gentner Doctoral Program) (August 2023 – July 2026), Edward Matthews (COLLAPS via TU Darmstadt) (December 2023 - November 2026), Anu Nagpal (VITO via University of York) (April 2024 – September 2025)

•           Staff Members: Sean Freeman (Physics Section Leader and Collaboration Spokesperson) (August 2021 to July 2025), Magdalena Kowalska (CERN staff member- Senior Research Physicist) (January 2020 -), Hanne Heylen (Physics Coordinator) (September 2023 to August 2026), Mark Bissell (Research Physicist LD)(September 2022 to August 2026).  

•           User: Jenny Weterings (User Support) ISOLDE Collaboration & University of Oslo (2002- )

The next deadline for fellows and associates applications is in autumn 2025 and the exact date will be published on the CERN jobs website.

5. Follow up of ISRS discussion– I. Martel

The committee is briefly reminded of the ISOLDE Superconducting Recoil Separator (ISRS) project. This includes two prototypes, the Multi Harmonic Buncher (MHB) and the MAGDEM nested Superconducting Magnet that makes up part of the Ion Test Bench (IONTB). The status of the MHB and the IONTB is presented. It is hoped to transport the MHB to CERN in 2027 and install it in the beamline between EBIS and the HIE-ISOLDE Linac so that it could be tested during LS3 and included in commissioning after the long shutdown. The dimensions and footprint of the IONTB are presented and the committee is told that transport to CERN and commissioning of the IONTB is planned between Q2 2027 and Q1 2028. An application for funding to cover the shipping of the IONTB to CERN has been submitted to the Spanish National Grant.

I. Martel informs the committee that the Initial Safety Declaration was submitted to EP Safety on 13^th June and it is hoped to receive feedback soon. The ISCC stresses that it is important that the response from EP safety does not identify any showstoppers before the projects can be supported. S. Freeman suggests that, for the safety procedure, the MHB and the IONTB should be treated separately; as it is planned to position the MHB in the accelerator chain, approval from the IEFC will be required for a permanent installation, although short term testing might not need approving formally.

The committee asks I. Martel to provide a detailed integration plan for the MHB and the IONTB which should include information about power supplies, cable trays etc; the devices should be incorporated into the ISOLDE 3D model in collaboration with the local groups. Only then will the local groups be able to access the impact the set-up will have in the ISOLDE hall.

6. News from the ISOLDE Physics coordinator– H. Heylen

The committee is informed that three out of the 4 proposals submitted to the recent INTC meeting were accepted with a total of 39 shifts approved. At the November 2025 INTC meeting, which will be the last before LS3, no ISOLDE proposals will be considered. All experiments will remain active until the end of LS3 at which point all outstanding shifts will be zeroed and all experiments will be closed; only new proposals will then be accepted. At the February 2026 INTC meeting, which will be the last with M. Pfützner as chairperson, Run 3 will be reviewed so it will be the task of the new chairperson to decide when new proposals will be accepted.

The ISOLDE schedule so far in 2025 is presented with protons for low energy physics having started one day earlier than planned on March 28^th and physics for HIE-ISOLDE starting on June 13^th. There will be no winter physics in 2025 or 2026. LS3 for ISOLDE means no physics during 2026 and 2027 with the restart planned for Q2 2028. H. Heylen assures the committee that all possible efforts are being made to schedule as many experiments as possible before LS3. However, given that around 1200 shifts were requested this year (approximately one-third for HIE-ISOLDE) and that in 2024 only around 425 shifts could be delivered for physics (of which less than one-quarter for HIE-ISOLDE), it is inevitable that some spokespersons will be disappointed due to not being scheduled. H. Heylen informs the committee that basic services should be available in the experiment hall during most of LS3 but any set-ups planning to run, for example with long lived sources, should coordinate with the Physics coordinator.

Interventions that took place during YETS on the ISCOOL cooler-buncher and the beam gates are briefly mentioned; the improvements due to the ISCOOL intervention have already been seen by the recent CRIS run. An update on the physics so far this year is then given; very few technical difficulties have been experienced meaning the physics goals have been partially or fully achieved. However, there was a 3.5-day physics stop due the robot getting stuck in cables during a target change. A few scheduled experiments had to be cancelled due the safety issues at GLM/GHM but, despite this, ISOLDE has still provided beam to 15 experiments with 137.5 shifts counted. The distribution of these shifts between the different set-ups is shown.

H. Heylen makes the following announcements to the committee:

• O. Fjeld has been employed as the ISOLDE technician since March 2025 and is working on the re-opening of the workshop in building 508 and helping experiments with technical tasks. Users are asked to avoid last-minute request for support from the technical and feedback is welcome so that a report can be made to the ISCC in November.
• Since May 1^st RILIS has an official on-call system.
• There is a new centralised location (170/R-020) for RP sources where there is also a cupboard for contaminated equipment. A pool of RP sources can be accessed by the person responsible for sources for a particular set-up.
• The CERN Council has approved clinical trials for MEDICIS.
• Cooling water will not be available in the hall until the beginning of March in 2026.

7. Reflections from outgoing Collaboration Spokesperson– S. Freeman

The committee hears S. Freeman’s reflections on his time spent at CERN as the Collaboration Spokesperson. He concludes that ISOLDE is a unique world leading facility mostly due to the talented technical experts at CERN and the excellent innovative User base, and the availability of GeV protons from the Injector Chain. The case for the future of the facility should continue to be made calmly and collaboratively. The scientific programme will benefit from the LS3 improvements but it is not too soon to start preparing ideas for LS4 and beyond. It is important to keep reminding CERN of the value of unique nuclear-physics facilities and the importance of maintaining the proton injectors through a possible FCC-ee era [Note added after the meeting: at a CERN Directorate meeting in early July, the DG did indeed reaffirm CERN’s commitment to science using the injectors into the FCC period.] It is essential to take advantage of any renewal of injectors for FCC-hh, to make sure there’s a space for ISOLDE in any post-LHC Plan B and to stress ISOLDE as a highlight of the diversity of science at CERN.

8. A.O.B.

• The committee thanks L. Fraile for his time and efforts as ISCC Chairperson. L. Fraile wishes J. Pakarinen well as the next Chairperson.
• The ISCC thanks S. Freeman for the extremely good job done during his period as Collaboration Spokesperson and Physics Section Leader. S. Freeman thanks the committee for providing him with the opportunity.

9. Dates of the next meeting

The date of the remaining ISCC meeting in 2025 is still to be decided.

Meeting ends at 14:00.

N.B. The above presentations can be found via https://indico.cern.ch/event/1557633/   .