Present: J. Billowes, K. Blaum, P. Butler (chairman), R. Catherall, A. Di Pietro, S. Franchoo, J. Gomez-Camacho (replacing M. Garcia-Borge), A. Herlert, R. Losito (p.t.), M. Huyse, G. Nyman (replacing T. Nilsson), M. Lindroos, I. Moore (replacing A. Jokinen)  K. Riisager, S. Siem

Excused: T. Nilsson, M. Garcia-Borge, A. Jokinen

The meeting starts at 09.00 h

1. Introductory remarks by the chairman

The meeting is opened by the chairman  who welcomes R. Losito (AB/ATB) to the meeting and then goes on to welcome A. Herlert the new ISOLDE Scientific coordinator. He then welcomes G. Nyman, I. Moore and J. Gomez-Camacho who represent Sweden, Finland and Spain respectively at this meeting of the ISCC.

2. Approval of the minutes of the 48th meeting.

The minutes of the 49^th ISCC meeting are approved.

3. Technical developments and AB Department news (R. Catherall) (see overheads)

R. Catherall presents the 2007 technical developements at ISOLDE including:

• RFQ Installation: The RFQ is now installed and working. The preliminary results are very good and the web site http://ab-div-op-iso-rfqcb.web.cern.ch/ab-div-op-iso-rfqcb/Installation… is now available with the most recent information.
  R. Catherall thanks all those involved, including the groups outside ISOLDE, for their hard work on this project.
• Slit system: P. Suominen and E. Asen have completely revised this system and it will be available for use in 2008.
• Ventilation: A problem with the ventilation system was discovered in April and, despite intensive investigation, the cause is still not known. A plan has been drawn up to try to solve this problem during the shutdown period.
• REX operation: During 2007, 8 new isotopes and 3 new elements have been used. Among the technical improvements is the redesign of the 9-gap amplifier.
• Shutdown: The work planned during this years shutdown is presented.
• Staff and support:The group AB/ATB/IF is expected to lose 7 people over the next 12 months which will affect the target testing program and technical support for projects. The technical group is grateful to the collaboration and the Physics group for its support but is, however, concerned about the future level of support from external groups.

The chairman congratulates everyone involved in the RFQ project and hopes that details of

this important project will appear in numerous scientific papers and reports.

K. Blaum informs the committee that a new German programme exists to fund technical PhD

posts at CERN. The deadline for applications is 4th March 2008 so a list of possible

positions at ISOLDE is now being prepared.

A discussion is held about the possible removal and re-installation of the RFQ during next

years physics run as  experiments with light nuclei could be adversely affected by

the presence of this device.

4. Scheduling and PH Department news (A. Herlert / K. Riisager) (see overheads)

A. Herlert summarises the accelerator schedule and the shift situation for 2007. A total of 29 experiments ran during the 29.5 weeks of ISOLDE operation. The total number of shifts allocated was 467 (261 on the GPS and 206 on the HRS) and the total number actually delivered is presently being determined. The committee is told that 2007 has been a good year for physics although certain problems were encountered. These include problems with ISOLDE/CERN controls during the first half of the running period, a limitation of the proton beam intensity to 1µA on the GPS target and broken target/ion-source units. Also the REX-LINAC scaling was not working correctly and a new cleaning procedure at REX TRAP failed with the removal of isobaric contamination; K. Blaum offered to send his PhD student S. Sturm, who installed the procedure, for a period of 1 to 2 weeks to help solve the problem. The committee is also informed that there is limited support for vacuum problems as the vacuum group has been halved in size and no piquet service is available.

A. Herlert announces that in 2008 protons will be available from the PSB on May 5^th and physics should start at ISOLDE on May 9^th.  ISOLDE should then run through until November 10^th when protons will stop. These dates, however, could change due to LHC operation.

The following points from the Physics Group are then covered by A. Herlert and K. Riisager:

• A two week course to train machine supervisors to set up REX will be held during the shutdown.

• Infrastructure: The new users workshop in building 115 will open on November 12^th and the solid state laboratory should be ready during the shutdown. Building 275 is being cleaned to provide storage space for ISOLDE experiments and the removal of the COMPLIS experiment should free laboratory space in the hall.
• A. Herlert will now be the GLIMOS for all ISOLDE experiments while the physics group leader will be the deputy GLIMOS. An installation supervisor will be named for all larger experimental installations such as ISOLTRAP and COLLAPS.
• At the moment only the basic safety course is mandatory for people working in the ISOLDE hall, however this may change in the near future. Use of the bridge crane is now restricted and someone from the TS group must be present when heavy equipment is being lifted.
• It has been found that physics experiments cannot be run at the same time at REX-LINAC and the WITCH installation.
• J. Van de Walle started as a fellow in the physics group in October but E. Clement left his fellows position before the end of his contract because he was offered a permanent position at GANIL. A request is made for good candidates for both fellow and associate positions for the next selection round in March 2008.
• Member states: The Norwegian Research Council should decide in December if Norway will become a member of the ISOLDE collaboration and several other countries are interested in joining the collaboration. These include Romania who would first become an associate member paying a half fee, Greece which will be sending a representative to the ISOLDE Workshop in December and Serbia which is interested in closer collaboration with ISOLDE. Portugal which would enter the collaboration as a full member is still trying to secure funding.
• The present MoU is still missing the signatures of Italy and Spain but it is just a matter of time before these are received. It is decided that an update of the MoU should be made each year at the same time as the financial overview.
• EURONS/ENSAR: EURONS funds are being used to pay for a fellow in AB, Hanna Franberg as well as to support Pekka Suominen. The name of the proposed Integrated Activity in the EU 7^th framework is ENSAR and CERN is involved in 4 JRAs:Targets, ECRS, Beam preparation and EXID (detectors etc).
• The ISOLDE publication list is now available on the ISOLDE website and feedback is welcome.
• Negotiations with the Users office about improving the user registration process are still on going. Users should inform the ISOLDE secretariat about any problems that occur.
• The International Conference on Hyperfine Interactions/ Nuclear Quadrupole Interactions  will be organised by G. Langouche and K. Baruth-Ram and will be held at CERN in September 2010.
• The ISOLDE Workshop and Users meeting celebrating 40 years of radioactive beam at ISOLDE will be held at CERN from 17 to 19 December 2007.

A discussion is held about whether or not ISOLDE should become involved in applications to

more than one European funding programme, i.e. not just ENSAR.

5. Budget 2007 and resources 2008(K. Riisager)

K. Riisager informs the committee that the outlook for the collaboration budget is positive. All 2006/2007 contributions have now been paid and the contributions for 2007/2008 have  already been paid by all member states except for France, Finland and Spain. The invoice for the contribution for 2007 from Norway will now be sent. A contribution towards HIE-ISOLDE has been received from Mainz and funds towards the REX-posts have been received from Leuven.

The committee is told that the total cost of the solid state lab and the workshop will be between 130 and 140 kCHF which corresponds to the 130kCHF already paid to the collaboration by the solid state community.

K. Riisager explains that after the collaboration has funded the fellowship of D. Voulot during 2008 there will be between 100 and 200 kCHF available for investment so the committee agrees that 100 kCHF of this money should be used to assist the technical group.

6. HIE-ISOLDE (M. Lindroos)

M. Lindroos summarises the situation of the HIE-ISOLDE project. He explains that as the first priority is the REX-linac upgrade to 5MeV/µ the engineer M. Pasini has been hired to work on technical R&D for this project. The position is to be funded by a grant acquired by K.U. Leuven. The work will be a collaboration between LNL-INFN Legnaro, the Cockcroft Institute in the UK and the CERN TS-MME group and the first meeting will be held on 21^st November 2007.

M. Lindroos goes on to explain that of the total cost of the HIE-ISOLDE project (40 million Swiss francs) half will probably be provided by CERN and already the collaboration has found about 5 million Swiss francs from external sources. Other possible sources of funding are summarised:

• M. Lindroos has been asked to submit a proposal to the CARE project on Thin-Film technologies for acceleration cavities for 1.6 million euros.
• In the UK a collaboration led by the Cockcroft institute has submitted a proposal asking for 3 million pounds to fund the construction of the HIE-Linac.
• Discussions have been held between several Spanish institutes including the University of Huelva about how they could obtain funding towards the HIE-ISOLDE project.
• The possibility of obtaining funding in Finland for robot R&D is being investigated as a Finnish company is providing robots to the ITER project.
• J. Cederkall is investigating the possibility of using regional EU funds from Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

R. Catherall explains to the committee that because HIE-ISOLDE has not yet been accepted as an official CERN project, he cannot yet apply for manpower for any technical R&D, so the committee agrees to make some collaboration funds available.

M. Lindroos tells the committee that a meeting has been held to discuss the possibility of faster cycling of the PS Booster. At this meeting it was decided that faster cycling is technically possible and that the cost is known, but that it will be a decision of the Research Board.

The committee is informed by K. Riisager that the paper version of the scientific case for HIE-ISOLDE will soon be available for distribution.

7. Joint conference with GANIL (K. Riisager/M.Lindroos)

The committee is told that GANIL has applied for 60kCHF to finance this conference and that a venue at Giens on the Cote d’Azur has been reserved for the second half of May 2008 although no exact date has yet been fixed.

8. INTC matters (M. Huyse)

M. Huyse informs the committee that the projects proposed at the last Research Board meeting were accepted.

A discussion is held about whether or not letters of intent and proposals for experiments using the future HIE-ISOLDE facility should already be accepted for consideration by the INTC committee. It is decided that time should be put aside at the upcoming ISOLDE Workshop (December 17-19) to discuss this matter.

9. Next physics group leader (P. Butler)

The  applications received for the post of ISOLDE Physics group leader are discussed and the committee agrees that all the candidates are of a very high quality. It is decided to put the name of Yorick Blumenfeld forward to CERN as the only candidate for the position.

10. A.O.B.

• M. Lindroos tells the committee that the OECD report should be available in March 2008 and will aim at making Nuclear Physics a global rather than a regional science.
• The problem of updating the ISOLDE general mailing list is discussed.
• The entire ISCC committee sends its greetings  to Prof. G. Huber and signs a book to be presented to him at a colloquium to be held to celebrate his birthday.
• The next ISCC meeting will be held at CERN on Monday 11^th February 2008 at 09:00.

The meeting ends at 12:30h