The European Solar Telescope - Canarian Foundation deed will be signed on July 25, 2023 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Virtual meeting of the EST Board of Directors on April 25, 2023.
After one year of negotiations, the EST Board of Directors gave its green light to the documentation required for the creation of the European Solar Telescope – Fundación Canaria (EST-FC). The deed will be signed and notarised in Santa Cruz de Tenerife on July 25th, 2023.
The institutions that have confirmed their participation are: Stockholms Universitet (SU, Sweden), Leibniz-Institut für Sonnenphysik (KIS, Germany), Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Wissenschaften (MPG, Germany), United Kindgom Universities Consortium (UKUC) represented by the University of Sheffield (UoS, UK), Astronomický Ústav AV ČR, V. V. I. (AIAS-CR, Czech Republic), Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (AISAS, Slovakia), Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI, Switzerland), Universität Graz (UG, Austria), Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC, Spain), and Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC, Spain). Other institutions will have the possibility to join the Foundation at a later moment.
The main objectives of the EST-FC are, among others:
- To contribute to the setting up of the EST-ERIC, or the most appropriate alternative entity, as the legal organisation created to implement the construction and operation phases of EST.
- To facilitate the development and consolidation of the European Solar Telescope project, ensuring that the design of EST meets scientific and technical requirements.
- To achieve these objectives, the EST-FC shall address the following main activities during the first year of operation, starting in August 2023:
- Establish the steps for the creation of the Board of Governmental Representatives, so that negotiations at the highest level can be started for the construction phase of EST
- Complete the EST preliminary design, so that the design is ready for external evaluation.
- Pass the EST Preliminary Design Review (PDR), in which the design is evaluated by a panel of external experts to assess that it meets the scientific and technical requirements, the correct design options have been selected, interfaces have been identified, and verification methods have been described.
The three governing bodies of the Foundation are the Board of Trustees, the Executive Committee, and the Director.
The Board of Trustees is the governing body that shall represent the Foundation and exercise all the powers needed to achieve the Foundation's aims. All partners institutions entering the Foundation are represented in this body. The main function of the Executive Committee is the examination of all documentation to verify compliance with the Budget and the Explanatory Report and the adoption of appropriate measures to correct any deviations that may occur. The Director for the Foundation shall be in charge of the affairs and good running of the Foundation. He/she shall be appointed by the Board of Trustees.
The EST-FC will host the Project Office for, among other tasks, completing the EST preliminary design, preparing the PDR, closing the EST Final Detail Design and Construction Specifications after considering all issues raised by the external review panel during the PDR, and preparing the construction procurements documentation.
With the creation of the EST-FC, a key milestone will be achieved, giving a legal character to the Consortium formed by the institutions working jointly for making EST a reality and paving the way to the future construction of the European Solar Telescope.