AstroCeNT – Centrum Naukowo-Technologiczne Astrofizyki Cząstek

Main info

The “AstroCeNT: Particle Astrophysics Science and Technology Centre” project is implemented as part of the International Research Agendas programme of the Foundation for Polish Science, supported by the European Regional Development Fund under Smart Growth Operational Programme (SG OP), Priority Axis 4: Increasing the research potential, Measure 4.3: International Research Agendas (IRAs).

The grant, awarded to Astrocent main applicant Leszek Roszkowski and co-applicant Tomasz Bulik, provides funding of nearly 38 MPLN (nearly 9 M€) for the first 5 years. AstroCeNT was launched on 1 July 2018 as an autonomous unit of the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences, with the initial funding of nearly 38 MPLN (nearly 9 M€) for the first 5 years.

Experience

The main focus of Astrocent is to conduct research in science and technology in the areas of particle astrophysics that deal with exploring the hidden Universe. It is known that most of the content of the Universe is still invisible to us due to its exceedingly feeble interactions with ordinary matter that our detectors are made of. A historical discovery of gravitational waves in 2015 provided us with another example that a key to shed light on the invisible Universe is to construct detectors that will be sufficiently sensitive to detect what was previously beyond reach. These days, this is a formidable task that requires an extraordinary and coordinated effort of researchers — physicists and engineers — in developing a whole range of aspects of complex detectors and data taking and processing techniques. This is what researchers at Astrocent aim to do.