Innovation vouchers for Dutch-Flemish collaborations for Einstein Telescope
Innovation vouchers worth €50,000 have been awarded to two Dutch-Flemish collaborations within the Interreg EMR project ET2SMEs (Einstein Telescope to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises).
Mobile equipment for soil research
Dutch company Seismic Mechatronics (Veldhoven, NL) and Flemish company Battery Pack Service (Peer, BE) will collaborate to fully electrify mobile equipment for soil research by means of a modular, customer-specific battery pack. This will allow Seismic Mechatronics to offer a sustainable, zero-carbon proposition for soil research to map the subsurface in a region, as is relevant for the Einstein Telescope.
Measurement of precipitating (dust) particles
Dutch companies SAC Netherlands (Heerlen, NL) and M3Engineering (Vaals, NL), together with Flemish company Vamac (Diepenbeek, BE), will further develop equipment to measure precipitating (dust) particles in critical areas. With the updated concept, they are able to measure unwanted particles on the mirrors in the vacuum space of the Einstein Telescope. These particles can interfere with the Einstein Telescope’s measurement process.
About the Einstein Telescope
The Einstein Telescope is a unique project with enormous impact that will put Europe on the map worldwide. The Euregio Meuse-Rhine is one of the regions being considered to host this large-scale underground research facility. The other possible location is Sardinia. The technology is already under development and there are sustainable opportunities for companies here.
Sensitive technology
The underground Einstein Telescope is used to study gravitational waves. These are ripples in the universe caused by extreme events, such as the collision of two black holes. To detect the waves, lasers are fired through vacuum tubes at mirrors in the observatory’s kilometre-long tunnels. This is particularly sensitive technology, requiring constant attention so that environmental influences do not interfere with accurate measurements.
Source: LIOF (Dutch)
