Attending: Martina Allegro, Raffaele D' Alessandro, Lorenzo Bonechi, Marco Bruschi, Sara Haghshenas, Giovanni Passaleva, Andrea Pesce, Attilio Sequi, Eugenio Scapparone, Manuela Schisani
Discussion on project: Muography at the Rising Star site in South Africa (UNESCO World Heritage Site). Proposal for project submission to the HORIZON-EIE-2024-CONNECT-01-01 call for proposals.
Deadline: 25/04/2024
Web site: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/calls-for-proposals?callIdentifier=HORIZON-EIE-2024-CONNECT-01
Points to be strengthened for implementation:
1) Need 3 independent legal entities from different African Union member states.
Action: Preliminary talks indicate that efforts can be made to include entities from South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Gabon and Botswana in the consortium. South African colleagues in collaboration should be asked to verify, as soon as possible, the possibility of bringing at least 2 entities into the consortium while meeting the conditions of the call.
2) The call asks for coordination and support actions and foster the links and networks between innovation stakeholders from the AU and EU innovation ecosystems, also including the social innovation dimension.
This seems in general a point that should be strengthened. Although muography is a well-established and well mastered technique in INFN, we have several innovative potential in the proposal
- It is the first time that the muography is used in support of paleontology and archeology;
- The need to apply it to caves with limited access will bring to a second generation of modular apparatuses suitable to work with these transportation constraints and environmental condition of moisture and humidity;
- The need to improve the geodating of the inspected areas will foster the realization of muons spectrometer able to measure not only the flux of cosmic muons but also the flux per unit of momentum and operate in open field
- The second-generation detectors mentioned in point ii) can also be effectively utilized for the purposes outlined in i), not only at other archaeological sites across Africa (such as in Gabon or Botswana) but also for inspecting mine contents, given Africa's general richness in mineral and metal resources.
In any case some action is needed to reinforce 2)
Proposed actions:
- Improve the network with local entities starting from the existing MoU with Ithemba Labs. It is hoped that Faical Azaiez with his expertise and connections can provide useful inputs on this item.
- Try to get connections from past INFN activities (Meeting with South African researcher)
- Use multimedial INFN resources to start implementing in Africa a program of digitization of historical heritages
- Enhance the consortium by partnering with local South African (or other African) organizations that will benefit from the increased interest generated by the results of applying muography at the UNESCO Rising Star site or other locations where the technique is utilized
- Mention clearly in the application that one of the institutes in the consortium will start soon the commercialization of the technique as a startup derived from technological transfer inside INFN activities
Next steps:
- Andrea and Manuela will update the mailing list of interested colleagues on the strengths of submitting this project to the call, including their recommendations for further enhancing the application. Besides this, if possible, they will update the information about future opportunities to apply for funds ESASTAP, 4CH (Cultural Heritage) and maybe ERC Synergy.
- Andrea e Manuela kindly agreed to be the contact persons for technical questions on a possible application to the present call. They will provide the main forms to be filled for the application to this call.
- The outcome of 1) will be initially discussed with Prof. Lee Berger (National Geographic and main paleontology expert in the Cradle of Humankind) in a meeting at the beginning of the next week
- In case steps 1) and 2) are positively passed a kick off meeting with all the consortium entities representatives will be called (by the first week in April) in order to discuss the organization of the project and the share of the work for the application
- A plan of the resources requested for this project will be submitted to the INFN Directors of Bologna and Florence by April 4th , in order they can timely discuss them with their local administrations.
- Next meeting: Wednesday March 27th at 14:30
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