Italy is more determined than ever to become the home of the future gravitational wave observatory, the Einstein Telescope, with a total planned investment of €1.3 billion from both government and Sardinia Region funds.
The intention to build the most advanced gravitational wave observatory in the former Sos Enattos mine in Lula was reiterated at the conference on major research infrastructures organized in Su Gologone (Oliena, Nuoro province) under the Italian G7 presidency.
The €1.3 billion includes approximately €950 million announced by the Italian government in December 2023 and €350 million from the Sardinia Region. “State and Region are marching in step,” said the Minister of University and Research, Anna Maria Bernini, at the opening of the G7 Science satellite conference organized by the ministry with the National Institute of Nuclear Physics. “Yesterday I spoke with the Dutch minister, and the Italian allocation of €1.3 billion is more than what the Netherlands is investing,” the minister told journalists on the sidelines of the event.
The project has the enthusiastic support of Sardinia Region President Alessandra Todde: “We have allocated €350 million necessary for the candidacy and created a project unit.”
The Sos Enattos site is ready to become a research hub: the National Institute of Astrophysics and the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology are working to bring other projects there, such as the Earth Telescope aimed at studying the Earth’s core. All the conditions are in place to make the Lula area the home of one of Europe’s major research infrastructures.
A project destined to pay off, according to the numbers presented at the G7 conference: the 32 major research infrastructures built in G7 countries from 1987 to 2023 have had economic impacts of €1.4 trillion against a total investment of about €540 billion, according to the report commissioned by the Italian G7 presidency to The European House – Ambrosetti (Teha Group) and carried out with the Ministry of University and Research and the National Institute of Nuclear Physics with the support of Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
It remains to be seen whether Sos Enattos will be the sole site of the Einstein Telescope or if it will be organized on two sites: one in Sardinia and one in the Netherlands, the other country competing to host the observatory. The hypothesis of two L-shaped twin detectors is gaining ground. “We are in discussions with other European partners, and the Council of Government Representatives is discussing timelines and procedures,” National Institute of Nuclear Physics President Antonio Zoccoli told ANSA. In general, he added, “the alternative of two L-shaped structures in Southern and Northern Europe is considered the simplest because in this case, the sites would be immediately defined, and the selection phase could be skipped.” The next step towards the decision, expected in 2026, is scheduled for mid-2025.
For the President of the National Research Council, Maria Chiara Carrozza, “the Einstein Telescope is an opportunity for Italy and represents an important example of scientific diplomacy. I believe that peace and prosperity for the future also depend on the possibility of having these large projects that unite sometimes distant peoples.”