Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații advises on the implementation of the ELI-NP project in Romania, a landmark European research project totalling investments in excess of 850 million Euros
Romania’s National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering “Horia Hulubei” and the consortium led by “Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare” (Italy) today signed the procurement contract for the construction of the research infrastructure at ELI-NP in Romania.
Several dozens of delegates from Romania, Italy and other European countries involved in the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) project attended the contract signing ceremony taking place in Rome on March 19th.
The consortium led by “Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare” (Italy) has won the public procurement procedure organised by Romania’s National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering “Horia Hulubei” regarding the award of an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for the design, manufacture, delivery, installation, testing, commissioning and maintenance during the operation of a high-intensity gamma beam system (GBS) for the ELI-NP project in Romania. The value of the EPC contract amounts to 66.8 million Euros and is entirely funded by EC funds.
Romanian independent law firm Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații advised the Italian institute “Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare”, as leader of the European consortium – EuroGammaS, a collaboration with University of Rome “La Sapienza”, CNRS France (“Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique”) and STFC UK („Science and Technology Facilities Council”), throughout the award procedure. The team was led by Partner Șerban Pâslaru and Head of the firm’s PPP practice group and also included Iuliana Leon, Senior Associate.
To be built in Romania (in Magurele, near Bucharest), ELI-NP will be one of the three pillars of the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI), along with other two facilities which will be developed in the Czech Republic and Hungary. The project is worth more than 850 million Euros coming from different “Operational Programmes” co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Once implemented, it will mark the most advanced research facility in the world, a pan European laboratory that will perform cutting edge research within a broad range of science fields.
In Romania, ELI-NP is a 300 million Euros investment project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund – the Sectoral Operational Program “Increase of Economic Competitiveness”.
ELI-NP will create a new European laboratory to consistently investigate a very broad range of science domains, from new fields of fundamental physics, new nuclear physics and astrophysics topics, to applications in material science, life sciences and nuclear materials management. ELI will be the only European and International Centre for high-level research on ultra-high intensity laser, laser-matter interaction and secondary sources with unparalleled possibilities.
For more details on the ELI-NP project and the construction of the world’s largest laser system, please go to http://www.eli-np.ro/