Minutes of the 104th Meeting of the ISOLDE Collaboration Committee
held on October 30th 2025
Present: L.M. Fraile, H. Heylen, J. Pakarinen,
Via Zoom: M. Calviani (P.T.) replacing S. Gilardoni, J. Cederkäll, G. Georgiev, A. Herzan (P.T.), M. Kowalska (P.T.), K. Lynch, I. Martel, W. Nörtershäuser, D. Naidoo, A. Nannini, M. Pfützner, C. Mihai, G. Rainovski, N. Severijns (P.T.), E. Siesling (P.T.), N. van der Meulen, J. Vollaire (P.T.)
Excused: H. Fynbo
Absent: J.A. Rodríguez, S. Siem
Invited: K. Chrysalidis (P.T.), L. Nies (P.T.), A.-P. Bernardes (P.T.)
The meeting starts at 09:00 h
1. Welcome, minutes, matters arising – J. Pakarinen
The new ISCC Chairperson, J. Pakarinen, opens the 104th meeting of the committee and welcomes the participants. The committee is thanked for the trust it has shown in him by appointing him as the chairperson of the ISCC.
J. Pakarinen has been the ISCC Finnish representative for ten years and makes a request to remain so during his term as chairperson. It is recalled that B. Blank represented France while he was the committee chair. The committee agrees to the request.
J. Pakarinen informs the committee that M. Calviani replaces S. Gilardoni at this meeting.
The agenda of the meeting and the minutes of the previous meeting are approved.
2. Follow up on Upgrades and Initiatives - LS3
- Status of LS3 improvement plan – J. Vollaire
The committee is reminded of the funding mechanisms at CERN and how they have been and are being used to fund the ISOLDE upgrade programme as well as requests submitted for future investment. The consolidation budget, CONS, has limited scope and does not cover upgrades while the MTP can be used for larger requests and upgrades. Over the past 5 years, in preparation for LS3 several activities/projects have been successfully funded via CONS or MTP requests. The ISOLDE Collaboration commitment (MTP2025 co-fund proposal) greatly helped with approval of key activities such as CM1 refurbishment and construction of CM5; a RF clean room technician has already been hired on the Collaboration budget to procure and assemble CM5. ISOLDE improvement will continue after LS3 (CM5, new Frontends, handling systems….) so it is important to continue the common effort to put forward the case of ISOLDE as a key facility.
J. Vollaire presents the status of the primary areas ventilation upgrade. The extension of building 197 is complete and installation work is ongoing. Connection to the new infrastructure is planned for early in LS3.
The present organisational structure of the ISOLDE improvement programme is presented to the committee showing the two main projects, “Dumps and RIB production systems” (led by A.-P. Bernardes) and “Transfer lines and post-acceleration” (led by E. Siesling), split into separate technical aspects. A. Rodriguez and J. Vollaire, as responsible for overall technical steering of the programme, will report directly to the ISCC. The committee is told that negotiations are ongoing to set up budget codes and share funds between the collaboration and ATS in such a way that the collaboration can follow expenditure. - LS3 constraints and activities – E. Siesling
The committee is reminded that LS3 will start at the end of 2025 for the ISOLDE facility and the duration of the long shutdown for the facility is driven mainly by the beam dump replacement. E. Siesling informs the committee that a request has been approved for ISOLDE to take protons from the PS Booster from 8th May 2028 which is 1.5 months earlier than originally planned.
E. Siesling informs the committee about the availability of general infrastructure at ISOLDE during the period from the end of protons on 8th December 2025 until the start of LS3 for the injector chain and LHC in August 2026. Apart from when a network test takes place on 16th December, electricity should be available for experiments in the hall during the whole period. Cooling water in the hall will be cut from 18th December 2025 until 9th February 2026 and controls will experience instabilities during January and February 2026; after these dates both services should be available until August 2026. A vacuum systems update will take place in March for one week but this should not impact experiment setups.
A summary is then given of major technical and experimental activities that are presently planned in the ISOLDE hall during LS3 as well as the scheduled equipment tests by users and technical teams. Some of these activities will require crane handling that will impact other activities in and access to the hall. E Siesling tells the committee that, with many activities, some of which are major projects, foreseen at ISOLDE during LS3 careful planning and coordination will be paramount especially when handling is involved. The list of activities is growing and an overall planning is being put together. The user community is asked to notify the ISOLDE Technical Coordination team as soon as possible of any possible new activities so that clashes with planned work in the hall can be avoided. Any planned experimental activities should be coordinated through the ISOLDE Physics Coordinator, H. Heylen. - ISOLDE Beam Dump Replacement project – A-P. Bernardes
The committee is reminded that the ISOLDE Beam Dump Replacement (IBDRS) project is the first step towards opening the path for 2GeV and 6µA protons at ISOLDE. The IBDRS project will provide new beam dumps and shielding as well as a new services building. A-P. Bernardes explains that the project has three phases. The first phase, from October 2025 to July 2026, concerns the dismantling of the existing facility with the excavation of earth and removal of the radioactive dumps. From June 2026 to May 2027, Phase two covers the building construction while Phase three, from May 2027 to December 2027, involves the installation of services.
The committee is informed that preparation activities of Phase one have started with the removal of vegetation, the covering of the soil to prevent damage from water infiltration and the installation of a large storage tent. Measurements and studies have been untaken by HSE-RP to ensure that the work to remove the soil and the dumps can be undertaken safely and, where possible, remotely. A mock-up of the dumps has been constructed to allow training of the personnel involved in the dumps’ removal.
A-P. Bernardes thanks everyone involved in the project so far. - RILIS cabin reconstruction – K. Chrysalidis
The current situation at the RILIS facility is presented along with how it has developed over the last 30 years to arrive at the present setup. Since LS1 RILIS has been consistently providing more than 50% of all ISOLDE beams with about 3000 hours of operation annually and since LS2 dual operation of GPS & HRS has been possible in certain situations. This has led to the limit being reached for existing resources; RILIS needs more lasers, hands-off operation and DPSS pump lasers to meet rising demand. However, space is already very limited in the RILIS cabin and past consolidation efforts have only focused on the laser systems and not the space. Also, the temperature and part of the floor in the cabin are not stable enough which has a negative impact on ion production. Hence consolidation of the laser laboratory during LS3 has been requested in order to keep RILIS as ISOLDE’s principle ion source for the foreseeable future.
K. Chrysalidis informs the committee that 2.8M CHF of CERN consolidation funds were allocated to RILIS in 2024 for the period up to 2032 and 1M CHF of this funding is foreseen for the construction of a new RILIS cabin. The present proposed budget is shown to the committee along with the timeline of the construction and the organisation of the RILIS consolidation project management. The committee is told that the project has one non-negotiable deadline that is for RILIS and ISCOOL to be back in operation for commissioning of ISOLDE after LS3 in April 2028.
The current design of the new RILIS cabin is presented; this has to take into account many user requirements so input from stakeholders is being collected, in particular from the SSP community and it is hoped to fix the design in spring 2026. The budget requirements should be finalised in December 2025 so that work to remove the present cabin can start in January 2026. - ISCOOL RFQ – L. Nies
It is explained that, during LS3, the ISCOOL cage along with the HV rack will need to be moved on top of the new RILIS cabin. This means that the cage will be directly above the primary hardware, which will remain unchanged, and the two will be connected by a HT tube through the RILIS cabin to compensate for the extra distance. A tentative work schedule for the project, which is part of the RILIS cabin WP3, is presented.
L. Nies summarises feedback about the ISCOOL received from Users during the current running period. In order to address these issues a new updated functional specifications document has been prepared and is currently being circulated for the required engineering check. The document was used as the basis for a funding request submitted to the present round of Accelerator Consolidation (ACC-CONS); the committee is shown the submitted funding request. If the request is fully approved, it would relieve some of the stress on the RILIS upgrade budget. Finally, the committee are reminded of the proposed ISCOOL improvements that are already funded through the ISOLDE Improvement Plan with a total cost of 100 kCHF. - RC6 beam line – L. Nies
The committee is reminded that the MR-ToF MS Isobar Separator, originally developed as part of the MIRACLS project, is to be integrated into the ISOLDE facility as part of the RC6 beamline. The advantages of the device are briefly summarised and then L. Nies presents the status and tentative schedule of the integration project. The plan is to finish commissioning of the device before the start of LS3. However, it has still not been established who will take over responsibility for the device when installation is complete. L. Nies is asked to share the MR-ToF upgrade document with the ISCC. - Offline experiments – L. Fraile
The committee is told that it is hoped to allow stand-alone offline experiments at ISOLDE using long lived sources during the period from February/March to August 2026; talks are ongoing with source providers such as MEDICIS, PRISMAP partners and ILL in Grenoble. These experiments would provide a physics output for the facility in 2026. Proposals for such experiments should be coordinated through the ISOLDE Physics Coordinator as soon as possible to ensure that the planned upgrades and platform construction, already presented to the ISCC, can take place in parallel.
3. Collaboration Matters – L. Fraile
The committee is reminded that the ISOLDE Physics Coordinator position is considered a rotating position with a maximum term of 3/4 years with the exception of the previous coordinator who was in position for 8 years. The contract of the present coordinator, H. Heylen, ends on 31st August 2026; the committee approves a one-year extension until 31st August 2027.
L. Fraile informs the committee that the proposed topical issue (“focus point”) on ISOLDE will be published in The European Physical Journal Plus that is an online journal with a hybrid publishing model. There is an option for a physical version. The publication will cover the ISOLDE programme in connection with an INTC review; original papers will be accepted including reviews, research and technical articles as well as future plans and upgrades. The suggested final submission date is September 2026.
The committee is told that the ISOLDE Thesis Award, discussed at previous ISCC meetings, will be granted by the ISOLDE collaboration to young scientists from the member states in recognition of outstanding research achievements connected to ISOLDE and associated with their PhD study in the field of nuclear physics. The committee agrees that, as there are approximately 14 ISOLDE related PhDs theses each year, one prize per calendar year would be appropriate. The selection committee (G. Georgiev, K. Lynch, W. Nörtershäuser and M. Pfützner) will prepare a proposal for the nomination and selection procedure as well as the form that any prize/recognition could take.
L. Fraile informs the committee that, after discussions with CERN management, the ISOLDE MoU is to remain unchanged, but modifications will be unavoidable in the future to comply with new CERN standards. The ISOLTRAP collaboration is presently revising its MoU while the new MINIBALL MoU is currently “on hold”.
The collaboration finances are briefly summarised. The balance of the collaboration TP account in December 2024 was 2589kCHF and, with all member states having paid or on track to pay the yearly fees, the projected income for 2025 is approximately 1000kCHF. Expected future expenses are then discussed. As presented at the previous ISCC meeting, the collaboration has now committed to providing 3740kCHF to the ISOLDE improvement programme between now and 2030; these funds will be allocated to items with a close impact on physics or related to previous investments made by the collaboration. Discussions are ongoing about accounting and monitoring of these funds. The cost of the new ISOLTRAP platform will now be fully covered by the EP department so no contribution is required from the collaboration but the contribution to the CRIS/COLLAPS platform is still under discussion. Funds have been requested to the EP department via the yearly ISOLDE budget request. Increased costs for administration and user support will have to be considered and the collaboration will need to decide if it will continue to fund an ABT fellow working on beam optics for the period 2026 to 2028. The cost of any future LN2 tank will need to be covered by the collaboration and the compiled list of user driven proposals as well as any future projects will have to be incorporated into the collaboration’s future spending plans.
L. Fraile briefly summarises the status of the EU EURO-LABS funding project at ISOLDE. The project runs from September 2022 to August 2026 but, due to the ISOLDE long shutdown, scheduled INTC approved experiments will not take place at ISOLDE in 2026 so December 2025 will see the end of EURO-LABS TNA funding at ISOLDE. The facility expects to have provided 200% of the committed beam time (4500 hours) and use all of the allocated TNA funding (330kCHF). During the period from October to December 2025 20kCHF extra funding was obtained to improve support to users. EURO-LABS Access funds were being used to support a fellowship position but when the person concerned was given an LD position in the SY department, 83kCHF remained. In addition, it is expected that ISOLDE will receive approximately 100kCHF from a redistribution within the EURO-LABS project although this is still to be confirmed. Use of the extra 185 kCHF is presently under discussion with the CERN finance department but the aim is to cover costs currently charged to the ISOLDE collaboration. L. Fraile reminds experiment spokespersons of the obligations when receiving EURO-LABS support which are to acknowledge EURO-LABS in publications that must be GOLD Open Access and to make data openly accessible.
The committee hears that the submission deadline for the next EU funding project under the INFRA-SERV-03 framework was September 2025. The call focused on hadron physics but P. Greenless and S. Leoni were invited to be part of the steering committee as the call stated that “proposers should fully exploit transversal links to and identify common developments with neighbouring communities within the field of particle and nuclear physics.” ISOLDE was included in the proposal HADRON-2030, that would run for a period of 4 years, but any funding made available to the facility would be part of a CERN allocation and is expected to be much less than that received for EURO-LABS. Discussions are ongoing with the project manager (B. Erazmus) and the CERN local contact (D. D’Enterria)
L. Fraile presents a quick update on the European Strategy for Particle Physics for which the draft document should be submitted to the CERN council in January 2026. The Physics Briefing Book has been released and does briefly mention the High Intensity and Energy upgrade of ISOLDE. The committee is asked to keep national input updated to ensure support of ISOLDE.
Outreach activities at the facility are then discussed. ISOLDE related activities have recently been featured in the EP newsletter https://ep-news.web.cern.ch/content/isolde-charts-shores-islands-inversion , https://ep-news.web.cern.ch/content/transfer-induced-fission-isolde-solenoidal-spectrometer and as a news article on the CERN webpage https://home.cern/news/news/physics/molecules-pear-shaped-atomic-nuclei-bear-fruit . The anniversary of ten years since the first HIE -ISOLDE physics run will be recognised on the CERN webpage and at the ISOLDE Workshop in December as well as in contributions to the planned ISOLDE focus issue. During LS3 it is planned to update the ISOLDE brochure and continue to run the highly successful ISOLDE visits programme.
The committee is informed that the safety review now finalized, revision of organisation and mandates is underway with EXSO and DEXSOs already in place. It is proposed to form an ISOLDE collaboration safety group to help address safety related questions and liaise with CERN; this would be a small group made up possibly of the ISOLDE spokesperson, the chair of the ISCC, the physics coordinator and two other members. The committee approve the proposal to set up the group before the next ISCC meeting.
4. INTC matters – M. Pfützner
M. Pfützner informs the committee that his term as INTC Chair will come to an end on 31st March 2026 and that S. Leoni has been nominated and appointed as the Chair by the head of CERN Research and Computing. Members of the INTC serve a term of 2+1 years and are also officially nominated by the head of CERN Research and Computing. After discussion, M. Pfützner agrees to transmit to the Research Board that it would be appreciated if, for transparency, the procedure for selection of the members and Chair of the INTC could be specified and made publicly available.
The committee is reminded that the INTC meeting in November 2025, to which S. Leoni has been invited to attend as a guest, will only consider n-ToF proposals. The February 2026 meeting will be used to summarise physics during the running period 3 and review the ISOLDE and n_TOF physics programmes, and will include presentations from experimental set-ups.
M. Pfützner reminds the committee that all ISOLDE proposals with remaining shifts as of 31 December 2025 will have their shift count set to zero. Experiments will remain open and listed in the Greybook until the end of LS3 unless a new proposal on the same topic is submitted and accepted earlier, in which case the experiment number may be replaced by the new chair. Proponents may drop, modify, or refocus their ideas, but past requests are considered finished. New proposals may be submitted, whether or not they build on previous ones
5. Update from the Physics Coordinator – H. Heylen
The committee is told that 2025 has been another successful year for physics at ISOLDE. Protons for low energy physics started on 28th March while physics at HIE-ISOLDE stated one day earlier than planned on 13th June. With the end of protons on 8th December giving a total of 255 days to this year’s physics run, 544.5 shifts were scheduled for 50 different experiments; this is more than in the two previous years. The committee is reminded that there will be no winter physics campaigns in 2025 or 2026 and that for ISOLDE LS3 means no online physics in 2026 and 2027 with the restart planned for June 2028. However, there may be the possibility to run some off-line experiments in 2026.
H. Heylen tells the committee that most experiments scheduled during 2025 reached all or part of their physics goals. There were issues to produce the requested beam for two ISS experiments but a plan B was found so that interesting data could still be collected. During three experiments, the facility was able to run with 2.5uA to optimise yields of the most exotic cases and the restart of GLM/GHM activities was achieved under certain conditions which will be reviewed in LS3. Since June, the process for obtaining safety clearance for scheduled experiments from EP Safety has been running smoothly. Several physics highlights from the 2025 ISOLDE campaign are then presented.
The following announcement s are made:
- There will be no regular hands-on RP training during LS3 but there will be ISOLDE-RP course once a month. There will be a one day “Radiation Protection-Controlled Area” course available weekly as an alternative to the course tailored ISOLDE. The Electrical Safety-Working in EP experiments training will continue to place weekly.
- Users are asked for feedback on the support provided by the ISOLDE technician O. Fjeld.
- L. Di Giulio from EP Safety will give a presentation at the up-coming ISOLDE Workshop.
- New procedures are being introduced for requesting invitation documents for visa and CA documents for non-EU citizens.
- A document regarding default vacuum interlocks has been prepared by the vacuum experts. Modifications of the interlocks can be requested but only during working hours.
- Users are asked to inform the ISOLDE Physics Coordinator of their plans at the facility for 2026 and the rest of LS3.
H. Heylen concludes with a briefly summary of recent improvements made at the facility. This includes new storage for radioactive equipment and improved chemical storage as well at better management of the approximately 25 LN2 dewars owned by ISOLDE; the discussion about the installation of a larger LN2 tank after LS3 will be restarted. New coated lead bricks are now available and the pool of safety shoes for short term users is being expanded.
6. News from the local group – L. Fraile
The new CERN management structure put in place by Mark Thomson, Director-General Designate, for the period 2026 to 2030 is presented. Within the Research and Computing sector, led by Gautier Hamel de Monchenault, Simone Campana will lead the Information Technology department, Giovanna Lehmann will lead the Experimental Physics (EP) department and Urs Wiedemann will lead the Theoretical Physics department. In the Accelerators and Technology sector (ATS), led by Oliver Brüning, Said Atieh will lead the Engineering (EN) department, Rhodri Jones will lead the Technology (TE) department, Roberto Losito will lead the Accelerator Systems (SY) department and Malika Meddahi will lead the Beams (BE) department.
The present manpower situation in the ISOLDE Physics Group is summarised:
• Research Fellows = “Research Fellowship Experimental Physics (Category 1)”: Jessica Warbinek – CRIS (January 2024 – December 2025), Peter Plattner – COLLAPS (November 2024 – October 2026). Victoria Vedia – IDS (March 2025 – February 2027)
• Applied Fellows = “Research Fellowship In Applied Physics and Engineering (Category 2)”: Carlotta Porzio – MINIBALL (March 2024 – February 2027), Nikolay Azaryan – VITO/ATLAS (December 2023 – June 2026), Annie Dolan- ISS (October 2025 – September 2027). Patrick MacGregor and Michael Pesek (VITO/medical) ended their terms in October 2025.
• QUEST Fellows = “like an Applied Fellow hired directly to a specific project in advert”: Amy Sparks – VITO/medical imaging (May. 2023 – April 2026)
• Scientific Associates: Joakim Cederkäll (Oct 2024 – Nov. 2025), Deyan Yordanov (July 2025 – June 2026)
• Corresponding Associate: Mikołaj Baranowski (March 26 – June 26)
• Doctoral Students: Ilaria Michelon (CERN via VITO EU+EP Quota) (April 2023 – February 2026), Daniel Paulitsch (August 2023 – January 2026), Edward Matthews (COLLAPS via TU Darmstadt) (December 2023 – May 2026), Anu Nagpal (VITO via University of York) (April 2024 – December 2025)
• Staff Members: Luis Fraile (Physics Section Leader and Collaboration Spokesperson) (July 2025 to June 2028), Magdalena Kowalska (CERN staff member- Senior Research Physicist) (January 2020 -), Hanne Heylen (Physics Coordinator) (September 2023 to August 2027), Mark Bissell (Research Physicist LD)(September 2022 to August 2026).
• User: Jenny Weterings (User Support) ISOLDE Collaboration & University of Oslo (2002- )
• Technical Support: Oscar Fjeld, ISOLDE Collaboration in SY-STI-RBS (May 2025 – April 2030)
Additionally, two technical students and two trainees are working at VITO.
7. Dates and modality ISCC meetings in 2026, ISOLDE Workshop 2026
The dates of the ISCC meetings in 2026 are decided as follows:
- 10th February (in person meeting at CERN)
- 9th June (virtual meeting)
- 3rd November (provisional date)
In 2026 the ISOLDE Workshop and Users meeting will be held at CERN from 25th to 27th November.
8. A.O.B.
- J. Pakarinen suggests that one or two committee members be involved in the preparation of the minutes of ISCC meetings.
Meeting ends at 13:45.
N.B. The above presentations can be found via https://indico.cern.ch/event/1602786/ .