UK Participation in the Canary Island Foundation in preparation for an EST ERIC

The European Solar Telescope (EST) will be a 4-metre class solar telescope, planned to see first-light in ~2032-34. EST will address the over-arching question of the origin and evolution of the solar magnetic fields that underpin all solar activity, and the release and transport of energy stored in those magnetic fields.

Following the completion of the H2020 Infradev project Pre-EST, the EST telescope and enclosure design and the design of the first-generation instrumentation (Tunable Imaging Spectropolarimeters (TSI) and Integral Field Spectropolarimeters (IFS)) are now mature enough for the preliminary design review (PDR) to take place in the first half of 2023. Once the environmental impact assessment is completed and the license issued, a construction start date in 2024 would be feasible.

At the end of 2022 the EST Board of Directors (on which the UK sits) voted to establish a Canarian Foundation as the interim legal figure for EST, with the goals of bringing on board the ministries and their representatives to work towards establishing the ERIC. Alongside that work the Project Office will continue to support the remaining aspects of the telescope and instrumentation design, including managing PDR, as well as the environmental assessment and licence and permit applications. Several groups in the UK (including Aber, Exeter, QUB, Sheffield, Glasgow, Durham and UCL) have indicated a commitment to join a UK universities consortium (UKUC) and raise funds to join the Foundation for the next 2 years (100keuro/year).