Speaker
Description
Since 2022, survey and alignment experts from European laboratories have met annually at the EUropean Workshop on Accelerator Alignment (EUWAA). The workshop provides a forum for building a coordinated European approach to accelerator, detector and beamline alignment. It aims to foster exchange on common challenges, best practises, future tends and to strengthen cooperation between labs. Topics include among others measurement uncertainty, software and applications, instruments and methods, alignment issues, the use of external contract companies, recruitment strategies and approaches to adjustment and least squares calculations.
A major outcome of the 3rd workshop, held at the ESRF in June 2025, was the launch of an intercomparison measurement campaign on a dedicated girder using state of the art instruments, with the objective to establish a common definition of alignment uncertainty across our community and to improve its understanding by physicists. Ten laboratories and 2 companies took part in this intercomparison. Preliminary results were presented at the fourth EUWAA workshop hosted by CERN in April 2026.
The 2026 edition also featured a series of brainstorming sessions addressing key topics for the community, including workforce development (the use of service contracts and partnerships with universities and engineering schools to support future recruitment), instruments and methods (best practices and recommendations for instrument calibration, verification and testing) and research and development.
This presentation will summarize the main outcomes of these two workshops, highlighting progress toward greater communication between European laboratories and presenting the preliminary findings of the intercomparison campaign.
