Dr Ing. Nicholas J. Sammut (deputy dean Faculty of ICT, University of Malta) is part of the core team that is setting up an international scientific organisation in the Balkans.
With a capital investment of circa €300m, this facility will be the largest of its kind in the region. The South-East Europe International Institute for Sustainable Technology will be based on the same model that was used to set up the European Organisation for Nuclear Research in Switzerland in the 1950s with the primary goal of using science for peace.
The initiative has just been signed by nine Balkan member states and has been presented to the scientific community in a forum in January in Trieste, Italy.
The event was supported by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the European Physical Society, the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics and the Ministry of Science of Montenegro.
The initiative is currently considering the construction of a fourth generation synchrotron light source and a hadron cancer therapy facility as the primary focus of the organisation. The light source will have extensive use in many fields including physics, biology, chemistry, engineering, nanotechnology, archaeology and the environment. The hadron therapy machine will be used for the most advanced clinical therapy of certain cancer patients and the research of tumour therapy using ions.
A design study of each of these machines has been launched based on cutting-edge science and technology. About 1,000 scientists and medical practitioners will eventually be involved in the facility design, its construction and exploitation.
Studies are currently underway to ensure the facility's sustainability and an educational programme, supported by the IAEA, is being introduced to ensure that adequate capacity and know-how is built to maximise the facility's benefits. In addition a layer of technology transfer and innovation is also being included for the technology to be exploited by industry.