Protocol to the 1991 Co-operation Agreement between CERN and the Department of Atomic Energy of the Government of India (DAE)

CERN has signed a Cooperation Agreement with the Department of Atomic Energy of India (DAE) in 1991, followed in 1996 by a Protocol for collaboration within the framework of the LHC project. The work by way of Indian in-kind contributions to the LHC was coordinated by the DAE, and was compensated by CERN through payments into the 'LHC India Fund'. These payments were calculated at the level of half of the estimated European value of the in-kind contributions received. The collaboration was highly successful and was extended in 2003. In the previous year India had been granted Observer Status by the CERN Council. As the LHC Project approaches completion, the collaborations under the 1996 Protocol and the 2003 Extension are now coming to an end. With India rapidly developing into one of the world's most active and advanced accelerator centres, it seems fitting that CERN and India should continue their collaborative efforts in other accelerator areas of mutual interest. The Protocol proposed in this document has been designed with a view to realizing this objective. Whilst the DAE-laboratories BARC (Bombay) and CAT (Indore) are interested in making use of radio-frequency equipment previously installed in LEP as well as in hosting CERN Accelerator courses, CERN is interested in collaborating with DAE on future projects such as Linac4 and CTF3. This proposed Protocol defines a framework for collaboration and creates a 'Novel Accelerator Technology Fund', which would be run on the same lines as the existing LHC India Fund. The Finance Committee is invited to approve the conclusion of the proposed Protocol.