Preparatory Phase

In March 2008 the Preparatory Phase of KM3NeT infrastructure started, funded by the EU FP7 framework. The primary objective of the KM3NeT Preparatory Phase is to pave the path to political and scientific convergence on the legal, governance, financial engineering and siting aspects of the infrastructure and to prepare rapid and efficient construction once approved. As has become apparent in the KM3NeT Design Study, reconciliation of national and regional political and financial priorities with scientific and technological considerations will be a major issue.

In 2010, the KM3NeT consortium defined the technology of the research infrastructure following the Technical Design Report and concluding validation tests conducted after.

The KM3NeT Preparatory Phase has been formally concluded in February 2012. Due to delays in the in-situ validation programme which require timely availability of deployment vessels and ROVs, the final Pre-Production Model of the major components will be delivered during 2012 and the spring of 2013. The construction of the first phase of the KM3NeT Research Infrastructure (KMN3NeT-phase1) has started with furnishing two KM3NeT sites with a seafloor network and a shore station. These sites are located off-shore Capo Passero, Italy and off-shore Toulon, France. Construction of detection units for KM3NeT-phase1 will start following succesfull validation of the Pre-Production Model in the spring of 2013.

Work packages

The work foreseen in the preparatory phase study has been organised in work packages. Each work package has its own coordinator and executive committee, responsible for the progress of the work in the package.