Moves are afoot to structure and strengthen the field of astroparticle physics, which sits at the junction between particle physics and astrophysics. On 10 July 2019, CERN and APPEC (the Astroparticle Physics European Consortium) created a new research centre for astroparticle physics theory, EuCAPT (European Centre for Astroparticle Theory), with the aim of coordinating and promoting theoretical physics in the fields of astroparticle physics and cosmology in Europe.
The centre is led by an international steering committee that comprises 12 theorists from institutes in France, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and from CERN.
For the first five years, CERN will be the central node of this network that brings together a dozen European institutes active in astroparticle physics, with others already having expressed an interest in joining. CERN plans to organise meetings and thematic workshops to advance theory in this field.
Gianfranco Bertone, the spokesperson of GRAPPA, the centre of excellence in gravitation and astroparticle physics at the University of Amsterdam, is EuCAPT’s inaugural director.