Dear colleagues,
We write to inform you of a new responsibility we are giving to the
WWS Detector R&D Panel, namely to implement a systematic procedure for
peer-reviewing ILC detector R&D on a world-wide basis. This new system
is intended to put the detector R&D on a more even basis with ILC
accelerator R&D, which is already organised by the RDB (the Research and
Development Board of the GDE) into world-wide task forces.
Detailed plans are still being finalised, but the general procedure
will be as follows. The Panel, operating within the existing structure
of regional workshops, will organise the review of one set of topics at
each workshop, starting as follows:
Beijing (Feb 2007)--tracking,
DESY (LCWS) (June 2007)--calorimetry,
Fermilab (October 2007)--vertexing and
Asia (tbd 2008)--particle ID, muon tracking, solenoid, beam diagnostics
and DAQ.
By cycling through the four sets of topics in this way, over time each
region will host every topic.
To help with the peer review process, we plan to invite impartial
experts from outside the ILC community, as well as members of the
Detector R&D Panel. Each review will start with an open session,
followed by a closed session on the next day.
Every group will be invited to present a status report on their
work, including past and future milestones, through to completion of
their R&D goals. For these purposes, a 'group' will be taken to mean
any R&D activity covered by agreements with funding sources in one
country. This means that there would be, in general, one report per
country for a collaborative effort involving more than one country. A
programme within EUDET will also be considered a group. Large
collaborations such as LC-TPC or CALICE may wish to organise their open
session presentations in the form of an extended introduction, followed
by presentations from each of their constituent groups, who will explain
what R&D plans are covered by their national resources. In the closed
session, each group will have the opportunity to discuss funding issues
and other possibly confidential matters related to achieving their
milestones.
After the closed session, the reviewers will write a report on the
work of each group, to be made available to the group, the WWS-OC, the
GDE, and the relevant funding agency. We anticipate that these reports
will be useful to the groups seeking ongoing support for their work and
to refine their R&D activities.
The reports will also provide input to the existing regional review
processes (such as the DESY PRC in Europe), which will continue to
provide important guidance. This system will cover the transition
period until R&D activities become the responsibility of experiment
collaborations.
We should further comment that these reviews will be held in
addition to, not instead of, the existing detector sessions at the
regional workshops. These sessions will continue to be important
channels of communication of new results, as well as enabling young
physicists to present their own work.
Sincerely,
Jim Brau
Francois Richard
Hitoshi Yamamoto
WWS-OC Co-chairs
-------------
Barry Barish
Gerry Dugan
Brian Foster
Mitsuaki Nozaki
Tor Raubenheimer
Nicholas Walker
Kaoru Yokoya****
** GDE Executive Committee
-----------------------
--
James E. Brau
Physics Department
and Center for High Energy Physics
1274 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-1274
(541) 346-4766
