Setting up of the European Research Infrastructure Consortium for the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO ERIC), Slovenia is a funding member
On January 8, 2025, the European Commission announced on its official website that the European Research Infrastructure Consortium for the "Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory" (CTAO ERIC) was set up on January 7, 2025.

The initiative to set up the CTAO was submitted to the European Commission by Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, and the European Southern Observatory (ESO). Italy will host the headquarters of CTAO ERIC. In Slovenia, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Innovation supports the construction of the CTAO and the participation of Slovenian scientists as part of the Research Infrastructure Development Plan 2030 (NRRI 2030).
The mission of CTAO ERIC is to build and manage world’s largest observatory for high-energy cosmic ray astronomy (photon energy ranging from 20 GeV to 300 TeV). The observatory will be built at two sites: the northern array, already under construction at La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain), and the southern array, which will be located at Paranal, in the Atacama Desert of Chile.
Since 2013, Slovenian scientists from the University of Nova Gorica and the Jožef Stefan Institute have been involved in the international Cherenkov Telescope Array Consortium (CTAC), which developed the conceptual design and research strategies for the observatory. During the preparatory phase for construction, they contributed to a wide range of scientific projects and publications and co-developed the research strategy for the CTAO. Their work focuses on two key areas in high-energy astrophysics: the exploration of dark matter and new physics using machine learning methods, and the integration of measurements from other high-energy and extreme-energy particle astrophysics experiments to achieve ambitious research goals.
The Slovenian research group is also actively contributing to the infrastructure preparations for the CTAO. In collaboration with the Institut de Física d’Altes Energies, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and the Università degli Studi di Padova, they are developing a Raman LIDAR system for atmospheric characterization and monitoring at the La Palma observatory ).
As the largest observatory for high-energy astronomy, CTAO ERIC will facilitate general scientific and technological development, foster innovation, and address other challenges encountered by modern society. As such, it is expected to provide a considerable added value to the development of the European Research Area. Researchers from member states will have access to unique data that will provide a better and more comprehensive understanding of the universe, its fundamental components, their interactions, and the high-energy processes occurring within it.
