The integration into industrial solutions will focus on increasing the involvement of companies from the early stages of the project. The main goal is to develop demonstrators with a higher degree of readiness for industrialization. For this purpose, it is essential that the academic R&D process is carried out from the earliest steps through an interactive process with experienced industry-specific partner companies to direct the research process precisely in the direction of industrialization. An Industry Board (IB) will be formed which will be consulted extensively and frequently throughout the project. The purpose of the IB is to assist the interactive process of co-development between academia and industry by organizing "design reviews" to increase the degree of industrialization of the iSAS technologies and to expedite the evolution of their technology readiness level (TRL). In addition, the IB will foster synergies between academia and companies that go beyond the classic procurer-supplier relationship, to achieve the ambitious goal of a joint design that combines new competencies, know-how, and shared intellectual property. All these elements are crucial to enrich the European industrial network with new specializations, to create new business opportunities and to enable opportunities for the iSAS technologies to enter new markets with innovative equipment. Ad hoc workshops and dedicated project dissemination sessions will be organized for industrial target groups to encourage this synergy and interaction between the participants and the new actors. iSAS will be supported by the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) to create new opportunities and also new relationships between academia and industry, and industry-industry. It is important that EEN can act as an independent partner for iSAS, so that EEN, with its broad network across Europe, can bring in companies and experts to, for example, evaluate the TRL of iSAS technologies and create new business opportunities. All these actions are aimed at creating energy-saving technologies ready for industrialization, which can unlock new business opportunities and attract new industrial partner.
The range of applications where this technology can be applied, beyond particle physics, nuclear physics, and light sources, is very broad. Some of the examples, also given in the European Strategy for Particle Physics, relate to compact FELs for semiconductors photolithography, high-power lasers, and accelerators for isotope production, but also very compact systems for the food industry, cross linking, wastewater and sludge treatments, and medical sterilization without 60Co to name a few. Nowadays, more than 40,000 accelerators are operating around the world, ranging from MeV to TeV energy scales, from meter to km lengths and from thousands to billions of euros cost. In 2021, the accelerator annual market value was estimated to be around $2.4B and is continuously growing.
