The ELI workshop at IMDEA Nanoscience brings together the Spanish collaborators of the Extreme Light Infrastructure
Emilio Pérez, director of IMDEA Nanociencia, opens the ELI ERIC - Spanish Partner DAY 2026 event. Credits: IMDEA Nanociencia
- Over the course of the day, the leading Spanish collaborators of the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) gathered at IMDEA Nanociencia.
- ELI operates as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) that develops some of the world’s most intense lasers.
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Madrid, 4th November, 2026 IMDEA Nanociencia hosted the ELI workshop at its facilities, which was attended by Spanish collaborators of the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI)—the world’s largest and most advanced high-power laser platform, as well as a global leader in technology and innovation in high-power, high-intensity, and short-pulse laser systems.
During the morning session, Zsolt Fülöp, Naďa Witzanyová, and Luca Volpe presented on the institutional and user management aspects of ELI ERIC. This was followed by a presentation on the research priorities and interests of the Spanish scientific community, with presentations by representatives from GELUR-RSEF (Crina Cojocaru), CLPU (Giancarlo Gatti), IMDEA (Enrique Canóvas), and the Guillermo Velarde Institute of Nuclear Fusion (Pedro Velarde).
In the afternoon, the experimental capabilities of the ELI ALPS and ELI Beamlines facilities were detailed in presentations by Subhendu Kahaly and Eva Klimešová. In addition, María Teresa Flores (University of Santiago de Compostela) and Luis Bañares (Complutense University of Madrid) presented the research areas of their respective universities related to ELI, and the day concluded with a discussion session on the next steps to be taken.
ELI is the first ESFRI flagship facility built in the Member States of Central and Eastern Europe. With an investment of more than 850 million euros from the European Regional Development Fund, three world-class high-power, high-repetition-rate laser facilities have been established in the Czech Republic (ELI Beamlines), Hungary (ELI-ALPS), and Romania (ELI-NP).
In terms of research, ELI’s lasers open up a wide range of possibilities for discovery, from fundamental research in strong-field physics to highly practical problems in materials science and engineering. The techniques deployed at ELI enable pulse durations down to the attosecond timescale and peak power in the tens of petawatts, opening new horizons for “big science” in key scientific disciplines such as physics, biology, and materials science, with a uniquely cost-effective approach. As the technology develops and spreads, it is becoming one of the most cost-effective means of conducting “big science” in physics, biology, and materials science.
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IMDEA Nanociencia Outreach and Communications Office
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Source: IMDEA Nanociencia.
The IMDEA Nanociencia Institute is an interdisciplinary research center in Madrid dedicated to the exploration of nanoscience and the development of nanotechnology applications for innovative industries. IMDEA Nanociencia has been a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence since 2017, the highest national recognition for research excellence.