EuPRAXIA at IPAC’26 in Deauville

EuPRAXIA has recently been presented at the International Particle Accelerator Conference (IPAC’26) in Deauville, France. The 2026 edition was hosted by the GANIL laboratory in collaboration with CEA, CNRS, Synchrotron SOLEIL, and ESRF. 

The event attracted over 1,500 delegates from 41 countries and included a large industry showcase with over 100 exhibitors.

The comprehensive scientific programme highlighted global advances in accelerator research and development, offered insights into emerging projects, and enabled participants to exchange views on the latest progress in accelerator facilities worldwide. Alongside the engaging programme, attendees also had the opportunity to network with peers and build new professional connections.

Several members of the large EuPRAXIA community attended the conference, contributing to the scientific programme through talks or poster presentations.

Alexander Molodozhentsev (ELI Extreme Light Infrastructure) gave a talk on the designation of ELI ERIC as the second pillar of the EuPRAXIA distributed user facility and its development of a user-focused programme centred on laser–plasma accelerators.

Alexander Molodozhentsev during his talk at IPAC'26.

Another notable contribution was a presentation by Brigitte Cros (CNRS) on how electron beams with high quality, and tunable electron energy, have been achieved using the DRACO facility (HZDR Dresden), showing that the injection and acceleration processes can be controlled consistently in a gas cell.

The scientific programme also featured a poster on the status of the EuPRAXIA Doctoral Network, presented by EuPRAXIA-DN coordinator Carsten P Welsch (INFN/University of Liverpool). This highlighted selected research results and showed how training, secondments, schools and camps all are integral part of the network.

Alongside Professor Welsch, six of the network’s Fellows also presented posters at the conference, showcasing their latest research and developments.

Alex Whitehead and Mihail Miceski during the poster session.

Mihail Miceski, based at the Extreme Light Infrastructure ERIC, presented a poster on the impact of injection errors on EUV FEL performance in an active plasma lens (APL)-based beamline. The work investigated how position and angle mismatches at the injection point affect beam transport, emittance preservation, charge transmission, and FEL saturation. Using particle-tracking and FEL simulations, the study identified acceptable ranges of injection errors and highlighted the advantages of APLs as capture systems for maintaining optimal FEL performance. The results contribute to the development of compact free-electron laser facilities at ELI ERIC and within the EuPRAXIA project.

Andrés Leiva Genre, based at Pécs, Hungary, shared results on multi-cycle THz pulse generation and THz-driven electron acceleration. According to simulation results, acceleration gradients of approximately 120 MeV/m can be reached with current technology. Moreover, higher acceleration gradients can be expected as high-intensity THz sources further develop.

Alex Whitehead, based at the Extreme Light Infrastructure ERIC, presented a poster on Laser-Plasma Accelerator Based EUV-FEL Plasma Source Development At ELI-ERIC. In this poster, we analysed a plasma-target concept designed to generate stable, high-quality electron beams essential for compact Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) FEL applications. This work is contributing for the 100 Hz LPA-based FEL, under development at ELI ERIC in the frame of the EuPRAXIA project.

Xianghe Fang next to his poster.

Xianghe Fang, based at INFN, Italy, presented the latest update on the RF stabilization technique at SPARC_LAB of INFN-LNF, which is also recently accepted as a research article in the journal Applied Sciences. The results demonstrate a cheerful progress on phase jitter control in the klystron feeded RF system. The achieved 15-fs synchronization enables a promising and stable operation in beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerations.

Ana Maria Guisao Betancur, based at the University of Liverpool/Cockcroft Institute, UK, shared latest results of her studies into coherent transition radiation for bunch length diagnostics.

Divya explaining her research to a delegate.

Divya based at CIVIDEC, presented how diamond detectors can be used for beam charge measurements in laser-plasma accelerators.

The EuPRAXIA communication and public relations team from the University of Liverpool hosted a booth to promote the portfolio of EuPRAXIA projects as part of the industry exhibition. The booth featured information from the Preparatory Phase project, PACRI and the EuPRAXIA Doctoral Network. It was shared with the LIV.INNO Centre for Doctoral Training, with which the doctoral network has jointly organised a number of training events. It attracted many visitors and acted as a key location for networking and information sharing.  

A highlight of the booth was the release of the second edition of the comprehensive EuPRAXIA-DN brochure featuring the project's recent R&D, showcasing the research of the Fellows, and providing information about the network partners.

The booth showcasing EuPRAXIA at the industry exhibition.

The brochure is now available for download on the EuPRAXIA-DN website and will be distributed at prominent scientific conferences and workshops. It aims to raise awareness within the broader scientific community about the groundbreaking research being conducted by the EuPRAXIA-DN Fellows.