By Markus Zerlauth (CERN)
The 15th HL-LHC Collaboration Meeting brought together over 300 scientists and engineers from around the globe at CERN, marking a major milestone as the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) Project moves quickly through the production phase and is gearing up for its deployment in the LHC tunnel from July 2026.
Hosted at CERN’s Science Gateway and across the CERN site from 29th September to 2nd October, the meeting served as both a technical deep-dive and a celebration of recent achievements across the 19 work-packages of the project and its international collaborations. During the welcome drinks reception at CERN's Globe of Science and Innovation and an unforgettable evening and dinner at the Science Gateway, many old and new contacts were strengthened, underlining the importance of international cooperation for the realisation of our current and future accelerator projects. For the special occasion of this collaboration meeting taking place at CERN, the IT String and the underground galleries at Point 1 opened their doors to showcase the successful completion of installation of the entire magnet string as well as the major advancements of infrastructure installations in the new underground galleries and surface buildings.
“The transition from design to installation is not just underway – it’s accelerating,” said outgoing HL-LHC Project Leader Oliver Brüning, who officially passed the baton to Markus Zerlauth during the meeting.
With Long Shutdown 3 (LS3) approaching in 2026, the HL-LHC Project is entering a decisive phase. The collaborative spirit, technical progress, and the excellent preparation showcased by all the teams at the meeting underscored the project's readiness to take on the challenges ahead and to successfully deliver the machine for its restart with proton beams in June 2030.
Figure 2. Some participants on tours of the IT String (left) and the new underground HL-LHC galleries (right). Florence Thompson / CERN