News

Poland celebrates 10 years of membership in CERIC

On 16 September 2026, at the Faculty of Chemistry of Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland celebrated the 10th anniversary of its membership in CERIC, with the National Synchrotron Radiation Centre SOLARIS marking a decade as CERIC’s Polish facility. 

The event took place on the third day of the Joint Meeting of PSRS Members and SOLARIS Centre Users, and gathered representatives of the infrastructures associated in the CERIC consortium, the management of CERIC and NCPS SOLARIS, and scientists using the consortium’s research infrastructure.  

Celebrations were graced by the CERIC General Assembly Chair Salvatore La Rosa, Michał Rybiński from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, former SOLARIS Director Marek Stankiewicz, and current SOLARIS Director Marcin Sikora, CERIC Board of Directors members Heinz Amenitsch, Janez Plavec, Lisa Vaccari, Danilo Licastro, CERIC executive director Andrew Harrison and his deputy Ornela De Giacomo.

Salvatore La Rosa congratulated Poland on 10 years of membership, highlighting the strong commitment of Poland and SOLARIS to CERIC: 

“Actually, what we are celebrating today is not only the duration of a membership, but also the high intensity of the commitment of Poland and SOLARIS in CERIC-ERIC. Born as a top-down initiative, it is making full profit of commitments from partner facilities like SOLARIS to reaching the level of excellence and capacity that are nowadays characterising this ERIC. Last but not least, let me please thank Prof. Carlo Rizzuto for the immense work done for this membership and for CERIC-ERIC.” 

The programme featured presentations on CERIC facilities and activities, as well as scientific results from experiments carried out by users through CERIC access. One of the key points of the programme was a lecture by Prof. Marek Stankiewicz, entitled “10 years of SOLARIS in CERIC-ERIC”, devoted to the history of cooperation between the SOLARIS Centre and the consortium and the importance of Polish membership for the development of scientific research.

The anniversary provided an opportunity to look back on a decade of collaboration and to look ahead to the continued development of cooperation between CERIC-ERIC and SOLARIS, serving the research community and the industry by providing access to complementary research infrastructures and advanced techniques across Europe and beyond.