After their meeting in June 2025, the Einstein Telescope Board of Governmental Representatives (BGR) confirmed that Lusatia in Saxony, Germany is now considered to be an official candidate location for the Einstein Telescope. This follows Lusatia’s earlier expression of interest for becoming an official candidate. Conversations and collaborations with the Lusatia team were already ongoing for some time. This confirmation by the BGR can be seen as a formal step to fully include Lusatia in the procedures, next to Sardinia and the Euregio Meuse-Rhine.
Christian Stegmann, director in charge of astroparticle physics at DESY, will lead the team for Lusatia’s candidature. They will work on preparatory studies and activities necessary to support a (potential) bid to host the Einstein Telescope in the region. The activities include subsurface, economic impact and other feasibility studies, forming a host consortium and securing finances and local, regional and national support for a bid. Just like the teams for other candidate locations, the Lusatia team will explore hosting both potential geometries for the detector: the triangle-shape and the L-shape.
Stegmann is enthusiastic about the prospect: “I’m very pleased that Lusatia is officially recognised as a candidate site for the Einstein Telescope. We are now studying existing geological data and knowledge about this area, and new surveys are underway. This allows us to contribute robustly to the European process.”
The candidature of Lusatia in Germany brings the total of candidate locations to three. The other locations are the area of Sos Enattos in Sardinia in Italy, and the Euregio Meuse-Rhine, the border area of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. All three locations are working on similar preparatory and feasibility studies, supported by regional and national governments.
What does this development mean for the Einstein Telescope? Fernando Ferroni and Andreas Freise, directors of the Einstein Telescope Organisation, explain: “It’s very encouraging to see,” says Freise “that three regions consider hosting the Einstein Telescope to be an interesting opportunity. And not just for the science, but also for regional and national development.” Ferroni adds “Of course there is a sense of competition, but it is in the interest of the project to find the best location for the Einstein Telescope. And now we have three serious candidates. That’s a good thing!”
