[Eicpp_personnel] [EXTERNAL] EIC Project Update

[Yeck, Jim]

Dear EIC Project Team:



Thank you for the tremendous effort in the last year preparing for the DOE Critical Decision 3A, Long Lead Procurement Approval.  The next major step is the Director's Review this week.  Thirty-one review committee members are evaluating the results of our work.  We will use the review and the advice to strengthen our long-lead procurement proposal and project plans.



I want to use this opportunity to highlight a couple of important developments and key project planning goals.



EIC Technical Director - Sergei Nagaitsev, currently EIC Senior Advisor and Principal Accelerator Scientist at JLab, will take over as the EIC Technical Director in November immediately following the DOE review in November.  The BNL Director, JoAnne Hewitt, and JLab Director, Stuart Henderson, are working out the final details and supporting this transition.  Sergei will be a BNL employee based at BNL starting in January.  Ferdinand Willeke will transition to a Senior Advisor role.  This is an ideal arrangement to ensure we maintain the expertise needed to move the project forward towards CD-2.  Our collider is extremely challenging and requires a world-renowned leadership team experienced in collaborating with experts across the globe.  Ferdinand Willeke, one of the best in our business, led the EIC effort at BNL starting in 2016 and assumed the TD role in 2020 to successfully lead the BNL-JLab team in preparing the conceptual design, securing CD-1 in 2021, and proposing CD-3A for approval.  His successor, Sergei Nagaitsev, also one of the best in the world, will take over leadership of our efforts to complete the EIC design and prepare the DOE performance baseline.  Thank you, Ferdinand and Sergei, for serving in these key technical leadership roles.



EIC Chief of Staff - Alyssa Petrone started as the EIC Chief of Staff in August.  The Chief of Staff supports the Executive Management Team (EMT) and the EIC governance bodies.  Alyssa prepares EMT decisions, promotes enhanced communication, and unites people across the project to keep us moving forward.  We all know a key to project success is timely decisions and Alyssa's talent and experience are ideal for this role.  Thank you, Alyssa, we look forward to working with you in this new role.



Project Organization - We are optimizing the project organization structure in preparation for the next phase of the project.   The current draft project organization chart is posted as part of the supporting documentation for the Director's review.  I will continue to develop the organization chart in consultation with the EMT and others.  A final version will be shared at the DOE Office of Project Assessment review in November. The project organization chart provides the structure to map responsibilities down to Level 3 of the Project Work Breakdown Structure.  All EIC Project team members are recognized in their home institution's organizations at JLab and BNL.



CD-3A, Long Lead Procurement (LLP) Approval - IRA funding ($138M) enabled the EIC project to regain momentum and propose and support CD-3A.  The final LLP list satisfies multiple objectives:  significant risk mitigation, advanced design maturity, and affordable within available funding.  We achieved the goal of a strong LLP package in less than a year after IRA funding became available, a major accomplishment benefiting the entire project.



CD-3B, Long Lead Procurement (LLP) Approval - Yes, we need authorization for a CD-3B LLP package in late 2024 to ensure continued technical progress and risk mitigation before CD-2 and CD-3.  We will determine the final scope of the LLP package in the same manner as CD-3A and work with DOE to secure the funding and approval.



CD-2/3, Performance Baseline/Construction Start Approval - We are proposing CD-2/3 in FY2025, the last year of RHIC operations and the best opportunity to efficiently pivot resources, funding, and people, from RHIC operations directly into EIC construction.  CD-2/3 in FY2025 is achievable as long as funding and staffing ramp up at the expected rates.  This will be our primary focus following the CD-3A reviews.



Funding Uncertainties - The annual funding profile for the EIC project will remain uncertain until we secure CD-2.  Our job is to continue to make the maximum technical progress with the funding available and to prepare the EIC performance baseline for DOE approval.  The IRA funding was a game changer, providing a needed boost, but in general, we can expect our progress will be funding-limited until we secure an approved baseline.  There is important progress on securing the $100M in New York State funding committed to the construction of EIC buildings.  The agreement was recently submitted to DOE for approval.



We are building the only new collider in the world that will deliver unique physics and discovery potential and as a result, the world wants to help us succeed on this journey.  The review this week is a major step in this journey.



Sincerely,

Jim Yeck



Associate Laboratory Director & EIC Project Director
Electron-Ion Collider
Brookhaven National Laboratory
C: (608) 999-1740
Alyssa Petrone, EIC Chief of Staff, apetrone at bnl.gov<mailto:apetrone at bnl.gov>




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