QUASAR Group unites for an inspiring 2025 Away Day
The entire QUASAR Group, including members usually based abroad, came together for the 2025 Away Day at the Novotel Liverpool Paddington Village on Friday, 13 September 2025. The event was a rare opportunity for the whole team to meet in person and allowed to reflect on recent achievements, discuss ongoing research, and agree on priorities for the years ahead.
Opening the meeting, Professor Carsten P Welsch congratulated the team on the successful delivery of IBIC 2025, the largest event the group has ever organized. This conference was a major collaborative effort that showcased the Group’s technical strengths and organizational capability. The Away Day offered a valuable moment to take stock of what worked well and identify areas for improvement as the team looks ahead to future international projects, including the world’s largest particle accelerator conference, IPAC’29.
Discussions about the long-term research strategy.
The discussions then turned towards the Group’s long-term research strategy. Professor Welsch outlined how he plans to advance the current research across three key areas: Frontier Accelerators, Novel Accelerators, and Accelerator Applications. The discussions highlighted the increasing importance of data-intensive science and in particular industry engagement. Through programs such as LIV.DAT and LIV.INNO, the QUASAR Group has already been taking a leading role in applying data science and AI tools to accelerator research. The team reviewed recent events including the LIV.INNO Data Science Summer School and the LIV.INNO Showcase, the AI for Innovation summit, the Healthcare Technologies Workshop at the Spine, and the Research and Technology Innovation Symposium planned for July 2026 - all designed to strengthen links between academia, industry, and wider innovation networks.
This was followed by moderated discussions about the Group’s communication and outreach activities, where many QUASARs made important contributions in the past – and where an ambitious strategy was discussed to further improve the visibility of the Group’s research.
As the meeting drew to a close, QUASARs shared reflections on the week, their experiences at IBIC 2025, and their aspirations for the future. The day concluded with some practical reminders and homework for all QUASARs to ensure that all activities across the Group feature in relevant social media and research platforms.