ASPERA (or AStroParticle European Research Area) is a network of national government agencies responsible for coordinating and funding national research efforts in astroparticle physics.

Members

ASPERA comprises the following agencies: FNRS (Belgium), FWO (Belgium), <span title="Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport">MEYS (Czech Republic), CEA (France), CNRS (France), BMBF (Germany), PTDESY (Germany), DEMOKRITOS (Greece), INFN (Italy), FOM (Netherlands), FCT (Portugal), FECYT (Spain), MEC (Spain), SNF (Switzerland), VR (Sweden), STFC (United Kingdom) and the European organization CERN.

History

ASPERA started in July 2006 and is funded by the European Commission over a three-year period. ASPERA has come about through the existence of ApPEC (Astroparticle Physics European Coordination/Consortium) which was founded in 2001 when six European scientific agencies took the initiative to coordinate and encourage Astroparticle Physics in Europe.

Roadmap

One of the most important achievements of ASPERA was to produce a common European Roadmap for the future, in the field of astroparticle physics. Published in September 2008 in Brussels, the Roadmap presents the "Magnificent Seven", which are the Seven large infrastructures expected in the next 10 years to answer some of the most exciting questions about the Universe such as: What is dark matter? What is the origin of cosmic rays? What is the role of violent cosmic processes? Can we detect gravitational waves?