Dear Colleagues, you can find the draft of the proposal for an International Scoping Study now posted at the Web page of the discussion- meeting that we had in London May 6 and 7. http://www.hep.ph.ic.ac.uk/%7Ekurup/uknfic/scopingStudy/May05.html It has been assembled by K. Long, after the meeting, incorporating first suggestions from a number of us. It is now open for general comments. The deadline for submission is Friday 27 !!!!! Please send your comments as soon as you can. We will be discussing the content of the Study before and during NuFact, however, where we hope that it will take final shape on the morning of June 26. Please find below the report I sent Friday to the meeting of restricted ECFA on the general progress of the ECFA/BENE study groups. It gives also some of general context of the Study. Best regards Vittorio Palladino BENE Coordinator ------------------------------------------------------------ The ECFA/BENE Working Groups are actively continuing their initiative, encouraged by the positive reactions of the CERN SPSC, in Villars, to our report from the MultiMegaWatt Workshop and by the discussion that has started recently in the SPC. Work is focusing on two main options, that appear, so far, to have comparable sensitivity to neutrino mixing angles and the leptonic CPV phase : 1) low energy, low rate neutrinos (Betabeam) aiming at a very large detector(Megaton scale, if water). In synergy with nucleon decay and astrophysics. The BENE Betabeam group has a Design Study going on within Eurisol. Most recent global discussion of this option was at NNN05 in Aussois (7-9 April). 2) high energy, high rate neutrinos (NuFact) towards a large magnetic detector(50 Kton or so of Iron is one option). This does NOT have a Design Study in progress. So we have been working to make up for this. Most recent discussion was in London, at Imperial College on May 6-7, on initiative of CCLRC, that is willing to support a first preparatory study, see below. Both options are being pursued in direct and mutually rewarding collaboration with the American and Japanese communities: most or all of the R&D experiments (high power targetry & collection experiment nTOF12 at CERN, Muon Ionisation Cooling experiment MICE at RAL etc) and of the multiple studies currently in progress. Both options above have synergy with a new multi-megawatt conventional neutrino beam (Superbeam). Technically, that consists of a pion decay tunnel downstream of the same target & collection complex of a neutrino factory. Scientifically it enhances significantly the physics reach of a betabeam. Both options have remarkable collaboration with the Eurisol studies on proton drivers and hi power targetry. We envisage the following path to decisions and choices. One that should lead, by 2010 or so, to the Conceptual Design Report of new neutrino accelerator complex for Europe. Going backwards: Full blown FP7 Design Study, in world-wide collaboration, 2008-2010 Further preparatory studies mid 2006 to end 2007. Based on the results of a first preparatory study ("Scoping Study") mid 2005 to mid 2006. This should produce 1) a first report late in 2005, before the CARE/BENEO5 meeting at CERN Nov 23-25 2) a final report in the Fall 2006, after the NuFact06 Workshop This (International) Scoping Study is the one discussed in London. We will present this before and during the NuFact05 Workshop in Frascati. Particularly on its last morning, Sunday June 26. Be there with us. The proposal will be submitted to ESGARD, ECFA, the CERN Directorate much before then. And of course to CCLRC and possibly other Eu agencies. It will also be submitted to the proper bodies in the US and in Japan. We plan to govern the study by means of a fully representative collaboration board. All these studies will cover all of the physics, accelerator and detector aspects involved (except the betabeam accelerator design already funded). Consensual stickyards to compare the physics reach of each beam & detector arrangement will be a major aim.