On March 2021, Brookhaven National Laboratory and Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility JLab together issued a call for Collaboration Proposals for Detectors at the EIC with proposals due by Wednesday, December 1, 2021. The EIC user community has been very active to answer the call and three proto-collaborations have submitted proposals: ATHENA, CORE, ECCE.
In a public meeting on December 13-15, 2021, these proposals were presented to the independent Detector Proposal Advisory Panel appointed to advise BNL and JLab on how to realize the optimal set of experimental equipment capable of addressing the EIC science. The process includes a second, follow-up meeting on January 19-21, 2022 in which the proto-collaborations will address questions posed by the Panel that arose from the December 2021 meeting. This follow up meeting consists of executive sessions only; participation is by invitation. The process is expected to be completed around March 1, 2022, and a report will be made publicly available.