The NEXT experiment is one of the leading efforts searching for neutrinoless double beta decay, which - if detected - will prove that the neutrino is a Majorana fermion. It focuses on Xe-136, applying a high-pressure gaseous Time Projection Chamber (TPC) operated at 10-15 bar of enriched Xe gas. The experiment, which Ben Gurion University recently joined, has superb energy resolution and unique imaging capabilities which allow it to identify candidate neutrinoless double beta decay events based on their energy and topological signature. Successful operation of a 10-kg prototype in the Canfranc Underground Laboratory in Spain now paves the way to the construction of the NEXT-100 TPC (with 100 kg Xe-136), to be commissioned during 2019.

This talk will provide an overview of the experiment and its physics goals, describing its concept, current status and future plans, as well as the associated activity at BGU.