For the past few decades, nuclear research has been exclusive to accelerator and reactor facilities. The availability of radiation sources based on high intensity lasers opens new venues for conducting nuclear research.

The Extreme Light Infrastructure – Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) is a research facility under implementation in Bucharest, Romania. It aims at reaching high photon intensities for new experiments in Nuclear Physics and related areas. Thanks to two large research equipment significantly beyond present-day state-of-the-art, a high power laser system and a high intensity gamma beam system, ELI-NP promises to brake new ground in many areas of science and technology: from laser physics to accelerators and related technical developments, from engineering and material science to astrophysics and medicine.

I will report on the user program at ELI-NP and specifically on the involvement of a new research group being formed at Tel-Aviv U.