-------------------------------- Steps for the UK: ----------------- What we, the UK, are required to do is to develop a plan in collaboration with the international MICE collaboration for the successful construction and commissioning of the MICE experiment such that the cost to the UK is 7.5M or 10M pounds. I think we should interpret this a bit more liberally and present a plan for 12.5M as well. To do this we shall require to: * Make significant progress in the WBS analysis. This is required principally to be able to argue that the application of a 30% contingency on all items is too crude an implement; * Identify possible contributions in kind and savings from the use of refurbished equipment. We have already taken some steps towards these goals. The tracker prototyping activity will give a precise estimate of all mechanical items and assembly effort required for the scintillating fibre tracker. A review of electronics costs has been initiated and will be pursued. Elwyn, Giles and the team are working through a detailed costing of the coils, considering construction in house as well as construction in industry. Paul has already made one pass through the beam and infrastructure costs and will continue to work on this with the RAL team. Boundary conditions: -------------------- It is essential to preserve the broadly based activity that the UK currently proposes. Without this broadly based activity it will not be possible to have the breadth of involvement from the UK university community that is required to justify the large sum of money that the project will cost the UK. Timescale: ---------- The background to the timescale upon which we are working is: * The 7.5M earmarked for MICE can begin to flow in April 2004. It seems that PPARC would like to see the project moving by then; * The long-promised letter from CCLRC/PPARC has been drafted and will be sent soon I understand. The letter indicates the Ken Peach will be making contact with the various funding agencies over the next few months to assess the level of support for MICE from the international community; * The UK approval process is on hold until we have made progress on the costing outlined above and an 'informal' external review of our costs has been carried out by a senior accelerator physicist and a senior engineer; * The next MICE project board has been scheduled for 07Oct03, or a date close to this, in order to allow time to prepare for the MICE collaboration meeting at RAL at the end of October. We are under pressure to show progress on the UK cost estimates on the timescale of this board meeting. Support from MICE: ------------------ Actually, MICE is already preparing the support we shall need. Essentially, we shall need the MICE WBS to analyse the various cost savings and what the experiment can achieve in the various scenarios for UK funding. I don't anticipate that we can be ready either with the UK WBS or the MICE WBS by 07Oct03, but, I think it will be important to demonstrate that progress has been made and perhaps to draw some interim conclusions. ------------------------------