Another research infrastructure proposal included in the updated Polish Map for Research Infrastructure—with the University of Silesia in Katowice acting as the lead institution—is POULARIS (Poland’s Underground Laboratory for Advanced Research, Innovation, and Science). It is Poland’s first deep underground laboratory, planned for a depth of several hundred metres below the Earth’s surface.
The interdisciplinary laboratory will host research requiring extremely low levels of natural background radiation and specialised research facilities. The POULARIS infrastructure will also be used for testing, evaluating, and calibrating scientific instruments and control and measurement devices.
To ensure the lowest possible level of natural radioactivity, salt or anhydrite deposits at two locations are being considered as potential sites for the laboratory: one of the mines owned by KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, and the Kłodawa Salt Mine in the Greater Poland Voivodeship.
There are relatively few underground laboratories worldwide, and even fewer facilities with specifications comparable to those planned for POULARIS. Leading European laboratories of this type are located in countries such as Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, and France. Outside Europe, similar infrastructure exists in countries including Japan, the United States, and Canada.
Given the growing interest in research conducted in low-background radiation environments, POULARIS could create unique opportunities for the development of domestic research projects and attract international scientific teams and initiatives to Poland.
The POULARIS consortium comprises the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection in Warsaw, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Jagiellonian University, the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kraków, the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, KGHM CUPRUM Sp. z o.o. – Research and Development Centre in Wrocław, and the National Centre for Nuclear Research in Otwock.
POULARIS – Poland’s first deep underground laboratory. Image generated by AI