Gravitational Wave Project Office

Establishment of Gravitational Wave Project Office

April 1, 2011

Inauguration of the Gravitational Wave Project Office

Since mid. 1990’s when a committee on future projects of Institute for Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR) published its report, the construction of a gravitational wave detector (KAGRA) to discover the gravitational wave and to initiate the gravitational wave astronomy has been the top priority future project for ICRR. In 2010, this project was approved and funded by the Japanese government. We thank all of you who have been supporting this project.

Following the approval, ICRR has established “Gravitational Wave Project Office” on April 1, 2011. The construction of KAGRA will be carried out with the initiative of this office in collaboration with the collaborators in Japan and abroad. We sincerely appreciate your continuing strong support.

Takaaki Kajita
Director, Institute for Cosmic Ray Research
PI, KAGRA project

Address of Head of Gravitational Wave Project Office Kamioka Branch

Inauguration of the Kamioka branch of Gravitational Wave Peoject Office (GWPO).

We have come a long hard way, and, finally, we are ready to start the construction of a large interferometer in a tunnel stretching in total of 6 km to probe the universe. The encouragement of the local community was invaluable for us to overcome many problems to open the door for tomorrow.

We sincerely appreciate the continued support by the local community for
the success of this great, and very challenging, project.

Head of Kamioka Branch of GWPO
Masatake Ohashi