Open Access

Enrico Chiaveri, Oliver Aberle, Victor Alcayne, Simone Amaducci, Józef Andrzejewski, Laurent Audouin, Victor Babiano Suarez, Michael Bacak, Massimo Barbagallo, Samuel Bennett, Eric Berthoumieux, Damir Bosnar, Adam S. Brown, Maurizio Busso, Manuel Caamaño, Luis Caballero Ontanaya, Marco Calviani, Francisco Calviño Tavares, Daniel Cano-Ott, Adrià Casanovas Hoste, Francesco Cerutti, Nicola Colonna, Guillem Pere Cortés Rossell, Miguel Antonio Cortés-Giraldo, Luigi Cosentino, Sergio Cristallo, Lucia Anna Damone, Paul John Davies, Maria Diakaki, Mirco Dietz, César Domingo-Pardo, Rugard Dressler, Quentin Ducasse, Emmeric Dupont, Ignacio Durán, Zinovia Eleme, Beatriz Fernández Domínguez, Alfredo Ferrari, Isabel Maria Ferro Gonçalves, Paolo Finocchiaro, Valter Furman, Ruchi Garg, Aleksandra Gawlik, Simone Gilardoni, Kathrin Göbel, Enrique Miguel González Romero, Carlos Guerrero Sánchez, Frank Gunsing, Stephan Heinitz, Jan Heyse, David Jenkins, Erwin Jericha, U. Jiri, Arnd Rudolf Junghans, Yacine Kadi, Franz Käppeler, Atsushi Kimura, Ingrid Knapová, Michael Kokkoris, Yuri N. Kopatch, Milan Krtička, Cem Deniz Kurtulgil, Ion Ladarescu, Claudia Lederer-Woods, Jorge Lerendegui-Marco, Sarah-Jane Lonsdale, Daniela Macina, Alice Manna, Trinitario Martı́nez, Alessandro Masi, Cristian Massimi, Pierfrancesco Mastinu, Mario Mastromarco, Emilio Andrea Maugeri, Annamaria Mazzone, Emilio Mendoza Cembranos, Alberto Mengoni, Veatriki Michalopoulou, Paolo Maria Milazzo, María de los Ángeles Millán Callado, Federica Mingrone, Javier Moreno-Soto, Agatino Musumarra, Alexandru Negret, Francisco Ogállar Ruiz, Andreea Oprea, Nikolas Patronis, Andreas Pavlik, Jarosław Perkowski, Cristina Petrone, Luciano Piersanti, Elisa Pirovano, José Ignacio Porras Sánchez, Javier Praena, José Manuel Quesada Molina, Diego Ramos Doval, René Reifarth, Dimitri Rochman, Carlo Rubbia, Marta Sabaté-Gilarte, Alok Saxena, Peter Schillebeeckx, Dorothea Schumann, Adhitya Sekhar, Alastair Gavin Smith, Nikolay V. Sosnin, Peter Sprung, Athanasios Stamatopoulos, Giuseppe Tagliente, José Luis Taı́n Enríquez, Ariel Tarifeño-Saldivia, Laurent Tassan-Got, Benedikt Thomas, Pablo Torres-Sánchez, Andrea Tsinganis, Sebastian Urlaß, Stanislav Valenta, Gianni Vannini, Vincenzo Variale, Pedro Vaz, Alberto Ventura, Diego Vescovi, Vasilis Vlachoudis, Rosa Vlastou, Anton Wallner, Philip John Woods, Tobias J. Wright, Petar Žugec

• Since the start of its operation in 2001, based on an idea of Prof. Carlo Rubbia [1], the neutron time of-flight facility of CERN, n_TOF, has become one of the most forefront neutron facilities in the world for wide-energy spectrum neutron cross section measurements. Thanks to the combination of excellent neutron energy resolution and high instantaneous neutron flux available in the two experimental areas, the second of which has been constructed in 2014, n_TOF is providing a wealth of new data on neutron-induced reactions of interest for nuclear astrophysics, advanced nuclear technologies and medical applications. The unique features of the facility will continue to be exploited in the future, to perform challenging new measurements addressing the still open issues and long-standing quests in the field of neutron physics. In this document the main characteristics of the n_TOF facility and their relevance for neutron studies in the different areas of research will be outlined, addressing the possible future contribution of n_TOF in the fields of nuclear astrophysics, nuclear technologies and medical applications. In addition, the future perspectives of the facility will be described including the upgrade of the spallation target, the setup of an imaging installation and the construction of a new irradiation area.