After two decades of debates for making the case for the scientific case, development of the machine & detector designs led by the world-wide QCD-enthusiasts, punctuated by many internal and external reviews, the US department of Energy proceeded to grant the Electron Ion Collider (EIC), a Critical Decision 0 (CD0 – “start of the project”) in January 2020.
Despite COVID, the EIC project has progressed well since then and is on track to start physics early in 2030s. Recently, world-wide experimental community came together to propose three compelling detector designs. An external committee evaluation in 2022 moved them further by asking to merge of the two starting with one of them and suggesting opportunities for a second detector at the second interaction region.
In this talk, after an introduction to the EIC science, I will present the status of the project & the path to realization. I will also present new ideas that have emerged recently for physics beyond the EIC’s original science mission. These new ideas could motivate upgrades to the 1st detector or to the EIC facility in form of a 2nd detector in the available interaction region.
