The ELiTES proposal has been invited by the European Commission to the negotiation phase.

Eight institutes, participating to the ET science team, under the coordination of EGO,have presented at the beginning of 2011 a FP7 proposal titled: "ET-LCGT Interferometric Telescopes Exchange of Scientists" (ELiTES). It has been submitted under the International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES) programme and it consists in a four years scientists exchange programme between Europe and Japan, focused on cryogenic technology issues for LCGT and ET. The proposal has been evaluated positively by EU and invited to the negotiation phase.