On 22 July 2026, the Kick-Off Meeting / Progress Meeting 3 for the NAHEPaM (NewATHENA High-Energy Particle Monitor) project was held at the National Centre for Nuclear Research (NCBJ). The project is being carried out by the National Centre for Nuclear Research (NCBJ) and the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences (CAMK PAN) under a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA). The instrument will measure the flux of high-energy particles incident on the future NewATHENA mission.
This will enable scientists to determine the X-ray background level in real time during observations of cosmic objects with an unprecedented level of accuracy.

Representatives of all project partners attended the meeting. The European Space Agency was represented by Dr. Alexander Stefanescu and Dr. Jean-Philippe Halain from the PRODEX Office. CAMK PAN was represented by Prof. Agata Różańska and Dr. Rafał Wojaczyński. The National Centre for Nuclear Research was represented by members of the core project team: Prof. Agnieszka Pollo, Dominik Rybka, Dr. Tomasz Szczęśniak, Piotr Mazerewicz, and Dr. Roch Kwiatkowski. Other members of the project team also participated in the meeting.

The meeting marked the beginning of a new phase of the project, funded through the European Space Agency's PRODEX programme. During the meeting, the participants discussed the work plan for the coming months, the structure of the work packages, and the progress achieved so far in the development of the NAHEPaM instrument. Another important topic was the activities aimed at increasing the likelihood of the instrument being included in the final payload configuration of the NewATHENA mission. The discussions concluded with the definition of the key tasks to be carried out during the next phase of the project.