KM3NeT: A cubic-kilometre scale deep sea neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean Sea

The European KM3NeT consortium is presently carrying out R and D activities towards the construction of a cubic-kilometre scale deep-sea Cherenkov detector for high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. Located in the Mediterranean Sea, KM3NeT will complement the field of view of the IceCube neutrino telescope currently under construction at the South Pole. KM3NeT will allow for observations of the Galactic Centre and most of the Galactic plane, where H.E.S.S. has discovered several TeV-gamma sources, some of which are candidate neutrino sources. The three Mediterranean pilot projects, ANTARES, NEMO and NESTOR, are actively involved in KM3NeT, which is declared a high-priority project by the astronomy (ASTRONET Roadmap) and astroparticle (ASPERA Roadmap) scientific communities and has been included in the 2006/08 Roadmaps of the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI). Additionally, a number of oceanography, geophysics, biology, environmental sciences and geology institutions are active in the KM3NeT consortium with the aim of helping create a future multidisciplinary deep-sea research infrastructure in the Mediterranean Sea.