On Tuesday, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a report giving a full-throated endorsement to a new particle accelerator project called the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). The sign off is a significant step toward getting the project off the ground and taking particle physics to the next level.

Two national laboratories are already competing to host the accelerator, though it will likely be several years before the Department of Energy officially launches the project. It’s expected that the project would upgrade the existing ion collider at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Long Island, or the electron beam at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Laboratory in Newport News, Virginia. According to Edwin Cartlidge at Nature, a report by the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee three years ago suggested the project would cost at least $1 billion.