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Big Science and Research Infrastructures in Europe
This thought-provoking book expands on the notion that Big Science is not the only term to describe and investigate particularly large research projects, scientific collaborations and facilities. It investigates the significant overlap between Big Science and Research Infrastructures (RIs) in a European context since the early twenty-first century. Contributions to this innovative book not only augment the study of Big Science with new perspectives, but also launch the study of RIs as a promising new line of inquiry.
More Information
Critical Acclaim
Contributors
Contents
More Information
This thought-provoking book expands on the notion that Big Science is not the only term to describe and investigate particularly large research projects, scientific collaborations and facilities. It investigates the significant overlap between Big Science and Research Infrastructures (RIs) in a European context since the early twenty-first century.
Contributions to this innovative book not only augment the study of Big Science with new perspectives, but also launch the study of RIs as a promising new line of inquiry. Chapters testify to a generational shift that is taking place in this field, amending and complementing prior analyses of Big Science. Advancing our knowledge, this interdisciplinary book explores how Big Science and RIs can be categorized, how the politics around them can be understood, and how they relate to the surrounding science and research policy landscape of Europe.
Big Science and Research Infrastructures in Europe will be of value to students and scholars interested in science and innovation policy across sociology, economics, management and political science. Policymakers, science administrators and operators of RIs will also benefit from the critical insights provided.
Contributions to this innovative book not only augment the study of Big Science with new perspectives, but also launch the study of RIs as a promising new line of inquiry. Chapters testify to a generational shift that is taking place in this field, amending and complementing prior analyses of Big Science. Advancing our knowledge, this interdisciplinary book explores how Big Science and RIs can be categorized, how the politics around them can be understood, and how they relate to the surrounding science and research policy landscape of Europe.
Big Science and Research Infrastructures in Europe will be of value to students and scholars interested in science and innovation policy across sociology, economics, management and political science. Policymakers, science administrators and operators of RIs will also benefit from the critical insights provided.
Critical Acclaim
‘This book skillfully updates the literature on Big Science, containing newer perspectives on the history, sociology, and politics of research infrastructures. The interdisciplinary yet neatly integrated contributions show how “big organizations, big machines, and big politics” co-construct Europe and its research infrastructure.’
– Cyrus Mody, Maastricht University, the Netherlands
''This is an ambitious and effective coverage of the network of European Big Science institutions. It is a comprehensive and insightful work that takes us behind purely scientific scenes to examine the policies that govern large European science projects, the legal frameworks that shape them, the funding that supports them, and the alliance-building that made them possible. The chapters are comprehensive, and reveal the political and commercial forces at work in the expanding network of European scientific institutions, as well as their crucial role in European integration and multinational cooperation.''
– Robert P. Crease, Stony Brook University, US
‘This book, in a comprehensive and appealing way, tells a story of large scientific facilities dating back to the early Cold War and reaching the current era of integrated Research Infrastructure eco-systems. Going from a competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to scientific cooperation among European states to tackle the grand challenges such as key health, environmental or quality of life problems, the book provides an evolutionary picture based on deep understanding and a solid analytical framework. The authors have done magnificent work on a topic that has been so far mostly scattered in diverse policy reports. A great analysis for anyone dipping their toe in Big Science or Research Infrastructures.’
– Jan Hrušák, ESFRI Chair and The Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
– Cyrus Mody, Maastricht University, the Netherlands
''This is an ambitious and effective coverage of the network of European Big Science institutions. It is a comprehensive and insightful work that takes us behind purely scientific scenes to examine the policies that govern large European science projects, the legal frameworks that shape them, the funding that supports them, and the alliance-building that made them possible. The chapters are comprehensive, and reveal the political and commercial forces at work in the expanding network of European scientific institutions, as well as their crucial role in European integration and multinational cooperation.''
– Robert P. Crease, Stony Brook University, US
‘This book, in a comprehensive and appealing way, tells a story of large scientific facilities dating back to the early Cold War and reaching the current era of integrated Research Infrastructure eco-systems. Going from a competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to scientific cooperation among European states to tackle the grand challenges such as key health, environmental or quality of life problems, the book provides an evolutionary picture based on deep understanding and a solid analytical framework. The authors have done magnificent work on a topic that has been so far mostly scattered in diverse policy reports. A great analysis for anyone dipping their toe in Big Science or Research Infrastructures.’
– Jan Hrušák, ESFRI Chair and The Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
Contributors
Contributors: I.K. Bolliger, A. Collsiöö, K.C. Cramer, B. D’Ippolito, H. Eriksson, T. Franssen, A. Griffiths, O. Hallonsten, J.-C. Mauduit, M. Moskovko, N. Rüffin, C.-C. Rüling, I. Ulnicane, A. Williams
Contents
Contents:
1 Big Science and Research Infrastructures in Europe: History
and current trends 1
Katharina C. Cramer, Olof Hallonsten, Isabel K. Bolliger
and Alexandra Griffiths
2 Methods and strategies in the study of Big Science and
Research Infrastructures: A review 27
Nicolas Rüffin
3 The role of European Big Science in the (geo)political
challenges of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries 56
Katharina C. Cramer
4 Ever-changing Big Science and Research Infrastructures:
Evolving European Union policy 76
Inga Ulnicane
5 The introduction of ESFRI and the rise of national Research
Infrastructure roadmaps in Europe 101
Isabel K. Bolliger and Alexandra Griffiths
6 Intensified role of the European Union? European Research
Infrastructure Consortium as a legal framework for
contemporary multinational research collaboration 128
Maria Moskovko
7 Research Infrastructure funding as a tool for science
governance in the humanities: A country case study of the
Netherlands 157
Thomas Franssen
8 The role of research infrastructures in innovation systems:
The case of Swedish participation in the Halden Reactor Project 177
Olof Hallonsten, Hjalmar Eriksson and August Collsiöö
9 The access and return on investment dilemma in Big
Science Research Infrastructures: A case study in astronomy 198
Andrew Williams and Jean-Christophe Mauduit
10 Is there an “iron law” of Big Science? 217
Olof Hallonsten
11 Keeping a Research Infrastructure alive: Material, social,
and political work at the Institut Laue-Langevin 232
Beatrice D’Ippolito and Charles-Clemens Rüling
12 Big Science and Research Infrastructures in Europe:
Conclusions and outlook 251
Olof Hallonsten and Katharina C. Cramer
Index 258
1 Big Science and Research Infrastructures in Europe: History
and current trends 1
Katharina C. Cramer, Olof Hallonsten, Isabel K. Bolliger
and Alexandra Griffiths
2 Methods and strategies in the study of Big Science and
Research Infrastructures: A review 27
Nicolas Rüffin
3 The role of European Big Science in the (geo)political
challenges of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries 56
Katharina C. Cramer
4 Ever-changing Big Science and Research Infrastructures:
Evolving European Union policy 76
Inga Ulnicane
5 The introduction of ESFRI and the rise of national Research
Infrastructure roadmaps in Europe 101
Isabel K. Bolliger and Alexandra Griffiths
6 Intensified role of the European Union? European Research
Infrastructure Consortium as a legal framework for
contemporary multinational research collaboration 128
Maria Moskovko
7 Research Infrastructure funding as a tool for science
governance in the humanities: A country case study of the
Netherlands 157
Thomas Franssen
8 The role of research infrastructures in innovation systems:
The case of Swedish participation in the Halden Reactor Project 177
Olof Hallonsten, Hjalmar Eriksson and August Collsiöö
9 The access and return on investment dilemma in Big
Science Research Infrastructures: A case study in astronomy 198
Andrew Williams and Jean-Christophe Mauduit
10 Is there an “iron law” of Big Science? 217
Olof Hallonsten
11 Keeping a Research Infrastructure alive: Material, social,
and political work at the Institut Laue-Langevin 232
Beatrice D’Ippolito and Charles-Clemens Rüling
12 Big Science and Research Infrastructures in Europe:
Conclusions and outlook 251
Olof Hallonsten and Katharina C. Cramer
Index 258
