The Impacts of Large Research Infrastructures on Economic Innovation and on Society: Case Studies at CERN The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is a unique forum where governments work together to address the economic, social and environmental challenges of globalisation. The OECD is also at the forefront of efforts to understand and to help governments respond to new developments and concerns, such as corporate governance, the information economy and the challenges of an ageing population. The Organisation provides a setting where governments can compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and work to co- ordinate domestic and international policies. The OECD member countries are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The European Union takes part in the work of the OECD. The Global Science Forum (GSF) is a venue for consultations among senior science policy officials of the OECD member and partner countries on matters relating to scientific research. The Forum’s activities produce findings and recommendations for actions by governments, international organisations, and the scientific community. The Forum serves its member delegations by exploring opportunities for new or enhanced international co-operation in selected scientific areas; by defining international frameworks for national or regional science policy decisions; and by addressing the scientific dimensions of issues of social concern. The Forum’s reports are available at www.oecd.org/sti/gsf. The GSF staff are based at OECD headquarters in Paris, and can be contacted at [email protected]. © OECD 2014 Cover photo © CERN Requests for permission to reproduce or translate all or part of this work should be addressed to: [email protected]. 3 FOREWORD Since the creation of the OECD Megascience Forum in 1992, which was renamed the Global Science Forum (GSF) in 1999 after the broadening of its mandate, research infrastructures have been a major topic for analysis and discussion at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Following a publication on “Large Research Infrastructures”, which dealt with the challenges associated with launching and managing large single-site facilities, this new report addresses the potential economic and societal impacts of international research facilities, using case studies from one of the largest global research infrastructures: the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN). The GSF undertook this study following an initial approach by CERN, which was interested in having an external perspective that could serve as a basis for further optimising the organisation’s policies and procedures as well as being of value to CERN’s member states. The GSF approach, although based on the analysis of CERN’s achievements and policies, aimed to shed light on generic issues that could be applicable more broadly to international research infrastructures. This report is based on case studies that were carried out using two sources of information: papers/articles and interviews, which were carried out by Dr Stefan Michalowski from the GSF Secretariat with nearly fifty key individuals. These included staff at CERN, experts from outside of CERN and current or former employees of companies that manufactured some of CERN’s major equipment. The GSF’s objective was not to carry out an exhaustive analysis but rather to derive useful lessons and practices for administrators, funding agencies and policymakers, who are faced with challenging decisions about implementing new infrastructure projects and programmes (or about upgrading or terminating existing ones). We hope that this report will be informative and useful and we would be interested in receiving comments from readers. The GSF staff can be reached at [email protected]. The OECD Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy approved this report in June 2014. THE IMPACTS OF LARGE RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURES ON ECONOMIC INNOVATION AND ON SOCIETY: CASE STUDIES AT CERN © OECD 2014 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD ................................................................................................................................................. 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................... 7 Section A. Rationale, background and objectives ................................................................................... 10 Section B. Methodology .......................................................................................................................... 12 Section C. Impact categories ................................................................................................................... 13 Category I. Purely scientific results, intended to advance fundamental knowledge ............................ 14 Category II. The direct and indirect impacts of spending for building and operating the laboratory .. 15 Category III. Training for scientists, engineers, technicians, administrators and other professionals . 18 Category IV. Achieving national, regional and global goals; strengthening international scientific co- operation ............................................................................................................................................... 19 Categories V and VI. These categories are treated in detail in Section D. ........................................... 20 Section D. Case studies of selected CERN impacts................................................................................. 20 Section D.1 Case study: LHC main ring dipole magnets ..................................................................... 20 Section D.1.a Rationale for this case study ...................................................................................... 20 Section D.1.b Background and incentives for technological innovation .......................................... 21 Section D.1.c Dipole magnet research and development ................................................................. 29 Section D.1.d Procurement, manufacturing and testing ................................................................... 32 Section D.1.e Conclusions concerning the dipole magnets .............................................................. 34 CERN as a generator of technological challenges and solutions ................................................. 34 Risk management and governance ................................................................................................ 35 The role of external entities .......................................................................................................... 37 Section D.2 Case study: hadron cancer therapy ................................................................................... 38 Section D.2.a Introduction to hadron therapy ................................................................................... 38 Section D.2.b History of CERN’s involvement in hadron therapy................................................... 41 Section D.2.c Recent developments and prospects for the future .................................................... 50 Section D.2.d Conclusions concerning hadron therapy .................................................................... 52 CERN as an enabler of innovation ............................................................................................... 52 Governance and operations .......................................................................................................... 54 CERN as a pan-European institution ............................................................................................ 55 Section D.3 Case study: software packages ......................................................................................... 56 Section D.4 Education and outreach (impact Category VI) ................................................................ 58 Section E. Knowledge transfer ................................................................................................................ 60 Section F. General observations .............................................................................................................. 62 Status of CERN as a European organisation ........................................................................................ 62 Operations and governance .................................................................................................................. 64 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................ 66 APPENDIX A. MEMBERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS GROUP, APPOINTED BY GSF DELEGATIONS ......................................................................................................................................... 68 APPENDIX B. LIST OF INTERVIEWED EXPERTS .............................................................................. 69 APPENDIX C. INTRODUCTION TO THE SCIENTIFIC RATIONALE OF THE LHC PROJECT ...... 70 APPENDIX D. OPERATIONAL HADRON THERAPY FACILITIES AROUND THE WORLD