Big Science, Innovation, and Societal Contributions offers a connection between Big Science and its societal impacts from a multidisciplinary perspective, drawing on physics and astrophysics scholars to explain the reasoning behind their work, and how such knowledge can be applied to everyday life. Through simplifying complex scientific concepts, Big Science, Innovation, and Societal Contributions explains the evolution of Big Science experiments and what it takes to manage and maintain complex scientific experiments with a human centred approach. Further, it examines the motivations behind international efforts to develop capital-intensive and human resource-rich, large-scale multi-national scientific investments to solve fundamental research problems concerning our future. Drawing on reliable scientific evidence, multi-disciplinary perspectives, and personal insights from collider physics, detectors, accelerator, and telescopes research, the volume outlines the mechanisms, benefits, and methodologies, as well as the potential challenges and short-comings, of Big Science, to learn and reflect on for future initiatives. This is an open access title available under the terms of a [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International] licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

The essays in this open access volume identify the key ingredients for success in capitalizing on public investments in scientific projects and the development of large-scale research infrastructures. Investment in science – whether in education and training or through public funding for developing new research tools and technologies – is a crucial priority. Authors from big research laboratories/organizations, funding agencies and academia discuss how investing in science can produce societal benefits as well as identifying future challenges for scientists and policy makers. The volume cites different ways to assess the socio-economic impact of Research Infrastructures and their role as hubs of global collaboration, creativity and innovation. It highlights the different benefits stemming from fundamental research at the local, national and global level, while also inviting us to rethink the notion of “benefit” in the 21st century. Public investment is required to maintain the pace of technological and scientific advancements over the next decades. Far from advocating a radical transformation and massive expansion in funding, the authors suggest ways for maintaining a strong foundation of science and research to ensure that we continue to benefit from the outputs. The volume draws inspiration from the first “Economics of Big Science” workshop, held in Brussels in 2019 with the aim of creating a new space for dialogue and interaction between representatives of Big Science organizations, policy makers and academia. It aspires to provide useful reading for policy makers, scientists and students of science, who are increasingly called upon to explain the value of fundamental research and adopt the language and logic of economics when engaging in policy discussions.

Government invests in a range of large scientific facilities to support and develop the nation's science base. The main components of planning for these facilities are a road map describing large facilities which UK scientists are likely to need in the next 10 to 15 years, and a central fund (the Large Facilities Capital Fund) of around £100 million per year to support investments in such facilities by Research Councils. Currently, £830 million has been earmarked to 15 projects which are expected to cost the UK taxpayer some £1.2 billion to build. (Ten of these projects have now been approved, one of which has been delivered, with the others due for completion in the period to 2011.) The report says it is too early to assess the value for money of the science facilities. To date performance against capital budgets suggests some good budget management, but the latest figures show that, across the ten projects underway, total capital expenditure is forecast to exceed approved budgets by 6 per cent. Some projects are forecasting delivery dates some 12 months or more later than approved. The forecast operating costs of some projects have increased by large amounts compared to estimates when their business cases were approved, and the Research Councils need to do more work to estimate the likely ongoing costs of new facilities. The report says ultimately the value of the facilities will depend on the scientific discoveries they make. It also says that more work is needed by Research Councils to examine the potential impact of new facilities on the future demand for research funding. Full use of these facilities will depend on research ideas competing successfully for research funding.

This text brings together specially commissioned contributions by experts on a range of issues concerning innovation. It introduces the significance and processes of industrial innovation and assesses the key issues affecting innovation