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Unpreparedness and risk in Big Science policy: Sweden and the European Spallation Source

Author

Summary, in English

The politics of European collaborative Big Science are inherently uncertain. The European Spallation Source (ESS) for materials science, planned to be built in Sweden with a collaborative European funding solution that was recently finalized is the most recent example. Sweden has so far invested around one billion SEK (&E110 million), taking a significant risk given these uncertainties and given Sweden’s complete lack of experience in hosting such big labs. Tracing the Swedish government’s investments in the ESS project, this article shows that so far, the Swedish ESS bid seems to be generally well funded, but that a long-term plan for the funding and a contingency plan for increased costs seem to be absent. This adds to the seeming unprepared- ness of Sweden and elevates the already quite high level of risk for Swedish science and science policy of investing in the ESS.

Publishing year

2015

Language

English

Pages

415-426

Publication/Series

Science and Public Policy

Volume

42

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Topic

  • Business Administration

Keywords

  • Big Science
  • European research policy
  • Sweden
  • European Spallation Source
  • research funding

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1471-5430