Investing in basic research not only boosts industrial competitiveness, but also makes it possible to respond to global emergencies such as health, climate change, and energy transition. Large Research Infrastructures (LRIs) are key elements in this context, promoting scientific progress and international collaboration to solve global challenges. They offer resources and large-scale collaborative platforms for revolutionary discoveries, enabling us to move beyond short-term innovation cycles and push forward the medium- to long-term scientific and technological frontier.
However, there is an important knowledge gap in the analysis of the impacts of LRIs. In response to this need, the Study ‘G7 Large Research Infrastructures: Synergies and Impact on Science and Society’, carried out by TEHA Group in partnership with Italy's Ministry of University and Research and the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), with the support of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, aims to develop an analytical framework to quantify and qualify the economic, scientific, technological, geopolitical and social impacts of LRIs in G7 countries.
Conducted in the context of the Italian G7 Presidency in 2024, the Study highlights thestrategic importance of LRI for research and innovation, offering recommendations to maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of these infrastructures in light of a rapidly changing geopolitical and technological framework, starting with the Artificial Intelligence revolution.
The Study was made possible thanks to the contribution of distinguished scholars and experts, including Fabio Fava (Professor at the University of Bologna and Italian Official Representative for the G7 Science and Technology 2024), Massimo Florio (Professor at the University of Milan), and Giorgio Rossi (Professor at the University of Milan and Italian Representative in the Group of Senior Officials on Research Infrastructures), as Scientific Advisors to the initiative. The project also envisaged a major engagement of high-level stakeholders from the world of research and LRIs from all G7 countries, organising three round tables involving 65 experts, top management of research infrastructures and relevant companies.
The study was presented on October 29, 2024 as part of the ‘G7 Conference on Large Research Infrastructures’, organised in Su Gologone (Nuoro, Sardinia) and co-organised by the Italian Ministry of University and Research with the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), to investigate the critical role that large research infrastructures play in the advancement of scientific knowledge, as well as their economic, social and geopolitical implications, with a focus on G7 members.
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