This study explores the collaboration between Research Infrastructures (RIs) and Technology Infrastructures (TIs) in developing superconducting magnets and accelerator components. These technologies are vital for advancing scientific research and innovation across various fields. The RI-TI collaboration is especially valuable for staff exchanges and joint R&D. However, the collaboration is only limited in its industrial coupling.
Interviews conducted for this case study revealed the direct benefits of this collaboration, addressing organisational and financial challenges. Key contributors include European Spallation Source ERIC ( from TIs. CEA, in close partnership with European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN), contributes to co-funded European R&D programmes like AMICI, ATTRACT I and II, EuCARD, and EuCARD-2 for creating the next-generation accelerator components.
Best practices and barriers
Collaborations between TIs and RIs have been active for over 20 years as some TIs design and provide key components for accelerator-based RIs. Notable examples include the roles of DESY and CEA in supporting the construction of EU-XFEL, CERN and ESS. These collaborations are often funded through an in-kind model, where countries commit to funding an RI and contribute through elements designed and tested by national organisations – often with the help of industry. These agreements are usually formalised at the governmental level and endure for several years during the RI construction phase.
TIs typically run publicly-funded projects, but subcontract much of the work to industry, fostering a specialised market and advancing technology transfer. Industry also accesses TI platforms and expertise for their projects with private clients. Trust between TI and RI teams is essential for ensuring a true collaborative effort rather than a supplier-customer dynamic.
Two top barriers identified in RI-TI collaboration are:
- Technical staff shortages: Expertise is often gained on-site rather than formally taught, and the in-kind model helps mitigate this by creating virtual teams from various TIs.
- Setting up an in-kind model is time intensive: This is particularly challenging for greenfield RIs like ESS, while projects like EU-XFEL benefit from the collaboration with a host institute, in this case DESY.
Recommendations
The collaboration model between RIs and TIs is highly effective and working towards a common goal, though its application is mostly internal to the RI-TI relationship and not easily transferable to other sectors focused on industry collaboration. There is potential to improve and harmonise the Such a blueprint can be developed with international partners, as these collaborations can also be cross-border with European TI contributions to Ris in the United States (e.g. LCLS-II).
