Big Science as Strategic Infrastructure: European Coordination, Public Value and Socio-economic Evidence

Abstract Big Science investment is justified primarily by its contribution to scientific discovery. Yet, the political economy around public investment in Big Science has changed. Public budgets are tighter, scientific equipment is more costly, energy and environmental constraints are more visible, and geopolitical fragmentation has made technological capability a more explicit policy concern. This article examines how socio-economic evidence can support strategic choices without reducing science to short-term accounting. It argues that the economic case for public investment in Big Science, mediated through research infrastructures (RIs), should be framed around capability formation, excellent science, European coordination and system-wide impacts. Three shifts are central: from national return to European value added, from facility-level assessment to portfolio-level strategy, and from one-off impact studies to life-cycle evaluation. Better evidence should be cumulative, analytically robust and decision-relevant. It should show not only what research infrastructures produce, but also what they enable across scientific communities, firms, skills systems, regions and policy domains.