Big Science asks industry for some of its most demanding work, then may never place an order again. Richard Farrow and Jan Visser set out what laboratories can do to keep suppliers on board.
Over the past few decades, relations between Big Science organisations (BSOs) and their industrial suppliers have changed substantially. Global circumstances have forced companies to focus on their regular markets and products, leaving less room for contracts that deviate from that core business. Deviation, however, is often what BSOs need, as the technologies their projects demand grow more complex. In addition, they often require large numbers of custom components that may be just purchased once, and only through formal tender procedures. Companies, therefore, often prefer to do business with other companies, where shared long-term interests and mutual trust are typically enough to strike a deal.
The challenge for BSOs is then to remain, or to become again, interesting to industry, with projects at a price both can afford. In achieving this, laboratories have more to offer than is generally appreciated. Companies that work with BSOs have been shown to benefit in their marketing, to expand and improve their product portfolios, and to attract and retain key personnel, because challenging specifications drive innovation.
Relations in the Big Science domain can take many forms, from the supply of standard services and commodities, through collaborative technical development, to the licensing of technology and know-how. No single model fits every company, and each arrangement must serve both sides. Industry, for its part, is indispensable at every scale, from standard cables and connectors to complete magnet and cryogenic systems, and in some areas it moves faster than the BSOs themselves. Design for manufacturability and design for cost, the arts of shaping a component for efficient and affordable production, are cases in point, and both matter more as systems get bigger. Industry’s experience should be brought into a project’s design phase as early as possible, especially where components are needed in large numbers and for long lifetimes.
On demanding and innovative projects, openness is what keeps industry on board
Given their status, BSOs must deal with industry within specific procurement rules. Still, the relationship in spirit must be closer to a partnership, in which communication is open, risk is shared, and both parties ultimately gain. Communication must flow freely within each organisation, between technical and commercial teams, and between the two partners. As the work proceeds, both must exchange detailed specifications and flag problems as they arise. On demanding and innovative projects, where sharing risk matters most, this openness is what keeps industry on board.
The stakes reach beyond the laboratories, of course. For countries participating in a BSO, the return on membership rests not only on the science but also on wider societal benefits (see The collider dividend). Chief among them at present is industrial growth and development, with new products, skills, partnerships, markets and intellectual property flowing back to the member states.
While the scientific return largely takes care of itself, through the institutes and universities involved in the experiments, national support for companies to connect with BSOs via industrial liaison officers (ILOs) varies significantly across countries. For the role to be effective, we must see challenges coming early, in time to identify potential suppliers or to help existing companies and incubators profit from the technologies being developed. ILOs, whether employed by a BSO or representing a country, are therefore central to building these partnerships.
Across their technical, management and commercial teams, BSOs must never lose sight of how fundamental long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with industry are. Their value exceeds limited, short-term financial gains, and savings won contract by contract can, over time, leave fewer companies willing to bid, to the detriment of science and industry alike.
