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Denmark to host first ever Big Science Business Forum

Representatives from the world's largest technology research facilities will gather for the first time ever at a joint conference. The Ministry of Higher Education and Science hosts the conference where the research facilities provide information about how companies can obtain orders worth billions

When CERN has to create conditions resembling the Big Bang, or the European Space Agency sends Andreas Mogensen into space, then even the smallest circuit must function perfectly. To that end, the world's largest research facilities purchase billions of kroner of advanced technological solutions and quality products every year from around the world.

The industry is known as Big Science, and it is estimated that the global market is worth up to DKK 270 billion annually. Representatives from eight of the world's largest research facilities will gather for the first time ever at the Big Science Business Forum to present their collective offers for European industry. The conference will be hosted by the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science in Copenhagen 26-28 February 2018.

- The most advanced global research breaks down any limitations on what we know or could even imagine. But Big Science is also big business. When representatives from the eight largest research facilities come to Denmark, it gives Danish companies unique opportunities to be part of the advanced technology market which is worth billions, says Minister for Higher Education and Science Søren Pind.

The Danish network BigScience.dk currently has approx. 200 companies, of which 40 are active and have obtained orders. BigScience.dk estimates that the Danish share of the Big Science market is worth DKK 300 million annually, but that this share has the potential to be far greater.

In addition to participation from the eight largest Big Science facilities, the Ministry of Higher Education and Science expects up to 1000 participants from primarily European companies at the first Big Science Business Forum.

The eight Big Science facilities participating are:

  • CERN – The European Organization for Nuclear Research is the world's largest physics laboratory where physicists work with particle physics. This is aided by tests in CERN's 27km long accelerator.
  • ESA – The European Space Agency gives Europe access to space, whether sending humans (like Andreas Mogensen), satellites and other technology into space, or using space data here on Earth.
  • ESO – The European Southern Observatory develops and operates large European telescopes located in South America where astronomers study phenomenons like the birth of stars, Earth-like planets in other solar systems and the light from the Big Bang.
  • ESRF – European Synchrotron Radiation Facility is one of the world's most intense sources of X-ray light – 100 billion times clearer than hospital x-rays. Researchers can analyse molecules and materials on a nuclear level.
  • ESS - European Spallation Source is being constructed in Lund, and Denmark, together with Sweden, will host the large European research facility. ESS is a neutron spreading facility, which functions like an extremely advanced giant microscope and is used in a wide range of research fields from classical physics to biology to materials research.
  • European XFEL – The European X-ray free electron laser facility is under construction in Hamburg. The facility will meet the most advanced research needs with a powerful x-ray laser, for example, providing researchers with a unique tool to map the detail of viruses on a nuclear level.
  • F4E – Fusion for Energy is Europe's contribution to ITER, an international research project with the aim of showing if it is possible to use fusion energy as an alternative energy source to oil and coal.
  • ILL: Institut Laue-Langevin, is one of the world centres for neutron research. Neutron research is used a wide range of scientific fields, including climate change research.

The Ministry of Higher Education and Science and the Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education are responsible for the event together with BigScience.dk. Read more about it at bsbf2018.org.

For further information please contact:

Head of Division Lars Christensen, Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education, tel: +45 7231 8472, e-mail:
Press Officer Jakob Sejr Teichert, Ministry of Higher Education and Science, tel: 7231 9503 e-mail: jte@ufm.dk