Message Prepared for Dr. Raymond L. Orbach
Under Secretary for Science
U.S. Department of Energy
Fourth European Conference on Research Infrastructures
Hamburg, Germany
June 5, 2006

Hello, I am Raymond Orbach, the Under Secretary for Science at the United States Department of Energy.  As you may know, the Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, providing more than 40 percent of total domestic funding for this vital area of global importance.  The Department of Energy is also the steward of the 17 world class laboratories which often are called the “crown jewels” of America’s research infrastructure.  In addition, the Department of Energy’s Office of Science oversees the construction and operation of some of America’s most advanced R&D user facilities, located at our National Laboratories and at some of the more than 300 universities we support each year.

I join the attendees today in thanking our conference organizers for bringing together many science leaders from around the world at this Fourth European Conference on Research Infrastructures.  I appreciate the invitation to participate, and regret that I am unable to join you in the fine city of Hamburg, a city that was home to Heinrich Hertz and so important to the history – and future – of global scientific inquiry.

In 1982, President Reagan sent a message to our Congress reporting on international activities in science and technology, a message that remains true to this day.  He said, “It is becoming increasingly important that we all reach beyond our borders to form partnerships in research enterprises.  There are areas of science, such as high energy physics and fusion research, where the cost of the next generation of facilities will be so high that international collaboration among…nations may become a necessity.  We welcome opportunities to explore with other nations...”  On behalf of the United States Government and its citizens, I would like to reaffirm our desire to work with you on ITER and other important research projects.

In ITER, we are about to converge, from a rich spectrum of talent and perspectives, on an unprecedented scale, for the betterment of the world in which we live.  It is quite striking that, through our multilateral framework, more than half of the global population will be supporting an international team of some of the world’s finest scientists, engineers – even a few policymakers – working in unison toward a common research goal.

International collaboration is equally rich on smaller scale research projects.  In the Department of Energy’s Basic Energy Sciences program, for example, approximately fourteen percent of researchers at our user facilities are international citizens employed by foreign institutions of research; there were about 9,200 international visitors in this one program last year alone.  In our Nuclear Physics program, approximately 40 percent of users are international; about 2,500 expected to come to the United States to pursue their research this year.  In High Energy Physics, foreign institutions make up about 50 percent of the total user representation, including 1,500 at Fermilab (CDF, D0, NuMI, MiniBoone) and 600 at the Department of Energy’s accelerator at Stanford University.  We welcome the best and the brightest from around the world to use to our facilities, without charge, because of the extraordinary merit of their work.  The United States Department of Energy appreciates similar hospitality for, and collaboration with, American scientists conducting research in your countries.

Two very important points about international collaboration have become clear to me in recent years.

First, the large-scale research projects of the future costing many billions of dollars, such as the proposed International Linear Collider, will not be possible for individual nations to finance; international collaboration will be a financial precondition to construct the largest research facilities.  Furthermore, we have learned from experience that successful completion of international projects requires that funding partners be involved and invested in the design of such facilities from conception.

Second, international coordination is required for an optimum distribution of facilities, a distribution that would reduce duplicative work and would create budgetary allowance for a greater breadth and depth of research facilities to be constructed globally.  For example, the forthcoming European Spallation Source might be duplicative of the planned upgrade to the Spallation Neutron Source at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.  Rather than construct a redundant facility of such magnitude, it may be beneficial for other countries to participate in the upgrade to the SNS.  Likewise, there are facilities at Germany’s GSI that have made construction of the proposed Rare Isotope Accelerator unnecessary. 

Individual funding agencies must determine national research priorities, but where there are areas of overlap between countries, it is in the mutual interest of countries to work together to fund, design, and build a more robust research infrastructure.  I congratulate the European Union on publishing this 2006 Roadmap for Research Infrastructures. 

In 2002, the Department of Energy published a similar document outlining Facilities for the Future of Science; we are working on updating this document to reflect the progress we have made.  Please visit http://www.science.doe.gov/about/Future/Facilities%20for%20the%20Future%20of%20Science.htm to download an abstract summary of the U.S. Department of Energy’s updated priorities for future scientific infrastructure.  One can identify, by comparing these types of documents exciting areas for possible collaboration.

Coordinating the international design of large research facilities and the global distribution of various medium and small facilities in the future will require a forward-looking international organization that represents the major funding ministries of the world.  It is with regret that I note that current international organizations under-represent important funding countries from Asia.  It is essential for the future of global scientific cooperation that Asia be more fully represented in international organizations.

Thank you.  I look forward to our continued and growing partnerships in all areas of the cause to which we have dedicated our lives: science.