Europe chooses its 'roadmap' for science facilities

Stop what you're doing! ESFRI has spoken. Including probably the best list of major science acronyms on the planet

Some science facilities are just too big to have one each, even if you are quite a rich country. And there are many different types of big science facility, for many different kinds of science, technology and medicine. Lasers, particle beams, big computers, telescopes, aeroplanes, submarines, satellites - all are important for something somewhere.

So if there are other interested countries nearby, it makes sense to plan together and share costs and usage where appropriate. The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures - ESFRI - is part of the way Europe does this, and it has just produced a new 'roadmap'.