Statement of the International Committee for Future Accelerators (ICFA) on The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Project at CERN

14 January 1995

Statement of the International Committee for Future Accelerators (ICFA) on The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Project at CERN


ICFA warmly welcomes the approval of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project and congratulates the nineteen Member States of CERN on a bold decision. This decision portends both a scientifically significant advance in humankind’s historic quest to understand the physical principles that underlie the workings of the universe, as well as a long-term, continuing commitment by the European region to supporting research in high energy physics.

New experimental investigations at particle collision energies beyond what is possible with any existing or other planned facilities have long been recognized as being required to make substantial progress in such fundamental questions as understanding the nature of matter and understanding the nature of the universe. These scientific arguments, still valid today, together with the extensively studied technologies of superconducting hadron colliders and related detectors, make the LHC the correct next step at the high energy frontier, where it should remain a unique facility for many years.

ICFA notes the considerable worldwide interest in participation in the LHC. We are pleased that the CERN Council, as it has stated, “is conscious of and welcomes the world interest in the project” and that it declared “any Non-Member State contributions would be used to speed up and improve the project.” We look forward to inter-regional participation in the LHC for three basic reasons: 1) our common interest in having LHC reach its fullest scientific potential; 2) the experience it will provide for future efforts that will require an even greater degree of inter-regional collaboration; and 3) our general goal of promoting international collaboration in all phases of construction and experimentation involving high energy accelerators.