BRIDGES (Big Research Infrastructures for Diplomacy and Global Engagement through Science) is an informal network of people who deal with science diplomacy and international relations in international research organizations.
While the topic of science diplomacy has been gaining importance, the concept itself has remained somewhat abstract and would benefit from becoming more hands-on. Large international research infrastructures have been operating in the science diplomacy space since their inception, and are therefore perfectly equipped to play a key role in advancing science diplomacy.
To this end, BRIDGES was founded in 2019 as an open and informal network of people working at the coalface of science diplomacy and international relations in large international research infrastructures operating at the global or regional scale.
The network unites science diplomacy practitioners in a number of major international research organizations, including the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the European Space Agency (ESA), European XFEL GmbH, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) Organization, The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the Square Kilometre Array Organisation (SKAO), and Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME).
The network is a lean operation without fees or legal commitments.