Building CERN's Future Circular Collider. An Estimation of its Impact on Value Added and Employment

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is hosting an international collaboration that develops scenarios for a new circular particle-collider based research infrastructure. The so called "Future Circular Collider" (FCC) would be located in the vicinity of CERN's main sites (Meyrin Switzerland, Prevessin France), extending significantly into the Haute-Savoie department to the "Grand Annecy" region (see Figure 1). Hosting subsequently an intensity frontier electron-positron and an energy-frontier hadron particle collider, this research infrastructure has the potentials to contribute substantially to the discipline of particle physics and the understanding of nature's workings at the sub-atomic level. Such a research infrastructure can also contribute to scientific and technological progress in many areas that will be needed to construct and operate such a facility. Apart from science-changing insights and technological developments, there are direct economic benefits likely to arise from this project: the opportunities for firms to contribute to the installation and operation of this machine and the jobs that go along with these opportunities. The estimation of such effects is the purpose of this report.

According to our estimations using an economic input-output model, the cumulated expenditure of about 25 bn CHF over a 30-year construction and research operation period could be connected to around 30,000 jobs per year via global value added chains.

The original investment volume of 12.1 bn CHF directly generates globally 5.4 bn CHF of value added, securing almost 80,000 person-years of employment. Including the indirect effects in the production process, value added linked to the FCC investment rises to 11.6 bn CHF, leading to 180,000 person-years of employment. Widening the system boundaries to include depreciation (i.e. the capital stock firms need to build up or replenish in order to cope with the FCC-related production), the FCC-related value added grows to more than 14 bn CHF and leads to more than 230,000 person-years of employment opportunities.

The direct value added by the operation phase is estimated at around 450 Mio CHF. it is safe to assume that the spending effects of personnel engaged in the operation alone will generate around 300 Mio CHF of value added worldwide, supporting around 4,000 jobs. The total direct, indirect and induced value added during the operation phase of more than 620 Mio CHF per year supports 8,400 jobs, the majority in France and Switzerland. The buildup and supply of renewable energy sources for the operation of the research infrastructure would raise Europe's value added by another 500 Mio CHF, securing additional 7,400 person years of employment in Europe.

The lower limit for annual tourism spending due to the FCC programme in the (wider) Geneva region is around 130 Mio CHF. Switzerland and France share the bigger part of the total effects, with around 1,700 jobs linked to visitors only. Another 500 jobs are European, the rest – around 600 – are filled outside Europe. Globally, tourism effects would generate 2,700 jobs over several decades.

According to our estimations using an economic input-output model, the cumulated expenditure of about 25 bn CHF over a 30-year construction and research operation period could be connected to around 30,000 jobs per year via global value added chains.