The magic of big science in forging collaborative relationships: Australia, Latin America, and the Australian synchrotron initiative

Abstract

This chapter describes and analyzes an initiative led by the Australian scientific and research community and a group of Latin American-Australians (including the author of this chapter)1 to use a “Big Science” project-the synchrotron initiative-as a tool to expand bilateral and multilateral scientific, academic, and research collaboration between Gondwana2 countries. This type of approach complements the more traditional engagement models used by governments around the world to achieve closer economic, trade, and investment relationships. This chapter provides an outline of the background and current developments relating to Australian and Latin American efforts to collaborate on a synchrotron initiative and evaluates the outcomes of this initiative, including providing a number of recommendations for the future.