SYSTRA accompanies the public debate on CERN’s Future Circular Collider

Given its scientific, technical, environmental, and territorial scope, the FCC calls for in-depth public dialogue. The French public debate and the Swiss consultation process are intended to inform the public and enable discussion on the relevance of the project, its objectives, its alternatives, and its impacts, before any commitment decision is made.

In this context, SYSTRA France is providing CERN with a comprehensive support mandate for the public debate phases in France, in coordination with the consultation process conducted in Switzerland. The teams are especially involved in context analysis, stakeholder mapping, media monitoring, the design of debate materials in liaison with the special commission for public debate, as well as support for spokespersons.

This assignment represents a distinctive intervention for SYSTRA, at the crossroads of fundamental research, underground civil engineering, regional planning, and public consultation in a cross-border context.

The FCC brings together dimensions that are rarely combined within a single public debate: a global scientific ambition, an exceptional underground infrastructure, environmental issues, territorial impacts, and cross-border governance. Our contribution is to bring method, clarity, and a fine understanding of the territories so that everyone can access the information, understand the issues, and take part in the dialogue.

Séverine DUMONT, Head of Public Consultation South-East, SYSTRA France

Founded in 1954, CERN is now one of the largest research centres in the world. It designs and operates particle accelerators, the machines that allow scientists to explore the infinitesimally small to better understand matter, the Universe, and the major questions in physics that remain unanswered.

The FCC is part of this ambition. Conceived as a vast scientific observation instrument, it would circulate particles at speeds close to the speed of light before making them collide. The analysis of these collisions would make it possible to generate data with unprecedented precision and open a new stage in understanding the fundamental laws of the Universe, with potential benefits for research, advanced technologies, industry, and health.

The project currently under debate provides for the construction of a 90.7-km circular underground tunnel, located around 200 metres beneath Haute-Savoie, Ain, and the canton of Geneva. It would include eight surface sites, including seven in France and one in Switzerland, twelve access shafts, and twelve underground caverns. The construction work would represent an investment estimated at nearly 15 billion Swiss francs and could begin around 2032.