Keeping a Research Infrastructure alive: Material, social, and political work at the Institut Laue-Langevin

Research Infrastructures (RIs) house expensive and powerful scientific instruments, generally considered too large to be built and managed by single university laboratories; whether these facilities warrant sustained investment is a question that is regularly debated by both scientists and policymakers. This chapter sheds light on the efforts addressed towards maintaining an RI in operation over time, connecting with existing literature that has examined the capability of RIs to adapt and renew their institutional and organizational remit. We focus on the efforts made by the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France to maintain its operations running more than 50 years after its establishment in 1967. By analyzing different domains of institutionalization – physical infrastructures, scientific fields and science policy – our findings reveal that RIs need to leverage on the material aspect and technical performance of instruments and infrastructure to attract and maintain and interrelate users; consensus emerging from a strong user community will provide the RI with political voice and support of its objective to extend its life in the long run, witnessing some degree of institutional persistence.