Large-Scale Experiments – Reflecting on Theories and Practices

The conference will be held in hybrid mode (in-person and online participation).

Large-scale experiments play an increasingly important role in the sciences. Large collaborations in particle and gravitational-wave physics, large numbers of research participants in clinical trials, large-scale technologies such as telescopes and detectors, extensively distributed research tasks in climate science, or long-term research projects can all be understood as instances of large-scale research.

The conference aims to bring together researchers from the sciences as well as from history, philosophy, social studies of science, and neighboring disciplines to explore the scope and understanding of large-scale research and experimentation across the sciences, focusing both on theories that underpin it and practices it consists of.

The conference will comprise invited talks, contributed papers, and symposia focusing on the following topics:

• Going Large: the Bigger the Riskier? Epistemic Risks in Large Scientific Research

• Large-Scale Experiments vs. Large-Scale Observations

• Creativity and Constraints in Large-Scale Collaboration

• Theoretical Expectations and Large Experiments

• Big Science and Democracy

• Histories of Large Experiments and their Methodological Challenges