The British Royal Society advocated creating the German Max Planck Society on the ground that solidarity between international scientific communities could contribute to reconciling former enemies. As a result, big projects such as the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), were founded to help unite European research efforts in basic science.
二战之后，大多欧洲人都一致认为科学研究不仅能够促进他们的经济发展，还能提升他们相对于美国的技术自治并对社会变革起到催化作用。基于国际科学界之间的团结能够有助于改善前敌国之间的关系的认识，英国皇家科学院大力倡导创立德国马普学会（German Max Planck Society）。由此，旨在联合欧洲基础科研工作的大型项目，如欧洲核研究机构(CERN)、欧洲宇航局(ESA)和欧洲分子生物学组织(EMBO)才得以成立。