Luxembourg, 23/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending EUR 300 million to finance the final phase of construction of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. The EIB loan will also help to finance the instrumentation to record and analyse the high-energy particle collisions at the LHC. loan to enable construction of this major project was foreseen by CERN's governing Council when it approved the LHC in 1996. The EIB is supporting the project as it promotes EU policies for European Research & Development (R&D) and the dissemination of innovation. CERN's Large Hadron Collider provides physicists with an unrivalled high-tech tool to study fundamental physics. It will enable the European Union to maintain its leading role in fundamental research in the field of particle physics. Commenting on the news, European Commissioner Philippe Busquin said: "The research institution the EU is helping contributes to Europe's efforts to become a world-class leader in research and particle physics research. This funding method helps us to maintain this position, whilst at the same time providing valuable lessons in other fields. European science policy needs to go beyond the Framework Programme to successfully and efficiently mobilise various financial resources for science and technology."