Exclusion of particle collider in Five-Year Plan 'not fatal'

Research team must wait until 2020 to reapply for 800 million yuan in State funding

The decision not to include a proposed next-generation particle collider in China's latest development plan is a setback for the project, but not a fatal blow, according to senior scientists.

A team of physicists submitted a preliminary conceptual design report for the Circular Electron Positron Collider in June in a bid to secure a place in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) as a large-scale scientific facility and up to 800 million yuan ($115 million) in research funding.