Research Infrastructures beyond 2020 – sustainable and effective ecosystem for science and society
How to foster sustainability and the impact of European research infrastructures on industry, policy and society was the core of the discussion during the Bulgarian Presidency Flagship Conference held in Sofia, 22-23 March 2018.
Three strategic areas were identified by the rapporteurs of the panel sessions and agreed by the organising committee and the participants as particularly important for consideration by all stakeholders. The full text of the conference conclusions can be found on http://risofia2018.eu/?page_id=937.
Strategic Area 1 – Synchronisation and alignment of Research Infrastructure policies and investments at different levels
While full synchronisation is not required for the national facilities, a higher degree of alignment to ensure a coherent development of the European Research Infrastructure ecosystem is needed.
The ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium) regulation has had a positive impact in leveraging investments, moving towards more robust financial commitments and pooling of resources. However, tax interpretation of the ERIC regulation still needs further clarity and a coherent approach. Also, some alignment of human resource policies and social security regulations would improve the attractiveness of Research Infrastructures to expert staff.
Strategic Area 2 – Develop a more robust and seamless funding landscape for Research Infrastructures across the life cycle
The Research Infrastructure funding landscape is suboptimal due to funding gaps where neither European nor national nor other funding sources are sufficiently available. These gaps are found in particular during the pre-construction and pre-operational phase. There is a need for a coherent approach to funding covering the whole life cycle of Research Infrastructures and for a better alignment and synchronization of the different funding instruments.
Strategic Area 3 – Improve the impact of Research Infrastructures as knowledge hubs
A clear message is needed on the impact of investments in Research Infrastructures on citizens. Service orientation and strengthening the role of Research Infrastructures in education and training are good ways to demonstrate return to citizens.
Research Infrastructures address industrial and societal needs in full respect of the role they play as one-stop-shops for societal and economic activities beyond science.
Multi-disciplinarity is an important driver of excellence and maximizes the impact. Multi-messenger science, understood as taking information about the same phenomena from different sources, is a trend with very significant potential – Research Infrastructures working together can produce high quality data. Responsible data science will contribute to the willingness of citizens to accept the conclusions and decisions taken on the basis of data analytics.
