Background

ESFRI Background

The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures was established in 2002, with a mandate from the EU Council to support a coherent and strategy-led approach to policy-making on research infrastructures in Europe, and to facilitate multilateral initiatives leading to the better use and development of research infrastructures, at EU and international level. In 2006, exactly ten years ago, ESFRI published its first roadmap for the construction and development of the next generation of pan-European research infrastructures. The roadmap was updated in 2008, 2010, 2016 and 2018, to include projects and landmarks that intend to foster European leadership across a broad range of scientific fields.

Since it was formed in 2002 at the behest of the European Council, ESFRI has witnessed significant advances towards unity and international impact in the field of research infrastructures. The publication of the first Roadmap for pan-European research infrastructures in 2006, and its update in 2008 was a key contributing factor. A further update of the ESFRI Roadmap, focusing on Energy, Food and Biology, was published at the end of 2010. ESFRI has contributed to the creation of the European Charter for Access to Research Infrastructures and is committed to improve this reference document in the future.

The Forum is determined to sustain the momentum in the implementation of the projects on the Roadmap, to expand the outreach to those scientific fields which are still evolving their conceptual approach in this direction, and to increase the involvement of all Countries by developing ad-hoc Regional policies.