Research Infrastructures as strategic investments

Research Infrastructures are strategic investments in a broader European strategy for sustainable economic, social and environmental development. ESFRI and its members will encourage an accord across the RI landscape which will aim to foster the development of new partnerships and services which are necessary to address socio-economic challenges, the sharing of good practices and a rapid adaptation to users’ needs. For example, new technologies, sustainable solutions and disruptive innovation – criteria requiring RI access – are critical elements required to achieve the objectives of the European Green Deal.

There are still large geographical variations in the allocation of the two major EU funding instruments for research and innovation, i.e. Horizon 2020 and the ESI (European Structural and Investment) Funds. However, additional complementary sources of funding for RI investments can be found in the major European strategic agendas including the Green Deal, Digital Europe, ERA and others.

Horizon Europe

Horizon Europe (HE) is a key part of this broader European strategy, and it is important that Research Infrastructures exploit the full potential of the new programme to support the various efforts to tackle global challenges. To this end, HE should actively encourage the involvement of RIs in topics across all three pillars. Links between the RIs and the HE Missions, the European Partnerships and the activities in the field of widening participation and spreading excellence could be made more explicit in the work programmes.

HE will provide an opportunity to maximise the impact of Europe’s RIs. The greater use of a challenge-driven approach, for example the Missions initiative, will promote the integration of the RI ecosystem whereby different RIs will cluster for a specific mission and develop joint services targeting complex research questions.

ESFRI’s Landscape Analysis is currently the most advanced account of Europe’s existing RI-landscape in pointing out the gaps and needs required to create a coherent European RI landscape capable of addressing future challenges. The dialogue with the RI community should be continued and strengthened to support the Landscape Analysis.

Cohesion, smart specialization and ESIF

Research and RIs have the potential to promote greater cohesion in Europe through their capacity for facilitating excellent science. A Europe-wide distribution of RIs would help to reduce the “excellence gap” caused by lagging capacities in parts of the EU. Furthermore, developing the concept of Smart Specialisation Strategies, by including the scheme of regionally anchored RIs and ensuring that the EU state aid rules are more RDI friendly, would sizably contribute to closing the research and innovation gap. This would help to realise the full research potential from all EU regions while equally respecting at the same time the excellence criterion as the major guiding principle. Effective complementarity and practical synergies between all EU funded programs should therefore be assured.

Research and RIs play a key role also in the creation of effective innovation systems especially through the strategic identification of regional research priorities by the development of Smart Specialization Strategies (S3). RIs are strongly rooted in the regions and critically influence regional development. The outreach of RIs extends from scientific output to the impact on educational systems, from regional development to overall market effects and general societal benefits. Therefore, Europe should continue to develop a medium- to long-term vision for the development of a coherent RI ecosystem, where cooperation between RIs within and across scientific disciplines and, where appropriate, integration between existing and planned RIs is encouraged. ESFRI identifies investment into RIs as a method for increasing regional competitiveness and thus cohesion between the different European countries and regions. The full potential of RIs has not yet been realised by many regional authorities and as a consequence RIs are not sufficiently included in the planning, design and implementation of the Regional Smart Specialisation Strategies. The role of Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in sharing knowledge on possibilities to better coordinate regional RI investment plans between the regions and cross-nationally could be utilised.