ESFRI Events
3rd ESFRI Open Session
ESFRI holds Open Sessions at its forums twice a year, to communicate to a wider audience about its activities. They are intended to serve both the ESFRI Delegates and representatives of the ESFRI Research Infrastructures and facilitate both-ways exchange. ESFRI has launched the Open Session initiative as a part of the goals set within the ESFRI White Paper Making Science Happen.
The third ESFRI Open Session is organized as part of the 80th ESFRI Plenary Meeting on 30th June 2022, to discuss Research Infrastructures and Big Data.
Joint EC-ESFRI Workshop: R&I needs of Research Infrastructures
Horizon Europe Research Infrastructures activities under Excellent Science aim at empowering Europe through world-class and accessible Research and Technology Infrastructures. In addition, the ERA Policy Agenda includes an action to strengthen sustainability, accessibility and resilience of research infrastructures.
The European Commission and ESFRI propose to launch discussions to align further the policy on European research infrastructures and the operational support as shaped in the Horizon Europe Strategic Orientations.
The workshop aims at ensuring a shared understanding on R&I needs of research infrastructures, their services, access, instrumentation and technologies. For that purpose, building on the recent analysis by ESFRI of the research infrastructures landscape, it will invite representatives of research infrastructures, of research infrastructures projects, national delegates in relevant Committees to discuss how best to support the development of the RI landscape, the delivering of services, the next generation of instruments, tools and other relevant aspects.
This event is by-invitation only.
The ESFRI 20th anniversary conference: European Research Infrastructures at the heart of scientific discoveries
As part of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union and under the auspices of the French Académie des sciences, France will host the ESFRI 20th anniversary conference: European Research Infrastructures at the heart of scientific discoveries.
Watch the short recap video HERE
Watch the full video recording HERE
The conference, taking place in Paris on March 25, will celebrate the achievements of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), highlighting the role it plays in enhancing European excellence in research and innovation. The conference will bring together key stakeholders, including policy experts, facility managers and leading researchers, to explore the drivers behind the development of the rich European research infrastructures landscape and to discuss emerging trends and the challenges for the future. The conference provides an important opportunity to explore the range of cutting-edge work being undertaken across the research domains that are reliant on the services provided by European research infrastructures. Several outstanding scientists will share with the audience their major discoveries and illustrate how they have benefited from the unique European research infrastructures.
Conférence des vingt ans de l’ESFRI. Les infrastructures européennes de recherche au cœur des découvertes scientifiques
Le 25 mars 2022, l’ESFRI, le Forum stratégique européen sur les infrastructures de recherche (ESFRI), célébrera ses vingt ans sous le haut patronage de l’Académie des sciences et sous les auspices de la Présidence française du Conseil de l’Union européenne.
Cette conférence réunira des experts politiques, des dirigeants d'infrastructures et de grands équipements, des chercheurs de premier plan et les acteurs qui contribuent à leur développement. Elle permettra de revenir sur les défis que l'ESFRI a relevé au cours des vingt dernières années, d’en célébrer les réalisations et de débattre des tendances émergentes dans le domaine des infrastructures de recherche en Europe. Il s’agira de donner à voir et à penser l’ESFRI, de valoriser le dispositif exceptionnel qu’il propose aux chercheurs européens et la grande qualité de service qu’il garantit à ses utilisateurs. Scientifiques de renom et jeunes chercheurs présenteront des projets ayant vu le jour grâce à l’environnement favorable de ces infrastructures de recherche européennes.
3rd ESFRI RIs -EOSC Workshop: What does EOSC bring to RI users?
The 3rd Workshop on the connection of ESFRI Research Infrastructures (RIs) to the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) titled "3rd ESFRI RIs -EOSC Workshop: What does EOSC bring to RI users?" took place on 25 & 26 January 2022, as an Online Event.
The main objective of the workshop is to bring together ESFRI, ESFRI RIs and EOSC stakeholders, in order to showcase and better comprehend the EOSC concept, including the Open Science and “FAIR” policy agenda, and the vision for the future, along with the EOSC value proposition for its users, and ensure an optimal federation of clusters and RIs with EOSC. The event will focus on the current state of EOSC and how the thematic RIs and ESFRI clusters fit into the developing landscape, including the partnership with the newly established EOSC Association.
The workshop is organised by the ESFRI Task Force on EOSC and the StR-ESFRI2 Project, in close cooperation with ESFRI and the EC, and with participation from the EOSC Cluster projects, the EOSC Association Board of Directors, and the EOSC Future project.
#ESFRIshapesEOSC
For more information on the outcomes of the 2nd ESFRI RIs-EOSC Workshop (Online, 6 & 7.10.2020), please click here.
Main ConceptsThe main focus of the 3rd workshop is on how the RI communities and researchers can use and benefit from EOSC, getting added value. Besides the general benefits of EOSC towards open science and “FAIRification” of data and services, it is considered that the daily use of EOSC Exchange and concrete tools by the RI users for intra and interdisciplinary research will also greatly benefit EOSC, in becoming useful and effective, contributing towards its sustainability.
There are two main elements in the connection of RIs to EOSC: RIs as data producers/service providers (offering data/services to EOSC) and RIs as users of generic (non-thematic) EOSC services (consuming services from the EOSC Core and the integrated projects such as EOSC Future). In an effort to shift attention towards the (required) added value of EOSC for the RI communities and end users, this workshop will focus mainly on the second element.
To this aim, some of the points that will be highlighted during this workshop are:
- The connection of RIs to EOSC, both ESFRI and other world-class RIs
- The added value of EOSC for the RI communities and end users. I.e., what does EOSC bring to (users of) international RIs
- Bringing international RIs up to speed on Open Science and the FAIR policy agenda, including concrete paradigms from young researchers presenting their work on Open Science and FAIR data, with possible achievements, may have positive effects on high-level RI/lab managers.
- The co-creation between providers and users of the EOSC vision, in terms of service portfolio for the users
The main objective of the workshop is to bring together ESFRI, ESFRI RIs and EOSC stakeholders, in order to showcase and better comprehend the EOSC concept and value proposition for its users, and ensure an optimal federation of ESFRI clusters / RIs with EOSC.
Present the current state of EOSC and see how the thematic RIs/ESFRI clusters fit into the developing landscape, including the tri-party partnership with the new legal entity (EOSC Association) and its Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SRIA). Convey ESFRI RIs/Clusters/ and ESFRI Task Force on EOSC positions into shaping EOSC:
Present the EOSC latest documents and the outcome of their consultations:
Showcase how world-class RIs and Clusters are engaged with EOSC, whose evolving requirements both as part of the EOSC-Exchange and EOSC-Core need to be treated in higher priority in the second phase of EOSC, and the added-value for its users with concrete use cases, good practices and approaches for federating thematic resources into EOSC – around 3 main areas:
- Thematic Clusters/RI data and tools
- Generic (non-thematic) federated e-Infrastructure resources uptake
- Open Science and FAIR data sharing within and across domains (including concrete examples/ achievements from young scientists)
Present the current status of EOSC implementation and latest plans and outputs of e-Infrastructure/EOSC providers (including EOSC Future):
- Engagement of users in shaping EOSC (e.g. EOSC Future and RDA User Groups)
- Resources and services/tools for thematic providers and end users (network, computing, data, middleware/other services)
- Developments around incentives and policies on open and FAIR Data & Services, their sharing and towards a cultural change, and work on skills
Reflect from the users’ perspective on the status, outputs and discussions in the EOSC Association WGs/TFs, with focus on the Researcher Engagement and Adoption Task Force of the EOSC Association Implementation Advisory Group.
2nd ESFRI Open Session
Among new initiatives aiming at strengthening the ESFRI communication strategy, is the introduction of the ESFRI Open Sessions organized twice a year. They are intended to serve both the ESFRI Delegates and representatives of the ESFRI Research Infrastructures (RIs) and facilitate both-ways exchange.
The second ESFRI Open Session is organized as part of the 77th ESFRI Plenary Meeting on 22nd September 2021 to discuss the European Green Deal.
The 2nd ESFRI Open Session video recording is available here.
ESFRI Days 2021
The Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU and the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) are pleased to announce ESFRI Days, an online event scheduled to take place from 6 to 7 December 2021.
ESFRI Days will feature ESFRI Roadmap 2021 Launch (7/12), complemented by the 78th ESFRI plenary meeting (for ESFRI National Delegates only)
For more information, please visit the event webpages:
- 78th ESFRI Forum Plenary (Online)
- Roadmap 2021 Launch (Online)
- 1st ESFRI Stakeholders Forum Meetup (postponed due to Covid-19 related restrictions)
Launch of the 2021 ESFRI Roadmap on Research Infrastructures in Europe
Get the full ESFRI Roadmap 2021 Experience!
Αfter a two-year-long process of hard and meticulous work by a great number of scientists and ESFRI delegates, a new ESFRI Roadmap is to be published. On December 7th, 2021, ESFRI will present the 2021 ESFRI Roadmap on Large Scale Research Infrastructures during an online celebratory event (10:00 -16:30 CET).
Equipping Europe with infrastructures for groundbreaking impactful research is at the heart of the ESFRI Roadmap. The Roadmap identifies European investment priorities and provides directions for their further development, and looks into the future challenges of Research Infrastructure policy and analyses the main features of the RIs landscape in Europe to implement an integrated and interconnected Research infrastructure eco-system as an important element of the European Research Area (ERA) Policy Agenda.
The ESFRI Roadmap 2021 is the sixth edition of the document, which has been influencing the European and national RI strategies, policies and funding since 2006. ESFRI periodically updates its Roadmap to provide a coherent and strategic vision ensuring that Europe has excellent RIs in all fields of science and innovation. The key messages of the 2021 edition of the Roadmap, prepared during the COVID-19 pandemic, clearly underline the importance of world-class RIs in enabling cutting-edge research to address the pressing requests and challenges of our society. This Roadmap, with the highest total cost of pledged investments since the first edition in 2006, also demonstrates the persisting willingness of national governments to invest substantially in improving RI capacities in Europe, as an important element of long-term scientific sovereignty and crisis preparedness.
The ESFRI Roadmap now includes 41 European Research Infrastructures which have already been implemented (Landmarks) and 22 RI Projects that are in their preparatory phase. The total investment in these, often globally unique, facilities will exceed EUR 20 billion.
Key features of the ESFRI Roadmap 2021:
- 11 new RI Projects enter the Roadmap with total investment costs over EUR 4 billion. This is by far the highest value of new research infrastructures (RIs) investment plans since the first roadmap in 2006
- 4 RIs receive the Landmark status, signifying their successful implementation
- A revamped Landscape Analysis presents the existing RIs in Europe and identifies scientific needs and gaps as well as collaboration opportunities and directions for strategic investments in the future. It also explores the available RI services of particular relevance for the environmental, economic and social issues, focusing specifically on Sustainable Development Goals, COVID-19 and digital transition
This capacity creates outstanding conditions for European Research & Innovation to be globally competitive, enabling Europe’s leadership in a broad range of research fields. RIs included in the ESFRI Roadmap contribute to key EU policy priorities, such as the Green New Deal, Twin Transitions and Health Union. They facilitate the development of science-based solutions to key societal challenges, as illustrated with the COVID-19 platform. The services they offer could play an important role in implementing Horizon Europe Missions and achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The event is hosted by the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU, as part of the ESFRI Days event, and will be live streamed in full via ESFRI YouTube channel.
A seperate registration for the Press Conference is mandatory. Please register here.
Read the Press Anouncement here (PDF).
2nd ESFRI RIs-EOSC Workshop "Research Infrastructures shaping EOSC" goes digital
The 2nd Workshop on the connection of ESFRI Research Infrastructures (RIs) to the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC),"Research Infrastructures shaping EOSC" that was planned to take place as a physical event will be transformed into a virtual event.
This is due to the restrictions on the number of participants in physical conferences in the host country, the travel restrictions across Europe and the great uncertainty and dynamic evolution of the Covid-19 outbreak. The virtual event is planned to take place on the same dates, namely on 6 & 7 October 2020.
The main objective of the workshop is to bring together ESFRI, ESFRI RIs and EOSC stakeholders, in order to showcase and better comprehend the EOSC concept and value proposition for its users, and ensure the optimal federation of ESFRI clusters/ RIs with EOSC. The latest developments on the EOSC next phase governance and the technical areas will be presented, so that the thematic infrastructures can actively contribute and provide feedback to the on-going dialogue, being able to take informed decisions.
The workshop is organised by the ESFRI Task Force on EOSC, the EOSC Cluster projects, the EOSC Secretariat and the StR-ESFRI2 Project, in close cooperation with ESFRI and the EC.
The event will be recorded and will include breakout sessions for feedback from the community. The plenary sessions will be open to accommodate wide participation. However, due to limited capacity of the breakout sessions, the attendance will be limited to one (1) person per National Delegation/ Project/ Landmark/ Organisation. This is mainly to facilitate discussion and effective feedback in these sessions.
Registration is mandatory, and should be done via the online form. Breakout sessions have reached their capacity and therefore no nore registrations are accepted for these.
For more information on the outcomes of the 1st ESFRI RIs-EOSC Workshop (London, 30.1.2019), please click here.
BackgroundEuropean Research Infrastructures (RIs) foster the definition, implementation and further development of advanced solutions for the effective provisioning and use of high-quality scientific data, with effective metadata descriptors, ease of access, interoperability and reusability, fully implementing the FAIR (‘Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) principles.
ESFRI Landmarks and other internationally open RIs, not only produce scientific data that are used by highly competitive international research communities, but also assure a robust quality control of the produced data sets. In addition, the ability of RIs to develop interoperability concepts becomes critical not only for effective data sharing, but also more generally, it will direct the capability of RIs to address the multidisciplinary character of the societal challenges and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These efforts must be recognized, properly analysed and utilized to contribute to shaping the EOSC ecosystem.
EOSC provides a chance to increase data sharing beyond RIs, since it is an infrastructure that includes not only RIs but also data, users and service providers from different national and regional backgrounds. EOSC provides a chance to increase data sharing beyond RIs, since it will provide European researchers with seamless access to a wealth of data, along with a wide range of value-added services from different national and regional backgrounds. The experience gathered by ESFRI and ESFRI initiated RIs, should be utilized to the maximum extent in the EOSC implementation, including the various alternatives for governance models and fully reflecting the engagement and responsibility of RIs in and for Open Science.
EOSC should have clear extra value for its end users. These include primary scientific advantages, such as enhanced data and service connections, better ability to address interdisciplinary and societal challenges, and improved e-infrastructure services and tools for RIs and their data consumers. On top of that EOSC should feature political, social and cultural advantages, for example improved political decision-making capabilities, increased societal awareness and leading a change in culture towards Open Science. Further, qualifying factors such as transparency, high data quality, research acknowledgement/credit, and training are important.
EOSC requires a long-term and sustained funding to ensure relevance, uptake and its continued existence. This funding should also reflect the evolving needs of the supported communities, with necessary periodic updates and related development initiatives.
The EOSC cluster projects play an important and multi-faceted role for both EOSC and RIs, being on one side providers of data and services of all kinds (e.g., data services, research products services) and on the other side as users of services provided by EOSC. The relationship between direct funding for RIs and EOSC-derived funding for the horizontal services and resources provided for the RIs need to be considered, with the precise specification for each facility.
EOSC is working on a change of culture towards open research data, and based on the FAIR data principles. Such a cultural change can be achieved through targeted education and training, incentives and reward mechanisms.
Promotion, outreach and training can ensure that the added value of EOSC is clearly visible for its end users, including the many benefits of Open Science, and the ‘added value’ for RIs. Further, an understanding of the costs associated with Open Science is needed. For this, funding models, legal entity concepts and statutes, as well as access models are being defined by EOSC.
The RI community should act as a key player in these efforts, leading the change of culture, driving data quality and more open access to data. Together with the scientific community of users, the RIs have a key role to help deploy the EOSC.
ObjectivesThe main objective of the workshop is to bring together ESFRI, ESFRI RIs and EOSC stakeholders, in order to showcase and better comprehend the EOSC concept and value proposition for its users, and ensure an optimal federation of ESFRI clusters / RIs with EOSC.
Present the current state of EOSC and see how the thematic RIs/ESFRI clusters fit into the developing landscape, including the tri-party partnership with the new legal entity (EOSC Association) and its Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SRIA). Convey ESFRI RIs/Clusters/ and ESFRI Task Force on EOSC positions into shaping EOSC:
Present the EOSC latest documents and the outcome of their consultations:
- EOSC Partnership agreement and EOSC Association
- EOSC Partnership Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SRIA) (including planning for the next cycles of funding)
- EOSC Sustainability WG latest report “Iron Lady”
Showcase from ESFRI RIs and Clusters the EOSC concept and added-value for its users with concrete use cases, good practices and approaches for federating thematic resources into EOSC – around 3 main areas:
- Thematic Clusters/RI data and tools
- Horizontal federated e-Infrastructure resources uptake
- Open Science and FAIR data sharing within and across domains
Present the latest technical developments and outputs of e-Infrastructure/EOSC providers:
- Resources and services/tools for thematic providers and end users (network, computing, data, middleware/other services)
- Developments around incentives and policies on open and FAIR Data & Services, their sharing and towards a cultural change, and work on skills
Reflect from the users’ perspective on the status, outputs and discussions in the EOSC WGs, with focus on:
- Architecture
- FAIR data
- Rules of Participation (RoP)
- Other basic findings from other groups will be covered, including: the Minimal Valuable EOSC (MVE) concept. In particular, how the Clusters/RIs data producers/service providers are connected/federated (either integrated or interfaced); skills and training
Work around the themes of ‘Present and Future’, both from the thematic projects (RI/Clusters) and horizontal projects (e-Infrastructures) perspectives.
- Present: where are we now both in terms of latest policy and technical developments. Policy with regards to the tri-party partnership, the new legal entity and the SRIA document, along with the EOSC Sustainability WG “Iron Lady” document. Regarding technical developments portray characteristic use cases both from horizontal and thematic projects, reflecting also the ESFRI White Paper related points.
- Future: What is expected in the next period, both policy and technically, following up on the current state. On the one hand study the evolving legal landscape of EOSC next phase (post 2020) and envisage the role of the thematic stakeholders, and on the other hand focus on user-related technical aspects and expectations; what services are planned to be available in the Minimum Valuable EOSC (MVE) when EOSC is launched on 1st Jan 2021 compared to what services users are expecting? EOSC Governance to present the current state of play; thematic stakeholders/clusters/RIs to reflect on their role in the developing landscape; clusters to present key services/good practices to be federated in EOSC, showcasing the EOSC potential and added-value; horizontal projects to present also a set of horizontal services, again showcasing the EOSC potential and added-value.
Main focal and other points:
- Present latest EOSC Governance plans, including the EOSC partnership and extract user expectations on governance.
- Present use cases for end users to understand EOSC and to attract them to use it.
- Go into the details in specific topics in round table discussions and identify key benefits for the users: e.g. unified data formats, service level agreements, MVE services, training/skills, AAI.
Provide highlights-“flavours”- good practices: Need to provide highlights and “flavours” (use cases, good practices, etc.) in close cooperation with the clusters showcasing/ demonstrating breadth of issues.
Informed by ESFRI White Paper, including:
- ESFRI vision/mission and the strategic orientations for a renewed ERA.
- Implementation of a healthy RI ecosystem in Europe with high-quality open research data from RIs for EOSC federation.
Workshop report: A report from the event needs to be prepared, along with the presented case studies/use cases with the identified benefits for their users, which can possibly act as input into the future developments of EOSC (that can also act as a tool to attract users to join the EOSC, thus supporting uptake/integration within this community).
Further reading
- ESFRI White Paper
- EU Council Conclusions on EOSC
- Keynote speech by President von der Leyen at the World Economic Forum
- EC Implementation Roadmap for EOSC
"European Research Infrastructures for a smarter future" Conference
Overview of concept and objectives
The overall objective of the conference is to explore the potential of European Research Infrastructures to make a meaningful impact on the European strategic agendas and identify the ways in which this could be achieved. The outcome of this high-level digital event will provide a new impetus for the European research infrastructure policy, supporting full realisation of the potential of the European Research Area to drive the necessary changes in our economy and society. The conference will provide a platform for discussion and dialogue between policy, research and industry stakeholders on the changes that are necessary to address the big challenges of our times. It will also increase the visibility of opportunities provided by Research Infrastructures and promote partnership between business and academia.
ESFRI Workshop on the Future of Research Infrastructures in the European Research Area
The event is part of Exchange of Experience (EoE) workshops.
This event was live-streamed via the ESFRI YouTube Channel. The resulting video will be available for viewing in a few days.
With the next Roadmap of European Research Infrastructures, foreseen for publication in 2021, ESFRI will end the second cycle of its Roadmaps, comprising the editions of 2006, 2008, 2010, 2016 and 2018. The last two editions have demonstrated clearly how the landscape of research infrastructures in Europe has evolved and matured.
As demonstrated through the work on long-term sustainability of research infrastructures over the last three years, the facilities that have now become operational face very different challenges to the ones early in their lifecycle.
Recognising the nature of these challenges and responding to the invitation of the Competitiveness Council to strengthen its strategic role, ESFRI started a comprehensive reflection process on the role of research infrastructures and ESFRI itself in the evolving European Research Area.
The objective of this workshop is to discuss with the research infrastructures, thematic clusters and other stakeholders a number of key topics that emerged through this process in a view of preparing a formal ESFRI document in December 2019.