2nd ESFRI Stakeholders Forum Meetup

Tenerife, Spain
27.09.2023

Watch the full video recording HERE

 

The 2nd ESFRI Stakeholders Forum Meetup will take place on September 27th, 2023 in Tenerife, Spain. 

The discussions on this year's edition of the Meetup will specifically focus on three key areas: Funding, Access, Industry and interaction with Technology Infrastructures (TIs). Each session will start with a panel discussion, followed by group discussions where participants will address relevant questions also identified in consultation with stakeholders. There will be a common question posed for all three topics about how the next European Commission Work Programme 2025-2027 and the new Framework Programme should include them. The answers to this question will form the basis for the final session of the event.

 

Join the ESFRI Stakeholders Forum - fill in the Expression of Interest form!

Missed the 1st Meetup? Read more here and watch the video recording!

 
Agenda for the 2nd ESFRI Stakeholders Forum Meetup
Wednesday, 27 September 2023
08:30

Registration
09:00

Opening & Welcome
Welcome addresses:

  • Raquel Yotti, Secretary General for Science at the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation
  • Jana Kolar, ESFRI Chair 
  • Michael Arentoft, Head of Unit Open Science & Research Infrastructures, DG RTD

 
09:15

Funding
Moderator: Jean Daillant, member of ARIE’s spokesperson
Panel discussion:

  • Elena Hoffert, ESFRI EB member
  • Jaroslav Toth, Senior investment advisor at European Investment Bank
  • Roberto Cimino, Research Infrastructures’ expert at the Directorate General for Internationalisation of the Italian Ministry for University and Research​

Discussion in breakout sessions (3 parallels), followed by feedback discussion (plenary).

 
10:45

Coffee break
11:15

Access
Moderator: Milena Dobreva, CESAER’s representative to ESFRI Stakeholders Forum
Panel discussion:

  • Agnes Robin, Head of Sector, EC
  • Andrew Harrison, Chair of the European-Level Research Infrastructures Facilities
  • James Morris, Senior Policy Officer at Science Europe​

Discussion in breakout sessions (3 parallels), followed by feedback discussion (plenary).

 
12:45

Lunch break
13:45

Interaction with Industry and potential complementarities with Technology Infrastructures
Moderator: Maja Bučar, member of the ESFRI drafting group on Industrial Cooperation and Synergies with TIs
Panel discussion:

  • Michael Ryan, ESFRI EB member
  • Monica Ringvik, representative of EARTO, CTO of RISE Research Institutes of Sweden
  • Judith Ay, Policy Director at European Roundtable for Industry

Discussion in breakout sessions (3 parallels), followed by feedback discussion (plenary).

 
15:15

Coffee break
15:45

Wrap-up session on Funding, Access, and Interaction with TIs in the Commission Work Programme 2025-2027 and in the next Framework Programme 
Moderator: Gelsomina Pappalardo, ESFRI EB member

Panel discussion:

  • Michael Arentoft, Head of Unit Open Science & Research Infrastructures, DG RTD
  • José Luis Martinez, ESFRI Chair elect
  • Antje Keppler, ERIC Forum Chair
  • Andrew Williams, EIROforum representative and external relations officer at the European Southern Observatory (ESO)
16:45

Conclusions & Close
Jana Kolar, ESFRI Chair
17:00

End of the Meetup & Cocktail
Background Information

Session on Access
One of the outcomes of Action 8 of the ERA Policy Agenda  is a broader and more sustainable access for all countries to European Research Infrastructures (RI) and their services, and revision of the European Charter of Access to RIs. These two topics are also part of the last Council conclusions on Research Infrastructures . It is also closely connected to open science objective and the European Open Science Cloud initiative.
This session aims to discuss the challenges to broader and effective access to RIs as needed by users to tackle scientific and societal challenges and relevant aspects of the Charter.

The work of the ESFRI Drafting Group on Access which implemented two surveys on access targeting RIs and stakeholders will be presented. These surveys aimed at characterising access (nature of access, categories of users and needs etc.), learning about access policies and related challenges as well as views on the Charter. A clear outcome of the surveys is the high diversity of replies, not only depending on the scientific domain or the nature of infrastructure (single-sited, distributed) but on the context of an individual RI or network. However, trends alongside several aspects also emerged.

ERF will present views from the perspective of its membership of European RIs, funded nationally but open on a pan-European basis. Their collective experience of the developing nature of access over the past few years and how to rise to the new challenges this introduces touches on demands for a greater degree of remote access, access by increasing numbers of non-expert users, and the provision and curation of interoperable data as users access multiple RIs to tackle increasingly complex problems.

Science Europe will describe recent work it has carried out in collaboration with the OECD Global Science Forum, from nationally funded research infrastructures to very large RIs, looking at ways to optimise access around concepts such as: clarity of access models, data sharing, secondary use, clustered access, and resource management and support. Ideas for further supporting international collaboration will be presented, and links between the topic of RI access and other ERA initiatives, such as the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) will be made.

Session on Funding of European RIs

For over 20 years, ESFRI has played a key role in the strategic planning of European Research Infrastructures (RIs). This led to more than €24bn in national and regional investments catalysed by EU contributions. 
Today, with 63 RIs in the 2021 ESFRI Roadmap, a common, well-coordinated and multi-level European effort is needed to guarantee the long-term sustainability and development of these unique scientific resources. The Council Conclusions (CC) of 2 December 2022  acknowledged the need of a new European effort and encouraged Member States to form a sustainable political commitment to long-term funding of RIs inviting ESFRI to perform an analysis of the types of financial support, identify good practices and synergies of various RI funding resources, and explore appropriate funding models.

The aim of this session is to discuss and present what has been done so far, initiatives and new ideas to develop a long-term sustainable European RI ecosystem. 

During this session, the ESFRI representative will present the work of the ESFRI Drafting Group on RI funding, its interactions with stakeholders who raised many relevant issues about the sustainability of RIs, such as the necessity of multi-annual and long-term planning, investment instruments, legal barriers, and single-site vs distributed RIs problematics.

The European Investment Bank will present funding opportunities for RIs and financial instruments to support RIs in their development and upgrade.
The Italian Ministry for University and Research (MUR) will present an overview of how Italy supports national and international Infrastructures: the importance to support, also with EU funding, upgrades and running costs of existing RIs as well as to integrate RIs’ activities into ongoing projects and to consider some of their construction and running costs as in-kind contribution. To foster a coherent approach to key issues such as access, open science, transparency and ethics, MUR will suggest involving excellent national RIs into the EU framework.

Session on the Interaction of Research Infrastructures with Industry and the complementarities with Technology Infrastructures

The aim of this session is to discuss the on-going collaborative activities with industry and stimulate discussion between ESFRI and the ongoing activities related to Technology Infrastructures (TI), building on the ESFRI report and surveys.
In 2022 the ESFRI Forum agreed to set up a drafting group charged with understanding the collaborative relationships between Research Infrastructures (RI) and industry and identifying the areas where RIs need further support in developing relevant guidance documents that would further enhance collaboration with industry. 

Through its work, the ESFRI Drafting Group on Cooperation with Industry drafted its report following the launch of a survey in early 2023 aimed at industry partners. This was then combined and balanced against a previously published 2022 report: Cooperation of ESFRI Research Infrastructures (Landmarks) with Industry. Through both surveys, the main characteristics of cooperation between industry and RIs were identified, as well as key barriers to cooperation along with recommendations. 

While the group focused on RI engagement with industry, securing a better understanding of the roles played by both RIs and TIs going forward will be important. Understanding complementarities particularly in providing services needed by industry to support Europe’s strategic objectives. Exploring the synergies between RIs and TIs is particularly relevant in the context of the latest Council Conclusions on Research Infrastructures  which acknowledged that both are part of the same infrastructure ecosystem. Moreover, ERA Policy Agenda Action 12 envisages the development of a European approach to TIs. Among others, this includes a study mapping European, national, and regional policies, strategies and programmes targeting TIs as well as setting up an Expert Group that will support the Commission in developing an EU policy on TIs.

The Chair of the ESFRI drafting group on relationships between RIs and industry and representatives from the European Association of Research and Technology Organisations (EARTO) and the European Roundtable for Industry (ERT) will discuss this topic, presenting the work done so far as well as ideas and initiatives for the future.

 

ESFRI Landscape Analysis

Since 2016, ESFRI has introduced in its Roadmaps (RM) the Landscape Analysis (LA), which provides an overview of the European research infrastructures (RI) ecosystem by identifying the main RIs operating transnational access in Europe in all fields of research, and major new or ongoing projects, as well as an outlook to the global landscape of relevance. Since its establishment in 2018, the LA has evolved into a more strategic document, including trend analyses and the first examples of RIs services and their impacts in specific areas.

To underline the strategic relevance of the LA, ESFRI has decided to de-couple the LA from the RM. As outlined in ERA Action 8, ESFRI will publish a more strategic LA report in 2024, which must provide the framework for the next ESFRI RM, contribute to the EOSC Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda, and promote the development of new research infrastructure services, including, when needed, infrastructure clustering for pan-European thematic or interdisciplinary services.

Furthermore, Competitiveness Council Conclusions  invited ESFRI to perform a comprehensive analysis of the European RI landscape with the aim to identify existing synergies and complementarities, expose persistent deficiencies, shortcomings and gaps, and propose improvements on accessibility, networking, clustering, associating and even merging of European, national, and regional RIs, and their deeper integration in a fully functional and interoperable European RI ecosystem. It furthermore emphasised the critical importance of RIs in achieving the objectives of European Missions and ESFRI in guiding the strategic development of the European RI landscape and fostering RIs’ contribution to the implementation of European Missions.

To achieve this level of ambition, the LA will provide a more comprehensive gap analysis based on users' needs. It should cover the various domains and multiple dimensions across the domains and include the evolution of needs to identify priorities for future developments.

The LA will include RIs services, technology, instrumentation, and data aspects, as well as societal and economic impact; it should cover national, European, and global scales.
To prepare such an ambitious report, ESFRI has decided to involve directly the RIs and main stakeholders, which can provide the relevant information for this report. Through specific questionnaires for RIs and Clusters, relevant information about the status, trends, and future developments, as well as impact, were collected. Relevant stakeholders were invited to provide their strategic insights, while further stakeholders had the opportunity to send their contributions through the ESFRI website. The extent of the task and the broad engagement of stakeholders in the ESFRI LA process prevents us from organising a specific session on this topic at the 2nd ESFRI Stakeholders Forum Meetup. However, the topics to be discussed bear great relevance. To this end, a question on the LA has been prepared for each of the sessions’ group discussions to enable uptake of the relevant messages in the LA report.

ARRIVAL TO TENERIFE
The closest airport is Tenerife Norte, located just 10 km away from Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The other airport of the island, Tenerife Sur, is located 60 km away. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to book your flights to Tenerife Norte. 

Once you get to Tenerife Norte airport, you can reach Santa Cruz de Tenerife either by bus or taxi. No transfer service is foreseen from the airport to Santa Cruz.

ACCOMMODATION

The attendees will need to cover their own accommodation. The organisation has blocked rooms in several hotels in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. These hotels offer a special fare for a limited number of rooms, and only until a certain date. When you contact the hotels, please give the code INFRAS23. This code is valid for the three listed hotels. 

Please note that the number of rooms blocked is limited. Hence, if you wish to make use of these hotels, we recommend you book your accommodation as soon as possible. Rooms have been blocked for the duration of the conference, but if you wish to stay longer, please let the hotel know when you make your request.

Available until August 25.

Contact: nhtenerife@nh-hotels.com

Hotel NH Tenerife website

Available until August 28.

Contact: reservas.atlantida@hoteles-silken.com

Hotel Silken Atlántida Santa Cruz website

Available until August 15

Please download and fill in this form and send it to mcyco2@iberostar.com

Iberostar Heritage Grand Mencey website

A short report on the key points discussed during the Meetup is now available on Zenodo:

 

DOI

You may view all sessions recordings on the ESFRI YouTube channel.