Explained

European Research infrastructures are facilities that provide resources and advanced services for the research communities to conduct research and foster innovation in their fields. They enable research and innovation at the highest level of excellence across Europe and are drivers of multidisciplinary and data-intensive science.

Action 8 of the first ERA Policy Agenda (2022-2024) aims at strengthening sustainability, accessibility and resilience of research infrastructures in the ERA.

While the construction and operation of European research infrastructures are in the remit of EU Member States and Associates countries, Horizon Europe plays a key role in fostering research infrastructures in the ERA by:

• supporting the successive phases of the development of new pan-European research infrastructures from concept to implementation;

• opening EU-level research infrastructures to trans-national users, enabling all researchers in Europe and beyond to have access to the best research infrastructures they need for their research;

• supporting the development of innovative cutting-edge scientific instrumentation, software and methods, including through cooperation and co-creation with industry.

The EU’s ERIC Regulation, allowing to establish EU research infrastructures as joint legal entities between participating Member States and Associated Countries, resulted in a number of ERICs being active. To structure the cooperation between ERICs and to exploit best practices in terms of enhanced delivery of support services, ERIC Forum 2 project has been set up. It consolidates the integration of ERICs as key research support pillars in the ERA, by deepening the ERIC Forum’s contribution to research policies. Under the IBISBA-DIALS project, EU support is given to the early implementation of a European Research Infrastructure focused on Industrial Biotechnology Innovation and Synthetic Biology. The RITIFI project aims to foster better integration of Technology Infrastructures (infrastructures closer to market) into the European R&I landscape, alongside the more upstream active research infrastructures. The ISIDORe project offers as a one-stop access point a wide range of more than 300 research support services ranging from molecular biology to regulatory advice, to enable rapid research responses in case of epidemics outbreaks. Similarly, the canSERV project brings under the same umbrella oncology research infrastructures and provides access to researchers to more than 400 cutting edge cancer research services across Europe. The RADIOBLOCKS project assembles cutting-edge facilities in the field of radio astronomy, allowing to exploit the entire data chain from signal collection through novel detectors, digital receivers, transport and correlator components, to high performance data processing that can be shared by several research infrastructures.

In addition, there are ongoing Horizon 2020 projects that interact with projects and initiatives funded under Horizon Europe. For example, RI-URBANS project is transforming air quality monitoring in Europe, advocating for cleaner urban air with innovative tools and strategies. EMERGE project is a pioneering research infrastructure supporting sustainable flexible large-area printed electronics and photonics. It provides open access to its innovative platform, enabling research & tech organizations, SMEs, and industry to develop eco-friendly solutions.

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