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European Research Area Platform

Other Governance Structures

Certain structures have been established with a long-term perspective to govern the implementation of their activities. These are the following:

European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) 

  • The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) was established in 2002, bringing together EU Member States, Associated Countries and the European Commission, providing a discussion platform on joint visions and common strategies for research infrastructures in Europe and acting as an incubator for international initiatives in the field.
  • ESFRI received a mandate from the EU Council to:
    • support a coherent and strategy-led approach to policy-making on research infrastructures in Europe,
    • facilitate multilateral initiatives leading to the better use and development of research infrastructures,
    • establish a European Roadmap for research infrastructures and stimulate the implementation of these facilities,
    • ensure the follow-up of implementation of on-going ESFRI Projects and periodic review of ESFRI Landmarks,
    • implement activities linked to ERA Actions and beyond.
  • The latest Roadmap 2021 consists of 22 'ESFRI Projects', which are new initiatives in development phase, and 41 'ESFRI Landmarks', identifying key research infrastructures that have been completed or are under construction, representing around €20 billion investment by the EU Member States, Associated Countries and the EU. The yearly operational costs of these are estimated to around €2 billion. The next Roadmap is being prepared for 2025. 
  • Further information can be found at https://www.esfri.eu/  

European Open Science Cloud (EOSC)

  • The ambition of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) is to provide European researchers, innovators, companies, and citizens with a federated and open multi-disciplinary environment where they can publish, find and re-use data, tools, and services for research, innovation, and educational purposes. 
  • The EOSC ultimately aims to develop a ‘Web of FAIR Data and services’ for science in Europe, upon which a wide range of value-added services can be built. These range from visualization and analytics to long-term information preservation or the monitoring of the uptake of open science practices.  
  • The implementation of the EOSC is based on a long-term process of alignment and coordination pursued by the European Commission (EC) since 2015 with diverse stakeholders of the European research landscape. In the initial phase of implementation (2018-2020), the EC invested around EUR 250 million to prototype components of the EOSC through calls for projects under Horizon 2020. 
  • The EC also launched an interim EOSC Governance to prepare the strategic orientations for the EOSC implementation post-2020. The current phase of implementation (2021-2030), is taking place in the context of the EOSC European co-programmed partnership and according to a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), which is co-developed with the entire EOSC community. 
  • EOSC is transitioning to a more stakeholder-driven approach with a shared vision, common objectives, and complementary contributions at European, national, and institutional levels. A concrete co-investment (in kind and in cash) by the European Union and non-EU partners of at least EUR 1 billion is foreseen for 2021-27. 
  • EOSC is governed by its Steering Board. 
  • Further information can be found at https://eosc.eu/  

Partnership Knowledge Hub

  • The mission of the Partnership Knowledge Hub is to advise the Commission in the implementation of the strategic coordinating process for EU R&I partnerships, and to provide a forum for coordination and cooperation with Member States and related stakeholders. The objective of the strategic coordinating process is to support a coherent, evidence-based and strategic policy making on R&I partnerships in Europe, guided by the criteria framework of the Horizon Europe Regulation. The group contributes to ensuring a strategic oversight of the partnership portfolio, the progress made by European Partnerships in delivering ambitious objectives, and maximising the impact of joint investments made through partnerships.
  • Further information can be found on the Registry for Commission expert groups.