Commission Agenda Entry: Thursday, 19 October: New tools for knowledge and growth - EU Forum unveils strategic Road Map for large European Research Infrastructures

Brussels, 06 Oct 2006

The news

European Research Infrastructures underpin Europe’s scientific excellence and economic performance. They cover resources such as equipment, sets of instruments, high capacity networks, as well as knowledge resources such as collections and data banks. With their unique scientific, technological and human capacities, these large scale facilities provide world-class research services to EU scientists across national borders in a wide range of areas.

The efforts and resources needed to build and operate facilities like these are generally well beyond those available to single institutions or countries. Maximising existing research infrastructures, fostering the development of new capabilities available to the pan-European research community, and training new generations of researchers are therefore key objectives of the EU Framework Programme for Research.

Made up of senior representatives from Member States and leading European scientists, the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) was asked to develop a long-term strategic view on the development of Research Infrastructures of Pan-European Interest.

The resulting European Roadmap for Research Infrastructures will be published on 19 October. The ESFRI Roadmap is the result of an intensive two-year consultation and peer review process involving over 1000 high level European and international experts.

The ESFRI Roadmap identifies 35 large scale infrastructure projects, at various stages of development, to be supported at European level in seven key research areas including Environmental Sciences; Energy; Materials Sciences; Astrophysics, Astronomy, Particle and Nuclear Physics; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Social Sciences and the Humanities; Computation and data Treatment. The list of individual projects proposed for support will be unveiled on 19 October.

The event
Press conference with Janez Potočnik, European Commissioner for Research, and Prof. John Wood, Chairman of ESFRI, at the Berlaymont in Brussels at 11:15
To be followed by buffet lunch and interview opportunities.

The sources
European Research Infrastructures website:
http://cordis.europa.eu/infrastructures/
ESFRI website:
http://cordis.europa.eu/esfri/

The contacts:
Antonia Mochan +32 2 296 9921; Marilyn Carruthers +32 2 299 9451
Comm-rtd-press@ec.europa.eu

Item source: AGENDA/05/9