ESFRI Events

OECD (Global Science Forum) and the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) co-organise an online workshop dedicated to the investigation of the demands from relevant stakeholders regarding RI funding data, existing data-gathering mechanisms for RI funding and their limits, what funding could reasonably be assessed (should this include restricted or categorised definitions of RIs, specific phases of the RI life cycle, full cost of RIs or only elements that are more easy to investigate) and how better standardised RI funding information might be generated.

The workshop will take place on 10 July 2024 and will be fully virtual. 

Background

Research infrastructures (RIs) play a critical role in the scientific enterprise. They are now an essential component for all scientific domains and not only allow to push the boundaries of existing knowledge and the production of breakthrough research but they also play a major role in structuring the research system through the development of networks, of user communities and of rich ecosystems that bring together many research and innovation stakeholders.

This increasing role of RIs in the science system, and the increasing complexity of RIs, has led to a steady increase in their funding requirements: not only have RIs become a necessity in all scientific disciplines, but the cost of individual RIs can reach billions or even tens of billion euros. While data is readily available on total research funding in each country, the same cannot be said for the share of funding specific to RIs. Only a few countries are currently able to provide approximate estimates, and even in such cases, these estimates do not always reflect the contributions from all domestic players. Estimating RI funding is complex for several reasons:

This increasing role of RIs in the science system, and the increasing complexity of RIs, has led to their a steady increase in their funding requirement: not only have RIs become a necessity in all scientific disciplines, but the cost of individual RIs can reach billions or even tens of billion euros. While data is readily available on total research funding in each country, the same cannot be said for the share of funding specific to RIs. Only a few countries are currently able to provide rough estimates, and even in such cases, estimates do not always reflect the contributions from all domestic players. Estimating RI funding is complex for several reasons:

• There is no single definition of what is a research infrastructures. In recent years, the term has been used to categorise: single pieces of large research equipment (such as an electron microscope); very large distributed networks of monitoring sensors (such as arrays of buoys); virtually accessible databases; and, complex international projects spanning several continents… While there is an agreement on a few common general principles (typically RIs are considered as facilities that provide resources and services for the research communities to conduct research and foster innovation in their fields, and usually are open to users outside the laboratory or institution that hosts the facility), this can still include a vast diversity of equipment or sets of instruments, scientific collections, archives, scientific data etc.
• Funding may address the different phases of the life cycle of RIs (conception/design, construction, operation, upgrades, phasing out).
• RI funding may come from very different sources, supporting different elements (investment, staff, projects, international partnerships…) and this is often very context specific as countries have different mechanisms and processes to support these different elements.

While there are indications that RI investments are indeed increasing steadily and, in some case, the funders indicate that this has reached their funding capacity, it is unclear whether the share dedicated to infrastructure is growing commensurately or faster than total public investments into R&D, and how RI funding is distributed between new RIs, participation to international RI projects, needs for upgrading existing facilities or just operating RIs and providing user access.

The availability of reliable RI funding data (e.g., RI funding trends, funding distribution along different needs…) alongside trends in research funding would enrich discussions around RI planning and financing for funding and decision-making stakeholders.

This workshop, which is co-organised by the OECD (Global Science Forum) and the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) explores the demands from relevant stakeholders regarding RI funding data. It looks into existing data-gathering mechanisms and their limits, what funding can reasonably be assessed (should this include restricted or categorised definitions of RIs, specific phases of the RI life cycle, full cost of RIs or only elements that are more easy to investigate) and how better standardised RI funding information might be generated.

The ESFRI Science Clusters plan to publish a Position Statement on EOSC. Prior to its open dissemination, they would like to present it and discuss it with representatives of key stakeholders, including the EC, ESFRI and EOSC boards, EOSC-A. To this end, The ESFRI-EOSC Task Force organizes a consultation workshop to discuss the upcoming ESFRI Clusters position statement, on March 1, 2024. 

Participation to the workshop is available by invitation only.

The Competitive Council in its Conclusions on Research Infrastructures adopted on 2/12/2022, acknowledged that the RI funding requires strategic investments through the entire RI life-cycle, which spreads over decades. It encouraged Member States to form a sustainable political commitment on long-term funding of RIs. Moreover, it invited Member States and the Commission through ESFRI to perform an analysis of the types of financial support to the European RIs throughout their life-cycle, identify good practices and synergies of various RI funding resources, and explore appropriate RI funding models and corresponding RI funding initiatives.

Against this background, ESFRI has established a drafting group in charge of analysing the topic in detail and preparing recommendations. The ESFRI Drafting Group on RI Funding elaborated a questionnaire and addressed it to the European research infrastructures. The questionnaire was available on-line from February 14th till April 20th 2023.

A Follow-up online Workshop is organised on June 23, 2023, from 13:00 to 15:00 CET, for RI representatives contributing to this survey. This workshop aims to discuss with the Research infrastructures the information gathered from this questionnaire.

Some of the issues should be tackled via the direct dialogue with the research infrastructures in order to better understand their feedback:  

Participation in the Workshop is available by invitation-only.

ESFRI is conscious of the importance of RIs impact assessment, including on the sustainability of RIs, and has formed a drafting group to elaborate on the topic, tasked with preparing a report based on information collected from literature and questionnaires to the ESFRI member countries and RIs, in the context of the current ESFRI Workplan. 
 
The ESFRI Policy Brief prepared by the drafting group has been published here. This report highlights the importance of understanding the differences between performance monitoring, which ESFRI started implementing last year, and impact assessment of RIs and provides recommendations for stakeholders, policymakers, funders, governments, RIs, ESFRI, and European Commission (EC).

To get more insights from key stakeholders in order to enrich and finalise this report, ESFRI organises an online Consultation Workshop on ESFRI’s approach to RI impact Assessment, on 30 May 2023, 9:30-11:00 CEST.

Participation is limited to ESFRI Delegates.

Please note that a separate Workshop on the same topic will be organised for RIs and Stakeholders. More information here.