ESFRI celebrates the election of José Luis Martínez as its next Chair

ESFRI is pleased to announce the election of Professor José Luis Martínez as its next Chair, the 8th since it was established in 2002. The Term of Office of the new Chair will commence in January 2024 with a two-year duration. 

The Chair-elect has a long-standing involvement in ESFRI and the RI community overall. He serves as a member of ESFRI Forum since 2013, member of the ESFRI Executive Board (2013-2016) and chair of the Strategic Working Group of ESFRI on Physics and Engineering (2016-2021).

José Luis Martínez is a Research Professor at the Material Science Institute (ICMM), from the Higher Research Council (CSIC), in Madrid, Spain, with a long experience in Large Research Infrastructures (RI) in Nagoya Institut of Technology (Nagoya, Japan), Brookhaven Nat. Lab (BNL, NY-USA), Institut Laue Langevin (ILL, Grenoble-France) and ESS-Bilbao (Bilbao, Spain) as user of the RIs as well as manager of different RIs. Among others, he was Associated Director for Research in the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (2004-2007), Associated Director of ILL (2007-2012) and Director General of ESS-Bilbao, in charge of the Spanish in-kind contribution to the European Spallation Source (Lund, Sweden) RI. and member of the “Commission National d’Évaluation” (CNE-2) of the French Parlament (“Office parlementaire d’évaluation des choix scientifiques et technologiques”, OPECST) since 2017.

“I understand that ESFRI is a coordination and enabling mechanism for Large Research Infrastructures that has worked very well till present times and that needs to be consolidated to improve its integration into the new paradigms and priorities of the EU, within the implementation of the European Research Area (ERA) and the new challenges and priorities of society,” stated José Luis Martínez, during the 84th ESFRI Plenary Meeting on June 22nd, with regards to the role of ESFRI in the rapidly evolving R&I landscape. 
Concerning the priorities of his upcoming term, he added “In these changing times ahead, I would like to be able to keep ESFRI's navigation on a steady course, to maintain a precise orientation and not to lose sight of the horizon. In particular and complementary to the updated Landscape Analysis in 2023, we will have to manage a new European Research Infrastructure Roadmap to be presented in 2025”.

ESFRI Chair Jana Kolar expressed her delight for the election: “I extend my sincere and hearty congratulations to the Chair-elect, José Luis. The current mandate was not short of challenges, such as increased energy prices, which strongly impacted the research infrastructure community. Yet, with the help of my committed colleagues from the countries and the EC, as well as the infrastructures and other stakeholders, I believe we now have a more resilient and sustainable system. Our joint actions set an inspiring example of the favourable outcomes that can be realised through collective determination and collaboration – even during crises.
I am confident that the experience, knowledge of Research Infrastructures and dedication, combined with the support of a well-connected community will enable José Luis to further enhance ESFRI, for the benefit of its stakeholders.”

Anna Panagopoulou, Director for ERA & Innovation at the European Commission, congratulated José L. Martínez on his new role “I would like to congratulate José Luis Martínez on his election to this very important role. José Luis has an impressive track record as a researcher, manager of large scale research infrastructures, and as Delegation member in ESFRI. Through his former activities as ESFRI Executive Board member and Strategy Working Group chair for physical sciences and engineering he has an intimate knowledge of the functioning of ESFRI.”, while also offering the Commission’s perspective on the ambitious outlook of the  Chair-elect for the next two years:
“During the next term 2024-2025 ESFRI should further continue its integration in the new ERA policy, which started so successfully in the current term, and continue strengthening the links with a broad range of stakeholders. This will help promoting not only scientific excellence and knowledge creation, but further reinforce the role of Research Infrastructures as actors in innovation and knowledge transfer. At the same time ESFRI will need to remain flexible in taking up new upcoming challenges for RIs in its strategic reflections. The Commission is looking forward to a fruitful and intense work with ESFRI under José Luis’s leadership.”