INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
Strong investment in research and innovation is needed to address pressing societal challenges such as climate change, health, an ageing population, or the move towards a resource efficient society.
Research Infrastructures play a vital role in addressing these challenges. However, it is essential to optimise the use of resources for increasingly expensive facilities, to overcome the fragmented infrastructure spending not only across Europe but at a more global scale, and to join forces to address these challenges.
Some research facilities, particularly in physics or astronomy, are so large, complex or expensive that they require international cooperation for their construction and operation. Others are naturally global in scope as they respond to global challenges and/or require the combined skills, data and efforts of the world's best scientists. Some examples from the European Roadmap are ICOS: Integrated Carbon Observation System; LIFEWATCH: protection, management and sustainable use of biodiversity; SKA: Square Kilometre Array, the next generation radio telescope.
Developing global research infrastructures and reinforcing cooperation of EU research infrastructures at international level are parts of the key commitments of the Innovation Union.
The Carnegie group of G8+05 Science Advisers
Several discussions already took place on the efficient planning, design, construction and operation of global infrastructures. It is clear that this requires not only a sharing of costs, but also the sharing of knowledge.
The Carnegie Group of G8 + 05 Science Advisers recognised the potential for cooperation on issues related to global research infrastructures. They established a Group of Senior Officials (GSO) on Global Research Infrastructures to reach a common understanding on matters such as governance, funding and management of large-scale research infrastructures.
The European Commission is member of the GSO group. To support its work, the Commission set up in 2010 a European Expert Group which produced a report on cost control and management issues. The report is targeted to policy and decision-makers. Based on the broad experience of its members, it puts forward recommendations that will form the basis of future work on these issues.
Cost Control and Management Issues of Global Research Infrastructures
European Expert Group Report
October 2010
EN 
2.6 MB
The GSO group is currently drafting a report aimed at presenting a Discussion framework to promote coordinated global research infrastructures.
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ICRI 2012 - Global research infrastructures and the Grand Challenges
Copenhagen, 21-23 March 2012
The International Conference on Research Infrastructures,
ICRI 2012, took place under the auspices of the Danish Presidency of the European Union, in cooperation with the European Commission. This was the Seventh Conference on Research Infrastructures.
During the two-day event, issues such as decision making processes, funding, management, use-dissemination-exploitation (including data, access) of research infrastructures were discussed in depth. More than 600 experts, scientists and stakeholders attended the event and spoke about how global research infrastructures can tackle the so-called Grand Challenges, more specifically in the fields of health, environment and energy.
The Conference made specific recommendations on how international cooperation on research infrastructures can be more effective in the future.
ICRI Conclusions 102 KB
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Workshops
- Australia-EU Research Infrastructure Second Workshop
Brussels, 26-27 June 2012
Agenda ( 157 KB)
Participants CVs ( 832 KB)
Data Infrastructure Collaboration ( 153 KB)
Energy ( 846 KB)
Environment ( 201 KB)
Health ( 152 KB)
Workshop Report ( 659 KB)
- EU-New Zealand data and e-research infrastructure workshop
Brussels, 7 June 2012
- EU-US workshop on Environment
Brussels, 13-14 September 2011
- Australia-EU Research Infrastructure First Workshop
Brussels, 4-5 April 2011
During the 11th Joint Science and Technology Committee Meeting (Sydney on 7-9 June 2010), the EC and the Australian Government Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR) agreed that increased cooperation on research infrastructures would be of strategic added value. The joint communiqué confirmed that: Australia and the EC have a long standing tradition of cooperation in astronomy and space sciences: this will continue to form a strong basis for extending our cooperation. Both parties noted the benefits of exchanging ideas and information on a range of matters concerning access, management, funding and prioritisation of research infrastructures in Australia and the EU. The parties therefore agreed to explore these issues and ways to cooperate on research infrastructure collaboration in areas including earth sciences and marine sciences, life sciences energy and e-infrastructures and agreed to hold a bilateral workshop in Spring 2011.
The first concrete action was the organisation of the first EU-Australia Workshop on Research Infrastructures (including e-infrastructures), which took place in Brussels on 4-5 April 2011, with the sponsorship of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office and the Royal Academies of Science and the Arts of Belgium. The programme of the workshop recognised the increased importance of a common approach to scientific data to tackle together issues relevant to the Grand Challenges and globally distributed research infrastructures, and therefore concentrated on environmental sciences (marine data infrastructure) and bio-medical sciences (in particular microscopy and microanalysis and medical application of synchrotron radiation sources).
The workshop was attended by representatives of the relevant research infrastructures in the EU and Australia, as well as by EC and DIISR representatives. The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) was represented by its Chair Dr. Beatrix Vierkorn-Rudolph, the Chair of the Environmental Sciences Thematic Working Group, Dr. Eeva Ikonen, the Vice-Chair of the Biological and Medical Thematic Working Group, Dr. Murat Ozgoren, and the Belgian delegate to ESFRI and Member of the ESFRI Executive Board, Dr. Jean Moulin.
In parallel to the workshop, on 4th April the first meeting between officials of the EC, ESFRI and DIISR took place to learn how funding and prioritisation for existing and new research infrastructures is carried out on both sides, including the roadmap for research infrastructures, and to explore possible ways to cooperate in the area of research infrastructures.
- AAAS Annual Meeting 2011
Washington, 21 February 2011
Symposium: Research Infrastructures: the emergence of key players for environmental research
Climate change, biodiversity, carbon emissions, or natural hazards: by nature, environmental research must address challenges ignoring geographical borders, at the frontier of classical scientific disciplines and at the forefront of the international political agenda. Besides the global nature of these challenges, the scale and complexity of the resources needed and the development of information and communication technology have made necessary and enabled increased international collaboration in research and knowledge sharing. Developing world-class research infrastructures for environmental research is therefore one of the priorities of European authorities.
The symposium enabled a debate on future transatlantic cooperation in environmental research and more specifically in the field of geosciences observation systems.
Presentations:
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Hervé Péro 2.0 MB , European Commission, moderator
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Jean-Daniel Paris 2.6 MB , Laboratory of Climate Sciences and Environment, Integrated Carbon Observation System to Quantify Greenhouse Gas Fluxes across Europe
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Massimo Cocco 3.5 MB
, National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, European Plate Observing System: a long-term Integration Plan for Solid Earth Sciences
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Timothy L. Killeen 13.6 MB , National Science Foundation
The U.S. Research Infrastructures Program for Environmental Research
Presentations
- BILAT-US - Symposium on Transatlantic EU-U.S. cooperation in the field of large scale Research Infrastructures
Rome, October 1, 2010
