Document(s): 

Booklet

Year of publication: 

2016

EU-funded e-Infrastructures are a key component of the European digital research and innovation landscape. They address the needs of European researchers and innovators for transnational communication networks, high performance and high throughput computing, multidisciplinary data management and collaborative scientific software. They empower researchers with easy and secure online access to facilities and resources and enable them to deliver reusable and reproducible research and innovation outputs.

During the period 2014-2020, the EU will have invested more than 850 M€ in digital infrastructures through its Horizon 2020 e-Infrastructure programme.

But e-Infrastructures are set to play a much larger role in society. The European Commission adopted on 19 April 2016 the communication "European Cloud Initiative – Building a competitive data and knowledge economy in Europe" that sets out a strategy to strengthen Europe's position in data-driven innovation, improve its cohesion, and help create a Digital Single Market in Europe. This is a fundamental step towards the reinforcement of the EU's competitiveness in digital technologies and in innovation.

Today, EU-funded e-infrastructures play a fundamental role in the life of European researchers and innovators. This booklet illustrates that by showing how e-Infrastructure projects funded under the Horizon 2020 work programme 2014-2015 are helping researchers tackle the challenges posed by one specific societal challenge.