An highlight on EU activities on Research Infrastructures Miloš Kuret Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Slovenia

lFacilities, resources, and related services used by the scientific community for èConducting leading-edge research èKnowledge transmission, knowledge exchanges and knowledge preservation lIncludes èMajor scientific equipment èScientific collections, archives and structured information èICT-based infrastructures èEntities of a unique nature, used for research Definition of Research Infrastructures

Research Infrastructures are at the core of the knowledge Triangle ResearchEducation Innovation Research infrastructures Knowledge « industry »

European Survey of Research Infrastructures Aim: analysis + respective trends & developments March-April 06: Initial submission phase led by EC May-December 06: Validation process by ESF  Validation of the entries received by EC  Nomination of missing major RIs December 06- up to now: Finalization by EC  Getting responses from RIs nominated by ESF  Breaking down all RIs by categories (598 entries)  Extracting the first results from the database

Research Infrastructures need a minimum investment for construction Average Lower Bound of RI Investment by Domains (total: 598 RIs, M€) 59,8 73,4 21,8 65,6 83,0 26,2 78,7 80,2 53,0 21, All domainsHumanitiesSocial Sciences Environmental, Marine, Earth Sciences EnergyBiomedical and Life Sciences Nuclear and Particle Physics, Astronomy, Astrophysics Materials Sciences Engineering Computer and data treatment Million Euros 20 M€ threshold?

Research Infrastructures’ pattern is rapidly evolving in Europe Share of RIs Built or Upgraded in the Last 5 Years 3,3 18,8 19,1 35,3 9,0 16,7 18,8 30,0 34,9 36,7 34,4 36,2 23,5 51,3 45,1 44,7 36,7 34, Energy Humanities Engineering Social Sciences Nuclear and Particle Physics, Astronomy, Astrophysics Environmental, Marine, Earth Sciences Material Sciences Computer and data treatment Biomedical and Life Sciences % RIs built in the last 5 years built more than 5 years ago but upgraded in last 5 years

Towards a coherent policy for Research Infrastructures… A European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures Launched in April 02 Brings together representatives of the 27 Member States, 5 Associated States, and one representative of the European Commission (EC) ESFRI European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures

Report 2006 The Roadmap Mandate from the Council of Ministers, November 2004 The Roadmap is the result of two years of intensive work About 1000 high-level experts were involved, from every MS and AS, from most fields and user communities, giving the end product credibility and quality. It is the beginning of an ongoing process

Report 2006 Social Science and Humanities

Report 2006 Environmental Sciences AURORA BOREALIS

Report 2006 Energy HiPER JHR 3 Projects IFMIF Need to nucleate further work

Report 2006 Biomedical and Life Sciences

Report 2006 Material Sciences

Report 2006 Astronomy, Astrophysics and Nuclear Physics 5 Projects

Report 2006 Computer Data Treatment, Particle and Space Physics

FP Budget (M€) - Source: Council decision in December 2006 “Capacities”

Objectives of the Community Research Infrastructures action lOlOptimising the use and development of the best existing research infrastructures in Europe lHlHelping to create in all fields of S & T new research infrastructures of pan-European interest needed by the European scientific community lSlSupporting programme implementation and policy development (e.g. international cooperation)

FP7 will increase support to new research infrastructures lSupport to the Construction of new infrastructures and major upgrades èPreparatory Phase – to support all work needed to initiate construction of a new RI èImplementation Phase - mainly left to MS, the owners of the new facilities lDesign studies: to support the conceptual design for new facilities or major upgrades, of clear European dimension and interest èthrough bottom-up calls

Preparatory phase - purpose  To provide a framework facilitating decision-making between partners from different countries  To address all the critical issues (legal, financial,..) that need to be resolved to allow the project moving forward

Some info on Call N° 1 … 594 participants are involved (90% MS, 6.5% AS, 3.5% other) On the average: 19 Participants from 11 different countries per ESFRI proposal About 9% of the total participants (53/594) from 12 MS, are from Convergence Regions, eligible to receive Structural Funds

Preparatory Phase facilitating financial engineering for new research infrastructures Inclusion in Specific RTD Programme(s) Inclusion in DG REGIO / DG DEV strategic plans Stakeholders incl. EIROs Member States European Commission Inclusion in national Programmes Projects EIB RSFF

… Importance of creating synergies between SFs and FP7 lRecent CREST report lNeed for coordination at regional and national levels lStrategy planning for mid- to long term: more important than projects themselves lA vision for the next years fostering capacity building and excellence

Objectives of the Community Research Infrastructures action lOlOptimising the use and development of the best existing research infrastructures in Europe lHlHelping to create in all fields of S & T new research infrastructures of pan-European interest needed by the European scientific community lSlSupporting programme implementation and policy development (e.g. international cooperation)

Importance of Community actions: to reduce European fragmentation and dispersion of existing facilities To stimulate more international cooperation in certain fields To help developing a research market for access to and use of installations / research services

Main characteristics of an Integrating Activity l Average number of contractors: 19 (under FP6) of which 7 offering access l Typical duration: 4 years l Average EC contribution: ~10 M€ èManagement: ~ 6% èNetworking Activities: ~ 15% èTrans-national Access: ~ 30-40% èJoint Research Activities~ 40-50% List of funded projects (FP6)

Developing a pan-European research infrastructure for the measurements of atmospheric properties EC contribution: 5.1 M€ TA (~0.2 M€): 11 ground-based stations for atmospheric research NA (~3.2 M€): Standards and exchange of good practices on sampling, measurement and analysis of aerosol parameters Training on aerosol sampling and measurements Web portal and Database on aerosol products JRA (1.7 M€): Methodology for determining aerosol optical density Standards for aerosol hygroscopic growth analysis A real time data collection of aerosol measurements  A network of research stations based on regional diversity EUSAAR (Environment)

TA (~19 M€): 15 installations, with 4000 users from a very broad spectrum of disciplines NA (~2 M€): Specialized workshops, conferences and schools (support areas of transnational cooperation) Exchange of scientists JRA (~6 M€): European platform for Protein Crystallography Development of: Instrumentation for Femtosecond Pulses Diffractive x-ray optics Superconducting Undulator Photoinjector for X-ray Free Electron Lasers EC contribution: 27 M€ Developing a pan-European Synchrotron and Free Electron Laser infrastructure  Offering a common access platform IA-SFS (Analytical Facilities)

GÉANT (global dimension) GÉANT SPONGE SEEREN ALICE EUMEDCONNECT TEIN2 North America/Japan S. Africa India China Australia

FP7 will continue supporting existing Research Infrastructures lIntegrating Activities to promote the coherent use and development of research infrastructures in a given field, implemented through: èBottom-up calls èTargeted calls lICT based e-infrastructures in support of scientific research

Next calls for proposals N°2 (e-infrastructures) + N° 3 lIndicative budget of M€  25 to 30 RTD projects to be selected  Call 2: e-science GRID  Call 3: for RTD; both bottom up and targeted approach l Closure: 20 Sept 2007 (call 2) + 15 Feb 2008 (call 3) lMore information to be provided mid-2007

Topics for RI’s under the targeted approach  29 priority topics in 8 of the “Cooperation” domains lHealth (6 topics) lFood, Agriculture and Biotechnology (4 topics) lInformation and Communication Technologies (3) lNanosciences, Nanotechnologies and Materials (2) lEnergy (5 topics) lEnvironment (4 topics) lTransport (2 topics dealing with aeronautics) lSocioeconomic Sciences and Humanities (3)

Reminder of EC evaluation criteria lS&T quality: excellence of the overall project and of the specific activities lImpact: contribution of the project in integrating existing facilities at European level lImplementation: management, partnership, implementation plan and allocation of resources  Evaluation by independent experts Need for experts…

FP7 Research Infrastructures in brief Existing Infrastructures Design studies New Infrastructures Construction (preparatory phase; construction phase) Integrating activities e-infrastructures ESFRI Roadmap Policy Development / Programme Implementation 30% increase according to FP6

Planning of calls and indicative budget Total operational budget 1630 M€ Call Call Call Call Call Call Integrating activities e-Infrastructures Design studies 3533 Construction – Support to the Preparatory Phase Construction – Implementation Phase RSFF (200 M€) M€ Policy Development and Programme Implementation Total per call (M€)

… in summary, an improved FP7 action for Research Infrastructures lBetter consistency within FP7 (targeted calls) lTackling better fragmentation (Integrating Activities) lCatalysing effect towards the construction or major upgrade of Research Infrastructures lA vision for the next years fostering capacity building and excellence (update of ESFRI roadmap will soon start)

Research Infrastructures are identified as a key area in the green book on ERA The purpose is to assess the progress made in establishing ERA and to discuss future directions An online public consultation has been launched: h?form=ERAGreenPaper h?form=ERAGreenPaper

Other useful links lFP7 Proposal and Capacities Specific Programme lResearch Infrastructures on CORDIS (FP6) lESFRI (Eur. Strategy Forum for Research Infrastr.) lResearch Infrastructures in Europa (on-line soon)

Many thanks for your attention Merci Gracias Danke Grazie Bedankt Teşekkür ederim Obrigado Kiitos Tack Hvala Köszönöm Ευχαριστω СПАСІБO ありがとう धन्यवाद