Research infrastructure vision – European and national perspective

1. Research infrastructure vision – European and national perspective Assoc.Prof.Dr. Albena Vutsova

2. European research infrastructure roadmap

3. EU policy towards RIs • Guidelines - Lisbon Agenda, Lubljana process and Europe 2020 • RIs as a main element of ERA • Evolution of community science policy • Coherence of the various community policies

4. What are Pan EU RIs • Facilities attractive for international users- strong international quality benchmarking • Applying open access policy – access of users only on peer review basis • Unique or rare – needing rare resources, costly • Various type – single to multiple sites, physical to virtual, from data banks to ships • Important for training and RTD activities • All fields of RTD use RIs

5. The meaning of RIs • RIs – instrument for EUs long standing tradition of excellence in RTD • However, increase in requirements, limit of RTD budget availability, continuous update, if policies are fragmented • To overcome these limits and keep competitive level EU and MS should bring resources together and increase cost effectiveness in RIs at all levels • The answer is – ESFRI and national roadmaps

6. EU roadmap and ESFRI • Why European approach towards RI? At the core of the Knowledge Triangle of Education, Research and Innovation in order to: • Extend the frontiers of knowledge • Support industrial innovation and address societal research issues • Exchange and transmit knowledge • Train the next generation of top researchers • Concentration of the resources

7. By now • 44 EU project under ESFRI • 11 of them under implementation • 3 new projects in energy field just approved • Mobilizing of resources • Necessity of financial resources • National funding • Development financial instruments • Utilization of structural funds • Active business participation

8. European roadmap- news • Involving of new thematic areas • Increasing role of distributing RIs • Increasing role of e- RIs • On going process • New areas : • Energy • Biomedical research • Ecology and environment

9. Role of EU roadmap • To support a coherent and strategy led approach to policy making on RIs in EU • To facilitate multilateral initiatives leading to a better use and development of RIs • To bring initiatives and projects to a point where joint actions are possible • Preparation suggestions on best practices and long term vision at the EU level, to support the development of EU policy in RIs

10. National roadmaps: approach and criteria

11. What happens at national levels? • Some countries adopting an ‘ESFRI’-led approach (prioritising from ESFRI list – with national additions) • Some countries adopting a ‘National interest’-led approach (establishing a national roadmap and noting the ESFRI overlap) • Where roadmaps are drawn up, national budgets are usually presented. • Not all countries that produce roadmaps have clearly specified prioritisation procedures

12. Member States national RI roadmaps

13. Bulgarian roadmap on RIs- general aspects • Adopted by the Council of the ministries • Bottom – up approach • National consultation • Multilevel discussions • Benchmarking

14. Generally used approach • Technique-oriented - exploitation of the S&T potential, access to Research infrastructures, solving problems in the constructions or maintenance and access; • Problem-oriented – Identification of research capacity shortcomings as a precondition • Socio-economic objective – sustainable development and impact on human capacity and training

15. Approach STEP 1: Awareness-raising • Presentation of ESFRI; information days and development of questionnaires; • Forming a national working group • Collect the responses • Cluster the interests; themes and teams • STEP 2: Inviting researchers to develop their proposals

16. Approach 2 • STEP 3: National consultation on proposed complexes • Possibility to add new partners; • discussions with the applicants for re-design the projects • Alignment with the ESFRI roadmap • STEP 4: Presentation of concrete projects • STEP 5: ToR for international evaluation panels

17. Approach 3 • STEP 5: International validation • Evaluation of the project proposals, i.e. scientific merit • On spot visit • Hearing procedure of the proposals and feedback • Filtering the proposals • Final arranging and approval • Consultation procedure of the National roadmap projects with the ministries; • Council of the ministries decision

18. Characteristics of the national roadmap • Designing on the basis of combination of ESFRI-Led and national- led approaches • Wide agreed with the scientific community on the basis of research merit • Agreed with the political bodies on the basis of the socio economic merit • Coordinated with EU policy decisions in the area of RIs • Lack of lump sum for supporting • Possible various funding for support • Direct state support • SF • NSF • Other sources

19. National complex Distributed infrastructure for sustainable development in the area of marine research Infrastructure for genome, proteome and metabolome researches, computer simulation and drug design Bulgarian supercomputing center E-infrastructure for integration and development of Bulgarian language electronic resources Distributed infrastructure for: production and research of new materials having application in biomedicine and environment; research, diagnostics, restoration and preservation of metal artifacts Infrastructure in the area of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency European RI EURO-ARGO BBMRI PRACE CLARIN ------ Possibility to approach the newest energy infrastructures: WindScanner and EU-SOLARIS National research complexes

20. Challenges : • RIs from the roadmap can be localized as a supra regional complex • There are plenty of possibilities to enter in the play • Roadmap provide unique opportunities for frontier research and training as well as for stimulating knowledge and technology transfer in brief for capacity building • The government can contribute the upgrade construction and open access and reap the benefit

21. Thank you !