Accessing European and Western Balkan S&T Infrastructures

1. WBC-INCO.NETWP3 – Report on opportunities to access S&TInfrastructures Davor Kozmus, MHEST Steering Platform Meeting 29. October 2009, Zagreb

2. T3.4: Analysis of opportunities to access S&T Infrastructure TASK LEAD: APRE Further involved partners: MHEST, DLR, BMBF, MPIN Aims: • This taskcarried out a study PART A: into the possibilities and conditions for WBC researchers to access large (and important medium) scale European S&T infrastructures. (Analysis of EU RIs) • PART B: The possibilities and conditions for access of EU researchers to large scale research infrastructures in the WBC will be recorded and analysed (Analysis of WBC Ris). • DoW set a goal to map at least 30 important large and medium scale infrastructures. Final result will be mapping of 109 infrastructres in EU and WBC. Deliverable: • Report on opportunities to access large scale infrastructures was finalized for EU infrastructures in April and finaly updated this month.

3. Methodology • Approach and Questionnaire for the investigation research was defined by APRE • Contacts of RIs were compiled by all involved partners (ESFRI Roadmap, EC website, ZSI databases, addresses collected from the partners on the task, help from the ministries) • E-Questionnaire for EU RIs was installed on ZSI website • Collecting of answers was finalized in October 2008 • Working group meeting was organised in Rome in November 2008. Main goal checking of data quality and plans for deliverable writing • Draft of the deliverable was shared among task partners and presented on ESB in Liblice in May 2009 • Update of the report with more RIs players from WBC – help from respective WBC ministries. 25 additional answers was collected. • Final version will be available in November 2009 (integration of last received answers from Serbia RIs)

4. Practical value of deliverable • Current deliverable is a catalogue of 96 institutions with their most relevant information (13 new from Serbia will be included in the last version). • Information will help EU and WBC researchers to find a proper contact. • Is providing an information about a need on cooperation • Is providing an information on what kind of cooperation is possible and how the access is granted • What kind of equipment is available in individual institution • Publishing of the report will also raise awareness among EU and WBC institutions.

5. Questionnaire • 221 insitutions from EU were contacted and the response was 60 (27%) • 145 insitutions from WBC were contacted and response was 36 (25%) • General part (name of the institution, RI, country, contact details) • Specific information (sci. Domain, type of RI, type of funding, years of opperation, cooperation with industry) • Access to the RIs from other countries (access policies, main country partners, number of external users, what kind of access is granted, interested in cooperation with WBC) • Information about partnership with WBC (success stories, major obstacles for cooperation with WBC, future plans)

6. Response by country EU Research Infrastructures N=60 WBC Research Infrastructures N=36

7. Response by scientific discipline EU RIs WBC RIs

8. Type of RI • Single-sited RI isdefined as RI that requires major investment in expensive research equipment (e.g. synchrotron light sources, research reactors), special laboratories (e.g. cleanrooms) or research materials (e.g. hazardous chemicals). Single-sited infrastructure may include also satellite unitsor it may also permit remote use. • A distributed RI is suited to fields in which the available capacities are geographically dispersed (e.g.meteorological observation networks, biobanks etc.). A distributed infrastructure may also produce shared, centralized services. • Virtual RI are, for example, databases, archives etc. that can be used by researchers from their own workstations.

9. Type of RIs EU RIs WBC RIs

10. Funding of RIs EU RIs WBC RIs

11. Cooperation possibilities

12. Main observations EU RIs • Deliverable follows ESFRI report. Presentation of RIs from all scientific fields. EU excellency can be found in RIs covering fields of light and neutron sources res., genomics, centres for development of new materials, environmental research facilities, nano eletronics. • World Class Research is present in Europe • Open Access Policy: Users are selected on the terms of excellency, peer review, colaboration in existing networks, financial contribution which might present a barrier for cooperation for WBC researchers • 98% of all RIs are opened for cooperation with WBC • Equal footing for WBC when they become an associated partners to the FP7 programme. Not all EU institutions are aware of this fact yet.

13. Main observations WBC RIs • Financial issues are still the major obstacle for current status in WBC. Majority (81%) of institutions are still funded from the public funds • Coordination between national and EU programmes should be improved in order to develop national research infrastructure that can integrate into ERA • Limited capacities and facilities, language barriers, complicated procedures. • WBC RIs are opened for external users. They already have international cooperation with the countries from the region and also international cooperation. This needs to be strenghten. • Current framework for the cooperation is provided either through intergovernmental agreements or through European programmes and initiatives.

14. Thank you for your attention Davor Kozmus WP3 leader Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology Slovenia