Athina Vrakatseli, project Dissemination and Sustainability leader and Head of Policy Development Unit at Gov2u,will be present at ICRI 2014. The 2nd International Conference on Research Infrastructures (2-4 April 2014 - Megaron Athens International Conference Centre) offers a high level international forum where key stakeholders can meet, discuss and contribute to bringing forward global issues related to Research Infrastructures. Co-organised by the European Commission and the Greek EU Presidency of the European Union, it will take forward the recommendations of ICRI 2012, which took place in Denmark and the 3rd EU-Australia Research Infrastructure workshop that took place in Canberra in November 2013.

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The conference is expected to attract more than 700 international participants during three days and will include an exhibition of demonstrations and videos of international research infrastructure projects. It will include intense deliberations, discussions and exchange of knowledge, opinions and ideas among the leading people in RI development today around the globe! And in just the right place: Greece, where science and research were raised to one of humanities most prominent and valuable pursuits!

ICRI 2014 will achieve the following:

1. Highlight the essential role of global research infrastructures in addressing grand challenges at all scales: national, regional, continental and global;
2. Reflect on the needs and challenges that arise during the development and operation of global research infrastructures at national, regional, continental and global level;
3. Present the main characteristics of global research infrastructures and identify the challenges and drivers for collaboration at an international level.
4. Take forward the recommendations of ICRI 2012.

Click here to view the programme

iMENTORS www.imentors.eu, co-funded by the European Commission’s DG CONNECT under the Seventh Framework Programme and launched in April 2012 by Stockholm University and Gov2u, released version three of its platform in December 2013. iMENTORS is a one-stop-shop data warehouse on all e-infrastructure development projects of Sub-Saharan Africa

The past few months the collection of data for the iMENTORS database focused on optimizing a method for recording these last-mile terrestrial networks, many of which are on-going projects. As of the end of the 2013, it holds detailed information on over 2000 organisations and 400 projects. Data acquisition and validation will continue to progress until the end of the project.