News & Events

According to an article published on Science|Business, the European Union (EU) trails when it comes to laying the foundations for a “smart” economy, with the US, Canada and Japan pressing ahead, warns a new report from the World Economic Forum (WEF).

A stubborn “digital divide” in Europe, which fractures between an “extremely well-performing north” led by Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands, and a static south and east, is to blame says WEF.

“The EU is increasingly falling behind globally in building the digital infrastructure and innovative capacity that would allow its economies to unlock new sources of growth,” the report states.

WEF criticises the EU for not being as favourable to young entrepreneurs and start-ups as other regions, due in part to heavy regulation and fewer funds to start businesses.

Low patent application numbers, with half the activity of the US and less than half of the activity of advanced Asian economies, suggest, not just less innovation, but the “lack of knowledge and capacity of SMEs to efficiently deal” with filing patents.

The Project is now focusing on identifying organizational entities within or outside of universities managing Research Infrastructures (RIs).

A RI can be a supercomputer, a telescope, a laboratory or any other resource that is shared among researchers. RIs play an increasingly important role in the advancement of knowledge and technology.

The workshop “Research Infrastructures towards 2020” was organised by the European Network of National Contact Points for FP7-Research Infrastructures (EuroRIs-Net+), on 5 July, in Lisbon. More than 250 people from Europe and third countries attended the event, including Heads and Managers of Research Infrastructures, National Contact Points and Programme Committee Members, ESFRI Delegates, European Commission officers for RI and Structural Funds policy, National and Regional policy-makers and researchers.

iMENTORS leaflets for the upcoming launch of the beta version of the platformwere distributed during the event.

A memorandum of understanding was signed between EuroRis-Net+and iMENTORS on 26 June indicating an intended common line of action.

The first issue of the e-IRG Newsletter of 2013 has been published. The latest e-IRG Newsletter keeps you up to date of the ongoing activities and plans of the e-Infrastructure Reflection Group and other initiatives.
 

Using e-Infrastructures, based on the concept of resource sharing across different geographic and organisational boundaries, requires the deployment of Public Key Infrastructures (PKIs) in the countries where the organisations owning the computing and storage resources are located.

The Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI), the world's first international user facility for laser research, has been established today as an International Association in Brussels, Belgium. ELI is part of the ESFRI Roadmap for research infrastructures of high priority for Europe. Based on strong international collaborations it is being constructed in three pillars in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania, utilizing EU Structural Funds.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU), a document describing a bilateral agreement, was signed between eI4Africa and iMENTORS on 4 April indicating an intended common line of action. The two projects have a common interest in a close cooperation in order to achieve their respective objectives and promote the adoption of consolidated standards in the e-Infrastructure with the ultimate aim of boosting RTDI (Research, Technology Development and Innovation) in Africa.

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Support for Research Infrastructures is open to infrastructures across the fields of science and technology. The overall objective of the RI part of the FP7 Capacities Programme is to optimise the use and development of the best existing RIs in Europe, as well as to help create new facilities which best meet the needs of researchers and support their achievements.

 The activities being supported are identified under three main lines of actions:
• Support for existing research infrastructures
•Support for new research infrastructures (or major upgrades of existing ones)
 •Support for policy development and programme implementation, including support to emerging needs

Click here to access information on funded projects

The European Portal on Research Infrastructures Database provides information on a large number of Research Infrastructures (RIs) of pan European interest in all fields of science. It covers facilities, resources and related services that are used by the scientific community to conduct top-level research in their respective fields.

This database is not exhaustive and intends to be a tool for the scientific community looking for services offered by these infrastructures. It resulted from a survey undertaken by the European Commission (EC) and the European Science Foundation (ESF) in a tentative to identify the current scenario of infrastructures in Europe.

Tools for science

Research infrastructures (RIs) play an increasingly important role in the advancement of knowledge and technology. They are a key instrument in bringing together a wide diversity of stakeholders to look for solutions to many of the problems society is facing today. RIs offer unique research services to users from different countries, attract young people to science, and help to shape scientific communities.

The European Commission has been supporting access to effective research infrastructures for researchers all over Europe for more than a decade. This action has been instrumental in enhancing European researchers' access to the infrastructures they require to conduct their research, irrespective of the location of the facility.

It is now possible to see on an interactive map the location of research infrastructures that open their doors to all researchers in Europe.