Policy and international cooperation measures for research infrastructures

In the context of the communication for a reinforced ERA partnership for excellence and growth, the focus of the policy support measures is related to the effective investment and use of research infrastructures. Following the communication of the Commission on International Cooperation in Research and Innovation (COM(2012)497), international cooperation for research infrastructures is needed with a number of key third countries/regions seen as strategic for the development, exploitation and management of world-class research infrastructures necessary to address research challenges with a global dimension.

Scope

Proposals will address one of the following areas:

• Develop a model describing the socio-economic leverage of Research Infrastructures in terms of impact of the financial investment for the different types of Infrastructures. The model should be applicable in a broad range of scientific domains. Major key international players should be involved. The model should support national budget planning exercises for research.
• Support the cooperation between the EU and international strategic partners for the development of global research infrastructures and, or an enhancement of the current interaction among Research Infrastructures in the global arena. The proposals should build on the requirements deriving from existing policy dialogues such as the Group of Senior Officials (GSO), involve the appropriate high-level policy makers and improve the global outreach of European Research Infrastructures.

European support to the Research Data Alliance, RDA: Proposals are expected to support the development of global interoperable research data infrastructures that will greatly benefit the coordination at European level addressing all the points below. The objective is (a) support to the RDA secretariat for logistics, open access to RDA reference documents and dissemination activities (b) support the emergence of building blocks of an open, interoperable data infrastructure fostering interoperability across regions, organisations and scientific disciplines (c) support ESFRI infrastructures and new communities to engage in Open Science and data sharing principles. In particular, the proposal activities should provide financial support of the organisation and coordination of European stakeholders' active participation and contribution to the Research Data Alliance.

At least a proposal per area will be selected. The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 1.5 million for the first two areas and between EUR 3 and 3.5 million for the third area (RDA) would allow this topic to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact

This activity will help to:

• Develop cooperation with key international partners for research infrastructures;
• Contribute to the development of a competitive high performance ERA in the global research environment;
• Enhance the role of the Union in international organisations and multilateral fora;
• Support progress towards the development of global research infrastructures;
• Enhance partnerships between policy makers, funding bodies, academia and industry and promote the development of appropriate monitoring tools for decision making.

For the third area (European support to RDA) the expected impact of the action is the following: Europe will be in a leading position in enabling the use of the world's store of research data in multi-disciplinary, data intensive global scientific collaborations. It will help the development and adoption of relevant international open standards based on the best practices of a large spectrum of research communities. It will engage research communities at early stages of standards development and address common data requirements for new services bringing together users and technology providers. It will promote sustainable models for research data sharing and install trust in the adopted solutions.