Research infrastructures are indispensable instruments required to support research in the modern life sciences. In the past few years, a debate on infrastructures has been launched at the European level. In part, this has been a consequence of the preparation of the EU Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) and in part it has been a natural complement to the planning of the European Research Council (ERC). A significant part of the discussion has been held in the in the context of the European Strategic Forum on Research Infrastructure (ESFRI http://cordis.europa.eu/esfri/), a group that was established in 2002 to develop a coherent approach to policymaking on research infrastructures in Europe. This body, which has representatives from all EU Member States, recently released a roadmap for new research infrastructures that might be supported at national and/or European Community level (see ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/esfri/docs/esfri-roadmap-report-26092006_en.pdf).

ELSF feels that the debate on European research infrastructure needs to be broadened in order to allow effective input from the research communities. Moreover, it considers that the discussion should focus on the value to and impact on the European scientific community of a planned facility, rather than its cost, when deciding whether it is deserving of European infrastructure funding support. This concept is not obvious in the current European political context. Therefore, the Forum intends to organize a broad consultation in order to provide input into the planning of research infrastructures for European life science.

A first ELSF meeting on research infrastructures was organized in Vienna on 5-6 June 2006. The founding document of the ELSF campaign emerged from this meeting.  A second conference as well as other actions will be organized in the coming months.

Documents:

Founding document of the ELSF campaign on research infrastructures for the life sciences in Europe

Programme of the Vienna meeting

Presentations of the Vienna meeting

Bertil Andersson, ESF, Chief Executive

Julio E. Celis, ELSF, President

Adriano Henney, Director, Global Discovery Enabling Capabilities & Sciences

Jan Carlstedt-Duke, Karolinska Institutet

Jacques Demotes, INSERM & ECRIN

Georg Winckler, EUA, University of Vienna

Ulrik Ringborg, Karolinska University Hospital, Solna