Council of theEuropean Union
Brussels, 2 December 2022
(OR. en)15429/22

RECH 635

OUTCOME OF PROCEEDINGS
From:
On:
To:

General Secretariat of the Council
2 December 2022
Delegations

No. prev. doc.:

13921/22

Subject:

Research Infrastructures- Council conclusions (approved on 2 December 2022)

Delegations will find in Annex the Council conclusions on Research Infrastructures, approved by
the Council at its 3914th meeting held on 2 December 2022.

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ENANNEX
Council Conclusions on Research Infrastructures
The Council of the European Union,
RECALLING:–

its Conclusions of 1 December 2020 on the New European Research Area (ERA)1,
underlining the research infrastructure (RI) domain as a priority to develop the ERA Policy
Agenda and implement the ERA Actions, and outlining the need for long-term sustainable
investments in the European RI ecosystem to contribute to excellent results in fundamental
and applied sciences, and deliver the comprehensive knowledge needed to address present andfuture challenges;–

its Conclusions of 28 May 2021 on Deepening the European Research Area: Providing
Researchers with Attractive and Sustainable Careers and Working Conditions and Making
Brain Circulation a Reality2, noting the essential role that highly skilled talents play in theoperation of RIs and e-infrastructures;–

its Conclusions of 28 September 2021 on Global Approach to Research and Innovation –Europe’s Strategy for International Cooperation in a Changing World3, stressing theimportance of openness and international cooperation in RIs for the advancement of science,science diplomacy, tackling global challenges and increasing access to excellence, andencouraging the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) and theCommission to support activities of RIs aiming at further development and implementation of
the global RI network in cooperation with partner countries, based on shared fundamental
values and principles;12
313567/20.
9138/21.
12301/21.

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–

its Recommendation of 26 November 2021 on a Pact for Research and Innovation in Europe4
that encompasses RIs as a priority area for joint action in the European Union (EU) to further
deepen a functioning internal market for knowledge and calls for enhancing integration of theEuropean RI ecosystem to maximise the benefits and impacts of investments in RIs, andprovide knowledge-based solutions to global societal and economic needs;–

its Conclusions of 26 November 2021 on the Future Governance of the European Research
Area5, setting out the ERA Policy Agenda for the period 2022–2024, and suggesting that
ESFRI continues with its work as an independent Commission Expert Group, and closely
coordinates with and regularly informs the ERA Forum;–

its Conclusions of 10 June 2022 on European Missions6, emphasising the critical importanceof RIs in achieving the objectives of European Missions and of ESFRI in guiding the strategic
development of the European RI landscape and fostering RIs’ contribution to theimplementation of European Missions.

GENERAL POLICY PERSPECTIVES
1.

ACKNOWLEDGES that a fully functional and operational European RI ecosystem, whichefficiently integrates European, national, as well as regional RIs of various sizes, is a vital
cornerstone in the development of renewed ERA, plays a central role in Europe’s ability toprovide with knowledge-based solutions to grand societal challenges, to support overall EU
priorities and contributes to prosperity and well-being in Europe.

4
5
6

OJ L 431, 2.12.2021, p. 1-9.
14308/2021.
10124/22.

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2.

AGREES that RIs constitute a fundamental pillar of research and innovation (R&I)
ecosystems in Member States and the EU as a whole, providing researchers innovators andother stakeholders with unique knowledge and expertise, experimental devices and technicalresources, and extensive collections of data sets and related ICT and computing services,which are necessary to perform cutting-edge fundamental and applied research, extending
frontiers of knowledge, and to develop state-of-the-art technologies, feeding into innovations;
RECOGNIZES the role of RIs in promoting excellence in R&I and helping European
researchers, innovators and other stakeholders become more competitive at a global level.

3.

UNDERLINES benefits and impacts of public investments in RIs on industries, small andmedium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and other relevant actors, through the activities such as
proprietary access to RIs, contractual research, joint R&I, training and industrial supply of
top-class products and services to RIs; EMPHASIZES the importance of further developmentof capacities and services of RIs addressing private sector needs in order to strengthen
European competitiveness.

4.

ACKNOWLEDGES that, beyond their fundamental missions in the areas of R&I, nationallyand regionally anchored RIs act as an amplifier for regional development, when offering
highly qualified jobs, including the managerial, scientific, technical, administrative and otherpositions, and boosting development of their sites and neighbouring regions by stimulating
the development of new businesses, supply chains, civil infrastructure and related services,
thereby shaping regional economic strategies.

5.

RECOGNISES the importance of further strengthening and facilitating broader access to RIs;
ACKNOWLEDGES that a more balanced distribution of excellent RIs across Europe andconstruction of nationally and regionally anchored RIs embedded in the Smart Specialisation
Strategies of their host countries and regions hold a great potential to accelerate closing of the
R&I divide, foster openness, harvest the full potential of the R&I excellence and increase thecohesion in Europe.

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6.

INVITES ESFRI to look into the approaches by Member States, the Commission,international organisations and RIs to assess scientific, societal and economic impacts ofinvestments in RIs, identify good practices, develop a monitoring framework, test it andelaborate recommendations to national and regional RI stakeholders by the end of 2023.

7.

RECOGNISES the open access policies of RIs as a major contribution to stimulatingknowledge and brain circulation, promoting high-quality and specialised training to students,
researchers, innovators, managers and technicians, strengthening inter-sectorial andinternational mobility, and attracting talented students, early career researchers, leading
scientists, highly skilled innovators and entrepreneurs from all over the world to Europe,
thereby enhancing Europe’s international collaboration in R&I and reinforcing thecompetitiveness of the European R&I ecosystem globally.

8.

UNDERLINES the importance of the professional training of the staff in charge of RIs for thedevelopment of its knowledge and competences; CALLS on Member States and theCommission to explore options for a common approach for the staff of the RIs, especially inthe case of a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC).

9.

ACKNOWLEDGES that both RIs and technology infrastructures (TIs) are a part of the same
infrastructure ecosystem; UNDERLINES that mapping users’ needs for TIs, taking into
account relevant work of ESFRI, is one of the prerequisites for the identification of a way
forward for the implementation of the TI concept within the ERA Policy Agenda and astarting point for any future strategies and activities.

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CONVERGING RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE AND OTHER SECTORIAL POLICIES10.

UNDERLINES the potential of RIs, integrating a large variety of stakeholders, including
outside R&I, and providing multidisciplinary solution-oriented services, in contributing toconvergence of R&I policies with other sectorial policies; ENCOURAGES Member States
and the Commission through ESFRI to identify how RIs can optimally contribute to theimplementation of Horizon Europe and, in particular, of European Partnerships and Missions,and initiatives such as industrial technology roadmaps.

11.

ENCOURAGES the RIs to design new services based on different missions of RIs, and tocontribute to the European and global wider policy objectives, such as the green transition,
digital transformation and resilience of the EU economy, and the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals, in RI strategic agendas in order to exploit the full potential of theEuropean RI ecosystem.

INTEGRATING RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURES IN THE EU’s RESPONSE TO
CRISES
12.

APPRECIATES the immediate call for action by ESFRI, and early reaction and essential
contribution by European, national and regional RIs to address the Covid-19 pandemic crisis;
WELCOMES the adaptation of RIs to unprecedented conditions of operations, to continue toserve users despite containment measures, to implement innovative modes of operation,
enabling fast track, remote and virtual access, to re-baseline user programmes in line withpressing societal needs and to prioritise user experiments of critical relevance.

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13.

ACKNOWLEDGES that the European RI ecosystem, as a part of the EU’s overall response tocrises, proved its readiness to accommodate to sudden crises; CONSIDERS the European RI
ecosystem a key component for the post-crises recovery with a great potential to strengthen
resilience and preparedness of the European society in order to cope with any present andfuture crisis; CALLS on Member States and the Commission through ESFRI, as well as RIs,
to elaborate on scenarios to manage possible upcoming crises, including energy supply
difficulties.

ENSURING THE LONG-TERM SUSTAINABILITY OF EUROPEAN RESEARCHINFRASTRUCTURES
14.

ACKNOWLEDGES that the RI funding requires strategic investments through the entire RI
life-cycle, including the phases of concept development, design, preparation, implementation,
construction, operation, major upgrades, reorientation, decommissioning and termination,
which spreads over decades; ENCOURAGES Member States to form a sustainable politicalcommitment on long-term funding of RIs, thereby facilitating a stable, reliable andpredictable financial planning of RIs and their development, including through the use of EU
programmes under shared management and INVITES the Commission to support them inthose efforts.

15.

INVITES Member States and the Commission through ESFRI to perform an analysis of thetypes of financial support to the European RIs throughout their life-cycle, identify goodpractices and synergies of various RI funding resources, and explore appropriate RI funding
models and corresponding RI funding initiatives.

16.

CALLS on Member States and the Commission for coordinated efforts in the spirit of theirco-design, co-creation and co-implementation to promote and advance synergies in the RI
funding at the regional, national, macro-regional and European level to increase the efficiency
of investments in RIs.

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17.

EMPHASISES the vital role of highly skilled personnel in constructing and operating RIs,
and serving users and meeting their needs; REITERATES the Council invitation to theCommission to present initiative for a European framework on research careers.

18.

STRESSES that long-term sustainability of RIs does not stop at financial or human resources
considerations but that their environmental impact should also be taken into account; CALLS
on Member States and the Commission through ESFRI, as well as RIs, to reflect on this
impact and to develop methods for measuring it.

ADVANCING THE RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE ECOSYSTEM IN EUROPE
19.

INVITES Member States, the Commission and stakeholders to proceed swiftly with theimplementation of the ERA Policy Agenda for the period 2022–2024 and, in particular ERA
Action 8 (“Strengthen sustainability, accessibility and resilience of RIs in the ERA”) andother activities on ESFRI’s work plan 2022–2023; CALLS on the Commission to ensure that
ESFRI is closely involved in the work of the ERA Forum when relevant, which is essential
for an effective exchange and contribution of RIs to the implementation of the ERA.

20.

UNDERLINES the role of ESFRI in triggering and structuring coordinated approaches atboth European and national levels to the RI policy-making, resulting in, among others,
roadmapping and landscaping processes, leading to a more coherent RI policy-making inEurope; in this respect, CONSIDERS that the coordination between ESFRI and the European
Open Science Cloud (EOSC) Steering Board is needed; INVITES Member States to reinforce
their efforts directed at the RI roadmapping and landscaping, while considering guidelines,
recommendations and good practices developed through ESFRI, and while respecting thenational diversity.

21.

INVITES Member States to carry out peer review-based RI monitoring exercises in line with
ESFRI’s good practices and based on a set of criteria, including context, narratives andmanagerial, scientific, technical, financial and other indicators, by which the progress andperformance of RIs throughout their life-cycle may be monitored appropriately.

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22.

ENCOURAGES Member States and the Commission to provide incentives, including
financial ones, to RI operators to continue networking, clustering, associating, and, if
appropriate, to develop scenarios for integrating and even merging their facilities, and RI
capacities and capabilities across scientific disciplines and research domains at the regional,
national and European levels to promote consolidation of the European RI ecosystem.

DEVELOPING THE EUROPEAN INFRASTRUCTURE FOR SCIENTIFIC DATA AND
DIGITAL TRANSITION23.

ACKNOWLEDGES the critical role of RIs in producing, collecting, processing, storing andproviding quality certified scientific data in accordance with the FAIR (Findable, Accessible,
Interoperable and Reusable) principles, thus facilitating the use of such data across a broad
range of disciplinary domains and internationally, and fundamentally contributing to theimplementation of EOSC and open science policy.

24.

ENCOURAGES Member States and the Commission to promote the development of national
data and e-infrastructures by mobilising regional, national and EU funding;
ACKNOWLEDGES FAIR data management plans as essential components of researchenabling and performing organisations; and ENCOURAGES Member States and theCommission to promote investment in education and training of scientific data curators;
CALLS on Member States to federate their regional and national data and e-infrastructures
within EOSC.

25.

ACKNOWLEDGES the fact that EOSC is being developed in a complex environment with
European, national and regional constituents that involves generic and thematic components
with different levels of maturity and priorities; RECOGNISES a key role of ESFRI andthematic RIs working together with EOSC core developers and operators to speed up the
implementation of open science policy and the FAIR data management, and to promoteinterdisciplinary R&I in Europe.

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26.

RECOGNISES the digital transition as a major opportunity for RIs’ development, theiraccessibility, interoperability and integration in the European and global digital R&I
ecosystem; INVITES Member States and the Commission to promote digitalisation of RIs
throughout their entire RI life-cycle.

REINFORCING THE EUROPEAN STRATEGY FORUM ON RESEARCHINFRASTRUCTURES
27.

ACKNOWLEDGES the essential position of ESFRI as a strategy forum, driven by Member
States, to conduct a regular, open and structured dialogue with European RI and R&I
stakeholders through the ESFRI Stakeholder Forum in order to analyse their needs andbottlenecks and to provide Member States and the Commission with evidence-based andtimely advice, and strategic vision for an effective long-term sustainable development of the
RI ecosystem in Europe; WELCOMES considerations of ESFRI on how best to involve
associated countries, stakeholders and relevant third countries on a case by case approachbased on shared fundamental values and principles.

28.

APPRECIATES that ESFRI operates on the basis of consensus, integrating views of all its
members, respecting geographical, economic, societal and cultural diversity in Europe,
allowing for reaching solutions based on the principle of variable geometry while meeting
common macro-regional and European needs, based on scientific excellence, and promoting
cohesion and inclusiveness.

29.

INVITES Member States and the Commission through ESFRI to perform a comprehensive
analysis of the European RI landscape with the aim to identify existing synergies andcomplementarities, expose persistent deficiencies, shortcomings and gaps, and propose
improvements on accessibility, networking, clustering, associating and even merging ofEuropean, national and regional RIs, and their deeper integration in a fully functional andinteroperable European RI ecosystem; INVITES Member States and the Commission throughESFRI to publish the outcomes of the European RI landscape analysis, considering the resultsof the ongoing monitoring process undertaken by ESFRI; INVITES Member States toconsider on a voluntary basis taking up the ESFRI monitoring methodology as appropriate.

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30.

INVITES Member States and the Commission through ESFRI to develop the next edition of
the ESFRI Roadmap, including a strategy report on the European RI ecosystem, strategicorientations for the future European RI agenda development, and an overview of the ESFRI
Projects and Landmarks, and publish the ESFRI Roadmap before the end of 2025.

31.

TAKES NOTE of the ongoing work by ESFRI to explore, analyse and consider viable options
for a reinforced and long-term sustainable support structure of ESFRI, thereby strengthening
its capacity to deliver comprehensive strategic advice in the context of expanding andmaturing European RI landscape, including EOSC and e-infrastructures, and the growing
complexity of the European infrastructure ecosystem and the ERA Policy Agenda and theneed to support overall EU priorities.

EVOLVING THE EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR ACCESS TO RESEARCHINFRASTRUCTURES
32.

INVITES the Commission to present an initiative, following the consultation within ESFRI,
on a revised European Charter for Access to Research Infrastructures by the end of 2023 inview of the evolving European RI ecosystem and landscape of RI facilities, whichaccommodate their user strategies and access policies for operations under various businessmodels, serve users in the physical, remote and virtual access modes via secure connectivity,and enable mission-oriented and fast-track access to perform experiments and conduct studies
of urgent societal and economic relevance.

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ENHANCING THE EUROPEAN RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE FRAMEWORK33.

REAFFIRMS the relevance of the ERIC Framework to allow for the setting up of RI
operating entities; ACKNOWLEDGES the progress made with 25 ERIC established since its
entry into force; TAKES NOTE of the assessment of the ERIC Framework by theCommission Expert Group, contribution by ESFRI and the Commission report on the ERIC
Framework; INVITES the Commission to propose an initiative by the end of 2023 on thepossible evolution of the ERIC Framework, taking into account these Conclusions and inclose cooperation with ESFRI and the ERIC Committee while considering the ERIC Forum
expertise.

DEVELOPING THE GLOBAL RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE ECOSYSTEM
34.

TAKES NOTE of the outcomes of the International Conference on Research Infrastructures(ICRI), held in Brno under the auspices of the Presidency of the Czech Republic of theCouncil of the EU from 19 to 21 October 2022; WELCOMES the Brno Declaration on
Fostering a Global Ecosystem of Research Infrastructures.

35.

CALLS on Member States and the Commission through ESFRI to elaborate a method to map
the global RI landscape, linking the European, national and regional RIs in a multidisciplinary and cross-sectorial way with the macro-regional and global levels, and consider
cooperation schemes taking into account the political priorities of the EU’s external relations
and based on the EU‘s values and principles for the international R&I cooperation, including
the principle of the balanced reciprocal openness, promoting a level playing field andunderpinned by common framework conditions.

36.

INVITES Member States and the Commission through ESFRI to intensify sharing ofexperiences and exchanging good practices at European and global level in the areas of RI
policy-making, funding, roadmapping, landscape analysis, user strategies, access policies,
governance, management, monitoring and assessment, thereby promoting and facilitatinginternational cooperation between RIs, and feeding in high-level strategy debates to be held in
relevant international fora, particularly at the biennial ICRI.

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