Policy recommendations to improve the sustainability of ERIC operations and the development & deployment of commercial services
Creators: name: Ucal, Yasemin
name: Stechmann, Bahne
name: van Dyck, Luc
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025

description: ERICs are a unique and vital asset to Europe: they contribute to the implementation of key EU policies by providing access to world-class research infrastructures and drive innovation and competitiveness via the Open Science paradigm.

It is widely acknowledged that ERICs are facing challenges to sustain their operations. To enhance the financial sustainability of ERIC operations, bundling various European and national funding sources – the so-called funding synergies – is often promoted. Developing commercial services is also advocated, both to enhance the ERIC services to innovation and competitiveness and to contribute to their financial sustainability.

A survey across ERICs examined how they define their services, the challenges they face in sustaining, upgrading, or developing new ones, and their capacity – or otherwise - to deploy commercial services to industry. The primary findings are:



1. ERICs predominantly focus on pre-competitive research and provide FAIR data accessible to all, including the private sector, creating a foundation for innovation despite serving primarily academic users.

2. ERICs play a vital role in training and upskilling researchers from both the public and private sectors, but operate with limited budgets for such activities.

3. Not all ERICs are research performing organizations that can deliver the R&D services expected by industry. Furthermore, the market determines the scientific areas where the demand for ERIC services is meaningful.

4. Even for ERICs with strong potential, financial and human resources – both at ERIC Headquarters and local nodes – are usually not sufficient or even unavailable to significantly develop commercial services.

5. Specific challenges and barriers need to be addressed to stimulate ERIC-industry partnerships, including service visibility and awareness, access schemes that facilitate industry engagement, and expertise in business development, innovation, legal matters and intellectual property management.

6. ERICs primarily rely on membership fees, in-kind contributions and EU grants for operation, and on EU grants and (to a lesser extent) membership fees for the development of new services.

7. ERICs face severe operational challenges to balance the development of new services with the sustainability of existing ones. The financial sustainability of ERICs is further compromised by the strong reliance on external shortterm funding and limited core funding for long-term planning.

8. Structural funds, resilience funds, or other EU schemes other than the Framework Programme play a minor role in the financing of ERICs, hinting to the fact that such funding sources may not be appropriate for most ERICs.

9. Commercial services to industry are unlikely to make a significant contribution to the sustainability of ERIC operations as distributed networks given the legal and financial independence of their nodes, which provide most of the services.

10. An increasing number of Research Infrastructures, Technology Infrastructures and Digital Infrastructures are competing for funding. Better coordination is needed at European and national levels to ensure synergies in this infrastructure environment.


The report outlines policy recommendations to address these challenges. Ensuring ERICs' long-term financial sustainability requires a coordinated effort among ERICs, the European Commission, ESFRI, and national funders. Establishing a structured dialogue among these stakeholders is essential to aligning funding mechanisms with ERICs' realities, which vary across clusters and structures, and maximizing their impact within Europe’s research and innovation ecosystem.