Commission launches new strategy to strengthen Europe’s research and technology infrastructures

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission.

Today, the Commission has launched the European strategy on research and technology infrastructures to boost Europe’s leadership in scientific excellence and technological innovation. To remain a frontrunner in the global race for science and innovation, Europe must reinforce decisively its research and technology infrastructures and make them even more integrated and accessible to a wider range of users.

The strategy ensures that scientists, researchers, innovators, and industry have easy access to Europe’s cutting-edge facilities, high-quality data and tailored services. It also aims to encourage world-class researchers and innovators to ‘Choose Europe‘.

From top laboratories and pilot production lines to cutting-edge equipment like particle accelerators and clean rooms, Europe’s world-class research infrastructures arethe backbone of Europe’s research and innovation ecosystem. They support the entire innovation cycle from frontier research to market-ready innovation, thereby bolstering Europe’s industrial competitiveness and technological sovereignty.

The strategy puts forward a set of actions in five areas:

1. Strengthening the European research and technology infrastructures ecosystem by increasing capacities, mobilisinginvestments and better aligning available facilities and services with user needs. The strategy also seeks to maximise the potential of digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Europe’s infrastructures.

2. Ensuring simpler and better access to research and technology infrastructures aims to providea continuum of complementary services for researchers and innovative companies, including startups and scaleups, across the EU. This will support scientific breakthroughs and boost technology development, testing and validation, accelerating the societal uptake and market-readiness of innovations.

3. Attracting and cultivating talent in Europe throughstrong career pathways in research and technology infrastructures, from technicians to scientific leaders. This includes supporting staff to develop new skills and competences and attracting talent from outside of Europe in line with the ‘Choose Europe’ approach. 

4. Improving and simplifying the governance framework for research and technology infrastructures to support long-term investment decisions and align priorities among the EU Member States and stakeholders. This includes strengtheningcoordination across funding sourcesand increasing the impact of public investment.

5. Strengthening the international dimension and resilience of research and technology infrastructuresthrough cooperation with strategic partners to address global societal challenges. The Commission will work with Member States to promote the integration of candidate and associated countries in the European Research Area. The strategy also addresses the risk management for infrastructures, particularly those related to access to critical data and facilities, fostering the EU’s sovereignty in critical technologies.

Background

The significance of research and technology infrastructures was emphasised in both the Draghi report on ‘The Future of EU competitiveness‘ and the ‘Align, Act Accelerate‘ report by the Commission Expert Group on the Interim Evaluation of Horizon Europe. These infrastructures will be key to the ‘fifth freedom’, the free movement of research, innovation and knowledge, underpinning the entire research and innovation (R&I) ecosystem. Achieving this requires increased investment to build, upgrade and operate these infrastructures to bolster EU competitiveness and leadership in frontier science.

The strategy links up with and supports EU initiatives to strengthen research, innovation and competitiveness, such as the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy, and the upcoming AI in Science Strategy, European Innovation Act, and European Research Area Act.

A wide consultation process contributed to the preparation of the strategy, including a public call for evidence and several dedicated conferences and events.