News, 2011-05-13

New roadmap for European infrastructures presented

The new roadmap for European research infrastructures (ESFRI strategy report and roadmap) is now finished, following intensive work by ESFRI — a European collaborative organization for research infrastructure matters. The roadmap comprises numerous valuable high-priority commitments to research infrastructures.
Updates in this year´s edition are, among many others, infrastructures for research in energy, such as the research reactor Myrrha. According to Eva Stensköld, research secretary for research infrastructures at the Swedish Research Council, Swedish researchers have major opportunities to participate in the development of the proposed new infrastructures, and she urges interested parties to make their interest known.

“The Swedish Research Council will use a call procedure to assess Swedish needs and Swedish involvement to prioritize which of the proposed new infrastructures are most relevant from a Swedish perspective. In April we held an information meeting, and we urge Swedish research teams or organizations wishing to take part in work with these new infrastructures to register their interest by submitting a declaration of interest form to the Swedish Research Council by May 30," says Eva Stensköld.

The Swedish Research Council will hold a hearing on June 14 for those submitting declarations of interest. The background to the declaration of interest and the hearing is that the Swedish Research Council wishes to get an idea of how strong the interest is among Swedish researchers to participate in the preparatory phase of the ESFRI projects, as the call for grant applications for infrastructures within the EU´s 7th Framework Program stipulates that research councils or ministries from some of the participating countries must be involved in the application.

Vision for the European infrastructure landscape


ESFRI´s roadmap contains recommendations for joint European infrastructure and a long-term vision for the European infrastructure landscape. Among matters being discussed are whether joint models for organization, governance, and assessment of infrastructures should be introduced. Seven of the infrastructures that have high priority in both the European roadmap and the Swedish Research Council´s guide to infrastructures have garnered such strong support that they are in various stages of implementation or construction. They are the nuclear physics facility FAIR, the x-ray free-electron laser facility XFEL, the computing infrastructure PRACE, the data archive infrastructure Cessda, and the social survey ESS, as well as the upgrading of the synchrotron light source ESRF and the neutron research facility ILL. Companies in which the Swedish Research Council holds shares have been formed for the spallation source ESS, FAIR, and XFEL.

Important for Swedish research


A number of the proposed infrastructures involve research fields in which Sweden occupies a leading position today, and alongside the two European infrastructures that are proposed to be built in Sweden, ESS and Eiscat-3D, some of the recently approved national infrastructures are expected to participate as Swedish nodes in the construction of their European counterparts. Several of the projects will enter the construction phase in 2011-2012.

Contact person


Eva Stensköld
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