The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures – ESFRI – periodically updates its Roadmap as mandated by the Competitiveness Council of the European Union to provide a coherent and strategic vision ensuring that Europe has excellent world-class Research Infrastructures in all fields of science and innovation.

The new Roadmap illustrates the reinforced strategic role of the Landmarks as reference Research Infrastructures operating in all domains of research, open to European scientists and technology developers. At the same time, new entries in the list of the ESFRI Projects were selected for the excellence of their scientific case and their maturity for implementation, with the aim to reinforce critical areas of competitiveness for European research. Two High Strategic Potential Areas have also been identified in the Landscape Analysis part of the Roadmap in the field of Social and Cultural Innovation: Religious Studies and transition to Open Science.

The discussion leading to Roadmap 2018 also included detailed considerations on issues of long-term sustainability, contributions to innovation, the challenges at the interface between RIs and e-Infrastructure and FAIR Data, education and training, socio-economic impact and the global significance of ESFRI.

ESFRI will continue adapting its vision and methodology towards better serving the Research Infrastructures in Europe and integrating new mandates by the EU Council related to long-term sustainability of RIs, supporting an enhanced service-driven approach, exchanging experience about national roadmap procedures and budgetary practices, as well as developing a common approach to monitoring that would make use of straightforward indicators and advanced cost-analysis tools.

The ESFRI Roadmap 2018 will be officially presented to the public in a dedicated event, under the Austrian Presidency, on the 11^th of September 2018 at Aula der Wissenschaften in Vienna.