The new additions to the roadmap include an upgrade to a radar system that is used to study processes taking place in the atmosphere; an Arctic observation facility that is vital to our understanding of global environmental change; and a network of sites studying alternative approaches to carbon capture and storage.

In the biological and medical sciences, newcomers to the roadmap address both the threat of a pandemic caused by a new or existing infectious disease and the need for better biomedical imaging technologies in biological and medical applications. Elsewhere, a new open screening platform will, among other things, allow researchers in industry and academia access to resources for the development of small, bioactive molecules. The materials scientists have just one new infrastructure in their list: a European Magnetic Field Laboratory, which will help European researchers study the state of matter by providing the highest possible magnetic fields.

The roadmap now features 44 projects (one of the original 35, EROHS (‘European resource observatory for the humanities and social sciences’), was dropped as it overlapped too much with other initiatives).

This raises the question of how funding for these ambitious projects will be found, given the current economic crisis. The speakers at the opening session of the conference were united in their belief that, now more then ever, investments in research in general and research infrastructures in particular are vital to boosting the strength of the economy.

“Now, as we face difficult economic times, it is more important than ever to optimise the funding available for these increasingly complex and expensive research facilities,” stated European Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potočnik.

Valérie Pecresse, the French Minister of Higher Education and Research, described research infrastructures as a “weapon against the economic crisis”.

Despite the recent economic downturn, progress has been made on a number of the infrastructures featured in the first edition of the roadmap: seven are either already under construction or have funding and agreements in place. Among these advanced projects are the upgrade of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research and the European X-ray Free Electron Laser.

Progress on a further 11 is good, although agreements and funding for these are not yet in place. In many cases, funding for the preparatory phases of these infrastructures is provided by the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).

At the national level, around 16 European countries have either published their own roadmaps or are in the process of preparing or updating one. The majority of these roadmaps contain a mix of European priorities, as identified by ESFRI, and smaller, national projects in line with each country’s priorities.

Since the publication of the last edition of the roadmap in 2006, ESFRI has also focused increasingly on the importance of e-infrastructures in all ESFRI-approved projects. “Some fields of science are not used to the idea of making their raw data available to all,” ESFRI Chair Carlo Rizzuto told CORDIS News.

Another issue raised at the conference was the geographic distribution of the infrastructures. “The ESFRI exercise should not lead to too much of a geographic concentration of research infrastructures,” commented Mrs Pecresse.

Meanwhile, one of the remaining challenges facing infrastructures is the lack of a legal framework to set up such a pan-European organisation. The European Commission put forward a legal framework back in the summer, and Europe’s research ministers have agreed to most of it. However, there is still disagreement over the issue of whether these infrastructures should be exempt from VAT (value added tax). It will now be down to the forthcoming Czech presidency of the EU to find a solution to this problem.

Commissioner Potočnik warned ministers not to delay the approval of the legal framework. “Unless we can unleash research infrastructures from their legal and fiscal bounds, we will be responsible for putting back the ESFRI roadmap projects by years,” he noted. “We must not squander the potential we have for leadership in research.”

Further information

http://cordis.europa.eu/esfri/