Coimbra Group contributes to the ESFRI Stakeholder Forum launch event
24 March 2022
The Coimbra Group actively participated in the High-Level ESFRI Stakeholder Forum Launch event that was held on 24 March 2022 with the objective of stimulating an open dialogue among the different European research infrastructure communities.
Coimbra Group Executive Board Chair was invited to present the views of the network during the stakeholders’ dialogue moderated by Jean Eric Paquet, Director General of DG Research and Innovation at the European Commission. Ludovic Thilly shared specific insights on how universities can better engage with Research Infrastructures.
He highlighted the following key messages:
Comprehensive universities facilitate access to research infrastructures for many interdisciplinary researchers. Therefore, CG believes that universities should remain at the very foundation of ESFRI.
· ESFRI roadmap should be closer to daily work of researchers.
· Small and medium research infrastructures hosted at CG universities play a very relevant role but do not receive enough attention at EU level.
· More resources could be directed towards supporting university staff required to manage facilities to improve professional management, business outreach, knowledge of the market, etc.
· Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) research infrastructures are key and CG universities participate in many excellent examples directly connected to broader research community, to industry for the development of applications and to public dissemination.
The concept for the ESFRI Stakeholder Forum was presented in the ESFRI White Paper adopted in 2020 in order to reinforce the position of Research Infrastructures as an essential pillar of the European Research Area. The Stakeholders Forum aims to engage different actors such as researchers, educators, policy makers, citizens, businesses and others and facilitate regular discussion among them.