Research infrastructures (definitions, types, relevance)

As the Commission in its report on the consultation on long-term sustainability of research infrastructures points out: “ensuring access to world-class research infrastructure facilities is crucial to staying at the forefront of science and technology and remaining competitive in a global knowledge-based economy. But some science facilities are just too big or complex for a single country to build and manage alone. The European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) was set up in 2002 to help coordinate the development of large-scale research facilities in the European Research Area.”

In line with the definition stipulated in Section 2(1)42 of Government Decree 380/2014 (XII. 31.) on the rules of operation and use of the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund, which is based on the interpretation in Article 2(91) of Commission Regulation 651/2014/EU, the term ‘research infrastructure’ is interpreted as an umbrella term as follows:

the totality of equipment, laboratories, databanks, information systems, related human capacities (including researcher, operative, maintenance and management capacities), expertise and services supporting scientific activity which thematically match or form a single thematic unit and which are necessary for high quality, internationally competitive research work.

Research infrastructures not only take diverse forms (equipment, databank etc.) but also greatly vary by physical location and the number of scientific fields involved. Research infrastructures are used in all fields of science but in different forms. Some fields, however, have substantially greater demand for capacity than others due to their reliance on large and extremely complex equipment (going significantly beyond the national level of opportunities). This makes it reasonable to classify research infrastructures by various aspects.

Types of research infrastructures by physical location:

By physical location, we distinguish between single-sited, distributed and virtual research infrastructures.

• Single-sited research infrastructures operate clearly identifiable equipment in a single location.
  
• Distributed research infrastructures operate in multiple, mutually complementary sites (measuring stations, collections, laboratories).
  
• Virtual research infrastructures comprise electronic services, networks, archives, databases and databanks. The latter group does not necessarily exclude the other two: many distributed research infrastructures are also virtual ones. For instance, in the case of ESFRI research infrastructure ‘Euro-BioImaging’ virtual research infrastructure means access to shared databases and software. Purely virtual SHARE-ERIC infrastructures and e-infrastructures also belong to this category.
  

Types of research infrastructures by physical location from a Hungarian perspective:

In Hungarian context, research infrastructures currently available to Hungarian researchers can be classified into the following groups in terms of physical location:

• large-scale research infrastructure partly located in Hungary (ELI-ALPS – distributed research infrastructure)
  
• single-sited, distributed and/or virtual research infrastructures not located in Hungary for which Hungarian researchers have access to (e.g. HL- LHC, European XFEL, ELIXIR, Euro-BioImaging, SHARE-ERIC, ESS-ERIC, PRACE etc.)
  
• Not large research infrastructures located in Hungary in a single site or as a researcher cooperation network offering access to local, national and, as the case may be, to foreign researchers.
  

Thematic categorisation of research infrastructures by field of science:

Research infrastructures can be also be grouped thematically. The ESFRI Roadmap update 2016 identifies six thematic directions for the various fields of science:

• Energy;
  
• Environment;
  
• Health and food;
  
• Physical sciences and engineering;
  
• Social and cultural innovation;
  
• E-infrastructures.
  

This classification causes difficulty in many cases due to the interdisciplinary nature of research topics or to the extensive scope of the ESFRI categories (Health and food, Physical sciences and engineering).

Background research infrastructures should also be considered in context of the thematic classification. This category includes national and international information networks enabling high speed data transmission and communication and library services (in particular, access to international publications). The relevance and the quantity of these background infrastructures have substantially increased recently. In terms of ESFRI categories, they belong to E-infrastructure:

International research infrastructures

European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI)

The total annual budget of European research infrastructures is around EUR 10 billion. Infrastructures enabling cutting-edge research are so extremely resource demanding (in terms of equipment, appliances, data, ICT and human capacities) that no EU member state could operate them cost-effectively. This is why the European research infrastructures have to be designed and implemented in a coordinated way, using a strategic approach.

The European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) integrates the research infrastructures that are significant at European level and necessary for the long-term interests of the European researcher community. To this end, it regularly publishes roadmaps on the current situation and future goals of research infrastructures (for a time span of 10-20 years). The first roadmap was published in 2006 and has been updated several times since then, recently in 2016 (ESFRI Roadmap 2016). The document set the objective that projects should be completed in ten years, should be realistically sustainable, and should ensure maximum ROI from the perspectives of science, innovation, education, socio-economic benefits and competitiveness. The level of rationalisation is well reflected by the fact that out of the 38 infrastructures of the previous Roadmap in 2010 only 15 were left and only six new projects were added to the list. The preparation of the 2018 roadmap is already underway on the basis of the 2016 updated roadmap.

The research infrastructures listed by the ESFRI operate on a lifecycle model: ESFRI projects and ESFRI landmarks reflect different stages of infrastructure lifecycle. Projects are new initiatives selected on the basis of excellence and maturity in a complex assessment process. The 2016 roadmap identified 21 ESFRI projects, including 9 and 6 projects taken from the 2008 and 2010 roadmap, respectively. 5 new projects were added to these, and one additional project was modified during the review process. Landmarks are projects already started or soon becoming operational with a decisive role in boosting the competitiveness of the European Research Area (ERA). The 2016 roadmap lists altogether 29 ESFRI Landmarks. Projects which cannot be achieved in 10 years are removed from the roadmap.

Member states align their national research infrastructure roadmaps with the ESFRI roadmap. Hungary’s national roadmap will soon be published in collaboration with the National Infrastructure Committee (link). It will continuously monitor domestic researcher needs and compare them with achieved results using a complex assessment system.

Other international research infrastructures

Besides ESFRI projects and landmarks several other research infrastructures operate in different research fields in the framework of international cooperation, following various funding and control models. Hungary is a member of several such initiatives:

• CERN – European Organization for Nuclear Research (French: Organisation européenne pour la recherche nucléaire), (link)
  
• EMBL – European Molecular Biology Laboratory, (link)
  
• CERIC-ERIC – Central European Research Infrastructure Consortium, European Research Consortium, (link)
  
• ITER – International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, (link)
  
• ESA – European Space Agency, (link)
  
• PRACE – Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe, (link)
  
• GÉANT – pan-European data network for the research and education community. (link)
  

Hungary in the network on research infrastructures (ESFRI and other memberships)

Hungary has a long tradition of scientific research which is evidenced by countless scientific achievements and extensive international relations. In addition to the long-established relations and memberships, it is increasingly important to apply strategic thinking when planning membership in foreign infrastructures as global trends show that the current funding systems are not sustainable in the long term. This is the task of the National Research Infrastructure Committee (NKIB) established on the initiative of the President of the NRDI Office, comprising the prominent representatives of the domestic researcher community. The primary aim of this body is to recommend a national strategy for research infrastructure and coordinate it with the concepts of foreign infrastructure memberships, this way ensuring that the utilisation of available RDI funds are transparent and reasonable both in terms of domestic development projects and international membership fees. Relying on the assessment of the researcher community’s needs, the think tank makes proposals on joining new research infrastructures or terminating existing memberships.

In late 2015 a comprehensive survey was conducted on the demand for membership in foreign research infrastructures with the involvement of stakeholders in higher education and academia. The survey was aimed at identifying the infrastructures Hungary should join in consideration of domestic research capacities, results, objectives and the expected public socio-economic benefits of the membership. The 21 respondent institutions recommended altogether 55 foreign infrastructures for joining, which were assessed by the National Research Infrastructure Committee broken down by fields of science. As the next step, the NRDI Office decided, on the basis of the committee’s recommendation, on entering into negotiations about membership in the selected infrastructure. This resulted in the cooperation agreements which enabled Hungary to join new research infrastructures in several scientific fields. In 2017 Hungary participated in 16 research infrastructures as a full-fledged member, 14 of which had been presented in the latest ESFRI strategic report in 2016.