Page 11 - Roadmap

economic players in a transparent and public procedure and only those were qualified as SRIs which operated as a network
with a single unique development concept.

Three years after the start, it became necessary to update and expand the Register, so in February 2014 the database of re-
search infrastructures was updated based on a competitive call for proposals. It was key point that the Register should not
only include SRIs but also the broadest possible scope of research infrastructures.

2.3. The National Research Infrastructure Committee

The National Research Infrastructure Committee (NKIB) was established in 2014. It is a body comprising the repre-
sentatives of scientific and administrative organisations representing the main fields of science, the university and academic
sector, and governmental actors responsible for research infrastructure policies.

The NKIB is responsible for mapping the domestic research infrastructure, planning cooperation with foreign research
infrastructures, and monitoring scientific performance resulting from such cooperation. Where it was considered profes-
sionally necessary, external stakeholders were also involved in the planning of the Roadmap. The NKIB expresses views
and makes proposals to governmental decision-makers on all issues relating to domestic research infrastructures. It lays
the groundwork for governmental decisions on research infrastructures, infrastructural investments in Hungary and the
participation in the RI projects specified in the ESFRI Roadmap. The NKIB expresses views on signing Memorandums
of Understanding (MoU) and other documents in which Hungary assumes commitments, on matters related to the prepa-
ration of S3 related decisions and on professional issues connected with the comprehensive national database of research
infrastructures.

First, relying on researchers’ expert opinions, the NKIB proposed a list of international research infrastructures which
Hungary should join and then, in the spring of 2016, started the direct preparations for the national research infrastructure
roadmap.

2.4. The definition and types of research infrastructures

In the National Research Infrastructure Roadmap ‘research infrastructure’ is an umbrella term with the following mean-
ing:
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
6
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 the relevant scientific fields. Research infrastructures are used in all fields of science but in different
forms. Some fields have substantially greater demand for capacity than others due to the establishment and operation of
large and complex equipment (which goes significantly beyond national capacities).

6 In line with the definition of research infrastructures provided 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.

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