Page 26 - Roadmap

MOMENTUM OF INNOVATION

The rapid technological shifts in the last decades have fundamentally changed the operation of the research sector. This
calls for better (technological, digital) skills and more multidisciplinary research projects. To ensure that domestic research
capacities and researchers stay in the international frontline, it is essential to foster problem-oriented collaboration between
research groups and researchers working in different fields.

It was a definite goal of creating RI groups to strengthen cooperation and networking between individual RIs, make local
RIs more open and better utilise available human resources. By further reinforcing existing collaborations and enabling
new ones, RI groups can greatly contribute to a self-organising, problem-oriented and open scientific community.

Such cooperation is actively facilitated by the special background infrastructures which take advantage of the increasing
prevalence of digital technology and the emergence of new forms of scientific communication to ensure open access to
scientific results (Open Access).

Sustainability

The National Research, Development and Innovation Strategy, which is currently being revised, fosters the importance of
continuous and predictable long-term financing and performance-based operation. In this regard, it is particularly impor-
tant to ensure the uninterrupted and reliable financing of highly valuable research infrastructures that are essential for inter-
national research (such as ELI).

To ensure the sound operation of RIs, scientific excellence should be set as a requirement in the relevant funding schemes.

Also, to ensure long-term sustainability of individual RIs it should be set as a goal to increase their openness to stakeholders
from private sector. A sound and sustainable system of domestic research infrastructures also calls for effective monitoring
and evaluation culture.

To ensure long-term sustainability, RIs have to be encouraged to develop better management, organisation and coordination
skills and to prepare well-grounded development and sustainability plans.

Socio-economic effects

Greater emphasis should be placed on the innovation potential of research infrastructures, on openness, and on more efficient
exchange of knowledge with the business sector to improve competitiveness and ensure the long-term sustainability of research
infrastructures. In addition to maintaining excellence, RIs also play an important role in training the next generations of re-
searchers and in education by cooperating with universities.

Besides industrial cooperation, RIs should also be encouraged to take up social responsibility more consciously. Research
infrastructures are the foundations of the domestic research base, so they have a central role in addressing social, economic
and environmental issues. The dissemination and improved social acceptance of the knowledge generated by research groups
are thus the joint responsibility of policy-makers and the domestic research communities.

26