Why participate in European RI engagement?

Why RISCAPE seeks to engage the European Research Infrastructures (RIs)?

European research infrastructures a a key source of RISCAPE analysis material, particularly in the choosing of the Targets (international research infrastructures) involved in the analysis. This engagement is facilitated by the RISCAPE partners, connected to existing ESFRI RI cluster projects and other initiatives. The European RIs are interesting for RISCAPE for many reasons:

  • The main objective of the RISCAPE project is to analyse the international RI landscape from the point-of-view of the European RIs;
  • The European RIs are their own experts of their field. They have the connections and internal knowledge of similar initiatives from their field of science.

What kind of engagement is needed?

Each Thematic Workpackage (corresponding roughly to the ESFRI working group division) will contact the Research Infrastructures from their field. The main idea is to collect the knowledge within the research infrastructures themselves, and to use their contact for wider collection of information. The RISCAPE project hopes to get engagement from the European RIs to

  • Collect information what are the infrastructures providing similar (or same field of science) services to the researchers outside of Europe. This could also include infrastructures being built or being designed. As the research infrastructure definition is not global, some degree of freedom on the choosing what is involved is natural;
  • Connect to their own user communities to find other sources of information what are research infrastructures and what are not.

Why should European RIs participate?

The Research infrastructures in Europe get many benefits for participating. As the final document is meant to be consistent report on the international landscape, the corresponding international actors will be analysed in detail. This information can be used for example on

  • Determining the position in the field, where each ESFRI RI is located in the science field, what are their specialties and benefits. This strategic information can be useful on positioning the European infrastructures and prioritizing their development;
  • Advertising the role of the European RIs on international user communities
  • Helping on the long term planning and e.g. on considering continuation programs
  • Making independent evaluation on the situation in the landscape