Parallel Session 1 - Policy and Management

1.1 Policy and management: towards better coordination between Member States and/or Regions.

As the boundaries of knowledge are pushed forward, new or upgraded RIs are increasingly becoming more expensive to design and build by one single nation. A common strategy is therefore needed, whereby different countries with similar scientific priorities get together to explore the possibility of jointly funding actions. Different ways to approach the problem are explored:

• ESFRI's increased role in shaping Europe's future for RIs, especially through its future Roadmap, and its impact on the European landscape;
• Is ERANET an adequate scheme for coordinating the work of agencies? How can it help for better coordination in the field of research infrastructures?
• What is the current role of regions and regional clusters? How can they foster growth within and outside their boundaries? Are there specific threats within some areas, such as the Balkans countries?

Chair: Prof. Henry Hutchinson

Towards better Coordination between Member States and/or Regions
Prof. Carlo Rizzuto
President, Sincrotrone Trieste - ELETTRA
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The growth of Research and of the European Research Area requires an ever increasing and continuously upgraded capital of (large) Research Infrastructures. This conflicts with limits in financial means. Traditionally in Europe, mainly the major Countries had developed a policy of attracting and/or building RIs open to international use. The enlargement of Europe and the shift of the barycentre of potential users open the opportunity to involve also the New Member Countries in a coordinated effort to invest in these aspects, which are essential for an healthy growth of Research, but also for the local economies and institutional aspects. The coordination, which is ESFRI's main role, can be critical in building a new outlook in the use of scarce resources. This can also help to introduce flexibility by avoiding duplications and shifting the focus away from more traditional local approaches in infrastructure building. Aspects such as the maximization of the scientific and socio-economic impact of RIs and of their useful lifetime are critically important to stimulate the coordination with to local and regional authorities and to better coordinate an overall EU effort.

S & T "Renaissance" of Regions? The State of Research Infrastructures and the example of the West Balkan Countries
Dr. Anneliese Stoklaska
Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Culture, Austria
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Regions are increasingly recognised as important players in the European research and development landscape. Strengthening the research potential of European regions, in particular by encouraging the development of "regional research clusters" should enable the respective regions maximising their potential for a successful involvement of their stakeholders in European research activities. In theory this would also apply for the Western Balkan Countries (WBC) for fostering a positive economic and social development. But in practice one of the most significant barriers is the need for renewal and improvement of their research infrastructures. A failure to address this issue could slow down their necessary integration into ERA. The Western Balkan Countries will not only be a target region within FP 7, but also a priority issue during Austrian EU-Presidency in 2006.

Funding cooperation needed to foster research on Baltic Sea environmental issues
Dr. Eeva Ikonen
Academy of Finland
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ERA-NET is a scheme which has been developed to help coordination of policies at EU level. This also applies in the field of research Infrastructures. One example is given through the BONUS ERA-NET project that brings together the key research funding agencies the EU Member States around the Baltic Sea (as well as Russia) to establish a deeper understanding of the conditions for science-based management of environmental issues. The funding allocated by national sources, the EU and the Nordic Council of Ministers for Baltic Sea research in 2004 totalled 52 million euros. This ERA-NET project allows a better cooperation at funding organisations level, to improve networking and integration of scientists and research institutes.

1.2 Policy and management: towards large international infrastructures.

The next generation of new research infrastructures, in certain fields, is evolving towards a new type of facility, born "global" and funded by a number of international partners. The issues to be discussed in this session are many and all equally important:

• What are the challenges facing policy makers, stakeholders, and the scientific communities during such transition?
  
• How can national roadmaps coordinate and funding mechanisms synchronise while taking into account the real needs of the scientific community?
  
• How can negotiations on different aspects of the new infrastructure be successfully concluded with minimal delays?
  
• How can these global research infrastructures be effectively managed once built?

Chair: Dr Yves Petroff,
Ministère de la Recherche, France.

Towards large international infrastructures: Management of processes and projects
Dr. Joergen Kjems
Director, RISØ National Laboratory, Denmark
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Science is increasingly carried out in cross-border collaborations, and the need for large infrastructures often exceeds the capacity of individual countries. However, science planning and funding is still very much based on national priorities, and this creates barriers for the development of science. The creation of forums like the OECD Global Science Forum (GSF) and the European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructure (ESFRI) has been helpful in the efforts to overcome these barriers. The talk will highlight some lessons learned concerning the management of the planning process for new, large international infrastructures, in particular in relation to the European Spallation Source Project. Well-defined roles and the ownership of the planning project are important elements for success. Networks of scientific institutions can be strong drivers of the planning process for new research infrastructures. However, support from funding agencies and governments require more than the direct community support, and in many countries a transparent process of scrutiny has been established in order to set national priorities.
The talk will review the recent development in Denmark on this point.

'ITER, an unprecedented international collaboration in energy research
Dr. Carlos Alejaldre
Director General Technology Policy, Ministry of Education and Science, Spain
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ITER is an international project involving the People's Republic of China, the European Union (+ Switzerland ), Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, and the United States of America, that represents the experimental step between today's studies of plasma physics and tomorrow's electricity-producing fusion power plants. The presentation will concentrate in two issues: the reasons that justify ITER being implemented as the widest international collaboration ever in fusion research (technical and scientific challenges, universal interest...). Secondly the managerial and organisational challenges of such a joint enterprise, both during the initial decision-making process (agreements on site selection, parties' contributions and responsibilities, organisation structure...) and over the project lifetime (in-kind procurement, infrastructure integration issues, common scientific exploitation...).

The International Linear Collider fundamental Research on a worldwide Scale
Dr. Eckardt Elsen
DESY
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The International Linear Collider (ILC) will be the next large project of particle physics after the LHC. From the start it is conceived as a multinational project with comparable contributions from Asia, Americas and Europe. Management structures are currently being put in place to coordinate this endeavour worldwide in a field where scientists traditionally collaborate with ease. The European role is supported in ongoing research programmes of the European Commission. The success and further evolution of this programme will be outlined.

1.3 Policy and management: optimising financial instruments to support Research Infrastructures.

In the planning of new research infrastructures, costs and ways to finance their construction are paramount concerns and constraints. This is all the more true for large, multi-national or international facilities, where single national sources of financing are inadequate. This session will focus on the optimal use of different funding sources:

• How best can national funding mechanisms synchronise for the benefit of new multinational facilities?
  
• How can Structural Funds be used for the construction of new infrastructures? Can indeed the availability of the Structural Funds play a key role in the site choice? How to transcend the national interests and become truly of pan-European interest?
  
• How can the European Investment Bank intervene in financing new facilities?

Chair: Dr. Jacek Gierlinky,
Director, Dept. of European Integration, Ministry of Scientific research & Information Society Technologies, Poland.

Financing Research Infrastructures: fact, fiction, hype and hope
Prof. Costas Fotakis
Director, Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser, Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas, Greece
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It is a fact that European Research Infrastructures play a crucial role in advancing European science and a knowledge based economy. Through this they form an effective tool for promoting European competitiveness and cohesion within the European research landscape. Their pan-European character is a key element in this respect. Are financial Instruments optimized to support them, today, at European level? In looking at this question, It Is necessary to take a broader perspective… For example, it is fiction that national priorities are necessarily of pan-European interest. Furthermore, there may be national RIs that may promote national aspirations or contribute to regional development but they do not ensure the best European response to the challenges of their field. It is also hype to consider RIs as a panacea for all types of current and future scientific and cultural priorities. There is already substantial experience for discussing these issues in terms of the policies, financial and socio-economic aspects involved. The hope is that European RIs will enhance their role in optimizing European human and material resources towards scientific excellence and development. At the same time, the hope is that financial instruments could be optimized, at least at EU level, to support them.

Adapting EIB lending instruments to research challenges
Dr. Jean-Jacques Mertens
European Investment Bank
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As the policy-driven, long term financing institution of the EU, the EIB finances increasing amounts of research and innovation projects, in the framework of its "i2i" initiative, aimed at supporting the EU Lisbon objectives. The presentation will explain recent developments in EIB lending to RDI, and explain how it plans to possibly finance new research infrastructures. In particular it would explain what a loan could bring to project promoters and budgetary authorities and how developments in "structured finance facilities" could help make some risk more acceptable.

1.4 Policy and management: optimal use and support to research infrastructures.

Europe has a wealth of world class infrastructures in all fields of science, ranging from national facilities to large Intergovernmental Research Organisations at the cutting edge of science and technology. They all have their different ways to support users. This session will try analysing different challenges:

• In an era where money for research is getting increasingly precious, are existing resources used in an optimised way?
  
• Can access to the facilities always be assured?
  
• If the need for a new research infrastructure is identified, are the current funding schemes at European level adequate, e.g. the Design Studies?
  

This session will focus on these and other issues. Examples of how existing infrastructures can coordinate their activities to increase their efficiency will be presented.

Chair: Mr. Robert-Jan Smits,
Director, DG RTD, European Commission.

Does Europe capitalise on its world-leading European Experimental Scientific Organisations?
Prof. Colin Carlile
Director, Institut Laue-Langevin, Grenoble, France
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EIROforum links together seven experimental scientific research organisations - CERN, ILL, ESA, EFDA-JET, ESO, EMBL & ESRF - which are either world-leading or world-class. Each is a 'variable-geometry' international research centre and each one demonstrates that European nations can do more together than separately. But, once created, are these laboratories optimally resourced and operated? Is the expertise and experience assembled in these facilities, together with their large user communities of scientists, used effectively to help determine the future needs for the next generation of European infrastructures, and how best should these facilities be set up and operated? And what is the correct balance between the national interest and the wider European interest? The speaker will explore some of these issues based upon his personal experience.

Making the most of research infrastructures
Prof. Robert McGreevy
Director, ISIS Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK
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Integrated Infrastructure Initiatives (I3) bring together common types of research infrastructures in Europe with the aims of broadening access, technical developments of common benefit and increased cooperation. Together the I3 represent 250 infrastructures used by many thousands of researchers, forming a core part of the European research area. Despite the wide range of types of infrastructure, from telescopes to mouse mutant collections, there are many common issues for the operators and for the I3 coordinators. For this reason the I3 have formed a network, I3-net, to increase their cooperation with respect to both European and national agencies. This presentation will raise some of the issues and propose ways forward.

The EC support to the design of new research infrastructures: the L-Surf case
Dr. Felix Amberg
Hagerbach Test Galleries Ltd, Switzerland
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Extensive RTD work on safety in underground spaces clearly shows the need for large scale research and test work in this field. However such research work is nowadays practically impossible due to the facts that no research and test facility is available and that the RTD competencies are scattered all over Europe. The funding of design studies under the Research Infrastructures European actions is therefore a crucial tool in helping research institutions coming together. By doing that Europe is fighting against the fragmentation of efforts. The L-Surf project was proposed by some leading institutes on safety and security of enclosed spaces to respond exactly to these facts. The so far carried out work has clearly shown the importance of a funded design study for the industry driven bottom up approach of L-Surf and it also made aware of necessary top down activities in order to overcome the existing shortcomings in the European Research Area.

Conclusions of Parallel Session 1
Mr H Pero
DG RTD, EC
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