ESFRI, the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures, is a strategic instrument to develop the scientific integration of Europe and to strengthen its international outreach. The mission of ESFRI is to support a coherent and strategy-led approach to policymaking on research infrastructures in Europe, and to facilitate multilateral initiatives leading to the better use and development of research infrastructures, at EU and international level.
Research infrastructures as defined by ESFRI are facilities, resources and services that are used by the research communities to conduct research and foster innovation in their fields. They include: major scientific equipment (or sets of instruments), knowledge-based resources such as collections, archives and scientific data, e-infrastructures, such as data and computing systems and communication networks and any other tools that are essential to achieve excellence in research and innovation. Beyond research, these infrastructures provide public services and education.
The ESFRI-FED programme focuses on distributed and virtual ESFRI infrastructures. A distributed research infrastructure consists of a Central Hub and interlinked National Nodes, holding a unique specific name and legal status, and governance structure. Distributed infrastructures define and follow a joint investment strategy aimed at strengthening the research infrastructure through the Nodes and common/shared facilities. User-wise, each infrastructure has a common access policy, providing a single point of access for all users.
ESFRI-FED is first and foremost designed to support the participation of Belgian Federal Scientific Institutions (FSI) and federal departments in ESFRI distributed and virtual research infrastructures, through the funding of R&D projects based on scientific excellence and European anchorage.
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