Member state research forum recommends over EUR 4bn for shared research facilities

The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures’ (ESFRI), designed to integrate Europe on scientific research collaboration, recommends massive investment into nearly a dozen shared research facilities in Europe. According to it’s latest roadmap, published this week, over EUR 4bn should be dedicated to building 11 new labs, among them the Einstein Telescope, which would cost EUR 1.9bn and whose construction would begin in 2026 according to plan, possibly on the border region between the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

Cross-border collaboration doesn’t always come easy. A high-power laser infrastructure and systems project involving Czechia, Hungary and Romania, the “Extreme Light Infrastructure”, has not launched fully due to political wrangling, writes Science Business.

Meanwhile, the European Commission is calling for a review of the funding sources of such shared facilities, which are usually built with a mix of national and EU funding. The EU has invested EUR 20bn into research facilities in the last 20 years, with the aim of remaining at the forefront of science. According to ESFRI’s recommendation, the funds dedicated to each facility would go up, totalling EUR 380m per investment, while in 2018 that figure was EUR 112m.

Source: Science Business, ESFRI