1. Robert-Jan Smits Director, DG Research, European Commission Towards a European Strategy for Research Infrastructures Opportunities for the Arctic region

2. Definition of Research Infrastructures Facilities, resources, and related services used by the scientific community for: Conducting leading-edge research Knowledge transmission, knowledge exchanges and knowledge preservation Includes: Major scientific equipment Scientific collections, archives and structured information ICT-based infrastructures Entities of a unique nature, used for research

3. Research Infrastructures of pan-European relevance provide unique opportunities for: world-level research world-level training stimulating technology & knowledge transfer ensuring knowledge preservation … in brief for European Capacity Building Research Infrastructures and capacity building

4. Excellence and Research Infrastructures Europe has a long-standing tradition of excellence in research and its teams continue to lead progress in many fields However, our centres of excellence often fail to reach critical mass There is a need to bring resources together and to build a research and innovation area equivalent to the "common market"

5. Research Infrastructures at European level EU Framework Programme 7 for Research and Technological development: Duration: 2006 - 2013 Budget: 54 billion Euro Main priority: funding collaborative research between top universities, research centres, enterprises in 10 thematic areas Capacity building through action on Research Infrastructures –Optimising the use and development of the best existing Research Infrastructures –Helping to create new Research Infrastructures

6. The European Roadmap for Research Infrastructures Mandate from the Council of Ministers, November 2004: need for European Strategy and Roadmap Presentation of European Roadmap: October 2006 About 1000 high-level experts were involved, from every MS and AS, from most fields and user communities, giving the end product credibility and quality. It is the beginning of an ongoing process

7. 35 ambitious projects Addressing seven (7) fields of Research and major challenges: (1)Social Sciences and Humanities (6) (2)Environmental Sciences (7) (3)Energy (3) (4)Biomedical and Life Sciences (6) (5)Material sciences (7) (6)Astronomy, Astrophysics and Nuclear Physics (5) (7)Computer Data Treatment, Particle and Space Physics (1) Community produced ideas that will open up new and unexpected areas of knowledge The European Roadmap for Research Infrastructures (2)

8. Environmental Sciences AURORA BOREALIS EURO-ARGO EUFAR LIFEWATCH ICOS EMSO IAGOS-ERI 7 Projects

9. Project DescriptionConstruction Costs in million Euro AURORA BOREALIS European Polar Research Icebreaker360 EMSO Multidisciplinary Seafloor Observatory (5 sites) 150 EUFAR Long Range Tropospheric Aircraft (options: C130 or Airbus 400M) 50-100 EURO-ARGO Ocean Observing buoy system (deployment over 12 years) 76 IAGOS-ERI Climate Change Observation from 20 commercial aircrafts (deployment) 20 ICOS Integrated Carbon Observation System (deployment/operation over 20 years) 255 LIFEWATCH Infrastructure for research on the protection, management and sustainable use of biodiversity 370 Environmental Sciences These projects offer opportunities for the Arctic region

10. Global Dimension of Research Infrastructures Several of the projects on the Roadmap require a global approach Major players are Australia, China, India, Japan, Russia, South Africa, USA, Canada EU will enter into a dialogue with the OECD Global Science Forum for the identification, planning, discussion and monitoring of such projects

11. Policy Makers Researchers Funders Industry The European Commission intends to play an active role under the 7th Framework Programme. Who is the Roadmap for ?

12. More is to come Implementation of the Roadmap: some of the projects will be in place in the next 1-3 years Strengthening the European Research Area: Research Infrastructures as major cornerstones Update of Roadmap 2008: launch of constructive debate

13. Update of ESFRI Roadmap 2008 Opportunities for the Arctic region! Review existing research infrastructures in Arctic region as regards: ■ output ■ efficiency and functioning ■ scale and scope Need for an integrated monitoring system of climate change in the Arctic region?

14. Thanks for your attention Robert-Jan Smits Merci Gracias Danke Grazie Bedankt Teşekkür ederim Obrigado Kiitos Tack Hvala Köszönöm