ESFRI Roadmap 2021 - Strategy Report on Research Infrastructures, Part 1.

Abstract

The ESFRI Roadmap 2021 is the sixth edition of the document, which has been influencing the European and national RIs strategies, policies and funding since 2006. ESFRI periodically updates its Roadmap to provide a coherent and strategic vision ensuring that Europe has excellence RIs in all fields of science and innovation5,6,7. The key messages of the 2021 edition of the Roadmap, prepared during the COVID-19 pandemic, clearly underline the importance of world-class RIs in enabling cutting-edge research needed to address the pressing requests and challenges of our society. This Roadmap, with the highest total cost of needed investments since the first edition in 2006, also demonstrates the persisting willingness of national governments to substantially invest in improving the RIs capacities in Europe, as an important element of our long-term scientific sovereignty and crisis preparedness. This Strategy Report consists of four interconnected parts. First, it describes the MAIN FEATURES AND OUTCOMES OF THE ROADMAP 2021. Secondly, it presents WHAT IS NEW IN THE ROADMAP 2021 edition in comparison to its predecessor. In the third part, it analyses the LESSONS LEARNT from this Roadmap and from the work of ESFRI over the last three years. The final part provides a strategic outlook into the future, identifying the key challenges for the RI policy in the coming years, CHALLENGES AND STRATEGY FOR THE FUTURE. This strategic outlook is particularly important as the fast evolving RI ecosystem is challenged by changing external circumstances and ESFRI needs to react to those changes in order to be capable of maintaining its capability to provide timely and relevant strategic advice and to stimulate further development of the RI ecosystem in Europe.