EU-CELAC WORKING GROUP ON RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURES (WG RI) 10th WG meeting

On 24^th October 2022, the EU CELAC Working Group on Research Infrastructures held its 10th meeting by virtual means. The core of the discussion focused on the outcomes of the ICRI 2022 and EU-LAC ResInfra conference, next topics for the WG and on the support to the WG by the new Global Service Facility. In total 27 delegates and participants from the EU and LAC joined the meeting.

ICRI 2022 and EU-LAC ResInfra conference

The global ICRI2022 conference took place the week before in Brno, Czech Republic. Several WG delegates were present and also joined the EU-LAC ResInfra conference that was organised as a satellite event of ICRI 2022. The conference discusses a number of grand challenges and the connection to the RI work. As a satellite event, the EU-LAC ResInfra conference was organised on 18 October with around 60 participants joining in person or remotely.

Next priorities for the RI WG

A proposal of next topics for the WG was presented, based on its previous activities, the EU-CELAC Strategic Roadmap for R&I and on the broader topics presented during the ICRI conference. In the discussion that followed, delegates reviewed the proposal and decided to transform the topic of open access into a transversal priority that would be included in the discussion of all thematic areas. Open access would thus be emphasised as a tool that should be used across all priority areas.

As a pilot exercise, specific open access questions could be explored in WG discussions on health or environment. Quality of data will be crucial – RIs might work with data of varying structure, consistency and reliability.

Support to the RI WG – Global Service Facility

The WG will also benefit from additional support by the new Global Service Facility of the European Commission. Just like in its previous iteration, the GSF will provide organisational, secretarial and advisory support to the WG and help its capacity to develop specific actions with RIs themselves (continuation of the previously used study visits concept) and provide general advisory and secretarial support.

In terms of WG meetings, thanks to this additional assistance, it will now be possible to resume in-person meetings. We will thus move to a combined mode, with one physical and one remote meeting per year. The place of physical meetings should alternate between the EU and LAC hosts.