The Strategy Report on Research Infrastructures includes the Roadmap with ESFRI Projects and ESFRI Landmarks and the ESFRI vision of the evolution of Research Infrastructures in Europe, addressing the mandates of the European Council, and identifying strategy goals.

The Strategy Report is composed of three parts.

PART1 (PAG07) presents the features of the ESFRI Roadmap 2018 with emphasis on: i) the reinforced strategic role of the Landmarks portfolio of long-term engagements carrying out the completion and the operation of reference Research Infrastructures in all domains of research; ii) the new entries in the list of the ESFRI Projects, reinforcing critical areas of competitiveness of European research. The list of 18 ESFRI Projects and 37 ESFRI Landmarks is presented: each RI is identified by acronym, full name, type of RI, legal status, year of entry in the Roadmap, year of expected start of operation and estimated costs. This part also includes an analysis of the evolving role of the RIs, which reflects the specific mandates from the European Council to address the FAIR – Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable – data principles and e-Infrastructure, the Long-Term Sustainability and the benefits for innovation. We summarise the applied ESFRI Methodology and introduce the challenges for its future refinement based on the lessons learnt during this Roadmap exercise. The background of ESFRI and its history over the last 16 years complete PART1.

PART2 (PAG41) is the Landscape Analysis that provides the current context of the most relevant Research Infrastructures that are available to European scientists and to technology developers typically through peer review of competitive proposals. The unique contribution played by the ESFRI RIs in all scientific domains is analysed along with the interconnections and cross-cutting aspects of the whole European RIs ecosystem.

The Landscape Analysis is an indicative reference document central to ESFRI Methodology and does not represent, in any way, the view and prioritisation of ESFRI, nor any national financial and political commitment.

The Landscape Analysis is organised in three sections.

SECTION1 consists of six chapters – one per scientific domain – and describes the state of play of all Research Infrastructures in the corresponding thematic area, their contributions to support frontier research and to provide key data necessary to address the Grand Challenges.

SECTION2 is an all-new analysis effort to render explicit the relevant connections that already exist among different thematic areas by means of the ESFRI RIs, and to identify the critical needs and opportunities for new links and new research practices.

SECTION3 describes the state of play of Research Infrastructures in addressing transversal issues like education and training, needs for digital infrastructure, contribution to innovation along with the horizontal analyses like socio-economic impact, territorial impact, pan-European and global dimensions that are carried out by all RIs.

The LA indicates also high strategic potential areas of research in the field of Social & Cultural Innovationthat resulted from the Roadmap preparation work.

PART3 (PAG155) describes – through dedicated cards – each ESFRI Project and each ESFRI Landmark. A short description of the RI is given as well as updated information on the legal status, the timeline for construction/operation, and the estimated costs. The information on the political support to ESFRI RIs, expressed by Governments of Member States and Associated Countries – e. g. Lead country, Member country or Prospective Member country – is validated by the corresponding ESFRI Delegations.

ANNEX (PAG219)

ESFRI Working Groups

ESFRI Forum