European research infrastructures

What are research infrastructures?

Research infrastructures drive and support research activities of excellence in various scientific fields. Research infrastructures include facilities, equipment, resources, or services of a unique nature, identified by scientific communities. They may also include scientific equipment, scientific resources such as collections, archives, and scientific data, electronic infrastructures such as data and computing systems and communication networks, and any other tools essential to achieving excellence in research and innovation.

European research infrastructures play a crucial role in producing knowledge and innovation that contributes to addressing current European and even global environmental, societal, and economic challenges.

ESFRI – European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures

ESFRI – the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures – aims to guide, through a long-term strategic vision, the establishment of a sustainable and efficient ecosystem of research infrastructures in Europe, maximizing the impact of national and European investments. The latest revision of the ESFRI Roadmap was published in December 2021 and includes 63 European research infrastructures.

What European research infrastructures does Portugal participate in?

Portugal is a member of several European research infrastructures already established as independent legal entities; the national community also maintains collaborations with other infrastructures and infrastructure projects included in the ESFRI Roadmap.

These collaborations are generally established by national infrastructures included in the National Roadmap for Research Infrastructures, by national networks of scientific institutions, or by individual scientific institutions.

European research infrastructures have competitive access to funding through Calls European Commission's Framework Program (currently "Horizon Europe"). In Portugal, the PERIN network (Portugal in Europe Research and Innovation Network) promotes the participation of the national scientific community in all future Calls Europe Calls

Portugal also participates in the EU-LAC Working Group on Research Infrastructures. This group aims to promote collaboration between research infrastructures in the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean. In this context, FCT also participates in the European projectResInfra Plus: Towards a Sustainable EU-LAC Partnership In Research Infrastructures.