‘Big Science’ Web portal opens, to make the case for investment

BRUSSELS – The organisations behind the synchrotrons, databases and other shared research infrastructure in Europe have launched a joint Web portal as part of an effort to raise their profiles, increase collaboration and justify their budgets at a time of tight funding. 

The site, portal.meril.eu, lists data and links to currently more than 400 different facilities and resources across Europe, ranging from the Aalto Neuroimaging Lab for brain research in Helsinki, to the Yebes Astronomical Observatory near Madrid. The portal, built with funding from the European Commission and  now supported by the European Science Foundation, is a comprehensive attempt to catalogue all types of research infrastructure or, in Brussels speak, “RI”, across Europe. These are publicly funded centres for lab equipment, academic computer networks, scientific databases or “big science” machines that are openly available for researchers to use. 

The struggle to fund these multi-million euro projects has been a long-running story in Brussels – and will intensify next year with the launch of the new, seven-year Horizon 2020 EU research and innovation programme. For instance, an EU advisory body, the European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructure (ESFRI), keeps a running list of proposed research infrastructures in search of funding – and as of last year they numbered 43 projects.

“The role of research infrastructure is poorly understood” outside their immediate scientific communities, said Peter Fletcher, head of the international office of the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), speaking at a conference in Brussels 6 November organised by ESF. Their value isn’t in their science alone, he said. “You have to talk about the ecosystem” around them – the jobs, companies, and universities they interact with locally, as well as the broader scientific community that uses them internationally.

Making them relevant to industry is a special challenge, said John Womersley, CEO of the STFC and chair of the ESFRI Executive Board. “We know how to prioritise research infrastructure by scientific impact. We don’t know how to get industrial engagement.” He cited several new initiatives to manage the cost, and simplify industrial use, of research infrastructure. 

“Industry is a key audience” for RI, Womersley said. “We need to broaden the user base to non-experts.”