New EU infrastructure plan needs more work on funding, research groups say

The European Commission’s new strategy for further integrating research and technology infrastructures needs more concrete actions to secure adequate funding in the next multiannual budget, according to stakeholder groups.

“The strategy brings much-needed clarity and ambition to the way Europe supports both research infrastructures and technology infrastructures,” said Muriel Attané, secretary general of the European Association of Research and Technology Organisations (EARTO)in a statement. “Now, its success will depend on mobilising the necessary investments in the next Multiannual Financial Framework as well as within member states.”

Research infrastructures, which provide critical equipment and services for researchers and companies looking to experiment and test their ideas, can be single-sites such as the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, distributed such as European life sciences infrastructure Elixir, or virtual, as in the European neuroscience research network EBrains. 

Technology infrastructures, on the other hand, are an emerging type of R&D facility focused on testing prototypes and getting them ready for commercialisation. For example, the Bioruukki testing centre in Finland has several facilities for the development, demonstration and scaling-up of materials and chemical technologies.

But host member states, which are primarily responsible for their funding, sometimes struggle to invest due to low national budgets, high operational costs and the lack of adequate financing instruments. Hence the need to pool resources.

The strategy, which follows on from a Commission proposal for a 20% co-financing scheme for new and existing research infrastructures in the next Framework Programme, “sends an important signal on scaling and coordinating investments, moving beyond fragmentation and towards a more coherent European framework,” Mattias Björnmalm, secretary general of Cesaer university association, told Science|Business.

For Attané, the strategy is “a major step forward,” but “ambition alone is not enough.”

Infrastructure support

According to the plan, published on September 15, the Commission intends to streamline the governance framework of research and technology infrastructures to better align their services with user needs. This includes harmonising access conditions by introducing a Charter of Access for industrial users and a “one-stop-shop” for scientists; encouraging the expansion of remote and virtual access, with the help of artificial intelligence; and setting up pilot cross-border and transnational access schemes.

In addition, the strategy seeks to attract talent as part of the Choose Europe initiative, whose pilot programme is due to launch this autumn, and to bolster managerial and entrepreneurial training opportunities, especially for small companies.

It also plans to promote European standards on data management and open science, expand infrastructure collaboration with Latin America, Africa and south-east Asia, and support the integration of candidate and associated countries in the European Research Area, starting with Ukraine.

Capital boost

Per Jesus Valero, head of Tecnalia in Spain and president of EARTO, technology infrastructures need to focus on capital expenditure, which is a very complex issue for organisations that are moving rapidly. “We don’t have the capacity and money to make the capital investments that are needed,” he told delegates to the Commission’s Research and Innovation Days conference in Brussels on September 16.

According to a recent study by the European Investment Bank, cited in the Commission’s strategy, the EU needs to find between €13 billion and €16 billion to build and upgrade its technology infrastructures alone. 

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The funding needs of research infrastructures are expected to be similar. 

“My educated guess will be that research infrastructures will need at least this figure [€16 billion] until 2030, and even a higher one in a slightly longer timeframe,” José Luis Martínez Peña, chair of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), told Science|Business.

The ESFRI roadmap for the coming 10 to 20 years includes 22 projects that are currently being deployed, such as the European Solar Telescope, as well as 41 research infrastructures that have already been implemented, some of which will require significant upgrades or aim to develop new projects, he said.

This is the case of the Future Circular Collider from CERN, which will require funding over a timeframe beyond 2030, Martínez Peña added. ESFRI will therefore propose a figure higher than €16 billion in its updated roadmap planned for the second half of 2026.

Björnmalm also pointed to several more funding gaps that would need to be closed. The EU and its member states should ensure “true lifecycle funding, from design and construction, through to upgrades and decommissioning,” he said.

Blurred lines

Meanwhile, the research community welcomed the inclusion of both research and technology infrastructures in a single strategy, in part because some facilities, such as the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), blur the lines between the two.

“We perhaps are perceived as infrastructures that were created with a mandate to deliver research,” Plamena Markova, chief of international relations at EMBL, said at the Research and Innovation Days panel. “But the truth is that from our inception [. . .] we did have a mandate to deliver services, both experimental and data services, to enable technology transfer to society and to train the next generation of scientists but also entrepreneurs.”

Creating silos could lead to more fragmented policy and funding landscapes, she said. “The worst would be to end up in a situation where research infrastructures compete with technology infrastructures for funding, for users, or even for policy attention.”

A Commission official confirmed to Science|Business that concerns over funding competition between research and technology infrastructures had been considered when preparing the new strategy. 

“A holistic approach to the ecosystem of research and technology infrastructures aims at creating synergies and stimulating collaboration,” the official said. “At the same time, the strategy also addresses the distinct needs and challenges of both [research and technology infrastructures] separately.”

This echoes the Commission’s decision to move research and technology infrastructures in a new pillar in the next iteration of Horizon Europe, “but with separate articles [. . .] in the specific programme,” the official added.