EU-Wide Advantages and Opportunities for "Support to the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures" (HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-DEV-04)

1. Access to the EU Single Market

- ESFRI already determines investment priorities that serve the whole of the European Research Area (ERA). A CSA that supports ESFRI therefore gains de-facto visibility and credibility across all 27 Member States and Associated Countries, opening doors to 450+ million citizens, 22 million enterprises and 7,000+ public R&I funding organisations.

- Centralised outreach and communication actions (conferences, stakeholder fora, open-source ICT tools) allow beneficiaries to disseminate results simultaneously in every Member State, multiplying adoption rates and stakeholder engagement without the need for country-by-country replication.

2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

- The action is structurally multinational: ESFRI itself is composed of national delegates from every MS/AC. The consortium will therefore work daily with policy makers, funding agencies and facility managers from across Europe, creating an unparalleled network for future scientific, industrial and policy collaborations.

- Mandatory tasks such as "fostering cooperation & exchange of good practices" directly finance workshops, thematic clusters and peer-learning activities that speed up transfer of cutting-edge operational models (e.g., ERIC governance, FAIR data management, green lab operation standards) across borders.

- Open-source software deliverables guarantee that analytical tools and monitoring dashboards can be localised and reused by research infrastructures in any country at zero licensing cost, lowering digital barriers for smaller or less-resourced regions.

3. Alignment with Flagship EU Policies

- European Green Deal: Better ESFRI monitoring enables systematic tracking of sustainability KPIs (energy efficiency, circular economy measures) for large-scale facilities; outcomes feed into the Green Deal’s climate, energy and industrial policy targets.

- Digital Europe / Europe’s Digital Decade: Development of interoperable ICT tools, FAIR data pipelines and EOSC integration reinforces Europe’s ambition to create a single market for data and cloud services.

- New ERA Policy Agenda: The CSA speaks directly to ERA Actions 5, 6 and 8 (research infrastructures, open science and knowledge valorisation), helping the Commission deliver on its 2025 milestones.

- Smart Specialisation & Cohesion Policy: By engaging managing authorities of Cohesion programmes, the project helps align ESIF/RRF investments with ESFRI priorities, maximising regional impact and avoiding duplication.

4. Regulatory Harmonisation Benefits

- Working group outputs (methodologies for impact assessment, evaluation criteria, sustainability indicators) become de-facto EU reference standards, reducing administrative friction for RIs seeking multi-country funding approvals.

- Pan-European consensus on open-source licences and data governance eases compliance with GDPR, Data Act, AI Act and upcoming European Data Spaces regulations.

5. Integration into Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem

- The consortium can tap into 20+ existing ERICs, 137 ESFRI landmarks/projects, KICs, EIT Communities and Digital Innovation Hubs, creating fast-track channels for technology transfer, joint training and industrial partnerships.

- Collaboration with the JRC adds direct access to 55 JRC research infrastructures and world-class metrology, safety and security expertise, reinforcing scientific excellence and policy relevance.

6. Funding Synergies & Leverage

- The CSA budget (lump-sum grant) can be strategically used to design pipelines that unlock billions in complementary funding: European Structural & Investment Funds (ESIF), Recovery & Resilience Facility (RRF), InvestEU, Digital Europe Programme and national RI budgets.

- A single, EC-funded impact-assessment framework helps Member States justify continued or increased domestic investments, de-risking national co-funding decisions.

7. EU-Scale Deployment & Impact Potential

- Only one project will be funded; the selected consortium will become the single coordination node for all future ESFRI-related support activities until 2030+, giving it unrivalled agenda-setting power.

- ICT tools, road-mapping methodologies and stakeholder engagement models developed under the grant can be exported to international partners (OECD GSO, G7 STI, Horizon Europe Associated Countries), extending EU influence globally.

8. Strategic Added Value vs. National-Level Initiatives

- National projects tend to optimise for domestic priorities; this CSA institutionalises supranational decision-making, ensuring that scarce RI budgets are allocated where they produce the highest European added value.

- Consolidated monitoring and impact evidence across borders fuels stronger advocacy for RIs in EU-wide policy debates (e.g., MFF negotiations, next Framework Programme design).

9. Actionable Opportunities for Applicants

1. Build a geographically balanced consortium of organisations with proven ESFRI and ERIC expertise to maximise legitimacy in the eyes of all Member States.

2. Embed a dedicated "Synergy Desk" that scouts and matches RI projects with ESIF/RRF/InvestEU opportunities, visibly demonstrating additionality.

3. Develop modular, open-source evaluation & analytics software that can be re-used by national ministries—this will yield quick adoption and political goodwill.

4. Leverage the grant to launch an EU Research Infrastructure Academy delivering joint training and certification for RI managers, capitalising on mutual recognition mechanisms across MSs.

5. Include robust KPIs for gender equality, geographical widening and environmental sustainability to align with horizontal EU priorities and boost evaluation scores.

10. Conclusion

By capitalising on the inherent cross-border mandate of ESFRI, this grant offers a unique platform to shape, standardise and future-proof Europe’s entire research infrastructure ecosystem. The advantages unlocked—single-market reach, regulatory alignment, funding leverage, and global influence—are only attainable through an EU-scale initiative and cannot be replicated by isolated national efforts.