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For Science Europe, 2021 was a very important year: the association celebrated its 10th year of existence. Founded in 2011, it has grown into a respected and influential voice in the European research policy debate. Moreover, we published a new Strategy Plan for 2021–2026, which maps our collective objectives and sets a specific yet flexible action framework over the next five years.

This report provides a summary of the virtual workshop organised by OECD Global Science Forum and Science Europe in May 2021 and set up as a satellite event of the International Conference on Research Infrastructures (ICRI 2021).

The year 2020 saw a global pandemic attest to the value of science. In the race for COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, Science Europe’s Member Organisations were at the forefront of the global response and our association became more relevant and important than ever.

Science Europe and the OECD Global Science Forum teamed up to identify ways to optimise the operation and use of research infrastructures at national level.

Science Europe welcomes all efforts made to ensure the long-term sustainability of research infrastructures. Released prior to the high-level conference on research infrastructures by the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council, this Open Letter responds to the European Commission’s Staff Working Document on their sustainability. It makes a number of recommendations, based on the key role of Science Europe’s members as funders, operators, and managers of infrastructures.

This report explores the challenges facing research funding and performing organisations to design and manage balanced Research Infrastructure (RI) portfolios and design effective cross-border collaborations when setting up and running joint RIs. Discussions with a broad range of stakeholders took place at a dedicated workshop co-hosted by Science Foundation Ireland and the Health Research Board.

Research Infrastructures (RIs) are of utmost importance for Europe’s global competitiveness and this paper puts forward the case of how the focus on RIs in Horizon 2020 should be enhanced.

This joint briefing paper with Knowledge Exchange informs the discussion on the funding of Research Data Management (RDM) and related infrastructures in Europe, helps raise awareness of the current challenges, and communicates opportunities for co-ordinated action to relevant stakeholders. The paper highlights that the funding of Research Data Infrastructures, enabling RDM, comes from a great variety of sources and institutions that have different responsibilities and that operate at local, national, and international levels.

The demand for Research Infrastructures is high throughout all fields of science. However, the available funds for capital investment and running costs are generally limited and do not nearly meet the demand. Effective allocation of available funds and effective operation of facilities is therefore important in order to serve the scientific community in the best possible way.

In recent years scientific research has changed markedly. High throughput technologies have resulted in the generation and accumulation of unprecedented quantities of data, which can be collected, analysed and interpreted through advances in computational science. This, in turn, has led to rapid progress in the development of computational models that can represent natural phenomena across the range of scales, from the level of atoms and molecules to the structure and evolution of galaxies. Such models allow researchers to test and develop new ideas; they can provide new insights into the behaviour of systems under different conditions that would be difficult to test directly through experiment, and they can be used to predict how a system will react to changing circumstances. With computer modelling becoming an increasingly important tool for researchers, the Science Europe Scientific Committee for Life, Environmental and Geo Sciences organised a workshop to explore how different scientific disciplines use computational modelling and simulations of complex structures in space and time.

The Roadmap, approved by the Science Europe General Assembly in November 2013, is Science Europe’s action plan to contribute to the elements of a successful research system. It acts as a framework for voluntary collective activity, providing a long-term strategy for the association. The ‘Priority Action Areas’ are those in which Science Europe members believe that there is a potential to achieve tangible and substantive progress, and where they can add real value by working together.