SYNERGIES BETWEEN JPIs AND RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURES

Representatives of the coordination team of Water JPI took part in the workshop “Towards a Roadmap for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Infrastructures in Europe” organized by the Unit Research Infrastructures of the European Commission on last 19-20 March in Brussels. The workshop topics discussed were focalized on the synergy between the biodiversity and ecosystem research components of different Joint Programming Initiatives and on a strategy for the research infrastructures supporting biodiversity and ecosystem research in the next ten years in view of the emerging scientific, societal and technical challenges with the aim to contribute to shaping the new Horizon 2020 programme. In fact the structuring impact of the FP7 instruments will continue in Horizon 2020 with emphasis on priorities such as an excellent science base, industrial and competitive leadership, tackling societal challenges, addressing thematic gaps and global cooperation.
Five JPIs have been identified with clear programme components in the area of biodiversity and ecosystem research: Climate, FACCE, Oceans, Urban Europe, Water Challenges.
Since JPIs are not organized together, the JPI Water challenges and the JPI Oceans will initiate links between the initiatives mentioned above, and discuss synergy in research on biodiversity and ecosystem services. As a specific action originating from the discussions, it was proposed to establish at short term an editing group to elaborate the workshop outcomes as an initial decadal roadmap for European Research Infrastructures. The editing group should exploit on-line communication mechanism to interact with this community for contributions to the roadmap. The initial roadmap – in agreement with the stakeholders – should be available publicly to inform the European Commission about priorities and proposed mechanisms to move towards the implementation of these priorities.