Swiss membership in international research infrastructure networks

The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) defines research infrastructures as facilities, resources and services that are used by the research communities to conduct high-quality research and foster innovation in their fields. They also produce important scientific output – mostly data – for other areas, such as education or public services. Research infrastructures is a broadly defined concept that varies depending on the scientific discipline. This concept may encompass the following: major scientific equipment or (measurement) instruments, knowledge-based resources (e.g. collections, archives and scientific data), and e-infrastructures (e.g. data and computing systems and communication networks).

A distinction is drawn between research infrastructures located in a single location (‘single-sited’) and those that are spread out over several locations (‘distributed’). The latter are comprised of several existing national research infrastructures housed at higher education institutions or non-commercial research institutes. These national nodes together form a research infrastructure network and their activities are coordinated through a central hub located at one of the national nodes. Most ERICs are distributed research infrastructures. The international networking of national research infrastructures enables synergies to be exploited and national investments already made in their respective facilities to be utilised, thereby generating economies of scale.

What is an ERIC?

In order to facilitate the establishment and operation of research infrastructure networks, the European Union introduced the legal form 'European Research Infrastructure Consortium', ERIC for short, in 2009. As a legal entity, ERIC provides recognition of the participation of EU member states, associated countries, other non-associated countries and intergovernmental organisations in a given research infrastructure. Switzerland is thus able to continue taking part in international research infrastructures through ERICs.

Generally speaking, ERIC operation is made possible thanks to staff, in-kind contributions and funding from the institutions where the national nodes are located. In addition, ERIC member countries pay membership contributions. This often finances the coordination and standardisation activities of the ERIC's central hub. Membership fees are limited to between CHF 50,000 and 150,000 per year since the national hubs in member countries of the respective ERIC are already established and funded national research infrastructures.

ERICs are also an important driver in the development and implementation of FAIR data (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable), which is intended to facilitate the findability, accessibility, interoperability and reuse of research data for research, business, policymaking and society. In Switzerland, ERICs significantly contribute to the anchoring and further elaboration of Switzerland's national strategy for Open Research Data (ORD) and corresponding guidelines for the promotion of 'FAIR research data by design'.

In 2011, the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) was the first European research infrastructure network to be given the legal status of ERIC: Switzerland was also involved, having held observer status in SHARE from the very beginning. Since then, the European research infrastructure landscape has grown steadily and today already comprises 26 ERICs - with more over the horizon. Apart from Switzerland's membership in the European Spallation Source ERIC in Lund in 2015, which is a 'single-sited' research infrastructure, observer status was for the longest time the only form of Swiss participation in an ERIC. This has now changed.

Unanimous adoption of ERIC Dispatch

On 13 April 2022, the Federal Council submitted its Dispatch to the Swiss Parliament on Swiss membership in six international research infrastructure networks conferred the legal status of ERICs. With this step, Switzerland was able to change its status from that of an observer to member. The ERIC Dispatch also proposed an amendment to the Federal Act on the Promotion of Research and Innovation (RIPA), whereby decision-making authority on Switzerland's membership in an ERIC would no longer lie with Parliament, but with the Federal Council. This amendment will enable Switzerland to move and position itself more agilely in the rapidly changing research infrastructure landscape.

The Federal Council has proposed Swiss membership in six ERICs from different scientific fields: two in the field of environmental sciences, two in the field of life sciences and health, and two in the field of humanities and social sciences. This selection is based on the 2019 Swiss Roadmap for Research Infrastructures and on an in-depth evaluation based on a range of different criteria.