The Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU presented its Tenerife Declaration on Global Dimension and Sustainability of Research Infrastructures (RIs) during a dedicated conference on research infrastructures which took place in Tenerife last week. The declaration advocates for an ecosystem of research infrastructures that is better distributed across Europe and beyond.
Recognising how global challenges affect the capacity of Research Infrastructures, the signatories of the Declaration call for:
- Ensuring long-term sustainability of RIs
- Fostering career developments and skills in R&I
- Advancing the implementation and integration of Open Science policies and practices in RI at various levels
- Assessing the current challenges in the environment with an impact on RIs while promoting mutual learning in the search for solutions to shared problems and taking the opportunity to increase resilience.
- Increasing the availability of critical raw materials and components that are necessary for the acquisition, construction, environmentally friendly, safe operation and upgrade of high-tech instrumentation, while assessing and harnessing possibilities to substitute critical with more available materials
- Addressing the challenges identified in the third report of the European Commission on the application of the ERIC Regulation
- Investing in efforts to enhance international cooperation
- Where possible, fostering the collaboration of European RIs with their counterparts worldwide,
- Fostering the role of RIs in advancing science diplomacy
So far, 17 EU Member States and the European Commission have endorsed the Tenerife Declaration and the call for further joint actions to achieve a more global and sustainable ecosystem of research infrastructures.