What is a research infrastructure?
EMBRC is a distributed 'research infrastructure' or RI. The European Commission defines RIs as 'facilities that provide resources and services for research communities to conduct research and foster innovation' (learn more).
Distributed RIs, like EMBRC, have their facilities spread over multiple locations, rather than a single site. A central coordinating office brings together and coordinates the activities of national partners across Europe. In our case, the central coordinating office is in Paris and our national partners are networks of one or more marine stations.
RIs are selected by the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) (an instrument created by the Commission to guide the use of RIs) based on their ‘pan-European interest’ and ability to meet the strategic research needs of European research communities.
A driver for scientific excellence
RIs are a solution to make science more effective and sustainable in the complex European backdrop of interactions among nation states. They enable an organised, fair and transparent system to share knowledge and resources, and in doing so, they contribute to the pooling of data, facilities and equipment, thereby avoiding unnecessary duplication of effort.
By making high-quality facilities, resources and services available to everyone, RIs ensure that science is driven by excellence and not limited by the research capacity of individual countries, economic sectors, or institutions. They also ensure that this excellence is aimed at solving bottlenecks, pushing forward the frontiers of scientific disciplines, and enabling transformative technological development.
Sustainable impact
RIs bring together the suitable conditions and critical mass to enable cutting-edge, large-scale research. In comparison to projects or networks, which often last a few months or years only, RIs have greater potential for long-term, strategic impact. They play an increasingly important role for the advancement of knowledge and technology in Europe and worldwide.
Crossing borders, crossing research areas
With the goal of elevating science across the globe, European RIs include members and partners from other countries and regions and cover different research fields, including biological and medical sciences, material sciences, social sciences and humanities, environmental sciences, energy and astronomy. EMBRC is part of the life science RI 'family’ and collaborates with environmental RIs as well (through the ENVRI community).
