greater involvement of local and regional authorities in the design and implementation of R&I initiatives
greater harmonisation and standardisation of access rules and procedures, especially the development of access charters to ensure fairness and consistency
employing the "Spreading excellence and widening participation" approach, in combination with making the EU state aid rules more R&I friendly

It is too early to evaluate the opinion's impact.

THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS



- welcomes the European Commission's overall approach to identifying the key role that research infrastructure can and does play in the advancement of knowledge and technology. Research infrastructures (RIs) and their use are fundamental for the development of the European Research Area (ERA);

- notes that the implementation of the ERA shows also variations between the allocation of Horizon 2020 funding and R&I investment under ESI funds;

- warns that long term sustainability is another key challenge facing RIs, especially large-scale pan-European infrastructures which are extremely expensive to construct, maintain and operate;

- warns that especially in order to address the so-called grand challenges, such as climate change, RIs must be capable of integrating with neighbouring RIs, thus creating greater knowledge-sharing and contributing to interdisciplinary research;

- calls on the new European Commission to continue monitoring whether Member States and regions respect their obligation to devote 3% of GDP to R&D until the end of the current decade;

- urges to this effect the Commission to swiftly propose the successor to the Europe 2020 Strategy, which should include quantified targets also in the field of R&D;

- supports furthermore the "Spreading excellence and widening participation" approach, in combination with making the EU state aid rules more R&I friendly as a mechanism to equalise supports and realise the full research potential of all EU regions, including those outside the research-intense clusters;

- supports greater harmonisation and standardisation of access rules and procedures, especially the development of access charters to ensure fairness and consistency;

- calls for greater involvement of local and regional authorities in the design and implementation of R&I initiatives due to the importance that small and medium RI facilities have for local and regional development and as many of those initiatives are implemented at the local and regional level.