The European Commission (EC), in collaboration with the European Science Foundation (ESF), France, has launched a web portal on European Research Infrastructures (RI). The portal, available at http://www.riportal.eu/, allows access to data collected as part of a recent survey undertaken by the EC and ESF in order to identify the current scenario of infrastructures in Europe.
The survey provided a sample of infrastructures which, with the information gathered via the portal, is expected to grow to provide a better picture of the total RI landscape in Europe. Scientists and policy makers will now be able to access information on a great number of major European facilities, by discipline, by country and or by type of infrastructure.
In addition, the portal will allow infrastructure operators to update the existing data and add additional information about further facilities and functions, thus constantly expanding the data accessible to users.
It has been observed that though Europe is home to a wealth of RI facilities, many of these facilities, or the different services provided by them, are sometimes unknown in many parts of Europe. Also, these centres of excellence often fail to reach critical mass due to the absence of adequate networking and cooperation. The new RI portal is projected to address these issues.
