Preparatory Phase of new ESFRI projects and early phase support to ESFRI high strategic potential areas

Following the updates of the ESFRI Roadmap[[http://ec.europa.eu/research/infrastructures/index.cfm?pg=esfri]], support under this work programme will be provided to:

(a) Preparatory Phase for new research infrastructure projects which enter the ESFRI Roadmap in 2018 (Coordination and Support actions)

The preparatory phase aims to bring the project for the new or upgraded research infrastructure identified in the ESFRI Roadmap to the level of legal, financial, and, where applicable, technical maturity required for implementing it.

Proposal consortia should involve all the stakeholders necessary to move the project forward, to take the decisions, and to make the financial commitments, before construction can start (including, but not limited to, national/regional ministries/governments, research councils or funding agencies from the countries that have already de

The ESFRI roadmap, updated periodically, identifies the needs of the European scientific community in terms of research infrastructures. However, inclusion in the ESFRI roadmap does not guarantee that these needed infrastructures will be built. Before proceeding with the construction and/or implementation of the identified infrastructures, many preliminary decisions need to be taken with respect to issues such as the identification of funders, the financial plan for sustainability, the governance by involved stakeholders, the site and legal form of the managing organisation (and of the research infrastructure, if different), the architecture and the service policies. The aim of this activity is to provide catalytic and leveraging support for the preparatory phase of ESFRI projects, and to new initiatives in areas of high strategic potential, leading to the construction of new research infrastructures or major upgrades of existing ones.

All proposals:

• A landscape of first-class sustainable RIs and services, open to researchers, industry, and other interested groups such as policy makers and the public, is progressively established, which will impact on the acceleration of scientific discovery as well as on innovation and competitiveness.
• The technical work carried out under this topic will contribute to strengthening the technological development capacity and effectiveness as well as the scientific performance, efficiency and attractiveness of the European Research Area.
• Synergies and complementarity between the new and existing research infrastructures are developed, thus contributing to the development of a consistent European research infrastructures ecosystem.

(a) Preparatory Phase (Coordination and Support actions)

• The decision making processes leading to the construction and/or implementation of the research infrastructures iden