Final Report Summary - I3 FORUM (Forum for Integrated Infrastructures Initiatives) The I3 FORUM was a forum open to all of the Integrated Infrastructure Initiatives (I3), and infrastructure related Coordination Actions (CA) funded by the 'Research Infrastructures' Action of the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6). Between them these I3 and CA represent most of the large research infrastructures in the European Research Area (ERA), with an enormous combined research capability and capacity which is of considerable importance for Europe's future prosperity. The unanimous conclusion of I3 coordinators within the I3 FORUM has been that, although requiring considerable effort to set up and coordinate, the I3 projects in FP6 had been highly successful. The long term coherent strategy of the European Commission (EC) through earlier Framework Programmes, starting from individual Research and technological development (RTD) and access projects, networking these through round tables and eventually integrating them through the I3, had paid off. Such a degree of approval for any funding programme is extremely rare. The rather abrupt change in this strategy for the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), with emphasis markedly shifting to new infrastructures and the ESFRI process, therefore caused some bewilderment. Networking of projects that span almost the entire range of science, from particle physics to mouse mutant collections, has been mutually beneficial in terms of general education as well as project management. The fact that these diverse projects started to view themselves as collaborators with common purpose, rather than competitors for the same funding stream, has been particularly edifying. To maintain this, and to reproduce it amongst other groupings of researchers or research managers, must surely be a prerequisite for the success of the ERA. Related documents Final Report - I3 FORUM (Forum for Integrated Infrastructures Initiatives)
