15 / 04 / 2019


EC – DG RTD published a SWD on Technology Infrastructures

On 8 April 2019 the European Commission – Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) published a Staff Working Document (SWD) on technology infrastructures. Technology infrastructures require high investment both in the set-up and in the keeping up with the state-of-the-art, relying upon a mix of private and public (national and EU) funding. EARTO very much welcomes this EC effort to highlight such important topic. EARTO members have been very much involved to provide input for this report, including in the various workshops organised by the EC.   EU’s current technology infrastructure landscape shows that there are large regional differences in terms of the availability of technology infrastructure support, fragmentation, risk of duplication of activities, transnational accessibility, as well as a lack of mechanisms to answer industry needs. The key four challenges identified by EC are about prioritisation, visibility, accessibility and networking of technolgy infrastructures. According to EC’s analysis, through various funding programmes e.g. Horizon2020 and the European Regional Development Fund, there is a critical momentum for the EU together with Member States to be more ambitious, exploring with relevant national and regional stakeholders a shared vision and jointly developing a European strategy for technology infrastructures to support industry scale-up and technology diffusion across Europe.   EC’s Staff Working Document