‘Roadmapping Distributed Research Infrastructures in Europe’ Workshop at SOLARIS, Krakow

Around 30 representatives of a diverse range of research infrastructures gathered at SOLARIS in Krakow, Poland, from 9 – 10 June 2025 for a workshop ahead of the 92^nd European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) and the 3rd ESFRI Stakeholder Forum Meetup.

The meeting, which was co-organised by the European Science Foundation, SOLARIS and Europlanet, covered a broad spectrum of aspects on the role of distributed RIs within the European research landscape, as well as challenges and opportunities for laboratories and facilities in those parts of Europe where currently there are fewer RIs.

A key part of the discussion was a draft White Paper on ‘The role and importance of small to medium-sized Distributed Research Infrastructures (DRI) in sustaining European research competitiveness‘. The comments shared during the workshop and beforehand will help guide a light revision of the white paper, retaining the main argument, but sharpening the focus and to better define the boundaries of the commentary. The current version is already available on the European publication platform Open Research Europe (ORE). The new version will be uploaded before the end of June, with the aim of finalising and publishing the updated paper before the end of the year.

We need to make sure we haven’t dropped the ball on anything Europlanet-commuity related for EPSC (e.g. stand, posters, splinters etc)

Presentations also covered upcoming opportunities within Horizon Europe, evaluation of the impact of RIs, perspectives on widening participation, and a new journal focused on RIs. Participants were given a tour of the SOLARIS facility.

Many thanks to Marcin Sikora, Michal Mlynarczyk, Michał Tyrpuła and Joanna Kowalik for their kind welcome to SOLARIS.