European Research Infrastructure Consortium

A European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) is a full legal entity under European Union law. With a membership of at least one European Union member state and two EU member or associated states, it has legal personality and full legal capacity recognized in all Member States.

The primary objective of an ERIC is to establish and operate, through its Members, a research infrastructure of European importance on a non-economic basis. In order to promote innovation and knowledge and technology transfer, the ERIC should be allowed to carry out some limited economic activities if they are closely related to its principal task and they do not jeopardize its achievement.^[1]

Membership

The members of an ERIC may be Member States, associated countries, third countries other than associated countries and intergovernmental organizations. Further Member or Associated states, third countries or intergovernmental organisations may become members or observers without voting rights.^[2]

Services

ERIC is a meeting point for scientists and researchers across Europe. ERIC consortium is an interchange of knowledge and publications; a hub of the scientific results achieved; a scientific infrastructure shared across national states with resources and technology.^[3] The ERIC consortium provides a network of relations between scientists from various countries, and between scientists and industries in the field of research. In this context, a high-level school funded directly by the European Commission has been set up to train new generations of European Researchers to lead Research Infrastructures and to create a single European scientific community. ^[4]

Legal Framework

The Community legal framework for a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) entered into force on 28 August 2009, with the Council Regulation (EC) n. 723/2009. This specific legal form is designed to facilitate the joint establishment and operation of Research Infrastructures of European interest.

Established ERICs

In chronological order:

2011

• SHARE ERIC - Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe ^[5]

2012

• CLARIN ERIC - Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure ^[6]

2013

• EATRIS ERIC - European Advanced Translational Research Infrastructure in Medicine ^[7]
• ESS ERIC - European Social Survey ^[8]
• BBMRI ERIC - Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure ^[9]
• ECRIN ERIC - European Clinical Research Infrastructures Network ^[10]

2014

• EURO-ARGO ERIC - Global Ocean Monitoring System ^[11]
• CERIC ERIC - Central European Research Infrastructure Consortium ^[12]
• DARIAH ERIC - Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities ^[13]
• JIV ERIC - Joint Institute for VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) ^[14]

2015

• European Spallation Source ERIC ^[15]
• ICOS ERIC - Integrated Carbon Observation System ^[16]

2016

• EMSO ERIC - European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and Water Column Observatory ^[17]

2017

• LIFEWATCH ERIC - e-Science and Technology European Infrastructure for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research ^[18]
• CESSDA ERIC - Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives ^[19]
• ECCSEL ERIC - European Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage Laboratory ^[20]
• INSTRUCT ERIC - Integrated Structural Biology Research Infrastructure ^[21]

2018

• EMBRC ERIC - European Marine Biological Resource Centre ^[22]
• EU-OPENSCREEN ERIC - European Infrastructure of Open Screening Platforms for Chemical Biology ^[23]

References

External links

• EC website