Horizon Europe Research Infrastructure - Updates, Information, Tips and Opportunities

To date, €20 M in European funding has been awarded to Ireland-based Public and Private bodies through the Horizon Europe (2021-2027) Research Infrastructure Work Programmes. This research infrastructure funding reflects Ireland’s participation in 30 large-sale international and collaborative initiatives, which traverse a wide breadth of scientific fields. The funding has been awarded through Atlantic Technological University, Teagasc - Agriculture and Food Development Authority, Technological University Dublin, The Marine Institute, Trinity College Dublin, Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork, University College Dublin, University of Galway, University of Limerick, Waterford Institute of Technology, Bird & Bird (Ireland) LLP, F6S Network Ireland Limited, Heanet Ltd., Loughs Agency (FCILC) and Trilateral Research Ltd. Hearty congratulations to all stakeholders involved in these immense projects and indeed the very best of luck on their planned programme implementation.  

As an example of one such project with Irish participation, Tyndall National Institute are the coordinating partner among an international grouping of 14 institutions on the InfraChip (European Research Infrastructure on Semiconductor Chips) project funded through HORIZON-INFRA-2023-SERV-01. Building on existing communities of research infrastructures, namely ASCENT+ in nanoelectronics, EMERGE in sustainable flexible electronics and EnABLES in powering the Internet of Things (IoT), the InfraChip initiative will contribute to the development of cutting-edge technologies by supporting comprehensive multi- and transdisciplinary projects for information technology - communications (ICT).  

The principle goal of InfraChip is to create the first integrated, distributed research infrastructure for the sustainable development of future next-generation semiconductor integrated circuits.  

InfraChip is intended to ensure Europe's capacity to innovate at early and mid-readiness levels and to realise the digital and green transformation of the European Union. The capacity and access afforded through this programme, combined with international expertise and technology networks will attract, incentivise and develop responses to global challenges and ultimately increase Europe’s resilience and competitiveness in semiconductor technologies and applications.  

Another Irish success funded through the same call sees the Marine Institute coordinate the AQUARIUS (Aqua Research Infrastructure Services for the health and protection of our unique oceans, seas, and freshwater ecosystems) programme. AQUARIUS aims to address significant challenges for the long-term sustainability of our unique oceans, seas, and freshwater ecosystems by bringing together various research infrastructures. It will provide 57 different research infrastructure services for researchers and stakeholders interested in marine and freshwater systems. These infrastructures include research vessels, mobile marine observation platforms, aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, satellites, sensors, fixed freshwater and marine observatories and test sites, experimental facilities, and sophisticated data infrastructures.  

AQUARIUS will support the mission to restore our oceans and waters by 2030 and contribute to the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership, the European Green Deal and international climate initiatives.  

For the Work Programme 2023-2024, the research infrastructure programme committee central services are currently preparing an amendment dedicated mainly to the Work Programme part of Missions. This facilitates the amendment of parts of the Work Programme on Research Infrastructures that benefit from updating. The adoption is planned for the first quarter of 2024.  

As we approach a new round of calls within the 2023-2024 work programme, the European Commission will host the Info Day for Horizon Europe’s Research Infrastructures, on November 13 2023 between 8:00 and 13:00 IST. This information session will focus on the 2024 calls of the Work programme 2023-2024, specifically INFRADEV, INFRAEOSC and INFRATECH destinations. It will also offer horizontal information on the submission, evaluation and management of the 2024 Research Infrastructures calls. In addition, the Q&A sessions will give participants the opportunity to ask any remaining questions. You can view the programme and register for the event using this link.  

Additionally, RICH Europe (a Coordination and Support Action built on the experience and achievements of the Research Infrastructures) is organising a Proposal Check Event for Research Infrastructures calls in Q1 2024. Science Foundation Ireland, as National Delegate and National Contact Point for Research Infrastructures are extended partners of RICH Europe. The event offers coordinators and proposers a chance to improve the quality of project proposals based on feedback from experienced external evaluation experts and National Contact Points (NCPs). The initiative and hybrid event aim to transfer useful knowledge and increase proposers' chances for funding. While this opportunity was previously limited to applicants from widening countries, this has now been extended to include all potential applicants, but places are limited. Interested proposers will be asked to first register their Expression of Interest followed by complete proposal submission very soon after. The timing of the initiative will serve to give as much time as possible to proposers to provide the most advanced draft possible in advance of call deadlines.

If selected, proposers will receive qualified feedback from experienced evaluators during the proposal check session. The session will consist of:

Details on this opportunity will soon be made available on the RICH website here. This is a powerful and unique opportunity to gain insight into the evaluation process and indeed should serve to bolster application competitiveness and stakeholders are strongly encouraged to be aware of, attend and apply, where appropriate.    

RICH Europe will also host a virtual webinar focused on transnational and virtual access opportunities on November 28th, details of which will be provided here soon.   

RICH Europe have also provided some very useful briefing material which aims to decode the complex nature of research infrastructure calls, thus simplifying the work programme details for the 2023-2024 calls, details of which can be found here.    

On 14 August 2023, the European Commission adopted its third report on the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) Regulation. Further details can be accessed here.    

Recently, ESFRI adopted a Report on Energy and Supply Challenges that Research Infrastructures (RIs) are facing. ESFRI has established a dedicated drafting group to look into the energy and supply challenges RIs face, as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic aftermath & Russian aggression on Ukraine, leading to high inflation, increased energy costs, and shortages of critical resources in the EU, also responding to a call by the Competitiveness Council to do so.  

The main responses to these challenges are:

For further information click here.    

Finally, potential applicants to Horizon Europe Research Infrastructure calls are also reminded of Enterprise Ireland Horizon Europe Coordinator and Travel Support schemes, which are open to researchers employed in higher education or publicly funded institutions (e.g., Universities, Institutes of Technology and Publicly Funded Research Institutions located in Ireland) only. The aim of both support programmes is to facilitate participation in Horizon Europe. All applicants must notify their Research Office and the relevant National Contact Point before applying to Enterprise Ireland. Details on both support rolling schemes can be found here.