Commission awards legal status to four research infrastructures

The European Commission has awarded the ‘European Research Infrastructure Consortium status’ (ERIC status) to four consortia in the fields of health and social sciences research. The decision simplifies their management procedures and allows for further advancement of their research.

Although member states remain the main contributors to the setting up and operation of these transnational bodies, up to €37.5m has been provided in support of the preparation of those four facilities under FP7. Further financial support is expected under Horizon 2020 to assist with the implementation and operation of these and other world class research infrastructures. Research infrastructures had a budget of €1.7bn under FP7 and this figure will increase to €2.4bn in Horizon 2020.

The nominated ERIC infrastructures are ‘The European Clinical Research Infrastructures Network’ (ECRIN), the pan-European ‘Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure’ (BBMRI), ‘European Social Survey’ (ESS) and ‘The European Advanced Translational Research Infrastructure in Medicine’ (EATRIS).

ECRIN is designed to provide a European not-for-profit platform to support the academic research community, while BBMRI improves the accessibility and interoperability of the existing comprehensive collections of biological samples from different populations of Europe. These include data on factors such as health status, nutrition, lifestyle, and environmental exposure of the study subjects.

ESS measures changes in public attitudes and behaviour patterns both over time and across nations. Based on interviews across 36 countries, the online database of this infrastructure reflects how Europeans view their environment and how their values and perceptions are changing.

EATRIS will help by turning biomedical research into useful therapies, accelerating the development process for drugs and diagnostics with an unmet medical need and raising the quality of life for Europeans.