On January 28–29, representatives from the ERICs, policymakers, and invited stakeholders convened for the ERIC Forum Annual Meeting 2025. This two-day event reviewed the progress of the ERIC Forum 2 project, included the General Assembly, and featured key roundtable discussions with representatives from the European Commission, the EU Council Working party on Research, ESFRI and the EOSC Association.
Over 100 participants gathered at the Club University Foundation in Brussels to take part in the ERIC Forum Annual Meeting 2025. This strong turnout reflects both the ERIC community’s engagement with the Forum and the significant progress of the ERIC Forum 2 project to address topics and tackle challenges of interest of most ERICs, which is now fully underway.
Project Updates
The first afternoon of the meeting was dedicated to the progress update of the ERIC Forum 2 project. Twelve ERICs, representing different Work Packages, presented updates on the activities carried out over the past 18 months, and outlined the planned initiatives for the next phase of the project.
Two key themes emerged across the presentations:
- Enhancing the Engagement with Stakeholders – Strengthening the visibility and impact of ERICs within their broader stakeholder network.
- Improving the implementation of the ERIC Regulation and Internal Capabilities – Addressing regulatory challenges and supporting ERIC personnel upskilling.
Enhancing the Engagement with Stakeholders
The project has so far advanced two major initiatives in this direction. The first is the development of a future reporting platform that will serve as a centralized virtual repository for documents and data that provide a more comprehensive overview of the ERIC community (Work Package 1 and 2) to their key stakeholders. On behalf of the project, ICOS-ERIC has published a call for proposals dedicated to designing the platform.
The second is a strategic stakeholder engagement plan, which includes mapping exercises (Work Package 14) and the development of a roadmap of concrete actions for engaging stakeholders in advancing the integration of Research Infrastructures (RIs) across all Horizon Europe Pillars and promote ERICs contribution to the European Research Area (Work Package 4).
Visibility and engagement were also two key topics of Work Package 6 that, in the coming months, will focus on highlighting ERICs’ role in addressing societal challenges, fostering innovation, and securing strategic alignment with European funding and policy initiatives.
Strengthening ERIC Regulation and Internal Capabilities
The ERIC Forum advances the implementation of the ERIC Regulation through projects like ERIC Forum 2, which funds crucial thematic analyses on the major challenges and opportunities. Through Work Package 12, the project has produced key documents including Deliverable 12.1, which examines ERIC Regulation implementation and VAT exemption challenges, and contributed as an expert to the EC review of the ERIC Practical Guidelines. Work Package 5 is preparing D5.1, an upcoming policy paper on the sustainability of ERICs’ services and operations, including commercial activities, and has contributed to the EC revision of the European Charter for Access to Research Infrastructures.
During these 18 months, ERICs have also committed to promoting workshops and online seminars on central themes such as internationalization and gender equality (Work Package 7 and 9). They have additionally worked on analyzing employment contract practices, aiming to identify key issues in developing attractive careers for researchers and personnel in ERICs (Work Package 11).
Future efforts will focus on developing recommendations for the green and digital transition of ERICs (Work Package 8) and creating a strategy and repository for shared services and knowledge among ERICs (Work Packages 10 and 13).
Discussions on the Future of ERICs
In addition to the project updates, the meeting offered ERICs the opportunity to engage in discussions with representatives from the European Commission—specifically DG Research & Innovation and DG Connect—as well as the EU Council Working Party on Research, ESFRI and EOSC Association. Three dedicated panels focused on the role of ERICs within the European research infrastructure landscape and their contributions to the EOSC Federation.
With the growing number of RIs, including ERICs, EDICs, international organizations, and the emerging technology infrastructures, the panels explored how Europe can ensure better coordination while maintaining the unique strengths of each infrastructure type.
This also raised the issue of financial sustainability in the face of growing demands and limited public funding. Participants discussed potential innovative financing models, such as private-sector involvement, co-funding mechanisms, and strategic funding allocation to ensure long-term sustainability.
Finally, among of the topics addressed by the panels, there was also how to create a more balanced and inclusive European Research Area. The discussions emphasized building research capacity and making RIs more accessible across all Member States, with the aim of reducing existing disparities in research capabilities and access to resources.
Memoranda of Understanding, General Assembly and Satellite Event
The Annual Meeting 2025 also featured the ERIC Forum General Assembly and the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding by CTAO Director General, Stuart McMuldroch, officially welcoming CTAO as the Forum’s 29th member.
The event was therefore an opportunity to strengthen relationships with both newly formed ERICs (among these, for example, is EHRI, not yet officially a member of the forum) and ERICs-to-be that are still in the process of being officially recognized as part of the Forum family.
Lastly, a satellite event, organised by Work Package 9 of the project, highlighted the need for ERICs to strengthen collaboration with Industry, exploring possible models of cooperation from both policy and operational perspective.
Towards the future
“BBMRI is glad to see the growing interest in the ERIC community and amongst ERICs-to-be, to take part in the event.” said Jana Pavlic-Zupanc (BBMRI, ERIC Forum 2 Project Coordination). “With its two-fold focus on the developments in the project and in the policy arena, it enables an open discussion on topics that concern many of us, ERICs, no matter the cluster we are in. For the future, I am certain that will continue tackling the challenges, as addressed in the project, with joint commitment.”