The ERIC Forum has a new Chair and Vice-Chair

The ERIC Forum convened for its Annual Meeting on 12–13 November 2025 at the Club University Foundation in Brussels. This two-day gathering brought together representatives from European Research Infrastructure Consortia (ERICs), policymakers, and institutional partners to discuss strategic priorities and advance the Forum’s objectives within the European Research Area. A key outcome of the meeting was the election of new Chair and Vice-Chair for the coming term.
 

 
Bonnie Wolff-Boenisch (CESSDA Director) and Eija Juurola (ACTRIS Director General) were unanimously elected by ERIC representatives as Chair and Vice-Chair of the Forum, respectively. The newly elected leadership will guide the Forum’s strategic agenda in the coming term, ensuring continuity in its mission to address common challenges faced by ERICs and strengthen their role in the European research landscape.
 
Policy Dialogue on the Future of Research Funding
 
Among the meeting’s highlights was a high-level panel discussion with key political and institutional stakeholders, focusing on critical topics for research infrastructures in Framework Programme 10 (FP10) following the proposal of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). The panel was chaired by Allen Weeks, General Director of ELI ERIC, and included Jean-David Malo, Acting Director of DG Research and Innovation, José Luis Martinez Peña, Chair of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), and representatives from several ERICs, including Lilli Freda from EPOS-ERIC and Ana Portugal Melo from MIRRI-ERIC. Sergej Možina, Counsellor for Research at the Permanent Representation of Slovenia to the EU and former ERA Forum Co-Chair, also contributed to the discussion.
 
Addressing Implementation and Strategic Challenges
 
The event was also an opportunity to discuss the progress of the ERIC Forum 2 project, which continues to work towards enhancing operational effectiveness and addressing shared challenges among the ERICs.
 
Building on the project’s work, the programme included three dedicated discussion workshops that allowed the ERIC Forum 2 working teams to engage with the broader ERIC community on key operational and strategic issues. Participants examined implementation challenges of the ERIC Regulation in distributed research infrastructures, worked towards identifying and aligning European policy priorities through a collaborative white paper initiative, and provided feedback on the newly developed online platform designed to centralise ERIC data and knowledge. These sessions offered valuable opportunities to gather insights and perspectives from ERICs across different domains.
 

 
Implementation Challenges in Distributed Infrastructures
 
The first workshop, organised by Work Package 13 (WP) in collaboration with WP12, and conducted by Giuseppe Cimo (JIV-ERIC), focused on the challenges that distributed research infrastructures face when implementing the ERIC Regulation. The session aimed to gather information that will feed into Task 13.2’s Deliverable on solutions and recommendations for addressing the specific needs of distributed, multi-site, and single-site ERICs.
 
Building a Shared Policy Voice
 
Led by Task 6.1, the second workshop wanted to explain the path towards an ERIC Forum White Paper on European policy priorities. This collaborative initiative, due in September 2026, will advocate for the recognition of ERICs as strategic instruments in European research and innovation policy, particularly as Framework Programme 10 (FP10) takes shape. The discussion guided by Ilari Pulli (Euro-BioImaging) aimed to identify and align policy priorities of strategic importance for ERICs and their user communities, gathering initial input that will guide the white paper’s scope and key messages. The document will target the European Commission, national representatives, funding agencies, and ministries involved in shaping FP10 and the European Research and Technology Infrastructure Strategy.
 
Developing the ERIC Forum Reporting Platform
 
The third workshop, organised by WP2, presented the newly developed online platform designed to streamline reporting and data sharing across all ERICs by linking external systems such as the ESFRI Monitoring System and European Commission platforms. Using live polling, Werner Kutsch from ICOS collected feedback to ensure the platform’s data fields align with ERICs’ needs.
 

 
The group photo was taken by BBMRI, the coordinator of the ERIC Forum 2 project