The Roadmap 2016 of the European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI)

Ten years after the first ESFRI Roadmap, and six years after the last update, the ESFRI strategy on Research Infrastructures (RIs) has been refined and substantially adapted to the new situation. An extended Landscape Analysis covering all the existing research infrastructures available as open-access facilities to the European and international scientists in all fields, covering international, national, regional, or institutional undertakings, sets the reference frame. The analysis of the lifecycle of the RIs has been sketched providing guidelines for understanding the cost profile in time and the benefits deriving from operating RIs both for the optimization of investment in science and for the direct and indirect impact on innovation, culture, and society. Embedded in the Roadmap 2016 are both the in-itinere evaluation of the existing ESFRI Projects and the ex-ante evaluation of the novel proposals that were selected as new entries.