MUR International Project CERIC–ERIC (Central European Research Infrastructure Consortium)

CERIC-ERIC is a distributed research infrastructure, upon the definition by the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), set up in the legal form of an ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium, Council Regulation n.723/2009). It is a European Consortium whose members are the Governments of 8 European Countries: Italy, Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovenia. At present, an additional Country, Serbia, participates as Observer, pending its formal entry. CERIC-ERIC operates in the wide field of research in the analysis and synthesis, at the nanometric range, of materials and biomaterials, including links with structural biolology. The European legal form ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium, Council Regulation n.723/2009) represents an ad-hoc conception for international organizations in order to facilitate the joint creation and operation of research infrastructures of European interest.

Members and Organizations involved

Every member country of CERIC-ERIC appoints a Representing Entity, having the capability to ensure the ordinary activity of a Partner Facility.

Besides Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste for Italy, at present the following instruments and laboratories are made available:

• Austria: SAXS beamline at Elettra, Scattering facilities of the Technical University of Graz;
• Croatia: Ruđer Bošković Institute;
• Czech Republic: Material Science beamline at Elettra, Surface Science group at the Charles University in Prague;
• Hungary: Budapest Neutron Centre;
• Poland: Jagellonian University with the SOLARIS synchrotron in Krakow;
• Romania: National Institute of Materials Physics (NIMP);
• Slovenia: Slovenian NMR Centre.

The various Representing Entities provide concrete involvement (directly or through their Partner Facilities) by making available their infrastructures; the motivation relies on the expected growth in quality and effectiveness of the related investments.

Strategic objectives

The vision of CERIC-ERIC consists in offering a framework of multidisciplinary and multinational research within the European Research Area, open, based on competition, to scientists from all over the world, in order to favour excellence, innovation and integration at the European level.

Life science and material science require the capability to analyze and characterize the same material with complementary instruments and techniques as well as to handle several aspects of the synthesis and preparation of the samples themselves. The main objectives of CERIC-ERIC are: a) supplying, in an integrated fashion and on the international scale, open access to research infrastructures and data banks of recognized excellence; b) supporting the best projects devoted to nanometer level analysis and material/biomaterial synthesis, aimed at producing fundamental knowledge as well as favouring the technology transfer; c) favouring the interdisciplinary and international training and the mobility of scientists, technicians and managers; d) accelerating the reduction of the scientific-technological gap between the eastern and western regions of the European Research Area.