News

CERIC and Rathenau Institute at the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport in Slovenia to discuss the socio-economic impact of CERIC

In the frame of the H2020 ACCELERATE project, CERIC and the Rathenau Institute have developed a methodology for the societal impact assessment of Research Infrastructures (RIs), which is an important element of their long-term sustainability.
The methodology is shaped in a way that effectively fits the scale, scope and field of the RI. Moreover, it is jointly defined and decided-upon with the RIs’ stakeholders, since the impact relates to all parties.

Feedback from CERIC’s Member Countries is crucial for assessing impact, and for this reason, a first meeting was scheduled with the Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport in Ljubljana, on 6 March, 2019.

The meeting was attended by representatives from the Ministry, from CERIC and the Slovenian Partner Facility – SloNMR, and from the Rathenau Institute.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the main added values and impacts of CERIC on EU and Slovenia, to discuss the future expectations.

The major outcomes of the meeting were:

• Throughout the 5 years of operations, CERIC fostered an increased the international integration and visibility of Slovenia into the European Research Area (ERA)
• CERIC contributes to reducing the gap between EU 13 and the Western part of the EU, by presenting an attractive model for the use of existing national resources to create an excellent international RI.
• The membership in CERIC helped setting up procedures in Slovenia, that are the basis for the country’s participation in other ERICs and international RIs.
• The Slovenian research community gets access to large-scale facilities in CERIC.
• The continuous efforts of CERIC to shape the legal and administrative basis of the ERIC legal entity helps solving present issues concerning the Slovenian participation in ERICs in general.

In the picture, from left to right:
Karolina Schlegel (Member of CERIC General Assembly), Albin Kralj (Member of CERIC General Assembly), Meta Dobnikar (Secretary Science Division, Ministry of Education, Science and Sport), Tomaz Boh (Director General for Science, Ministry of Education, Science and Sport), Jana Kolar (CERIC Executive Director), Carlo Rizzuto – Chair of CERIC GA, Ornela De Giacomo (CERIC Deputy Director), Janez Plavec (Chair of CERIC’s Board of Directors and Director of the CERIC Slovenian PF), Matthias Girod (Project Officer, CERIC)