Advances in Sharing and Managing Knowledge about European Research Infrastructures

Research excellence requires excellent research infrastructures. Given the important role of research infrastructures for scientific discoveries and innovation, the European scientific community and policy makers have expressed their needs for a comprehensive database of research infrastructures in Europe. The European Commission funded MERIL initiative (Mapping of the European Research Infrastructure Landscape), which is coordinated by the European Science Foundation (ESF), aims to achieve an inventory of research infrastructures of European relevance and to make the information publicly available through an interactive online portal, which will be launched during the Autumn 2012. In this paper, we describe the initiative and discuss the driving forces, challenges and solutions for establishing a system which sustainably provides its stakeholders with the desired key information on Research Infrastructure of European relevance.