Leaders come to Imperial to discuss the future of Europe’s research facilities

Realising and Managing International Research Infrastructures (RAMIRI) symposium held at Imperial this week - News

Wednesday 14 July 2009
By Colin Smith

Some of the world’s leading scientists and policy makers are visiting Imperial College London this week to take part in a symposium, which will help to map out the future for major research facilities in Europe.

The three day Realising and Managing International Research Infrastructures (RAMIRI) symposium brings policymakers, scientists and funders together to push forward the development of the next generation of large-scale research facilities in Europe.

 

Major research facilities such as CERN, which will recreate conditions similar to those that existed in the earliest instants of the universe, require years of financial, legal, and political planning in order for them to be built. Delegates will be exploring ways in which this process can be streamlined and improved so that new research facilities can be constructed more efficiently. This will enable European researchers to remain competitive with countries such as the USA and emerging giants such as China and India.

At the symposium, experts from around the world will talk candidly about their experiences, good and bad, in setting up and managing a variety of European research facilities both physical and virtual from across the spectrum of the natural and social sciences.

A further two conferences will be held in Grenoble, France, and Hamburg, Germany, later this year to get further input from European researchers. At the end of the process, RAMIRI organisers will develop a policy document, which outlines the best possible approaches for developing future projects in Europe. This will be submitted to the European Commission for use in future policy decisions concerning research facilities.

The RAMIRI initiative is led by Imperial in collaboration with the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Institut Laue-Langevin, Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste, Stiftung Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron and the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.

Watch the video above to hear Professor John Wood, Chair of the RAMIRI consortium board, and Professor Sir Peter Knight, Senior Principal of Imperial, welcoming delegates and discussing the importance of the symposium for Imperial and the future of European research.