Euro-BioImaging at the ERIC Forum Annual Meeting in Brussels

Euro-BioImaging was excited to take part in the ERIC Forum Annual Meeting and Satellite Industrial event held this week in Brussels. This event brought together representatives from the 30 ERICs, ESFRI, European Commission and national policy makers to reflect on the progress in the ERIC Forum 2 project and look forward to what is next. On the agenda:  ERICs as strategic assets for the European Research Area, ERICs’ role in a growing landscape of research, technology and digital infrastructures, as well as sharing the project’s advancements and networking and collaboration.

Antje Keppler (Director Euro-BioImaging Bio-Hub), as the current Chair of ERIC Forum welcomed the 30 ERIC Directors and their staff to the meeting and kept the discussions on target, exploring topics such as strategic coordination and governance, financial stability and inclusivity and equitability. 

John Eriksson, Director General, together with members of our team represented Euro-BioImaging ERIC at this event. Johanna Bischof, Head of Bio-Hub operations, participated in a panel discussion on “ERICs as strategic assets in the EOSC Federation.” Ilari Pulli, Head of Operations, presented on WP 6, “ERIC alignment with EU policy priorities and visibility in the national arena,” along with a WP 5 deliverable report regarding aspects of transnational and virtual access across ERICs, identifying challenges, and proposing recommendations for enhancement in the context of the Updated European Charter for Access to RIs. Read Ilari’s thoughts on the updated Charter here.

Satellite event with Industry

Euro-BioImaging team members also contributed to the satellite event “Fast-Tracking Innovation through Strategic Public-Private Collaboration for Research Infrastructures.” This event, organised by WP 9.2 brought together representatives from the European innovation Council and European innovation ecosystem units from DG RTD and aimed to understand RI’s role in the innovation ecosystem, explore strategies to align with industry needs, and identify actionable tools for building sustainable partnerships.

Anne-Charlotte Joubert, Sr. Officer for European Affairs and Stakeholder Engagement at Euro-BioImaging, contributed to the session “The critical role RIs play in the innovation ecosystem and how to leverage this for enhanced collaboration/positioning of RIs within these ecosystems” with a presentation and by serving as a panellist. Claudia Pfander, Strategic Business Developer & Industry Board Coordinator, participated in a panel discussion on “Sharing experiences and best practices from RI and industry for building and maintaining effective partnerships. How RI-EIC collaboration can boost European innovation.”

In addition, it was the occasion for a new ERIC, CTAO ERIC, to join the ERIC Forum family as 29th member. 

For an overview of the event, perfectly organised by BBMRI ERIC, see this article on the ERIC Forum website.

Back-to-back with this event there was also the signing ceremony of a new MoU representing the renewal of the collaboration between Euro-BioImaging and ELIXIR, the European data research infrastructure (full article here).