Roadmaps for research infrastructures

On a mandate by the Confederation, SCNAT elaborated a series of thematic roadmaps for research infrastructures together with the scientific communities by 31st March 2021. These community roadmaps serve as basis for the process leading to the Swiss Roadmap for Research Infrastructures 2023 for the ERI Dispatch 2025–2028.

The State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) prepares every four years the Swiss Roadmap for Research Infrastructures. This provides a basis for decision-making on the investment of federal funds in research facilities of national interest. The Roadmap is integrated into the ERI Dispatch, which the Federal Council then submits to Parliament for approval.

On request by the SERI, SCNAT coordinates since 2019 the elaboration of roadmaps by the scientific communities in the following scientific fields:

Biology
Chemistry
Geosciences
Particle physics
Astronomy (in preparation)
Photon Science
Neutron Science

From Round Tables to Roadmaps

The scientists from the various disciplines developed the roadmaps in a bottom-up process moderated by SCNAT. This was organised via disciplinary round tables inspired by the round table that SCNAT established earlier in the Platform Mathematics, Astronomy and Physics (MAP).

The roadmaps offer a vision for the future of the scientific disciplines in Switzerland. They identify research infrastructures that will be of importance in the coming years in order to achieve the goals of Swiss researchers. They shall serve the identification, selection and evaluation of the national and international infrastructures to be included in the Swiss Roadmap for Research Infrastructures 2023 in view of the ERI Dispatch 2025–2028.

Schedule

The process is schematically represented below, where the displayed phase 1 started effectively in winter 2019–2020, whereas phase 2 ended formally on 31 March 2021 with the delivery of the thematic roadmaps. Those will serve in phase 3 until the release of the Swiss Roadmap for Research Infrastructures in early 2023, followed the next year by the decision on the ERI Dispatch 2025–2028.