European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC)

SUMMARY OF:

Regulation (EC) No 723/2009 – rules for creating a European Research Infrastructure Consortium

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE REGULATION?

It aims to facilitate the setting up and operation of research infrastructures of European interest among several European Union (EU) Member States and associated countries* by providing a new legal instrument under EU law: the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC).
The ERIC legal framework may be used for new or existing single-sited or distributed research infrastructures.

KEY POINTS

An ERIC is a legal entity set up by a European Commission decision. It has legal personality and full legal capacity recognised in all Member States. The basic internal structure of an ERIC is flexible and defined in its statutes by its members.
Its members (Member States and, under certain conditions, associated countries, other non-EU countries and intergovernmental organisations) negotiate and agree on the content of the statutes of the ERIC and its annexes in accordance with the regulation.
The liability of the ERIC members can be limited to their respective contributions.
An ERIC is recognised, by the country hosting it, as an international body or an organisation for the purposes of Directive 2006/112/EC on value added tax and Directive 2020/262 on excise duties. An ERIC may therefore, under certain limits and conditions, benefit from exemptions from these on its purchases in all Member States.
An ERIC qualifies as an international organisation for the purposes of the EU’s public procurement rules. An ERIC may adopt its own procurement rules.
The activities of the ERIC are, in principle, non-profit-making. However, an ERIC may carry out some limited economic activities, as long as they are closely related to its principal task and do not impede the main aim of the research infrastructure.
The ERIC must have its statutory seat located on the territory of a member, which must be a Member State or an associated country to the EU framework programme for research and innovation. Its name must include the initialism ‘ERIC’.
To set up an ERIC, a minimum number of members is necessary. The minimum configuration is at least one Member State and two other countries, which are either Member States or associated countries. Other members can join later depending on the conditions specified in the statutes, in line with the requirements under the ERIC regulation.
To set up an ERIC, the following requirements must be met:
- it is necessary for carrying out European research activities;
- it represents a significant improvement in the scientific and technological fields at the European and international levels;
- it grants effective access to the European research community;
- it contributes to the mobility of researchers and knowledge-sharing within the European research area;
- it contributes to disseminating and optimising the results of research, technological and demonstration activities.
Applications to set up an ERIC must be submitted to the Commission for assessment. They must include:
- a request to set up the ERIC;
- the proposed statutes, containing at least the following elements: a list of members, statutory seat, name of the ERIC, rights and obligations of the members, bodies of the ERIC with their responsibilities and the manner in which they are constituted and in which they make decisions, duration of the ERIC, basic principles, identification of the working language, references to rules implementing the statutes;
- a technical and scientific description;
- a declaration by the host country recognising the ERIC as an international body within the meaning of the directives on value added tax and excise duties.
Setting up an ERIC involves two steps.
- Step 1: verification of compliance with the requirements laid down in the ERIC regulation. The Commission must assess the application with the help of independent experts and provide feedback to the applicant.
- Step 2: a formal request to the Commission to set up the ERIC signed by all the applicants. Based on this, the Commission seeks the opinion of the Committee for the implementation of the ERIC regulation and prepares its decision, which is then notified to the applicants and published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Regulation (EU) No 723/2009 was amended by Regulation (EU) No 1261/2013 to facilitate the participation of associated countries, whose contributions can be fully reflected in terms of membership and voting rights.
Unlike joint technology initiative joint undertakings, of which the EU is systematically a member, the EU is not necessarily a member of an ERIC.

List of ERICs:

ACTRIS ERIC – The Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure
AnaEE-ERIC – Analysis and Experimentation on Ecosystems
BBMRI-ERIC – Biobanks and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure Consortium
CERIC-ERIC – Central European Research Infrastructure Consortium
CESSDA-ERIC – Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives
CLARIN-ERIC – Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure
DARIAH-ERIC – Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities
EATRIS-ERIC – European Advanced Translational Research Infrastructure in Medicine
ECCSEL-ERIC – European Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage Laboratory
ECRIN-ERIC – European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network
ELI-ERIC – Extreme Light Infrastructure
EMBRC-ERIC – European Marine Biological Resource Centre
EMSO-ERIC – European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and Water Column Observatory
EPOS-ERIC – European Plate Observing System
ESS-ERIC – European Social Survey
EU-OPENSCREEN-ERIC – European Infrastructure of Open Screening Platforms for Chemical Biology
EU-SOLARIS ERIC – European Solar Research Infrastructure for Concentrated Solar Power
Euro-Argo ERIC – Euro-Argo Research Infrastructure
Euro-BioImaging ERIC – Imaging Technologies in Biological and Biomedical Sciences
European Spallation Source ERIC – European Spallation Source
ICOS-ERIC – Integrated Carbon Observation System
Instruct-ERIC – Integrated Structural Biology
JIV-ERIC – Joint Institute for Very Long Baseline Interferometry
LifeWatch ERIC – e-Science and Technology European Infrastructure for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research
MIRRI-ERIC – Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure
SHARE-ERIC – Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe.

FROM WHEN DOES THE REGULATION APPLY?

It has applied since 28 August 2009.

BACKGROUND

This regulation is one of the strategic initiatives following the Green Paper on the European research area of 4 April 2007. This initiative contributes to the implementation of the ‘Research infrastructures’ section of the 7th framework programme (2007–2013) and Horizon 2020 (2014–2020) – succeeded by the 9th multiannual framework programme for research and innovation, Horizon Europe.
The establishment of an ERIC brings advantages to the development of the European research area since it addresses bottlenecks, such as fragmentation and regionalisation, in the rules for establishing, financing and operating this class of research infrastructure.
To date, 26 ERICs have been established.
For further information, see:
- European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) (European Commission)
- ERIC practical guidelines (European Commission).

KEY TERMS

Associated country. A non-EU country that is party to an international agreement with the EU, under the terms or on the basis of which it makes a financial contribution to all or part of the EU research, technological development and demonstration programmes.

MAIN DOCUMENT

Council Regulation (EC) No 723/2009 of 25 June 2009 on the Community legal framework for a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) (OJ L 206, 8.8.2009, pp. 1–8).

Successive amendments to Regulation (EC) No 723/2009 have been incorporated into the original document. This consolidated version is of documentary value only.