On 10 March 2016, the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) launched its 2016 roadmap on Research Infrastructures in the framework of the Dutch Presidency of the European Union.

The ESFRI roadmap identifies pan-European Research Infrastructures (RIs) which are consistent with the long term needs of research in Europe in all scientific areas. It features 29 ESFRI Landmarks, which have already been implemented.

CESSDA is one of the five ESFRI Landmarks in the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) RIs which had already been identified on the previous three roadmaps (2006, 2008 and 2012). By the time that the 2016 ESFRI Roadmap was published, all of these RIs had become legal entities, a status which CESSDA acquired in 2013.

"In the last ten years since the first roadmap was published, CESSDA has progressed to an ESFRI Landmark. This is a huge success for our data services in the social sciences as it demonstrates their increasing maturity in terms of working together for improving the conditions for research in the highly important field of social and cultural innovation", said Bjørn Henrichsen, Chair of the Board of Directors of CESSDA.

"For the future, the ESFRI Landmarks will require continued support so that they can upgrade to reach an optimal level of operation which is in line with their full potential", he added. "At CESSDA, we are aiming high in terms of the results which we envisage to deliver over the coming years, not least via key European Horizon2020 projects such as CESSDA SaW and SERISS which will both strengthen collaboration and maximise our impact", Henrichsen concluded.

The ESFRI Roadmap 2016 can be downloaded here.

Read the SERISS project press release here.

Read about CESSDA SaW here.

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