The European Commission has adopted a new charter aimed at making it faster and easier for companies to use Europe’s world-class research and innovation facilities.
The new Charter of Access for Industrial Users to Research and Technology Infrastructures is designed to help businesses, especially startups, scale-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises, gain better access to advanced laboratories, pilot lines, testing environments and large scientific instruments.
“Innovative companies in Europe need cutting-edge infrastructures to develop and test ideas and bring their innovations to the market more quickly”, said the Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation Ekaterina Zaharieva: “This new guidance, presented in the form of a Charter, is seeking to reinforce Europe’s research and technology infrastructures by creating better access conditions and tailored services for companies. This accelerates innovation and strengthens Europe’s competitiveness. I invite research and technology infrastructures to endorse the Charter and champion its principles.”
By improving access to these services, the EU executive believes the new guidelines will help companies develop, test and validate new technologies, products and services more efficiently, enabling them to reach the market more quickly. This is expected to strengthen Europe’s innovation capacity and competitiveness, in line with the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy.
The guidelines set out six key principles for research and technology infrastructures to endorse on a voluntary basis. These principles focus on increasing the visibility and availability of services, ensuring transparency and quality, simplifying contracts and agreements, promoting safe intellectual property management, providing tailored support to companies, and fostering cooperation between infrastructures, including access to data.
The initiative also aims to make Europe a more attractive place for innovators to develop and commercialise breakthrough technologies. By encouraging more visible, accessible and business-friendly services, the Commission hopes to reinforce Europe as a leading destination for industrial innovation.
Research and technology infrastructures are invited to endorse the Charter here and join the many leading research and innovation organisations already committed to its principles.To support implementation, the Commission has launched an outreach campaign that includes webinars, events and an open repository of good practices. Organisations are also encouraged to share examples of successful approaches through the dedicated website.
Charter of Access for Industrial Users to Research and Technology Infrastructures
European Strategy on Research and Technology Infrastructures
