What is eLTER’s formal structure?
From an organisational point of view, the eLTER RI will consist of the elements providing the Central Services and the distributed physical network of National Research Infrastructures.
The Head Office and Topic Centres will provide many services to diverse users in a central manner. Head Office is in charge of key coordination and support functions, as well as the operation of eLTER Service Portal. Topic Centres, hosted by individual research organisations or their consortia in member countries, will provide a range of other services, accessible through the central eLTER Service Portal.
As for the formal perimeter of eLTER ERIC, the eLTER Head Office will be owned by the eLTER ERIC while the elements of the distributed physical network will not be owned by the eLTER ERIC. Topic Centres can in principle be owned and operated by the eLTER ERIC or by hosting institutions (final decisions pending by 2025).
eLTER has strong political and scientific support: A total of 21 countries, including EU member states, Israel, and the UK, support the eLTER RI politically, and 19 countries have active delegations in the eLTER Interim Council. Over 165 scientific institutions from 28 countries support eLTER’s scientific agenda as reflected by the eLTER MoU.
The eLTER RI was designed through a series of projects that have resulted in eLTER’s inclusion in the ESFRI Roadmap in 2018. Since 2020, the preparation of the eLTER Research Infrastructure is supported by the concurrent, EU-funded projects eLTER PPP, eLTER PLUS, and eLTER EnRich, which also contribute to parts of the implementation of the eLTER ERIC.
The further implementation will follow a staged approach concerning the central components and the physical network across countries. Starting with at least 12 countries and a robust portfolio of core services, the eLTER ERIC will then continue to grow and proliferate to include more European countries, an ever-more representative network of eLTER Sites and eLTSER Platforms, and a continuously broadening, demand-driven portfolio of services. The “NRI phases” in the graph below refer to the assumption that not all in-situ facilities might comply with the criteria right from the beginning, but the best facilities reach this status already in a first phase etc.
The aim is to establish eLTER ERIC latest by 2026/2027.
The development and implementation of the eLTER ERIC are guided by a number of foundational documents.
Key foundational documents of the eLTER ERIC comprise:
- eLTER’s Strategic Plan, which outlines eLTER’s objectives, raison d'être, and core values.
- eLTER’s RI Governance Plan, which outlines governance during the preparatory phase, the plan to develop eLTER governance towards ERIC governance during implementation phase, and an outline of eLTER ERIC governance during the operational phase.
- eLTER’s Ethical Guidelines, which apply to the entire RI and its members and provide a framework for guiding the RI and all of its research, observation, and administrative activities
- eLTER’s Gender Equality Plan, which is both a declaration of eLTER’s commitment to eliminating gender discrimination within eLTER RI and throughout the broader European and global research communities, and an action plan describing specifically how the resources of the RI will be mobilized to address and mitigate any discrimination in eLTER RI and beyond.
As a distributed Research Infrastructure, eLTER RI requires consistency across all actions, regarding essential aspects such as stakeholder engagement, data management, funding and resources allocation, and performance evaluation. Considering the permanently changing environment of the eLTER RI, the Integrated Governance model must be kept flexible and adaptive.
Developed in an integrative and collaborative process during the eLTER PPP project, eLTER’s Integrated Governance has implemented the following strategic goals:
- Enable a close linkage between the RI and larger scientific community through anchoring networking and science events in the eLTER RI scope
- Integrate a site and platform infrastructure backbone (compliant with all criteria) with a pool of associated sites representing the high potential of eLTER to - inter alia - respond to future research challenges
- Enable a balanced steering of the eLTER RI, where the main organisational/structural elements of LTER with their demands and capabilities are properly reflected and represented
- Achieve a just balance between contributions and benefits.
- The General Assembly as decision-making body of the eLTER ERIC, which is formed by representatives of Members, Observers, and permanent Observers.
- The Director General, in charge of leading the Head Office and Executive Committee.
- The Executive Committee, which consists of the Heads of the eLTER Topic Centres, representatives of the Assembly of National Coordinators, representatives of the Assembly of National Research Infrastructures, and representatives of the eLTER Sites and Platforms Forum. The Executive Committee oversees the coherent progress of the eLTER RI’s technical developments and innovation activities, and advises the Director General and the General Assembly on scientific and organisational matters.
- Several Expert Groups will contribute to advancing scientific collaboration and innovation, and conduct scientific reviews and horizon scanning.
- Advisory bodies according to the eLTER ERIC’s statutes will be the Ethical Advisory Board and the Scientific Advisory Board .