Online Participation: Open and Shared European Research Infrastructures: The Accelerator Role of Alliances of European Universities

We are pleased to inform you that registration is now open for online participation in the FOREU4ALL Workshop 4, “Open and Shared European Research Infrastructures: The Accelerator Role of Alliances of European Universities”, which will take place in Poitiers on 28–29 October 2026.

Please note that all sessions indicated in the programme will be accessible remotely.

The workshop is open to anyone interested in the topic, and we warmly encourage you to share this opportunity within your alliance and networks.

Registration period: from 31 August to 16 October 2026, 23:59 CET

Registration link: FOREU4ALL Workshop 4 - Registration form for online participation

The connection link for online participation will be sent to registered participants on 20 October 2026.

Labs, instruments, databases, collections... Research infrastructures are essential drivers of scientific progress, yet they remain costly to build and maintain, and are often confined to a single institution. Across Europe, University Alliances have a unique opportunity to change this, by pooling resources, opening access, and building shared models that benefit the wider research community.

To explore how this can be achieved, the FOREU4ALL Topical Group on Research & Innovation established the "Sharing of Research Infrastructures (ResInfra)" sub-group, dedicated to co-developing policies and models for sustainable, legally sound, and digitally enabled open and shared research infrastructures across Alliances. During the first semester of 2026, the sub-group conducted a large-scale mapping of infrastructure-sharing practices across 65+ European University Alliances, covering governance, funding, legal frameworks, digital tools, data management, pricing, and more.

This two-day workshop will present the first results of this mapping and bring together a diverse group of stakeholders - alliance coordinators and research infrastructure managers, IT and library experts, open science specialists, early-career and senior researchers, industry representatives, and European Commission officials - to analyse these findings together, identify remaining challenges, and co-design concrete recommendations for alliances, universities, and European policymakers.

Additional information about the workshop is available here: On 28-29 October 2026, join the FOREU4ALL Community of Practice Workshop n°4 in Poitiers - EC2U