SLICES project approved on the ESFRI European Road Map

2021-07-06

SLICES project approved on the ESFRI European Road Map

After two years of hard work, following a thorough evaluation and selection procedure, ESFRI announced on June 30, 2021 the 11 proposals that have been be included as new Projects in the ESFRI 2021 Roadmap Update.

The ESFRI Executive Board analysed the outcomes of the evaluation of the 18 proposals submitted for the Roadmap 2021 inclusion, carried out by the relevant Strategy Working Groups and by the Implementation Group. The selected projects have been scored high for their science case and maturity for implementation.

The press release confirmed that the total investment costs in 11 new Projects will reach EUR 4.164 million , while in the 2018 ESFRI Roadmap it was EUR 674 million. This is by far the highest value of new RI investment plans since the first Roadmap in 2006. There is a new level of ambition to develop globally unique, complex facilities for frontier science: Einstein Telescope – highest value project ever on the Roadmap – EUR 1.900 million, and EuPRAXIA – innovative accelerator based on plasma technology – EUR 569 million.

The SLICES initiative, which was approved on the Road Map, is a response to the demand for research infrastructure in the field of information and telecommunications technologies. Both the rapid development of Big Data technology and artificial intelligence, as well as the first implementations of the 5G network in the Member States, and, consequently, the following new applications using advanced control and data transmission mechanisms result in great demand for a digital infrastructure with adapted and properly selected tools to test and develop products intended for the digital society. The main goal of the project is to conduct research on the detailed conceptual and technical design of the new research infrastructure.