Research Infrastructures (RIs) and their services are essential for scientific progress in the European Union and beyond. Together with Core Facilities (CFs) - which exist in many universities and scientific research centres- RIs are a prerequisite for excellence in science, for the establishment of Open Science as well as Open Innovation strategies and an important factor for the development of initiatives, practices, common facilities, guidelines and standards. This requires highly qualified personnel. But what competences and skills are really in focus when we talk about “highly qualified”? Which soft and hard skills are needed to successfully manage RIs and CFs? What are the challenges that such personal faces on a daily basis?

These are the questions that AUSSDA researchers are addressing as part of the RI:TRAIN plus project.

The first part of the study includes expert interviews with current managers of RIs and CFs. This allows us to generate in-depth knowledge and understanding of tasks and challenges and to learn about the necessary skillset.

Based on this, during a second step we will conduct a survey among the staff of European RIs and CFs from all scientific fields. Accordingly, we will collect information on core aspects of typical work in RIs and CFs in different fields, the soft and hard skills required, and the positioning of the organizations in the research landscape.

Using this data as our foundation, we will determine which areas of RIs and CFs currently experience a need for further training and which competences may be necessary in the future. The findings will flow into further project phases of RI:TRAIN plus, which are concerned with establishing a pan-European curriculum for research infrastructure management and further networking existing RIs and CFs.

Dimitri Prandner is the responsible administrator of the project.