The RI WG held its tenth meeting on October 24, 2022. The core of the discussion focused on the outcomes of the ICRI 2022 and EU-LAC ResInfra conferences. In total, 27 delegates and participants from the EU and LAC joined the meeting.

In this meeting, a proposal of next topics for the WG was presented that was based on its previous activities, the EU-CELAC Strategic Roadmap for R&I, and the broader topics presented during the ICRI conference. Following the discussion, it was agreed to use a modified version of this proposal to prepare the work plan for the upcoming years. With this agreement, the proposal will be put into action. Several WG delegates had joined the ICRI and ResInfra conferences and shared their impressions during the WG meeting. Different levels of maturity among the RIs and the need to improve the understanding of RIs in public policy were among the few examples shared. Likewise, the bottom-up activity of the RIs should be complemented with proper top-down coordination and alignment with broader regional priorities.

Another takeaway from the discussion was the difference among the RIs in terms of their work and engagement, ranging from well-established, strong RIs with a lot of connections to less active RIs who do not take part in the process. More open and global RIs could be an answer to this disparity. As for practical suggestions for future conferences, shorter sessions with more time for structured networking among the participants were suggested.

During the meeting, a brief summary of previous discussions was presented, as the mechanism that has established the RI WG, the EU-CELAC JIRI in its latest meeting of senior officials (October 2020) called on the WG to develop its activities taking into account open access to data. RIs, as major generators and managers of research data, are key actors in open access policies and implementation.

In addition, the new Global Service Facility (GSF) was introduced, which will provide assistance to the WG, its meetings, and its activities. This will be a continuation of the assistance provided by the same support team in the past. The GSF will help organise the WG meetings, prepare and facilitate the discussions of the WG (taking into account the selected priority areas), prepare specific actions with RIs themselves (a continuation of the previously used study visit concept), and provide general advisory and secretarial support.

In terms of WG meetings, thanks to this additional assistance, it will now be possible to resume in-person meetings. We will thus move to a hybrid mode, with one physical and one remote meeting per year. The location of physical meetings should alternate between the EU and LAC.