EUROPEAN FUTURE INNOVATION SYSTEM CENTRE

Their core work

EFIS Centre specializes in mapping, cataloguing, and assessing European research infrastructures and e-infrastructure services. They build platforms and tools that help researchers discover available services, and they develop methods to measure the socio-economic impact of public investment in research infrastructures. They also managed a major cascade funding programme (NGI_TRUST) distributing over €6M to third parties working on privacy and trust technologies for the Next Generation Internet.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

EFIS Centre started in 2016-2017 with a focus on building service catalogues and defining KPIs for European e-infrastructures (eInfraCentral, ONLINE-S3). By 2018-2019, their work shifted toward measuring the broader socio-economic impact of research infrastructures (RI Impact Pathways) and contributing to the European Open Science Cloud ecosystem (CatRIS, EOSC Enhance). This evolution shows a move from technical cataloguing toward policy-relevant impact assessment and ecosystem integration.

EFIS is moving from building catalogues toward becoming an authority on how to measure and demonstrate the value of research infrastructure investments — a growing priority as EU funders demand evidence of impact.

How they like to work

EFIS Centre balances leadership and partnership equally, coordinating 3 projects and participating in 3 others. With 49 unique partners across 16 countries, they operate as a well-connected hub in the research infrastructure policy space. Their consortium sizes and diverse partner base suggest they are comfortable both leading coordination-heavy projects and contributing specialist expertise to larger initiatives.

EFIS has built a network of 49 partners across 16 European countries, reflecting broad reach within the research infrastructure and e-infrastructure community. Their partnerships span research councils, infrastructure operators, and policy organizations rather than being concentrated in any single country cluster.

What sets them apart

EFIS Centre sits at the intersection of research infrastructure operations and policy analysis — they don't just build catalogues, they develop the frameworks for assessing whether infrastructure investments are worth it. This dual capability (technical platform building plus impact methodology) makes them a rare partner for projects that need both a working tool and a credible assessment framework. Their experience managing cascade funding (NGI_TRUST, €6M+) also positions them as a trusted intermediary for distributing EU innovation funding to third parties.

Highlights from their portfolio

• eInfraCentral
  EFIS-coordinated project that built the European E-Infrastructure Services Gateway, establishing them as architects of the service discovery ecosystem.
• RI Impact Pathways
  Developed pilot methodologies to chart socio-economic impact of research infrastructure investments — directly relevant to EU policy on justifying infrastructure spending.
• NGI_TRUST
  By far their largest project (€6.1M, 78% of total funding) — a cascade funding instrument where EFIS coordinated as lead, distributing grants for privacy and trust innovation under the Next Generation Internet initiative.