Welcome to The Insider, a podcast about the key issues on Research & Innovation made by the INESC Brussels HUB team.

In today’s podcast we bring you our conversation Jana Kolar. Kolar is the current Chair of ESFRI – the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures. ESFRI has just celebrated 20 years and has had a crucial role in promoting a strategic approach across Europe towards selection and funding of research infrastructures. The importance of the contribution of ESFRI for strategic thinking, not just in research infrastructures, but in Research and Innovation more broadly along these last 20 years is often overlooked. But what is the future holding and how is ESFRI addressing it?

Jana is also one of the most engaging and interesting persons to talk to. It is always a huge pleasure to have these conversations and debates with her and you will surely want to hear this one.

We explore the unique path towards the establishment of CERIC, the RI that Jana is the Executive Director of, but also the vision for Jana’s 2-year first mandate in ESFRI as Chair. We went deep into the challenges of rethinking how to properly develop a landscape and gap analysis across knowledge domains, the importance of impact, sustainability and funding synergies, among others. 

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