What is a research Infrastructure? Commonalities and differences across science and policy, from mega-science to shared facilities

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the concept of Research Infrastructure (RI) has gained popularity in the research policy literature and in the political discussion about research funding. The emergence of the concept has been promoted by the European Union (EU), while most developed countries have integrated RIs and their funding within their set of research policy instruments. Despite its prominence, the notion of RI remains relatively ambiguous and subject to debate. Frequently, definitions are of operational nature and are driven by the interests of actors to receive funding for their own infrastructure. In our work, we investigate the different meanings of the concept of ‘research infrastructure’ in the scholarly literature and in the political process at the EU and national levels. First, we propose to challenge the presumption that the concept is purely procedural and look into meanings attributed by science and policy actors and what they have in common. Second, we explore differences in meanings across disciplinary communities, and between science and policy. Third, we identify some ideas that seem to constitute the core of the notion of research infrastructure that is widely shared by different scientific communities and by policy, such as the idea of open access, the one of sharing tools for research and the existence of a community of users. Our work will contribute to national and international debates on RIs, by inquiring into commonalities between their different conceptions across disciplines and sectors.