an-European research infrastructures (RIs) have been labelled a ‘pillar’ of the European Research Area initiative and ‘engines’ which are expected to drive forward the European Union (EU) economy by advancing its science and technology and ultimately its competitiveness on the global arena. The focus of this article is on the origins and nature of a policy tool named the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC), introduced by the EU in 2008 specifically for the purpose of stimulating and simplifying the set-up and operation of pan-European RIs.The article offers an analysis of ERIC from the perspectives of legal, organisational and science policy studies. The findings demonstrate that enactment of the legal instrument signals the increasing involvement of a supranational body in a traditionally intergovernmental context of science policy. ERIC as a legal framework is characterised by its flexible nature in the sense that members of ERIC enjoy a significant discretion as to, for example, internal structure and financing. The taxonomy of twenty RIs which have to date been set up under ERIC status underlines the all-encompassing nature of the legal tool, which raises a number of further scholarly questions addressed here. (Less)

中文翻译：

---

谁是埃里克？欧洲合作研究基础设施治理工具的政治和法理学

欧洲研究基础设施 (RI) 被称为欧洲研究区倡议的“支柱”和“引擎”，有望通过推进其科学和技术并最终提高其在欧洲的竞争力来推动欧盟 (EU) 经济发展。全球舞台。本文的重点是欧洲研究基础设施联盟 (ERIC) 政策工具的起源和性质，该政策工具由欧盟于 2008 年推出，专门用于刺激和简化泛欧 RI 的设立和运营.本文从法律、组织和科学政策研究的角度对 ERIC 进行了分析。调查结果表明，法律文书的颁布标志着一个超国家机构越来越多地参与到传统的政府间科学政策环境中。ERIC 作为一个法律框架的特点是它的灵活性，因为 ERIC 的成员在内部结构和融资等方面享有很大的自由裁量权。迄今为止已在 ERIC 地位下建立的 20 个 RI 的分类强调了法律工具的无所不包的性质，这引发了许多进一步的学术问题。（较少的）