"The aim of the proposed activity is to support the organisation of the first International Conference on Research Infrastructure (ICRI2012), which will take place in Copenhagen on March 21-23, 2012, under the Danish Presidency of the European Council in collaboration with the European Commission (EC).The conference has its objectives in increasing international collaboration on research infrastructure in order to manage the grand challenges in today’s societies. Research infrastructures play a crucial role for the promotion of knowledge and technology and are of central importance to drive excellent science. Never before has there been a need to act globally to tackle the grand challenges before us such as climate change, health, energy supply etc.. In this new global context ICRI2012 address the following questions:Why do we need global research infrastructures? Which types of world-class infrastructures are best suited to a global approach?How to increase the use of these facilities and how to support access to them based on excellence?How to strengthen international cooperation in the implementation, governance, operation and use of research infrastructures?How to nurture synergies between research infrastructures from differing disciplines and promote interdisciplinary approach?How to manage large international Research Infrastructures focused on global challengesHow to increase awareness of the education and training possibilities that Research Infrastructures offer?How to tackle data, in particular how to address the distributed nature of either the facilities themselves or the user communities?The purpose of the conference will be to make specific recommendations on how international cooperation for research infrastructures can be effective in the future. ICRI 2012 will also provide important input to the European Strategy and to the implementation of the next EU Framework Programme – ""Horizon 2020""."