"SHARE [...] makes both national and European policies more effective."

says the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, represented by its State Secretary Prof. Dr. Frieder Meyer-Krahmer.

At the SHARE-ESFRI conference in Ludwigsburg last Friday representatives from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research announced that the Federal Republic of Germany will from now on officially host SHARE as one of the three most important European research infrastructures.

Since SHARE is centrally coordinated at the Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging, the State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg, represented by State Minister Dr. Claudia Hübner, showed itself "proud to have a major pillar of SHARE located in our state."

Delegates from various other national ministries of SHARE member states got together to celebrate the event and the ratification of SHARE's Memorandum of Understanding - the basis for SHARE's future expansion as a European research infrastructure.

SHARE countries signing the Memorandum of Understanding.

Left: Dr. Beatrix Vierkorn-Rudolph from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Center: Dr. Claudia Hübner, State Minister for Demographic Research and for Senior Citizens at the State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Right: Marcus van Leeuwen from the Dutch National Research Council (NWO), signing the Memorandum of Understanding

For more pictures, the press releases and other material from the conference, please click here.