Enhancing biomass utilization without risking its sustainability is a European energy priority, and can be linked to targets for curbing greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020 and 50% by 2050: enhanced energy security and integration with other industrial sectors, such as agriculture, also play a role. Improved use of biofuels and products in advanced biomass conversion units and biorefineries are seen as a key element in achieving this goal. In recent years leading industrial nations have established facilities in which their researchers have addressed the challenges associated with the production of biofuels and the establishment of bio-refineries. There remains fragmentation in terms of access to high-level experimental equipment necessary for achieving significant advances in this field.The BRISK initiative will integrate networking activities to foster a culture of co-operation between the participants in the project, and the scientific communities benefiting from access to the research infrastructures, with the pursuit of joint research activities, and facilitate transnational access by researchers to one or more infrastructures among those operated by participants in a coordinated way so as to improve the overall services available to the research communities with interests in these fields.