Access to research infrastructures, their resources and services: large-scale pilots for more integrated scheme across (sub)domains

Scope: This topic aims at testing ‘access programme like’ projects providing trans-national access (on-site or remote) and/or virtual access to integrated and customised research infrastructure installations and services for excellent research, from frontier and curiosity-driven to applied research, offered by a wide range of complementary and interdisciplinary research infrastructures with experience in transnational access. Access is provided by a core of state-of-the-art research infrastructures as beneficiaries/affiliated entities and by third party access providers on demand. Proposals should adhere to the guidelines and principles of the European Charter for Access to Research Infrastructures [1] . Proposals are expected to address one of the following areas, based on ‘ESFRI scientific domains [2] , and must explicitly state which area they address : Area 1, covering the following domains: Physical Sciences and Engineering; Data, Computing and Digital Research Infrastructures Area 2, covering the following domains: Health & Food; Social Sciences and Humanities Area 3, covering the following domains: Environment; Energy. These areas define in which pilot project a research infrastructure identified as a core access provider should be a beneficiary/affiliated entity. On demand third party access providers should expand access opportunities within the area or across-areas for interdisciplinary research. Proposals should make available to researchers and innovators a wide, inclusive and comprehensive portfolio of complementary research infrastructure services of European interest [3] , including data services. Proposals should include at least two ESFRI Landmark [4] and/or European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) [5] as beneficiary. Access could also be open, in accordance with the ‘Specific Features for Research Infrastructure’ section of this Work Programme, to non-associated third countries’ researchers. Research infrastructures from non-associated third countries may be involved as beneficiaries or affiliated entities [6] when appropriate, if the proposal can demonstrate they offer complementary or more advanced services than those available in the EU Member States and Associated Countries. Access includes ad hoc users’ training and scientific and technical support (see Specific Features for Research Infrastructures). Additional training courses, including skills for data stewardship, may also be supported. In addition, proposals should better exploit the training potential of successful transnational access user projects by inviting researchers, notably early-stage career researchers, or research infrastructure technicians from widening and candidate countries to team up with selected user groups. Proposals should reserve sufficient resources for this purpose and should proactively advertise these opportunities. (which should be arranged after the selection of user projects and have no impact on their evaluation). Access provision to existing services should be clear in the proposed activities and reflected in the allocated resources. The improvement and development of services can also be supported, provided that the resulting services are offered already under the actions (short-term R&D) and that the long-term sustainability of such services is ensured. Data management (and related ethics issues), interoperability, as well as the connection of digital services (e.g. data services) to the European Open Science Cloud, should be addressed where relevant. Proposals should take due account of major European or international initiatives relevant in the domain. When appropriate, they should foster the use and deployment of (open) global standards. Proposals should include an outreach and engagement plan to actively advertise their services to the research communities, notably from widening countries and candidate countries and to relevant industries, including SMEs and, if applicable, provide dedicated support for the development of research partnerships and collaborations with researchers from widening countries and candidate countries. Proposals are expected to exploit synergies and to ensure complementarity and coherence with other EU grants supporting access provision. Proposals should include the list of core services/installations [7] opened by research infrastructures for transnational or virtual access and the amounts of units of access made available for users. Further conditions and requirements relating to access provisions that applicants should fulfil when drafting a proposal are given in the “Specific features for Research Infrastructures” section of this work programme part. Compliance with these provisions will be taken into account during evaluation. Proposals should also present an indicative list of complementary services/installations opened by third party research infrastructures for transnational or virtual access. Proposals should reserve sufficient resources for access notably to these services/installations and allocate budget according to the demand after peer-review evaluation of the user-groups and users’ research and innovation projects, the ‘user projects’. This complementary part of the access to research infrastructures may be implemented through the mechanism of financial support to third parties (FSTP), provided that the beneficiaries ensure that the conditions and requirements relating to access provisions as given in the “Specific features for Research Infrastructures” are fulfilled. In such case, the relevant conditions and requirements should be included in the FSTP calls and the applicants to the FSTP open calls should be the third party research infrastructures demanded by user-group(s). In the case of transnational access, the beneficiaries select the user-groups according to the conditions and requirements of the “specific features for research infrastructures” section of this work programme. The beneficiaries ensure that the access provider selected through the FSTP calls is a state-of-the-art research infrastructure, and that it will provide appropriate documentation to support and justify the amount of access provided and the information on the users as specified in the “specific features for research infrastructures” section of this work programme. To simplify the selection process, proposals under this topic may combine the calls inviting researchers to apply for transnational access and the FSTP calls so that a one stage selection procedure can be implemented based on a joint application from the user group submitting the ‘user project’ and the needed third party access provider. The recipient of the financial support is the third party research infrastructure that is providing access to the selected user-group(s). The financial support should cover the costs incurred by the third party to provide access (actual costs, unit costs, or a combination of the two) plus any work for service customisation as well as the travel and subsistence of users if visits are needed to use the infrastructures. Alternatively, proposals may opt for centrally managed travel and or subsistence costs for all or part of the selected user projects. In such case, these costs are excluded from the concerned FSTP. Access opportunities should be presented in a single-entry point portal for each pilot, building on the experience of past EU projects supporting access in the respective areas. The interoperability and capacity to converge into a common portal should be considered when designing or upgrading the portals as well as the possible connection to EOSC. To ensure a holistic view from design to implementation of possible access schemes, proposals should ensure strong and continuous collaboration with the cross-domain preparatory action on access HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-DEV-05 [8] , with the pilots under topic HORIZON-INFRA-2026-01-DEV-02, e.g. making use of the catalogues of services, navigation tool and links to key EU initiatives, and with the actions supported under topic HORIZON-INFRA-2027-01-SERV-02. This collaboration should ensure a common front page to all above actions, set up by one of the pilots, providing at the minimum basic information such as highlighting the common objectives of EU supported access, the main conditions and requirements, providing preliminary guidance on access opportunities and directing to the single-entry point portal of each pilot. The collaboration should also promote simplified access pathways, good practices on call conditions, converging access modalities and selection process, as well as effective governance of the set of projects acting as an access programme with appropriate advisory bodies. Proposals could consider the inclusion of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) in any of the three areas identified in the call. The JRC is running the “open access to JRC research infrastructures” programme, providing since 2017 access and training and capacity building to a portfolio of 18 different facilities to more than 650 users from 250 institutions in Europe. In this respect, the experience of the JRC in transnational access can be very valuable for exploring new ways of creating large thematic clusters of pan-European research infrastructures. In that respect, the JRC will consider collaborating with any successful proposal and this collaboration, when relevant, should be established after the proposal’s approval. The integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement. However, where applicable, proposals should promote in their calls for access the integration of the gender dimension in the research and innovation content of the users applying to these calls. [1] https://op.europa.eu/publication-detail/-/publication/ec4692ae-ac6f-11ef-acb1-01aa75ed71a1 [2] ESFRI domains: 1. Data, Computing and Digital Research Infrastructures; 2. Energy; 3. Environment; 4. Health & Food; 5. Physical Sciences and Engineering; 6. Social Sciences & Humanities. See ESFRI Landscape Analysis 2024 https://landscape2024.esfri.eu/ . [3] A research infrastructure is of European interest when is able to attract users from EU or associated countries other than the country where the infrastructure is located. This includes ESFRI and ERIC infrastructures. [4] See lists of ESFRI 'Landmarks‘ in the 2021 ESFRI Roadmap on https://roadmap2021.esfri.eu/ [5] European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) | European Commission (europa.eu) [6] See the Eligibility conditions for this topic. [7] “Installation” means a part or a service of a research infrastructure that can be used independently from the rest. A research infrastructure consists of one or more installations. [8] https://cordis.europa.eu/programme/id/HORIZON_HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-DEV-05

Eligibility and submission conditions

"> General conditions 1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout Applicants are not required to include in their proposal a plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results as the main objective of these actions is the service provision. The page limit of the application is 100 pages. described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes. Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System. 2. Eligible Countries described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide . 3. Other Eligible Conditions Subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as member of the consortium selected for funding as a beneficiary with zero funding, or as an associated partner. The JRC will not participate in the preparation and submission of the proposal - see General Annex B. Given the specific nature of this topic, access provision activities must be included in the proposal. Please read carefully the provisions under the section “Specific features for Research Infrastructures” of this work programme part before preparing your application. Considering the Union’s interest to make accessible to its researchers the most advanced research infrastructures, wherever they are in the world, legal entities established in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, India, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore, and USA, which provide, under the grant, access to their state-of-the-art research infrastructures to researchers from Member States and Associated Countries, are exceptionally eligible for funding from the Union under this topic. described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. 4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5a. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds To ensure a balanced portfolio covering the different areas, grants will be awarded to applications not only in order of ranking but at least also to those proposals that are the highest ranked within each area, provided that the applications attain all thresholds. are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes For the 'Excellence' criterion, the additional following aspects will also be taken into account: The extent to which the access activities (trans-national and/or virtual access) will offer access to the state-of-the-art infrastructures of European interest in the field, high quality services, and will enable users to conduct excellent research. The extent to which the project will contribute to facilitating and integrating the access procedures, to improve the services the infrastructures provide and to further develop their on-line services. are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual . 5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes. 6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants Eligible costs may take form of unit costs for trans-national and virtual access to research infrastructures as defined in the Decision authorising the use of unit costs for the actions involving trans-national and virtual access (see Annex 2a of the Horizon Europe Model Grant Agreement). Beneficiaries could provide financial support to third parties (FSTP). The support to third parties can only be provided in the form of grants. Given the high operating costs of some state-of-the-art research infrastructures, the maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 300 000, since the objectives of the action cannot be achieved otherwise. For the sake of efficiency, the FSTP calls can be combined with the calls for the access provision activities (see provisions under the section “Specific features for Research Infrastructures” of this work programme part). Research infrastructures which are beneficiaries/affiliated entities of the consortia awarded may exceptionally also be recipients of financial support to third parties. Proposals must explain how they will ensure that such beneficiaries/affiliated entities are not involved in the drafting and selection procedure of the calls, and explain measures to avoid conflicts of interest and unequal treatment of applicants (including independent and fair complaints procedure) and to maintain confidentiality. Beneficiaries will be subject to the additional access rights: beneficiaries shall grant royalty-free access to their intellectual property relating to tools, standards, specifications, and other relevant outputs generated by this action to the EU institutions and to the beneficiaries of projects funded by the EU in view of a more sustained and integrated EU access scheme. This access shall be provided through a mechanism to be defined in the proposal, during and beyond the lifespan of the Grant Agreement. described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes. Specific conditions described in the specific topic of the Work Programme Application and evaluation forms and model grant agreement (MGA): Application form templates — the application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System Standard application form (HE RIA, IA) Standard application form (HE CSA) Evaluation form templates — will be used with the necessary adaptations   Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)   Standard evaluation form (HE CSA)   Guidance HE Programme Guide   Model Grant Agreements (MGA) HE MGA   Lump Sum MGA   Framework Partnership Agreement FPA   Call-specific instructions   Detailed budget table (HE LS)   Information on financial support to third parties (HE)   Information on clinical studies (HE)   Guidance: "Lump sums - what do I need to know?" Additional documents: HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 1. General Introduction HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 3. Research Infrastructures HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 15. General Annexes HE Programme Guide HE Framework Programme 2021/695 HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764 EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509 Decision authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions   Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement

Hivatkozott dokumentumok

Annex A Horizon Europe Programme Guide Online Manual Decision authorising the use of unit costs for the actions involving trans-national and virtual access Standard application form (HE RIA, IA) Standard application form (HE CSA) Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA) Standard evaluation form (HE CSA) HE MGA Lump Sum MGA Framework Partnership Agreement FPA Detailed budget table (HE LS) Information on financial support to third parties (HE) Information on clinical studies (HE) Guidance: "Lump sums - what do I need to know?" HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 1. General Introduction HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 3. Research Infrastructures HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 15. General Annexes Decision authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions