Access to research infrastructure services to enable R&I addressing EU priorities and emerging challenges

Expected Outcome:
For all areas:

• More efficient access to the best research infrastructures available to researchers and innovators to conduct challenge-driven research, improve responsiveness to emerging challenges and foster innovation, irrespective of location, through a single-entry point access portal, integrated or interoperable catalogues of services and converging access conditions and selection procedures;

• Breakthrough and leading-edge research enabled by advanced research infrastructure services, including joint research activities, made available to a wider user community, including in emerging areas of research;

• A new generation of researchers trained to optimally exploit all the essential tools for their research with due attention to early-stage career researchers and researchers from widening countries and candidate countries;

• Cross-disciplinary fertilisations and a wider sharing of information, knowledge and technologies across scientific fields fostered by closer interactions between researchers and innovators active in and around research infrastructures, through encouraging cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary joint research activities for customised services and with due attention to research security; better management, including implementing FAIR data principle of the continuous flow of data collected or produced by research infrastructures.
Scope:
For all areas:
This topic aims at providing trans-national access (on-site or remote) and/or virtual access to integrated and customised research infrastructure services for challenge-driven research and innovation in each of the areas listed below, offered by a wide range of complementary and interdisciplinary top level research infrastructures. Proposals should adhere to the guidelines and principles of the European Charter for Access to Research Infrastructures [1] .
Access also 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 to prepare the new generations of researchers to properly exploit leading-edge research infrastructures. In addition, proposals should exploit the training potential of the successfully selected transnational access user projects by inviting researchers, notably early-stage career researchers, or research infrastructure technical staff from widening and candidate countries. 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).
The main goal of this topic is access provision to existing services: this should be clearly reflected by the proposed activities and the allocated resources. The improvement and development of services, relevant to the challenges, will also be supported, provided the resulting services are opened and offered already under the actions (short term R&D) and that the long-term sustainability of such services is ensured by the participant research infrastructures. Further development of new or improved services for use in the mid-term (2-3 years) may also be supported when duly justified e.g. to address well identified needs such as in the ESFRI Landscape Analysis, or in the research agendas of Horizon Europe Missions or Partnerships or for better serving the needs of open EU industrial research and innovation.
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, of major EU priorities relevant in the domain. When appropriate, they should foster the use and deployment of (open) global standards.
Proposals should make available to researchers a wide, inclusive and comprehensive portfolio of complementary research infrastructure services of European interest [2] , including data services, and customised workflows to enable R&I addressing the set challenge. Proposals should include at least one ESFRI Landmark or European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) as beneficiary [3] . In case of a distributed ERIC, as an alternative to the ERIC participating as a beneficiary, a legal entity that is hosting ERIC facilities, resources or related services may participate as a beneficiary [4] .
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 when appropriate, including, if the proposal can demonstrate they offer complementary or more advanced services than those available in EU Member States and Associated Countries as beneficiaries or affiliated entities [5] .
Proposals should include an outreach and engagement plan to actively advertise their services, to targeted 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 services/installations [6] opened by research infrastructures for trans-national 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…