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 third countries’ researchers. Research infrastructures from 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 with these provisions will be taken into account during evaluation.

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 mandate in their calls for access the integration of the gender dimension in the research and innovation content of the users applying to these calls.

Access opportunities should be presented in the single-entry point portal of the most appropriate pilot under HORIZON-INFRA-2027-01-SERV-01. 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^[7], 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-01. This collaboration should ensure a common front page to all above actions, set up by one of the pilots, 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, the implementation of 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) Nanobiotechnology Laboratory for Area 1 and Area 2 (see below) in their research infrastructure portfolio for its expertise at the interface between the research activities and regulatory aspects, and the European Laboratory for Structural Assessment for Area 4 (see below) for its expertise in testing full-scale structures for safety, and materials and structural components under very fast dynamic loads. 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 topic targets the following areas related to scientific challenges and EU priorities. Proposals are expected to address one of the areas and must explicitly state which area they address:

Area 1: Advancing cancer research through integrated biomedical infrastructures

Actions should bring together several complementary and interdisciplinary key research infrastructures relevant for supporting the full cancer research lifecycle, facilitating the development of innovative treatments, including immunotherapies and personalized medicine. Services should include advanced imaging, genomics, and proteomics platforms, as well as clinical trials management, addressing cancer heterogeneity and epigenetics. Proposals should integrate and enable the reuse and sharing of data, samples, and services, and promote the use of artificial intelligence and digital technologies to analyse large datasets and develop predictive models of cancer biology and treatments.

Appropriate links and complementarities will be ensured with the HE Mission on cancer, EU4Health, and other key European and international initiatives, and when appropriate, build on results from past/ongoing projects, such as those funded under Horizon Europe topic HORIZON-INFRA-SERV-2021-01-01.

Area 2: Sustainable and resilient agrifood systems and agroecological transitions contributing to EU policies with a One Health approach and fostering EU competitiveness

Actions should bring together complementary key research infrastructures for enhancing R&I in sustainable agrifood systems and agroecological transitions, consistent with the One Health approach and supporting relevant EU policies and competitiveness. Proposals should encourage big data approaches by promoting trans-national access to similar or complementary genetic resources across several installations, adhering to FAIR principles, developing and applying AI and statistical applications and techniques. Links and complementarities with relevant initiatives should be established, such as with the EU Partnership on Agroecology and Agriculture of Data, the Mission Soil, where living-labs should promote agroecological practices and a holistic approach to sustainable and resilient agrifood systems. When appropriate, proposals should also build on results from past/ongoing projects such as the ones funded under Horizon Europe topic HORIZON-INFRA-SERV-2021-01-02^[8] and avoid overlap with them.

Area 3: Resilient and sustainable polar ecosystems: understanding and managing climate, biodiversity, and human activity interactions

Proposals should provide access to a wide range of services, supporting R&I in polar regions and addressing key areas such as climate change impacts, biodiversity, ecosystem management, pollution, tourism, geo-political changes, and impacts on indigenous and local communities. The services should be adaptable, allowing for the integration of new technologies and methodologies, and should promote science diplomacy. They should, whenever relevant, involve indigenous and local communities into research activities, and consider traditional knowledge. Proposals should link with relevant European and international initiatives, such as the European Polar Board, the EU Polar Cluster, Copernicus, GEOSS, EMODNET, Antarctica InSync, the Greenland-EU partnership where relevant. Proposals should also build, if appropriate, on results from past/ongoing projects, such as those funded under Horizon Europe topic HORIZON-INFRA-2023-SERV-01-01^[9].

Area 4: Increasing material circularity and improving materials’ environmental performance

Actions should bring together several complementary and interdisciplinary key research infrastructures relevant for materials research and innovation for circularity and improved environmental performance of materials e.g. to achieve the goals of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation and the Critical Raw Materials Act. The services should address different TRLs and they should be relevant for stakeholders along the whole value chain and in view of possible industrial applications. Services provided should help achieving the Green Deal’s ambitions for zero pollution and a toxic-free environment. When appropriate, proposals should also build on results from past/ongoing projects such as the ones funded under Horizon Europe topic HORIZON-INFRA-2021-SERV-01-04^[10] and avoid overlap with them.

Area 5: Semiconductors: sustainable development of next-generation and future semiconductor chips and related technologies.

In line with the European Chips Act, actions should aim at providing research infrastructure service that contribute to R&I activities that help strengthening manufacturing activities in the Union, stimulating the European design ecosystem, and supporting scale-up and innovation across the whole semiconductor value chain. Proposals should ensure appropriate links, synergies and complementarities, also in terms of TRLs, with relevant activities in other parts of Horizon Europe and other initiatives at EU level in this field. When appropriate, proposals should also build on results from past/ongoing projects such as the ones funded under Horizon Europe topic HORIZON-INFRA-2023-SERV-01-01^[9]and avoid overlap with them.

Area 6: Geosphere research infrastructures for advanced research on geohazards driven by the dynamics of the Earth and their dependency on human-induced changes.

Actions should bring together complementary and interdisciplinary geosphere research infrastructures that are key for understanding the dynamics of the Earth driving natural hazards (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, tsunamis …) and their dependency on human-induced changes (such as climate and exploration, storage and exploitation of resources) and for strengthening science-policy-society interfaces, contributing to evidence-based decision-making.

[1] https://op.europa.eu/publication-detail/-/publication/ec4692ae-ac6f-11ef-acb1-01aa75ed71a1

[2] 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.

[3] See ESFRI Landmarks in ESFRI RIs PORTFOLIO https://ri-portfolio.esfri.eu/ and ERIC Landscape – Active European Research Infrastructure Consortia (ERICs) https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/strategy/strategy-research-and-innovation/our-digital-future/european-research-infrastructures/eric/eric-landscape_en.

[4] The term ‘distributed’ research infrastructure typically refers to one or a few central hubs and several interlinked (national or institutional) nodes where many components of the research infrastructure may not be part of the same legal entity, the ERIC. A declaration signed by the legal representative of the ERIC should confirm that the ERIC is supporting this participation, explain the relevance for the ERIC and describe any further cooperation with the ERIC.

[5] See the Eligibility conditions for this topic.

[6] “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.

[7] https://cordis.europa.eu/programme/id/HORIZON_HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-DEV-05

[8] https://cordis.europa.eu/programme/id/HORIZON_HORIZON-INFRA-2021-SERV-01-02

[9] https://cordis.europa.eu/programme/id/HORIZON_HORIZON-INFRA-2023-SERV-01-01

[10] https://cordis.europa.eu/programme/id/HORIZON_HORIZON-INFRA-2021-SERV-01-04

[11] https://cordis.europa.eu/programme/id/HORIZON_HORIZON-INFRA-2023-SERV-01-01