Ερευνητικά Προγράμματα Κύπρου

Call for proposals

Horizon 2020 – Excellent Science – “Integrating Activities for Advanced Communities” – INFRAIA-01-2018-2019

Objective and description

New topics have been opened for submission of proposals under the Horizon 2020 Programme within the pillar “Excellent Science”, under the work programme “European Research Infrastructures”, within the call for proposals “Integrating Activities for Advanced Communities” – INFRAIA-01-2018-2019.

The aim of this action is to bring together, integrate on European scale, and open up key national and regional research infrastructures to all European researchers, from both academia and industry, ensuring their optimal use and joint development.

Funding will be provided to support, in particular, the trans-national and virtual access provided to European researchers (and to researchers from Third Countries under certain conditions), the cooperation between research infrastructures, scientific communities, industry and other stakeholders, the improvement of the services the infrastructures provide, the harmonisation, optimisation and improvement of access procedures and interfaces. Proposals should adopt the guidelines and principles of the European Charter for Access to Research Infrastructures.

'Advanced Communities' are scientific communities whose research infrastructures show an advanced degree of coordination and networking at present, attained, in particular, through Integrating Activities awarded under FP7 or previous Horizon 2020 calls.

To this extent, an Integrating Activity shall combine, in a closely co-ordinated manner:

· Networking activities, to foster a culture of co-operation between research infrastructures, scientific communities, industries and other stakeholders as appropriate, and to help develop a more efficient and attractive European Research Area;

· Trans-national access or virtual access activities, to support scientific communities in their access to the identified key research infrastructures;

· Joint research activities, to improve, in quality and/or quantity, the integrated services provided at European level by the infrastructures.

All three categories of activities are mandatory as synergistic effects are expected from these different components.

This work programme invites proposals addressing the following areas listed under the different domains. A balanced coverage of the various domains, in line with the distribution of areas per domain, is expected as outcome of this topic. The domains are:

· Biological and Medical Sciences

o Microbial Resource Centres: This activity aims at integrating the key Microbial Resource Centres and opening them up to European researchers for biotechnology research and development. Emphasis should be on widening the user base, enlarging and strengthening the offered services, sharing resources at global level, fostering the innovation role of such infrastructures and ensuring long term sustainability to their integration.

o Facilities for high throughput DNA sequencing: This activity aims at integrating the key research infrastructures in Europe as well as leading-edge research infrastructures located in third countries, to open them up to European researchers and offer services beyond the state-of-art which is already ensured by commercial providers. Adequate consideration should be taken of the produced data and its availability for research.

o Centres for replacement, reduction and refinement (3 Rs) of non-human primate testing: This activity aims at integrating the key non-human primate centres in Europe promoting 3 Rs, i.e. replacement, reduction, and refinement. The proposal will contribute to the objective of 3Rs, reinforcing the implementation of ethical and good practices at European level, and the protection of animals used in scientific experiments. The proposal should also develop the necessary collaborations outside Europe.

o High throughput facilities for proteome analysis: This activity aims at integrating the key high throughput facilities in Europe for proteome analysis, based on state-of-the-art proteomics techniques and tools for data handling and analysis, including structural proteomics and structural bioinformatics. Emphasis should be on widening the user base, enlarging and strengthening the offered services, fostering the innovation role of such infrastructures and ensuring long term sustainability to their integration.

· Energy

o Research Infrastructures for solar energy: concentrating solar power: This activity should bring together the key European research infrastructures in solar concentrating systems (solar concentrators and relating research infrastructures) for carrying out energy and materials research as well as research in other fields using the extreme temperature conditions in solar concentrators, e.g. thermal storage equipment and reuse of stored energy. This topic would support the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan).

o Research Infrastructures for solar energy: photovoltaic: This activity aims at integrating and opening the key research infrastructures in Europe for all aspects of photovoltaic research: buildings, transport, new materials, grid connection, efficiency, etc. This topic would support the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan).

· Environmental and Earth Sciences

o Research infrastructures for forest ecosystem and resources research: This activity aims at further integrating and facilitating broad access to forest research facilities, methodologies and data on genetic and species diversity to enable environmental and biological research including biological effects of air pollution, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, and development of forest management approaches. Emphasis will be on widening the user base and ensuring long term sustainability to the service integration.

o Natural history collections: This activity aims at integrating and improving access to key European Natural History collections and to their related instrumentation facilities. Emphasis should be on improving accessibility to collections to a wide range of scientists, on developing innovative research services to answer the needs of a broader scientific community of users from climate change to human health and food security, and on ensuring long term sustainability of the integrated services.

o Research aircrafts for environmental and geo-science research: This activity aims at integrating key research aircrafts and improving their availability to European researchers from larger multidisciplinary scientific communities. It should develop a long-term strategy towards sustained integrated services and innovative synergies with complementary observing systems and models to study atmospheric processes and the Earth's surface.

o Research vessels: This activity aims at further providing, integrating and improving access to the key European research vessels and associated major equipment. It should include innovative initiatives to ensure a more efficient and coordinated operation of European fleets, to develop synergies with complementary observing systems and infrastructures and to set-up sustained integrated services to the user communities.

o Research infrastructures for Earth's climate system modelling: This activity aims at further integrating and opening the research infrastructures (e.g. data repositories, models) used by the climate modelling community in Europe, promoting the ongoing development of a common distributed modelling infrastructure. Emphasis should be on widening the user base, expanding the interdisciplinary research fields addressed, enlarging and strengthening the offered services, and ensuring long term sustainability to the service integration.

o Sites and experimental platforms of anthropogenic impacts for ecosystem functioning and biodiversity research: This activity aims at bringing together highly instrumented experimental, analytical and modelling facilities, across all major European ecosystem types and all major pressures on them. It will optimise the collaborative use of these sites by a wider scientific community and develop efficient methods and techniques for rapid data sharing and processing at the European level.

· Mathematics and ICT

o Visualisation facilities: This activity aims at further integrating and opening key virtual reality visualisation facilities, holographic image processing facilities and other computer graphics and animation facilities for advanced visualisation of scientific information and massive data, either resulting from academic research or being produced in collaboration with the industrial sector. Emphasis should be on widening the user base, enlarging and strengthening the offered services, and fostering the innovation role of such infrastructures.

· Material Sciences, Analytical facilities and Engineering

o Electron Microscopies for advanced imaging, diffraction, spectroscopy and metrology of materials: This activity aims at further integrating and opening advanced electron microscopies for material research and technological development. Emphasis should be on widening the user base, strengthening and enlarging the offered services, stimulating new scientific activities, facilitating access, fostering the innovation role of such infrastructures and ensuring long term sustainability to their integration.

o High and low energy ion beam labs. This activity aims at further integrating and opening key ion beam facilities for material, biomedical and environmental research and technological development. Emphasis should be on widening the user base, enlarging and strengthening the offered services, fostering the innovation role of such infrastructures and ensuring long term sustainability to their integration.

o Infrastructures for Neutron Scattering and Muon Spectroscopy: This activity will provide and facilitate wider access to the key research infrastructures in Europe for Neutron scattering and Muon Spectroscopy. It should present a long-term sustainable perspective on the integration of these facilities and related resources.

o Facilities for research on materials under extreme temperature conditions: This activity aims at integrating research facilities in physics and materials science dealing with extreme low and high temperature conditions, e.g. nanoscience at microkelvin temperatures. Emphasis should be on widening the user base, enlarging the offered services, fostering the innovation role of such infrastructures and ensuring long term sustainability to their integration.

o Infrastructures for studying turbulence phenomena and applications: This activity aims at further integrating key facilities enabling the study of high turbulence phenomena in various areas of science and technology. Emphasis should be on combining modelling and experimental in situ testing, widening the user base, enlarging the offered services, fostering the innovation role of such infrastructures and ensuring long term sustainability to their integration.

· Physical Sciences

o Research Infrastructures for hadron physics: This activity will provide and facilitate access to key research infrastructures in Europe for studying the properties of nuclear matter at extreme conditions, turning advances in hadron physics experimentation into new applications. It should present a long-term sustainable perspective on the integration of relevant facilities and related resources.

o Research Infrastructures for high resolution solar physics. This activity aims at further integrating and opening key research infrastructures in the field of high resolution solar physics. It should foster cooperation between theory and observations.

· Social Sciences and Humanities

o Research infrastructures for the assessment of science, technology and innovation policies: This activity aims at further integrating and opening research data infrastructures in the field of science, technology and innovation (including social innovation). Emphasis should be on facilitating trans-national access and widening the user base, enlarging and strengthening the offered services, fostering the innovation role of such infrastructures and ensuring long term sustainability to their integration.

o Digital archives and resources for research on European history: This activity aims at further integrating and opening key data collections and services in Europe for European History. Emphasis should be on widening the user base, enlarging and strengthening the offered services, e.g. by covering further historical periods, and ensuring long term sustainability to their integration.

o Archaeological data infrastructures for research: This activity aims at further integrating and opening key archaeological data infrastructures to facilitate research in all fields of archaeology (from prehistory to contemporary society). Emphasis should be on widening the user base, enlarging and strengthening the offered services, including fields such as paleo-anthropology, bioarchaeology and environmental archaeology, sharing resources at global level, and ensuring long term sustainability to their integration.

Eligible applicants

For Research and Innovation Actions eligible are at least three legal entities. Each of the three must be established in a different EU Member State or Horizon 2020 associated country. All three legal entities must be independent of each other.

Given the specific nature of this topic, specific eligibility conditions, in addition to the standard eligibility conditions for Research and Innovation Action apply (for details please refer to WP p.81). Proposals should cover all the three types of activities:

· Networking Activities
Foster a culture of co-operation between the participants in the project, the scientific communities benefiting from the research infrastructures, industries and other stakeholders, and to help developing a more efficient and attractive European Research Area.

· Trans-national/Virtual Access Activities
To provide 'free of charge' trans-national access to researchers or research teams including from industry to one or more infrastructures among those operated by participants. These access activities should be implemented in a coordinated way such as to improve the overall services available to the research community

To provide virtual access to resources needed for research through communication networks without selecting or even identifying the researchers to whom access to resources is provided. Examples of virtual access activities are databases available via Internet, or data deposition services.

· Joint Research Activities

These activities should be innovative and explore new fundamental technologies or techniques underpinning the efficient and joint use of the participating research infrastructures.

Legal entities established in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Russia and USA, which provide, under the grant, access to their research infrastructures to researchers from Members States and Associated countries, are eligible for funding from the Union.

Budget

The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of projects is estimated at EUR 101,500,000.

Funding rates:

RIA Research and Innovation actions: 100%.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 10 million would allow this topic to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Deadline for proposals’ submission

The deadline for this call of proposals is 22 March 2018, 17:00 Brussels time.

Applicants must submit their proposal electronically, following the link on the submission service.

Further information

You can find more information and the call documents at the following link: https://tinyurl.com/y6uh8nxj

Kind regards,

Flora

Flora Stavropoulou
Junior Officer

European Office of Cyprus

Rue du Luxembourg 3, 2nd floor

B-1000, Brussels

Tel/Fax: +32 (0) 2 280 22 85

E-mail: eoc.brussels2@ucy.ac.cy

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE GREEK TRANSLATION IS PROVIDED AT REQUEST OF ANY INTERESTED MEMBER (based on the decision of 22.12.2016 of the EOC Administrative Council).