1. Scope and call conditions

The 3^rd Geo-INQUIRE call for Transnational Access to research infrastructures is open  to receive applications from interested users from Monday 9 December until Friday 28 February 2025, 17:00 CET. Application for access should be submitted online through the Geo-INQUIRE website here!  A Question & Answer session for the 3rd Geo-INQUIRE Transnational Access Call will take place on Tuesday, 21 January 2025 from 10:00 to 11:00 CET.

The access provided through Geo-INQUIRE is free of charge for the selected users, and includes all access costs necessary to perform the proposed research, such as equipment, support personnel at the installation, consumables, training for external users, among others.

Specific installations provide financial support for travel and subsistence for the users to visit the installation. To understand if this type of support is available at the installation of choice and under which conditions, users must contact the installation prior to submitting a proposal.

For questions regarding the submission of proposals, you can contact geo-i_tagfz-potsdam.de.  For any questions regarding the installations and viability of projects, please consult the contact person in the installation of your choice.

The call is open to researchers, technicians, students and other professionals working in the research areas covered by the installations. However, other scientific fields will also be considered, if the proposed projects are feasible and relevant for the Geo-INQUIRE research topics. Information about the capabilities and research topics of each individual installation are described on the Geo-INQUIRE website.

2. Eligibility rules

Transnational Access (TA) will be provided to selected user groups (teams of one or more researchers), hereafter defined as users. Users must apply through their home organisation (place of work). Applications from private individuals will not be accepted.

The Principal Investigator (PI) and the majority of their team members must work in a country other than the country where the installation of choice is located. Access for users (or the majority of team members) working in countries other than an EU Member State or Horizon Europe associated country is limited to 20% of the total access provided. The PI is the person in charge of the project, i.e., should be the one visiting the installation, directly working on the deployment of experiments, publishing and reporting.

Access will only be granted to users that are allowed to disseminate the generated results through open access means. The resulting data, products, services, among others, should be fed back into Geo-INQUIRE supported Virtual Access (VA) services under the latest version of the CC-BY license, no longer than 6 months after the conclusion of the access and no later than 30 March 2026. The same applies to resulting publications. Exceptions may apply and will be granted by the relevant Geo-INQUIRE Consortium bodies, if the users are working for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME).

3. Application procedure

Before submitting a proposal, potential applicants are strongly advised to email the contact person associated with the installation of choice for guidance on the feasibility of their project. User groups requesting access must apply in written form by completing the application template and providing the requested documentation. All documentation must be provided in one single PDF file through the application tool on the project website. Only applications submitted via the website will be considered for evaluation. The PI is responsible for the submission and will be the contact point between the installation and the applicants. Therefore, the PI must provide their first name, last name, email address, attach the application form and accept the term and conditions.   

Documentation required:

• Application form filled in by the PI
• Short CV of the PI and team members, showing their capability to conduct the experiment
• In case of PIs who are undergraduate students or PhD candidates, a support letter from the supervisor.

4. Evaluation procedure

Applications will be evaluated in a two-step process.

First step: Feasibility evaluation

This step will be performed at by the installations providing access, within their Technical Evaluation Boards (TEBs). Each TEB will:

1. perform an eligibility assessment: completeness of the application, compliance with the access rules and conditions and ethics self-assessment;
2. establish whether the project is technically, logistically, and financially feasible, given the resources offered by the specific installation;
3. assess whether there are any Health, Safety and Environment aspects which need to be considered (restrictions), e.g.  if substances that visiting researchers may use are allowed;
4. evaluate the technical capability of the team to carry on the project, considering their preparedness and defined time schedule, given the training that will be provided by the specific installation and the technical and scientific support available.

Each application will be evaluated as: Positive (passed the technical evaluation), Revision requested (adjustments are necessary), or Negative (did not pass the technical evaluation). If revision is requested, the applicants will be informed about the necessary adjustments and will have 2 weeks to update or withdraw their application. Revised applications will be evaluated as Positive or Negative after the adjustments.

Second step: Scientific excellence of the proposal

All the applications that passed the first step, will be evaluated by the Transnational Access Review Panel (TARP), based on the scientific merit of the proposal and quality of the applicants. Each application will receive a score from 3 to 16, according to the following criteria:

1. Ground-breaking nature and potential impact of the research project (score 1 to 6): Scientific objectives, innovation of the proposal, impact of the proposal for the scientific community, publication plan.
2. Methodology and implementation (score 1 to 6): Scientific methodology and implementation plan, data distribution as Virtual Access (VA).
3. Quality of the PI and the team (score 1 to 4): Curriculum Vitae of the PI, expertise and complementarity of the team members

A threshold of 8/16 is required to pass to the second step of the evaluation.  After the final ranking inclusion criteria (next section) will be applied as appropriate.

5. Inclusion criteria

Geo-INQUIRE promotes diversity and inclusion within the scope of the project, including the applications for Transnational Access. Therefore, applications from female PIs and applications from PIs working in one of the widening countries, associated countries and outermost regions of Horizon Europe will be given special attention during the evaluation process. Widening countries are Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Associated countries (allowed to coordinate widening projects) include Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine. Outermost regions include La Réunion, Mayotte, Canarias, Azores, Madeira, Saint-Martin, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Guyana.

Special requirements regarding accessibility and mobility, visa restrictions, etc. can be added to the application form.

6. Installations providing access within the call

ECCSEL-ERIC: CO₂ Capture, Utilisation, Transport and Storage (CCUS)

High Performance Computing for the simulation of geophysical phenomena and probabilistic hazard analysis

Testbeds

7. Terms and conditions to be accepted by users submitting applications

Terms and conditions for participants in Geo-INQUIRE transnational access, communication and dissemination activities: https://www.geo-inquire.eu/about/terms-and-conditions.

Access Providers and their organisations are responsible for the transfer of funds (such as travel and subsistence support for users) based on their regular internal accounting practices. The Geo-INQUIRE Consortium itself has no competence over such transfers. Only transfers between legal entities are allowed.

Users must provide a report after completion of access about the work developed, outcomes, and feedback questionnaire.