Apply for Access

 

Identifying suitable technologies, services and sites for your project

In this Open Call, you have the opportunity to get open access to a wide array of technologies and services from the fields of biological and medical sciences. Search and choose the desired services and technologies from the Technologies & Services tab.
Alternatively, you can browse through the service providers and take a look at their profile pages using the Research Infrastructure Service Providers tab.

Important: All interested researchers are required to talk about potential applications with the contact person(s) at the prospective service providers before submitting their project proposal. Your application can only be considered if feasibility and capability at the requested facility have been discussed.

Submission of application

The application is submitted via ARIA, the access management system developed by Instruct. You will have to create an account or login with an already existing account.
In a first step, you are asked to select one Access Track for your research project. Make sure to request access to at least two different research infrastructures. One of them should be nominated as the lead RI. This will help to coordinate your project and harmonise communication between service providers. The application process is simple and includes general questions about the research project and the selection of service providers and requested technology(ies) and services. It also allows the exclusion of reviewers. The proposal can be saved at any step of the submission process to continue the submission at a later time point.
 

You want to continue the submission process of a saved proposal?
Go to your DASHBOARD here!

 
On occasion, reviewers may want to clarify some issues of the project proposal. In this case CORBEL Open Call project managers will receive the request for additional information from the reviewers and will then contact you. This allows you to provide the requested additional information and thereby strengthen the project proposal. In most cases, participating CORBEL institutes will cover costs for instrumentation and facility staff, whereas costs for consumables will have to be charged to your home institution. Therefore, you are advised to contact the facilities that you would like to access and estimate the costs in bilateral discussions. Each accepted project will be supported by a CORBEL budget of up to €5,000, which can be used to reimburse your accommodation and travel costs and cover expenses such as sample shipment.

 

Review of the application

Every application will go through two steps of evaluation. The criteria for the evaluation can be found in the Review of applications tab. The first evaluation stage is an independent scientific review, conducted by two external reviewers, who have a broad scientific background. If the application passes this first review, it will be sent to the selected service providers for technical evaluation. You will be invited to provide additional information, if needed to perform the technical feasibility check. This allows you to improve your project. The whole procedure, until final notice of acceptance/rejection, is expected to take 6-8 weeks.

 

After successful application evaluation

The 2nd CORBEL Open Call is launched on 26 March 2018 with a rolling deadline collecting applications at the 1st of every 2nd month. The evaluation process will start directly after each deadline for application has passed. You will receive a notification about the outcome of the evaluation process. As soon as your application has been accepted, you can start to arrange all matters with the requested service providers. These are e.g. necessary steps for the project preparation, financial planning, or time and duration of the proposed work.

Note: The CORBEL Open Call project managers will assist you as needed, during the application procedure and the actual access. You can find their contact details at the bottom of this page.

 

During the service access

At the facilities and by the service providers, an effort will be made to serve you in the best possible way. As remote and/or on-site user you will receive hands-on training for the technologies and services you will use, access to equipment, materials, databases and scientific expertise, and expert support with data collection, processing and analysis. You will also be given guidance for the transport of materials, made aware of health and safety regulations and provided help with accommodation arrangements.

 

After the service access

After each visit to a partner institute is completed or the service provision is finished, you will be required to fill in a brief feedback form. Later, when the project is completed, you are expected to fill in a brief concluding report that includes information on a possible scientific publication. Data resulting from access to CORBEL services should be intended for publication by the users, with the exception of data for SMEs. Support received by the CORBEL project must be clearly stated in the acknowledgement section of a publication with the following sentence: “This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 654248”. Relevant research data must be made available within one year after publication of the research results, or within five years after the service completion, whichever comes first, unless otherwise agreed or if the user has specific other obligations (e.g. towards a funding body).

Note: Filling in these post-access feedback forms is mandatory, as they are essential for CORBEL to continuously optimize its services and to get statistics and information necessary for justifying continued operations. Please note, failure to provide feedback may lead to the suspense of service provision for your project within CORBEL.

 

Important: All submissions regarding user access must be done via the ARIA management system, not by email. CORBEL cannot accept any applications or post-project feedback via email.

 

For questions regarding the general application process and the proposal template, please contact Dr. Frauke Leitner or Dr. Sonja Hansen. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the ARIA system, please contact aria [at] structuralbiology.eu.