Research infrastructure services to enable R&I addressing main challenges and EU priorities

Expected Outcome

For all areas:

• Provision of innovative, customised and efficient research infrastructures services enhancing and increasing society’s long-term and consistent problem-solving capacity and evidence-based policy making.

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes for one of the areas:

Area 1: research infrastructure services for advanced biotechnology and biomanufacturing:

• Reinforced support for breakthrough research and innovation for advancing industrial biotechnology.
• Wider access for academic and industrial researchers to enhanced and further integrated research infrastructure services in the field.
• Cross-fertilisation and wider sharing of knowledge and technologies across the relevant scientific disciplines and sectors.
• Harmonisation and development of standards, and sharing of best practices ensuring scientific reproducibility in the field.
• Enhanced and further integrated research infrastructures capacities in support of the European Green Deal objectives, the EU’s objectives for open strategic autonomy and resilience and the actions and priorities of the Commission communication “Building the future with nature: Boosting Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing in the EU[1]”.

Area 2: research infrastructure services for access to novel radionuclides and facilities:

• Research in radionuclides facilitated, contributing to the development of medical treatments and to the underlying required supply of stable or radio-isotopes for these treatments.
• Contribution of research infrastructures and scientific services to the EU action plan to support the safe, high quality and reliable use of radiological and nuclear technology in healthcare.

Area 3: research infrastructure services to improve the understanding and prediction of future climate changes and their impact:

• Reinforced support for cutting-edge research and innovation in understanding and predicting future climate changes and their impacts
• Wider, user-friendly and coordinated access for researchers to enhanced and further integrated state-of-the-art Earth system models, including high resolution or high complexity models and relevant high-performance computing resources
• More robust evidence underpinning the assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) about the state of scientific, technical and socio-economic knowledge on climate change, its impacts, risks and response options.
• More effective climate policies in the context of the implementation of the European Green Deal, the European Climate Law, and the Paris Agreement.

Area 4: research infrastructure services for new aviation fuels and combustion technologies

• enabling research and innovation in the field of new aviation fuels and combustion technologies to support European scientific and industrial competitiveness, including on adaption and expansion of existing test combustion capabilities to use new fuels (in particular biogenic and synthetic sustainable aviation fuels, liquid hydrogen) for future propulsion systems, referee-test rigs for the assessment of the potential and characteristics of sustainable aviation fuels in respect to safety and reliability (in contrast to Jet A1 using application-oriented combustion system including concept and design work based on known referee-rigs), test rigs that support the approval and qualification of SAF candidates entering ASTM D4054 (Tier 2.5)
• wider access for academic and industrial researchers to enhanced and further integrated RI services for fostering the testing of sustainable fuels to address emerging socio-economic needs;
• enhanced competitiveness of European aviation industry in the field through access to the broadest spectrum of advanced research tools and providing resources and services for research communities to conduct research and foster innovation in the field;
• positioning the top-level research infrastructures in the field as reliable innovation partners for world-wide researchers and European innovators
• where relevant, test beds may be used beyond research, e.g. for education and training.

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.

Access also includes ad hoc users’ training and scientific and technical support. Training courses for using the infrastructures may also be supported. Training courses and ad hoc users’ training will prepare the new generations of researchers to properly exploit leading-edge research infrastructures, and should provide them with appropriate skills for data stewardship.

Activities to facilitate and integrate the access procedures, to further develop the remote or virtual provision of services and to improve, customise and harmonise the services the infrastructures will also be supported, including for better serving the needs of open EU industrial research and innovation.

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 optimisation of the offered services and the development of new services, relevant to the challenges, will also be supported, including joint/cross-research infrastructure services 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. The topic will not support longer-term R&D for new instrumentation, tools, methods and advanced digital solutions.

Proposals should adhere to the guidelines and principles of the European Charter for Access to Research Infrastructures[2]

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 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, including data services, and customised workflows to enable R&I addressing the set challenge. To this extent, they should involve - as beneficiaries, affiliated entities, third parties, or external providers of purchased services - the necessary interdisciplinary set of research infrastructures of European interest[3] that provide such services.

Proposed actions should ensure that they are strongly linked to research infrastructures of pan-European relevance, as prioritised by ESFRI and the ERICs. Therefore, proposals should include at least one ESFRI Landmark[4] or European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC)[5] as beneficiary. In case of a distributed[6] 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. 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.

Access could also be open, in accordance with the ‘Specific Features for Research Infrastructure’ section of this Work Programme, to third countries’ researchers to work on global challenges. Research infrastructures from third countries[7] may be involved when appropriate. However, such research infrastructures should only be involved, as beneficiaries or affiliated entities, if they offer complementary or more advanced services than those available in EU Member States and Associated Countries.

Proposals should include an outreach and engagement plan to actively advertise their services to targeted research communities, notably from Widening countries and, if applicable, to relevant industries, including SMEs.

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[8] 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.

In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.

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: research infrastructure services for advanced biotechnology and biomanufacturing

The advances in life sciences, supported by digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI), and the potential of solutions based on biology to solve societal issues, make biotechnology and biomanufacturing very promising technological areas. They can help the EU to modernise its agriculture, forestry, energy, food and feed sectors and industry. In addition, these technologies can contribute to a more competitive and resilient EU, that provides better healthcare to its citizens, and succeeds in its green and digital transitions.

To further leverage research and boost innovation, a more productive use of relevant research infrastructures must be facilitated with specific attention to accelerating the use of the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation and Synthetic Biology Accelerator (EU IBISBA) as a trusted digital repository and service network for the sector.

Building on past integration of access to facilities and services, research infrastructures in the field are invited to reach a higher and more interdisciplinary level of integration to offer access, through a single entry point, to a coherent and complementary set of services, customising and combining them when necessary, to support academic and industrial research teams in support notably of the actions and priorities set out in the Commission Communication “Building the future with nature: Boosting Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing in the EU”.

Users should benefit from the harmonisation of standards, share of best practices and development of working standards promoted by the access providers, ensuring reproducibility and interoperability and accelerating the translation of knowledge into innovation. Users should also benefit from most recent efforts towards digitalisation of research infrastructures services and access to bioprocess data.

Proposals could consider the inclusion of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) research infrastructure (Nanobiotechnology laboratory and Environmental biotechnology laboratory) in their research portfolio for the characterization of advanced biotechnology products and systems and its expertise at the interface between innovation, regulatory sciences and policy. 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.

Area 2: research infrastructures services for access to novel radionuclides and facilities

Proposals should carry out all of the following activities:

• Build on the work carried out by the PRISMAP project in establishing a network of world-leading European facilities, including nuclear reactors, accelerators and radiochemical laboratories, offering a broad catalogue of radionuclides for medical research. The network must offer researchers access to radionuclides and to the complementary biomedical facilities.
• Offer services for: • the production and delivery of high purity radionuclides;
• associated research in biomedical facilities;
• supporting translational research and preclinical research techniques, either self-service or fully performed as a service.

• Investigating towards the development of upscaling of the production of these novel radionuclides, in the form of novel production technology, new purification methods, and proof-of-concept investigations showing the development of new treatments from test bench to patient care.
• Monitoring and engagement with other initiatives supporting the EU SAMIRA[7] action plan, in particular as regards the supply of novel (stable or radio-) isotopes and the development of innovative production methods, based on existing or new facilities.
• Proposals could consider the inclusion of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) research infrastructure PAMEC (Properties of Actinide Materials under Extreme Conditions) and FMR (Fuel for Material Research) in Karlsruhe, Germany, in their research infrastructure portfolio. The infrastructure is used and available for research into novel therapeutic medical radionuclides, including alternative production paths based on radionuclide such as but not limited to technetium, uranium or thorium targets, as well as the development of novel compounds for the treatment of various tumors by radioligand therapy. In this regard, the JRC will consider collaborating with any successful proposal in these areas and this collaboration, when relevant and upon availability of the radionuclide, should be established after feasibility study by local contact and the proposal’s approval.

Area 3: research infrastructure services to improve the understanding and prediction of future climate changes and their impact.

Meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement and achieving climate neutrality by 2050 in the EU require strengthening and continuously updating the underpinning scientific evidence base. This includes improving the knowledge of the Earth system, its recent evolution and future responses under different global emissions pathways and socio-economic scenarios while establishing stronger linkages with integrated assessment and impact modelling communities. State-of-the-art Earth’s climate system models are essential for advanced understanding and capability to analyse the recent past and predict the future evolution of the coupled Earth system, at global to regional or more local scales, and across timescales.

Projects should provide access to a wide portfolio of world-class and complementary services in the field of Earth climate system modelling, such as models, software, high-performance computing resources, and data to enable efficient production, evaluation, and exploitation of model simulations, as well as rapid and reliable exchange of knowledge across multiple projects, models, and modelling communities in Europe and globally, and also with policymakers, planners, and climate services. Proposals should ensure appropriate links with relevant European and international initiatives such as projects supported under Horizon Europe Cluster 5 Destination 1 “Climate sciences and responses for the transformation towards climate neutrality”, the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change, and Destination Earth.

Proposals could consider the inclusion of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) research infrastructure (Marine Optical laboratory - MARlab) in their research infrastructure portfolio for supporting Earth Observations of the aquatic environment through highly accurate bio-optical in situ reference measurements and modelling, as well as its expertise at the interface between the research activities and regulatory aspects. In this regard, the JRC will consider collaborating with any successful proposal.

Area 4: research infrastructures services for New Aviation Fuels and Combustion Technologies

With the ratification of the ReFuelEU Aviation initiative, the extensive use of sustainable fuels in European aviation will become legally binding. The development of a competitive European industry for the production of sustainable fuels requires, on the one hand, the consideration of a large number of sustainable raw materials as a starting point for the production process but also the introduction of alternative energy sources (especially liquid hydrogen). Due to the extremely high safety requirements, comprehensive test series in the development and investigation of the effects of these fuels on the various system elements of air traffic (this includes aircraft systems, refuelling vehicles, pipeline systems and much more) are of great importance for subsequent certification, as the foundation for a market uptake of sustainable aviation fuels.

To enlarge the array of sustainable feedstocks and applications and push further the use of new aviation fuels and combustion technologies for finding effective solutions to emerging socio-economic needs, researchers and innovators need the most advanced research and testing facilities.

The research infrastructures in the field including those relevant for adaption and expansion of existing test combustion capabilities to use new fuels for future propulsion systems, referee-test rigs for the assessment of the potential and characteristics of sustainable aviation fuels in respect to safety and reliability and test rigs that support the approval and qualification of SAF candidates entering ASTM D4054 (Tier 2.5) should build on past integration of access to their facilities in previous Framework Programmes and reach an higher and more interdisciplinary level of integration to offer access, through a single entry point, to a coherent and complementary set of services, customising and combining them when necessary, to support academic and industrial research teams.

Proposals could consider, for their inclusion in the service portfolio, relevant services and expertise offered by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC).

[1] COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Building the future with nature: Boosting Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing in the EU

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

[3] 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.

[4] See lists of ESFRI 'Landmarks‘ in the 2021 ESFRI Roadmap on https://roadmap2021.esfri.eu/

[5] European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) | European Commission (europa.eu)

[6] 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

[7] See the Eligibility conditions for this topic.The Strategic Agenda for Medical Ionising Radiation Applications (SAMIRA) contributes to Europe's Beating Cancer Plan, and responds to the EU Council's conclusion from 24 May 2019 on non-power nuclear and radiological technologies and applications

[8] “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.

[9] See the Eligibility conditions for this topic.The Strategic Agenda for Medical Ionising Radiation Applications (SAMIRA) contributes to Europe's Beating Cancer Plan, and responds to the EU Council's conclusion from 24 May 2019 on non-power nuclear and radiological technologies and applications