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Grant Analysis

Purpose & Target

This grant aims to provide broad, simplified, and efficient trans-national and/or virtual access to integrated and customised research infrastructure services for curiosity-driven research across various scientific domains.
The primary objective is to advance frontier knowledge by enabling researchers to utilise state-of-the-art research infrastructures, fostering improved and harmonised services, and ensuring the sustainability of the access scheme.
Target recipients are research infrastructures (RIs) or consortia of RIs that can offer access to their facilities and services.
This is a SECTOR-SPECIFIC grant, specifically targeting Research Infrastructures across scientific domains like Data, Computing and Digital RIs, Energy, Environment, Health & Food, Physical Sciences and Engineering, and Social Sciences & Humanities.
Geographic Scope: Open to EU Member States and Associated Countries. Specific third countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, India, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Switzerland, USA) are exceptionally eligible if they provide access to EU/Associated Country researchers.
Key filtering criteria: Applicant must be a research infrastructure or a consortium led by one, offering access services for curiosity-driven research, and explicitly addressing one of the eligible scientific domains.
Grant frequency: This is part of the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-2025, indicating it is likely a recurring opportunity within the program's framework.

Financial Structure

Minimum grant amount: 5,000,000 EUR per grant.
Maximum grant amount: 5,000,000 EUR per grant.
Total budget for this topic: 20,000,000 EUR for the year 2025.
Funding rate: 80% of the eligible costs will be covered by the grant.
Eligible costs: May take the form of unit costs for trans-national and virtual access to research infrastructures, as defined in the Decision authorising the use of unit costs for such actions (Annex 2a of the Horizon Europe Model Grant Agreement).
Co-financing: A 20% co-financing requirement is implied by the 80% funding rate.
Financial reporting and audit requirements: Described in Annex G of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes, but details are not provided in the topic description.

Eligibility Requirements

Organizational Type

Legal entities providing research infrastructure services.
Proposals must include at least one ESFRI Landmark or European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) as a beneficiary.
If a distributed ERIC is involved, a legal entity hosting ERIC facilities, resources, or related services may participate as a beneficiary, provided a declaration signed by the ERIC's legal representative confirms support, relevance, and further cooperation.

Geographic Requirements

Legal entities established in EU Member States and Associated Countries are eligible for funding.
Legal entities established in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, India, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Switzerland, and USA are exceptionally eligible for funding.
This exceptional eligibility applies only if these entities provide access to their research infrastructures to researchers from EU Member States and Associated Countries under the grant.
Research infrastructures from third countries not listed above may be involved but only if they offer complementary or more advanced services than those available in EU Member States and Associated Countries.

Project Scope Requirements

Access provision activities (trans-national and/or virtual access) must be included in the proposal.
The main goal of the project must be access provision to existing services.
The project should aim to provide access to integrated and customised research infrastructure services for curiosity-driven research.

Consortium Requirements

Consortiums are mandatory. Proposals should involve an interdisciplinary set of research infrastructures.
At least one ESFRI Landmark or ERIC (or a qualifying host entity for a distributed ERIC) must be part of the consortium as a beneficiary.

Exclusion Criteria

This topic will not support longer-term Research & Development (R&D) for new instrumentation, tools, methods, and advanced digital solutions. Support is for short-term R&D related to improvement and optimisation of existing services, provided the resulting services are opened and offered under the action.

Application Process

Application Deadline

The submission deadline is 2025-09-18.

Submission Process

Applications must be submitted via the Electronic Submission Service on the Funding & Tenders Portal.
The submission model is 'single-stage'.
Applicants need to select the appropriate submission-button next to the type of action ('HORIZON-RIA Horizon Research and Innovation Actions') and model grant agreement ('HORIZON-AG Horizon Action Grant Budget-Based').

Required Documentation and Materials

The application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System.
Applicants are not required to include a plan for the exploitation and dissemination of results, as the main objective is service provision.
The application page limit is 100 pages.
Standard application forms (HE RIA, IA) and evaluation form templates (HE RIA, IA) will be used.

Supporting Materials and Guidance

Applicants are advised to consult the Horizon Europe Programme Guide, Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual, and Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ.
Guidance documents available include: HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 1. General Introduction, 3. Research Infrastructures, and 14. General Annexes.
Legal and financial guidance is also available in the HE MGA, HE Unit MGA, Lump Sum MGA, and the EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509.

Support Availability

Resources for assistance include: Research Enquiry Service, National Contact Points (NCPs), Enterprise Europe Network, IT Helpdesk for technical issues, and European IPR Helpdesk for intellectual property concerns.
A partner search tool is available on the Funding & Tenders Portal.

Evaluation Criteria

General Award Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated based on criteria, scoring, and thresholds described in Annex D of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.

Excellence Criterion (Additional Aspects)

The extent to which the access activities (trans-national and/or virtual access) offer access to state-of-the-art infrastructures of European interest in the field, high quality services, and enable users to conduct excellent research.
The extent to which the project contributes to facilitating and integrating access procedures, improving the services provided by the infrastructures, and further developing their online services.

Portfolio Balance

To ensure a balanced portfolio covering as many scientific domains as possible, grants will be awarded not only based on ranking but also to proposals addressing a scientific domain (and sub-domain if needed) not covered by a higher-ranked proposal.
This applies provided that the proposals attain all predefined thresholds.
Scientific domains considered for balance are: Data, Computing and Digital Research Infrastructures; Energy; Environment; Health & Food; Physical Sciences and Engineering; Social Sciences & Humanities.

Quality Thresholds

All proposals must attain specified thresholds to be considered for funding.

Compliance & Special Requirements

Access and Service Provision Standards

Proposals must adhere to the guidelines and principles of the 'European Charter for Access to Research Infrastructures'.
The research infrastructure must be of 'European interest', meaning it can attract users from EU or associated countries other than its location.
The main goal of the topic is access provision to existing services. While improvement and optimisation of offered services and development of new services (including joint/cross-RI services) can be supported, these must be short-term R&D, and the resulting services must be immediately opened and offered under the action with ensured long-term sustainability by the participating RIs.

Data Management and Digital Standards

Data management (including implementing FAIR data principles), interoperability, and connection of digital services (e.g., data services) to the European Open Science Cloud should be addressed where relevant.
Proposals should foster the use and deployment of (open) global standards when appropriate.

Ethical and Legal Compliance

Relevant ethical issues related to data management must be addressed.
Legal and financial set-up of grants is described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Strategic Alignment and Collaboration

Proposals should ensure strong links to research infrastructures of pan-European relevance, as prioritised by ESFRI and ERICs.
Exploitation of synergies and ensuring complementarity and coherence with other EU grants supporting access provision is expected.
An outreach and engagement plan is required to actively advertise services to research communities, particularly those in Widening countries.

Unique Aspects and Limitations

This topic does not support longer-term R&D for new instrumentation, tools, methods, or advanced digital solutions.
The integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement for this topic.
Proposals should make available a very wide, inclusive, and comprehensive portfolio of complementary research infrastructure services, including data services, relevant for frontier research.
'Installation' means a part or service of a research infrastructure that can be used independently; a research infrastructure can consist of one or more installations.

Grant Details