The call for proposals for accessing one or several of the 31 ExpeER infrastructures is open. Prospective users are invited to submit research proposals. Submission is on a continuous-flow basis. Applicants should submit their proposal between two and six months before they wish to begin their visit.

The deadline for TA applications to be submitted is the 31st July, 2014.
The deadline for TA visits to be completed id the 30th Sep, 2014.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR TRANSNATIONAL ACCESS FUNDING UNDER THE ExpeER PROJECT :

• Aims

ExpeER (Distributed Infrastructure for Experimentation in Ecosystem Research), through its coordinated programme of Transnational Access (TA), aims to improve and facilitate access to state-of-the-art research facilities throughout Europe, promoting observational, experimental, analytical, and modelling approaches in ecosystem research.

• Support Offered

The TA programme offers external users free access to the 33 ExpeER research sites and facilities as detailed in the TA site description sheets including a contribution to users travel and subsistence costs. Users are encouraged to refer to the “infrastructure” part of the ExpeER website for detailed descriptions of each facility, including the modality of access, the offered services and any individual conditions.

• Eligibility

The TA programme is open to researchers from EU-member and Associated countries. Associated countries of the EU include: Albania, Croatia, Iceland, Israel, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The TA applicant (or the group leader and the majority - i.e. 50% or more - of the applicants in case of a group application) of the users must be employed by organisations in a country other than where the legal entity operating the infrastructure is established (e.g. an Italian-based researcher cannot apply for TA to an Italian facility).
Researchers from non-EU member states are eligible to apply for funding if they make their application as a member of a user group involved in international projects with a strong European link (e.g. FLUXNet). The user group leader and majority (i.e. > 50% or more) of the users must be employed by public or private institutions within Member States or Associated States.
Researchers from ExpeER partner organizations may apply to the TA programme, however they will not be given priority.
Please note, in the case of group applications, that only ONE person will be eligible for travel and subsistence reimbursement at the end of the TA visit.

• Obligation to publish research results

Users are expected to publish their results within a reasonable time in open literature. Acknowledgement of the access provided to users must be included in the publication, specifying that the project leading to the publication received research funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (EU FP7), e.g. "Financial support by the Transnational Access to Research Infrastructures activity in the 7th Framework Programme of the EC under the ExpeER project for conducting the research is gratefully acknowledged". The receiving organization, and, if applicable, research programmes or projects funding the specific infrastructure, must also be acknowledged.