Research infrastructure concept development
HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
Basic Information
- Identifier
- HORIZON-INFRA-2022-DEV-01-01
- Programme
- Developing the European research infrastructures landscape, maintaining global leadership (2022)
- Programme Period
- 2021 - 2027
- Status
- Closed (31094503)
- Opening Date
- January 19, 2022
- Deadline
- April 20, 2022
- Deadline Model
- single-stage
- Budget
- €1,500,000
Description
Projects are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes:
- sound science cases for new research infrastructures, including expected scientific breakthrough, gap analysis and feasibility/design studies to support planning and decision making at the national level (e.g. funding bodies, governments) and at European level (e.g. ESFRI);
- a better alignment of the development of the research infrastructure landscape with the advancement of excellent science and frontier research;
- new services and access opportunities available to the research community, allowing to better tackle scientific and societal challenges.
This topic aims at supporting the development of new concepts for the next generation of research infrastructures of European interest[1], single/multi sited, distributed or virtual, that none or few countries might individually be able to afford. All fields of research can be considered.
Major upgrades of existing infrastructures may also be considered if the end result is significantly transformative and equivalent to a new infrastructure concept.
Proposals for RI concept development will tackle all key questions concerning the technical and conceptual feasibility of new or upgraded fully fledged user facilities.
In this respect, proposals should address all following aspects:
- demonstrate relevance in relation to ERA, including to the existing landscape, and the advancement with respect to the state-of-art of the new infrastructure;
- highlight the research challenges the new research infrastructures will make possible to address, including at global level;
- indicate the gaps in the research infrastructure landscape the new infrastructure will cover and the synergies with existing infrastructures at European and global level, including those co-financed from other EU instruments (e.g.: Cohesion policy);
- indicate, when relevant, the potential impact of the new research infrastructure at regional level.
Proposals should also provide evidence that the project will effectively:
- identify technologies and develop research infrastructure architecture (e.g. single site or distributed, …);
- identify scientific user communities (and their related needs) that will benefit from access to RI services, including scientific data and instrumentation, and develop the planning of research services to users;
- identify governance options and strategic approaches for institutional/stakeholders’ commitment and engagement;
- develop initial financial plans for the RI construction (or major upgrades) and operation as well as preliminary ideas for long-term sustainability, including synergies with other funds and programmes (e.g.: ERDF);
- develop plans for an efficient data curation and preservation and for the provision of access to data collected or produced by the future infrastructure, in line with the FAIR principles.
Proposals considering just a new component of a research infrastructure are not in scope of this topic.
When relevant, environmental (including climate-related) impacts as well as the optimisation of resource and energy use should be integrated in the concept development of new research infrastructures. In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.
[1]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.
Destination & Scope
Over recent years, the European Commission, Member States (MS) and Associated Countries (AC) have been closely collaborating, in particular within the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), to develop an integrated and efficient ecosystem of research infrastructures (RIs) in Europe, which encompasses single-sited facilities, distributed facilities integrating resources across the European Research Area, as well as networks of national facilities and which serves researchers and engineers in all S&T fields, from basic to applied research. To facilitate integration and pooling of resources for the development of new capacities, a legal instrument has also been developed at European level, the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) that provides favourable conditions for the establishment and operation of large European infrastructures supported jointly by several MSs and ACs as well as by third countries. While Member States remain central in the development and financing of public RIs, the Union and ESFRI play a catalysing and leveraging role in driving the integration between national efforts.
The challenges for the near future are to consolidate and optimise the European Research Infrastructure landscape and enhance its capacity to support frontier research and address the emerging and new scientific and societal objectives associated with the transition towards a sustainable and resilient Europe. In addition, there is the need to define and implement an effective and sound RI strategy in Europe, in close cooperation with ESFRI, MSs and ACs, which is complemented by and interlocks with the long-term ambition of creating an integrated Technology Infrastructure (TI) landscape, the latter is supported in Pillar II of Horizon Europe Programme (HE). Such a strategy would also help in exploiting synergies between RI and TI financed from Horizon and massive investments in infrastructures from ERDF.
This destination aims to create a world-leading coherent, agile and attractive RI landscape in Europe, by reducing its fragmentation at European, national and regional level, ensuring coordination of efforts and fostering alignment of priorities among MSs and ACs, connecting RIs to the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), and which is able to support national and regional R&I ecosystems. The support to a European strategy for Research Infrastructures as well as activities to enhance the role of RIs for international cooperation and science diplomacy will also be covered under this destination.
Expected impact
Proposals for topics under this destination should set out a credible pathway to contributing to one or several of the following impacts:
- Disruptive research and breakthrough science and innovation through cutting-edge, interconnected and sustainable Research Infrastructures;
- Strengthened scientific excellence and performance and efficiency of the European Research Area, increasing its attractiveness to researchers from all over the world;
- Coordinated research infrastructure capacity among countries and regions, also by exploiting possibilities given by the smart specialisation processes;
- Reinforced R&I capacities enabling systemic changes needed for a truly transformative societal and economic recovery and a strengthened resilience of critical sectors, as outlined in the Recovery Plan;
- Improved European response, in cooperation with international players, to emerging socio-economic and related scientific and technological challenges at global level.
Eligibility & Conditions
General conditions
1. Admissibility conditions: described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.
Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System.
2. Eligible countries: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.
A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.
3. Other eligibility conditions: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.
4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.
5. Evaluation and award:
- Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes.
- Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual
- Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement: described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes
6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants: described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes.
Specific conditions
7. Specific conditions: described in the .specific topic of the Work Programme.
Documents
Call documents:
Standard application form — call-specific application form is available in the Submission System
Standard application form (HE RIA, IA)
Standard evaluation form — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)
MGA
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2021–2022 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2021–2022 – 3. Research Infrastructures
HE Main Work Programme 2021–2022 – 13. General Annexes
HE Framework Programme and Rules for Participation Regulation 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual
Support & Resources
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