Inclusive access to the services provided by research infrastructures in the European Research Area is essential both for the quality of the research produced and for the training of researchers. Easy access to high-quality resources, based on clear conditions and with appropriate funding, is an important and attractive feature of the EU research and innovation system, allowing researchers to move within or from outside Europe to perform their research. An open landscape of RIs in Europe contributes to the circulation of skills and attraction of talents and promotes European cohesion.

The support under past Framework Programmes of trans-national and virtual access to RIs has opened to research communities across Europe state-of-the-art services and resources for their scientific activities. RIs are key players in the generation of knowledge and drivers of scientific excellence in Europe. In conjunction with the European Open Science Cloud and Technology Infrastructures, they are crucial enablers of research and innovation. The provision of services at EU level has been so far mainly organised per types of infrastructures or disciplines. The complexity and urgency of the socio-economic and environmental transition that Europe is facing requires interdisciplinary approaches and a new challenge-driven provision of customised services able to accelerate the pace of the research cycle and the delivery of solutions.

Actions under this destination will provide efficient and customised research infrastructure services to drive and enable the transition toward a sustainable Europe and a prosperous economy. RI services (e.g. access to unique scientific tools and facilities, samples provision, processing and analysis, data and modelling services) will be directed to support R&I addressing main challenges and EU priorities, including an effective and responsive health system and to accelerate the transition towards a green and digital future. Specific alignments and synergies with priorities in Pillar 2 will be developed and research infrastructure support will duly contribute to the identified missions and partnerships under Horizon Europe. At the same time, research infrastructures, which are key players in the generation of fundamental knowledge and drivers of scientific excellence in Europe, will also continue enabling the advancement of frontier knowledge in areas complementary to those addressed through a challenge-driven approach.

Actions under this destination are invited to facilitate a fast-track access for Ukrainian researchers from government controlled territories, through specific outreach activities, support in preparing applications to the access calls, selection priority at equal scientific merit, as well as extended ad-hoc training and duration of visits (beyond 3 months).

Proposals for topics under this destination should set out a credible pathway to contributing to several of the following impacts:

• Reinforced research infrastructures capacity to provide at scale and across the EU services to support excellent research to address societal challenges, and Horizon Europe missions and partnerships’ objectives;
• Enhanced and increased society’s long-term and consistent problem-solving capacity and evidence-based policy making in areas linked to health, and the green and digital transition, including a better understanding of socio-economic implications, through the provision of innovative, customised and efficient RI services;
• New discoveries and knowledge breakthroughs enabled by access provision to the best and in some cases unique state-of-the-art RIs;
• A new generation of researchers trained to optimally exploit all the essential and advanced tools for their research;

Cross-fertilisation and a wider sharing of knowledge and technologies across disciplines and between academia and industry and businesses.

General conditions

1. Admissibility conditions: described in Annex A  and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes

As proposals need to give information on the research infrastructures providing access, the page limit of the application is 100 pages.

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

The following additional eligibility criteria apply, due to the specific nature of this topic:

• Access provision activities must be included in the proposal. Please read carefully the provisions under the section “Specific features for Research Infrastructures” at the end of this work programme part before preparing your application.
• Consortia must include at least 3 different research infrastructures from 3 different Member states or Associated countries, each of them being an ESFRI infrastructure, and/or a European Research Infrastructures Consortium (ERIC) or another research infrastructure of European interest (i.e. a research infrastructure[[ See definition in footnote 1 of this work programme part.]] which is able to attract users from EU or associated countries other than the country where the infrastructure is located). Such research infrastructures, and the beneficiaries that own/operate them, must be explicitly identified in the proposals.

Considering the Union’s interest to make accessible to its researchers the most advanced research infrastructures, wherever they are in the world, legal entities established in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, India, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Switzerland, United Kingdom and USA, which provide, under the grant, access to their research infrastructures to researchers from Member States and Associated Countries, are exceptionally eligible for funding from the Union under this topic.

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

The following additions to the general award criteria apply:

For the 'Excellence' criterion, in addition to its standard sub-criteria, the following aspects will also be taken into account:

• The extent to which the access activities (trans-national and/or virtual access) will offer access to the state-of-the-art infrastructures of European interest in the field, high quality services, and will enable users to conduct excellent research.
• The extent to which the project will contribute to facilitating and integrating the access procedures, to improve the services the infrastructures provide and to further develop their on-line services.

• 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

The funding rate is 70% of the eligible costs as the provision of trans-national access is an activity with strong European added value that is not usually supported by national funding bodies.

Eligible costs may take 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 the actions involving trans-national and virtual access (see Annex 2 of the Horizon Europe Model Grant Agreement).

Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties. The support to third parties can only be provided in the form of grants. The maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 100 000 as the costs of research infrastructure services widely differ depending on the type of research infrastructure, and in some case can lead to such upper limit. Research infrastructures which are beneficiaries/affiliated entities of the consortia awarded may exceptionally also be recipients of financial support to third parties. Proposals must explain how they will ensure that such beneficiaries/affiliated entities are not involved in the selection procedure of the calls, in order to avoid conflicts of interest and maintain confidentiality.

Specific conditions

7. Specific conditions: described in the [specific topic of the Work Programme]

Documents

Call documents:

Standard application form — topic-specific application form is available in the Submission System: Application form (Part A and B)

Annual Work Programme Template HE GOFUND - Annual Work Programme Template (HE COFUND)

Standard evaluation form — will be used with the necessary adaptations COFUND

MGA

HE General MGA v1.0

Decision authorising the use of unit costs for the actions involving trans-national and virtual access

Calculator (HE RI TA) and Calculator (HE RI VA) unit cost calculators for Research Infrastructure actions (transnational and virtual)

Additional documents:

HE Main Work Programme 2023-2024 – 1. General Introduction

HE Main Work Programme 2023-2024 – 3. Research Infrastructures

HE Main Work Programme 2023-2024 – 13. General Annexes

HE Programme Guide

HE Framework Programme and Rules for Participation Regulation 2021/695

HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764

EU Financial Regulation

Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment

EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement

Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual

Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions

Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement

European Charter for Access to Research Infrastructures

Applicants are not required to include in their proposal a plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results as the main objective of these actions is the service provision.

Online Manual is your guide on the procedures from proposal submission to managing your grant.

Horizon Europe Programme Guide contains the detailed guidance to the structure, budget and political priorities of Horizon Europe.

Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ – find the answers to most frequently asked questions on submission of proposals, evaluation and grant management.

Research Enquiry Service – ask questions about any aspect of European research in general and the EU Research Framework Programmes in particular.

National Contact Points (NCPs) – get guidance, practical information and assistance on participation in Horizon Europe. There are also NCPs in many non-EU and non-associated countries (‘third-countries’).

Enterprise Europe Network – contact your EEN national contact for advice to businesses with special focus on SMEs. The support includes guidance on the EU research funding.

IT Helpdesk – contact the Funding & Tenders Portal IT helpdesk for questions such as forgotten passwords, access rights and roles, technical aspects of submission of proposals, etc.

European IPR Helpdesk assists you on intellectual property issues.

CEN-CENELEC Research Helpdesk and ETSI Research Helpdesk – the European Standards Organisations advise you how to tackle standardisation in your project proposal.  

The European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for their recruitment – consult the general principles and requirements specifying the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of researchers, employers and funders of researchers.

Partner Search Services help you find a partner organisation for your proposal.