Consolidation of the research infrastructure landscape – pilots for strategic coordination, synergies and simplified access pathways, by large thematic clusters of pan-European research infrastructures
- Fetched
- 2026-06-09T15:42:49Z
Topic description
Expected Outcome: Policy contribution, impact and visibility of research infrastructures of European interest, by large thematic domain, to relevant EU policy and priority initiatives, including beyond research, at national, regional, European and global level. Improved coordination, complementarities, and where applicable, interoperability, harmonisation, integration and synergies among research infrastructures within large thematic domains and, where relevant, across domains. A European portfolio of R&I services of European interest, supported by a common front page and few single-entry point access portals, integrated or interoperable catalogues of R&I services and converging access conditions and selection procedures, strengthening the European landscape of ESFRI-prioritised infrastructures and other world-class research infrastructures by large thematic domains. Increased awareness, findability and accessibility of research infrastructures for European researchers and innovators; simplified and adapted access pathways for new needs or new communities of users (e.g. where relevant, multidisciplinary R&I, EU collaborative research projects, EU operational or deployment programmes, public authorities, and industry, including SMEs, startups and scaleups). Scope: This topic aims at equipping large thematic clusters of research infrastructures of European interest with a policy arm combined with a technical arm, to increase awareness, findability and accessibility, better matching user needs. This thematic clustering is aligned with ESFRI approach: proposals should explicitly state which ESFRI domain [1] they address (see specific conditions on procedure for ranking proposals). Proposals should foresee close collaboration across projects under this topic to ensure, where applicable, policy coordination, technical interoperability and other synergies. Building on the clusters under Horizon 2020 [2] and Horizon Europe [3] , on the development of catalogues of services, and on new access pathways and improved services such as under Horizon Europe INFRASERV [4] projects, proposals should address all of the following aspects: Strengthening the representation of the research infrastructures cluster, as a single or coordinated voice, in key EU policy developments and strategic initiatives and contribute to policies in their domain with a research infrastructure component. Coordination with cross-domains fora, such as the ERIC Forum and EIROforum should also be ensured. Strengthening coordination among research infrastructures to foster complementarities, interoperability, harmonisation, integration and synergies within the domain, and where relevant with other domains to address increasingly complex and multidisciplinary science and technology challenges. Developing, optimising and connecting catalogues of research infrastructures services of European interest. Attention is required to new users, notably researchers and innovators from widening countries and candidate countries, industry (including SMEs, startups and scaleups), early-stage career researchers, and non-expert users. Flexibility to address future needs should be considered. Developing and implementing intermediary services, user support, tools and notably AI assisted research infrastructure services navigation. When relevant, resulting data and digital services should be made accessible through EOSC. Elaborating and promoting indicators flagging the strategic relevance of specific research infrastructures services to key EU R&I priorities and initiatives, including through common or coordinated impact assessments, and possible validation mechanisms with these initiatives. Proposals should involve, not necessarily as beneficiaries, ESFRI Landmarks and Projects and/or ERICs in the domain, other research infrastructures that are international European research organisations and, where relevant, well-established networks of key European research infrastructures open to external users. Proposals should elaborate on which key EU priorities and initiatives (such as Horizon Europe partnerships, missions) they will consider and the nature and objectives of the envisaged coordination mechanisms or joint activities. To ensure a holistic view from design to implementation of possible access schemes, proposals should ensure strong and continuous collaboration with the cross-domain preparatory action exploring a more integrated and sustainable scheme for access to research infrastructures HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-DEV-05 [5] , and the actions supported under topics HORIZON-INFRA-2027-01-SERV-01 and HORIZON-INFRA-2027-01-SERV-02. This collaboration should ensure a common front page to all above actions highlighting the common objectives of EU supported access, the main conditions and requirements, providing preliminary guidance on access opportunities and directing to the single-entry point portal of each pilot of HORIZON-INFRA-2027-SERV-01-01. The collaboration should also promote simplified access pathways, good practices on call conditions, converging access modalities and selection process, and effective governance of the set of projects acting as an access programme with appropriate advisory bodies. Proposals could consider the inclusion of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) research infrastructures in the area of health and food. 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. [1] ESFRI domains: 1. Data, Computing and Digital Research Infrastructures; 2. Energy; 3. Environment; 4. Health & Food; 5. Physical Sciences and Engineering; 6. Social Sciences & Humanities. See ESFRI Landscape Analysis 2024 https://landscape2024.esfri.eu/ . [2] Implementation and operation of cross-cutting services and solutions for clusters and Connecting ESFRI infrastructures through Cluster projects . [3] Preparation of common strategies for future development of RI technologies and services within broad RI communities – https://cordis.europa.eu/programme/id/HORIZON_HORIZON-INFRA-2023-DEV-01-05/en [4] Research infrastructure services to enable R&I addressing main challenges and EU priorities and advancing frontier knowledge - cordis link [5] https://cordis.europa.eu/programme/id/HORIZON_HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-DEV-05
Conditions and documents
General conditions 1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout 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 Eligible Conditions The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as member of the consortium selected for funding as a beneficiary with zero funding, or as an associated partner. The JRC will not participate in the preparation and submission of the proposal - see General Annex B. 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. 5a. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds To ensure a balanced portfolio covering the different domains, grants will be awarded to applications not only in order of ranking but at least also to those proposals that are the highest ranked within each ESFRI domain, provided that the applications attain all thresholds. are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual . 5c. Evaluation and award: 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 Beneficiaries will be subject to the additional access rights: beneficiaries shall grant royalty-free access to their intellectual property relating to tools, standards, specifications, and other relevant outputs generated by this action to the EU institutions and to the beneficiaries of projects funded by the EU in view of a more sustained and integrated EU access scheme. This access shall be provided through a mechanism to be defined in the proposal, during and beyond the lifespan of the Grant Agreement . Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025) [[This decision is available on the Funding and Tenders Portal, in the reference documents section for Horizon Europe, under ‘Simplified costs decisions’ or through this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/guidance/ls-decision_he_en.pdf ]]. described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes. Specific conditions described in the specific topic of the Work Programme Application and evaluation forms and model grant agreement (MGA): Application form templates — the application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System Standard application form (HE RIA, IA) /!\ Topic HORIZON-INFRA-2026-DEV-01-02: Do not use the general templates available on this portal for your Part B. You must download the specific templates for this topic directly from the submission platform. Standard application form (HE CSA) Evaluation form templates — will be used with the necessary adaptations Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA) Standard evaluation form (HE CSA) Guidance HE Programme Guide Model Grant Agreements (MGA) HE MGA Lump Sum MGA Framework Partnership Agreement FPA Call-specific instructions Detailed budget table (HE LS) Information on financial support to third parties (HE) Information on clinical studies (HE) Guidance: "Lump sums - what do I need to know?" Additional documents: HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 1. General Introduction HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 3. Research Infrastructures HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 15. General Annexes HE Programme Guide HE Framework Programme 2021/695 HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764 EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509 Decision authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme 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
Budget overview
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