Access to research infrastructure services to enable R&I addressing EU priorities and emerging challenges

General conditions 1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout 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. The page limit of the application is 100 pages. 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 Subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks. 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. Given 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” of this work programme part before preparing your application. 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, and USA, which provide, under the grant, access to their state-of-the-art research infrastructures to researchers from Member States and Associated Countries, are exceptionally eligible for funding from the Union under this topic. 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 areas, 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 area, 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 The following additions to the general award criteria apply: For the 'Excellence' criterion, 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 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 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 2a of the Horizon Europe Model Grant Agreement). described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes. Specific conditions described in the specific topic of the Work Programme