TransNational Access

The NEPHEWS TNA programme aims to support scientists by providing free access (on-site and remote) to research facilities (RIs), enabling them to conduct experiments at installations and beamlines.

TNA is offered in two types:

1. On-site access: Users visit the facilities in person and receive „hands-on” service.
2. Remote access: Users have „hands-off” access to the facility, with the analysis of mail-in samples conducted at the facility/installation.

Access to the facilities is completely free of charge and includes the necessary logistical, technological, and scientific support, as well as specific training required to use the services provided by the facility. Additionally, travel and accommodation expenses are covered by the project. A maximum of two researchers per access visit are entitled to reimbursement for travel and accommodation costs.

Research Infrastructures (RIs) within NEPHEWS will provide 38,290 hours of beamtime to approximately 902 users.

To benefit from the support of the TNA programme, you are requested to submit a proposal for beamtime at one of our 14 partner RIs. Applications for beamtime are accepted during regular open calls for proposals, which are announced by each RI, usually twice a year.

Depending on the facility requested and the scientific topic, proposals are peer-reviewed by an international Scientific Review Panel. Proposals that do not meet the guidelines concerning length and content may be excluded from the review process and will be rejected.

When your proposal reaches the evaluation threshold and the beamtime is granted, you will have the possibility to perform measurements at RI.

Please follow the instructions provided in the Call for Proposals for the given facility.

Receiving beamtime does not mean that the submitted application can qualify under TNA. The TNA programme poses certain restrictions upon the eligibility of users, defined in Annex 5 related to article 18 of the Horizon Europe Grant Agreement (Annex 5 related to article 18 of the Horizon Europe Grant Agreement (HE Access to research infrastructure). The main criteria for eligibility are outlined below.

Who is eligible?

• TNA will be provided to selected academia user-groups.
  User group = a research team of one or more researchers led by a User Group Leader.
• The majority of the user group must work in a country other than the country where the installation is located.
• Only users groups that will disseminate the results they generate under the project are eligible.
• Access for user groups with a majority of users not working in a EU Member State or Horizon Europe associated countries is limited to 20% of the total amount of units of access provided under the grant.

When examining the eligibility of a submitted application, whether it qualifies as TNA or not, the nationality of the users is irrelevant. At this level we only look at the affiliation of the research team members.

To apply for financial support under the TNA programme, the above criteria must be met for the group that will ultimately perform the measurements. If the composition of the user group change from that specified in the final declaration and therefore does not meet these criteria, financial support cannot be granted.

NEPHEWS has a special focus on offering support to users from 8 selected countries, other EU Widening countries and countries without direct access to large scale research infrastructures in their country.

• First, financial support for travel and accommodation will be offered to users whose affiliation comes from one of the 8 selected countries (Estonia, Finland, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine).
• In addition, support will be offered to users whose affiliation is from other Widening countries or in countries without RI.
• In the next step, support will be offered to subsequent groups of qualified users (if the available amount of support allocated in the project is not used).

EU funding will be allocated to travel and accommodation support to user groups who fulfil the eligibility criteria. A maximum of two researchers per experiment/visit are entitled.

Each facility participating in the TNA programme may have its own travel and visit management scheme. Qualified applications and users should remain in contact with the RI where they will conduct the measurements.

Financial support is handled by each facility, in line with facility rules. For more information on financial support, please contact the User Office.

Reimbursement is handled by each facility, in line with internal rules. Please check whether the hosted infrastructure where does not require to fill a reimbursement form.

If so, the users which was qualify for financial support should return the completed form to the User Office of the visited infrastructure (with invoices and receipts of travel and accommodation expenses).

More information about reimbursements can be obtained from the facility that granted the beamtime.

For the purpose of reporting to the European Commission, all users applying for financial support are asked to complete the evaluation form. This should be consulted with beamline scientist at RI who will ensure that all beamtime information on the form is correct.

It needs be return to the RI User Office together with documents mentioned above in the reimbursement section.

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Users are obliged to acknowledge support from NEPHEWS project by the following text string that needs to be literally included into the publication:

„The research leading to this result has been co-funded by the project NEPHEWS under Grant Agreement No 101131414 from the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon Europe”.

“Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the Granting Authorities can be held responsible for them.”

The relevant beamline scientist should be kept informed of all the publications referred to under the point above. You should email the full title and reference of the publication to RI, once it has been accepted for publication.

Registration for the TNA programme is not necessary. User offices will contact research groups that tentatively meet the access criteria.

However, you can apply for the programme yourself by contacting us directly.

In some cases, to apply for participation in the NEPHEWS TNA programme, the User Group Leader should complete the Registration Form and return it to the facility Users Office.

Please check with the facility where you received your beamtime to see if such a form is required.