Hi
Apologies to John Dalton and Bristol for getting the eligibility criteria
wrong. I was thinking of UK EU funded researchers (e.g. Marie-Curie
Fellows) working outside the UK. They are not allowed to conduct research
in their country of origin (though I could be wrong on this).
In case people are interested, the eligibility criteria are given below
(from the EU web site). Of particular interest are Paras 3 and 4, which
suggests that UK researchers could use the facility if they are part of an
"international team" conducting research in another EU country. For
example, some of the Geode research topics -- is this interpretation correct
or have I taken creative interpretation of the rules too far?
Industry people may be interested in the last paragraph, which may allow
small companies (e.g. junior mining companies) free access to research
facilites.
Cheers
Jon
Transnational Access to Major Research Infrastructures
- Eligibility of Research Teams -
The objective of the activity Transnational Access to Major Research
Infrastructures is to sponsor new opportunities for research teams to obtain
access to the major research infrastructures most appropriate for their
work, irrespective of where in the Member States or Associated States they
or the infrastructure are located.
Research teams requesting access must submit to the infrastructure operator
(the contractor) proposals describing the project they wish to carry out and
the names and places of work of the researchers expected to take part. Only
research teams conducting their research in the Member States or Associated
States are eligible to benefit from access under the activity. The term
"research team" means a group of one or more researchers not necessarily all
coming from the same country. Researchers from third countries may
participate in a project where the team leader and the majority of the team
are from eligible countries.
Research teams conducting their research in the country of the contractor
are not eligible. This exclusion will not apply to a contractor that is an
international organisation or the Joint Research Centre. However, if a
research team, composed of a team leader and of a majority of users from
eligible countries, includes exceptionally some researchers from the country
of the infrastructure, it will not be excluded.
All researchers within an eligible team (the "users"), irrespective of their
nationality, are eligible to receive reimbursement of the travel and
subsistence expenses related to their participation to the project. The
prior agreement of the Commission is however required for any travel outside
the territory of the Member States and the Associated States. This
authorisation will be granted only in exceptional cases when duly justified.
Users will be expected to publish their results within a reasonable time in
the open literature. As a general rule, users conducting proprietary
research will not be supported under this scheme. An exception will,
however, be made in the case of SMEs who wish to use a particular
infrastructure for the first time.
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