Access to marine research infrastructures for up to two people for up to 30 days!

Who can apply?

To apply for access to ASSEMBLE Plus you have to meet these eligibility criteria:

• You are a PhD student, postdoc, researcher, or engineer
• You must submit an innovative project proposal
• You must work/study in a recognised academic institution, or be employed by a not-for-profit organisation or registered company
• Your home institution should be based in a European Union Member State or Associated Country. ​
  Access for a single user – or a user group – not working in the EU or an Associated Country is allowed but with some limitations.
  Please check the "Transnational Access policy" for further details
• The access must be transnational, i.e., the home institution of the main applicant must be situated in a country different from that of the selected access provider
  
  Priority will be given to:
• new applicants, applicants from outside the ASSEMBLE Plus consortium, and applicants from non-marine research fields
• project proposals which require research access to local ecosystems, species, or models, rather than those that bring their own samples for analysis (marine only)
   

Other important eligibility conditions regarding the TA

• The applicant must be the Project Leader (the main executor of the Project) in case the Project is accepted.
• PhD students are eligible for access. Master’s student can participate to a TA project if this is led by an experienced researcher; travel and subsistence costs of Master's students will not be reimbursed by ASSEMBLE Plus. Bachelor’s students are not eligible for access.
• An active contract with a Home institute (covering insurance and other provisions) is required during the period of the access.
• Collaborations with research and technical staff at the Access Provider is encouraged but is not in any way obligatory.
• In case your project is accepted, you abide to archive and make the data obtained from the TA as Open Access (opt-outs are allowed), and to allow any related refereed publications to also be Open Access. More information on our page How to make your data FAIR and Open Access.

Please check the "Transnational Access policy" and the "Frequently Asked Questions" in the Download area for further information.

How to apply

To submit an application, follow the instructions in the How to apply page.
Plan in advance the best moment to submit your application consulting the calendar of our next calls.

Remote access

Transnational Access normally means that you as a user are hosted at the marine station and carry out your work there. However, access to some types of services do not require you to be physically present. We call this “Remote access”. Examples of such services include (but are not restricted to):

a) Sample and specimen collection, processing and shipment,
b) Taxonomic identification of specimens,
c) Rearing of organisms,
d) Analytical procedures,
e) Procurement of strains from culture collections.

Applications requiring exclusively remote access are reviewed on rolling basis.
Please check the guide Application step by step for more information on how to submit a remote access request (Step 2).

Important dates

European Commission suspends cooperation with Russia in research and innovation

Following the Russian military invasion of Ukraine and in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, the European Commission (EC) has decided to suspend cooperation with Russian entities in research and innovation.

On 3 March 2022, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel announced a series of measures impacting Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe funded projects. The EC will not conclude any new contracts or agreements with Russian organisations under the Horizon Europe programme and will suspend payments to Russian entities under existing contracts. All ongoing projects, in which Russian research organisations are participating, are being reviewed both under the Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe programmes.

As the Horizon 2020-funded ASSEMBLE Plus project offers researchers transnational access to marine stations and institutes across Europe and overseas, in line with the EC and in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, the project will no longer be considering Russian applicants for participation in the transnational access programme.

Commissioner Gabriel said: “Russia's military aggression against Ukraine is an attack on freedom, democracy and self-determination, on which cultural expression, academic and scientific freedom and scientific cooperation are based. As a result, we have decided not to engage into further cooperation projects in research and innovation with Russian entities.”

The assessment of the situation regarding Belarus is ongoing.

What do we do with your information?

ASSEMBLE Plus offers the opportunity to apply for research infrastructure access visits with a Transnational Access programme through the ARIA web platform. Such applications are made by submitting proposals which go through peer review. Additional data are required in the form of your research history, biography and your project proposal. Personal data for the Transnational Access programme will be kept private and will only be visible to those involved within ASSEMBLE Plus who check the eligibility and feasibility of your proposal and host your visit, to the User Selection Panel members who peer-review your proposal, and to ARIA web platform administrators.

We use the personal data you provide for the purpose of reviewing your application, arranging the services, and to communicate with you throughout the process. We process your data on the basis of the “Terms of submission” contract, which we ask you to agree with at the last step of the online proposal submission process. We are required to maintain personal data for the purposes of reporting to the European Commission, and to comply with applicable EU and national laws on data protection.

As stated in the “Terms of submission”, limited personal information (name, home institute country, project title, selected access provider) of successful applicants will be published on the ASSEMBLE Plus website.

If your visit is scheduled for a research infrastructure outside of the EEA, your personal data will be shared with the ASSEMBLE Plus Access Provider facilitating your visit. All reasonable steps will be taken to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

If you wish to have your account removed from the system, please send an email to assembleplus_ta@embrc.eu.