ACCESS PROTOCOL

ELECMI offers competitive open access for Unique Equipments to researchers working at public or private research centers and companies. The access is open to both the national and the international scientific communities. The open competitive access is regulated through a scientific external access committee with an independent and transparent evaluation process.

The call is permanently open. To gain access to the ICTS, the user must complete the online Access Application Form that can be found in the “request” bottom of each of the instruments offered by ELECMI. If the applicant is not sure about the most appropriate instrument, he or she can contact our staff for advise (see contact section) or send the proposal and later the access committee will relocate the user to the most adequate instrument for the measurements to be done. The research proposal to gain access should describe:

The scientific aim of the project, including:

The state of the art.
The expected output.
The potential industrial applications.
The requested instrument(s) including measuring conditions and sample preparation.
Additional facilities, if needed.
The requested access time to the instrument and sample preparation time (if any).
The preferred dates for the measurements.
The requested time for computing / data treatment and analysis time (if any).

The Access Application Form will be evaluated by the Access Committee, which is integrated by independent experts with extensive knowledge in the different microscopic and spectroscopic techniques offered by ELECMI. The Access Committee will assess the scientific and technological quality as well as the technical/logistical feasibility of the applications received. Each proposal will be evaluated by the access committee against the following selection criteria:

Scientific quality of the proposal (rank: weak: 0 – outstanding: 5).
Demonstration of the need for the use of the advanced infrastructure (rank: weak: 0 –outstanding: 5).
Feasibility of the experiment (rank: weak: 0 – outstanding: 5).
Potentiality for industrial applications and industrial interest (rank: weak: 0 – outstanding: 5).
Safety and environmental issues (yes /no).

Proposals with a total ranking less than 10 will be rejected.

The applicant will receive an email within ten working days from the application date with the approval/rejection of the proposal. Rejection of a proposal will always be accompanied by a report written by the referees of the access committee outlining the reasons for rejection. Where appropriate, the report will also include recommendations and suggestions for improvement and resubmission of a new proposal for accessing to ELECMI.

Immediately after the approval of a proposal, the Proposals Coordinator will designate a local person who will contact the user(s) to organize and perform the experiment. Subsequently, the ELECMI staff will contact the user to organize the details of the experiment depending on the characteristics of the specific project as well as the remote or on-site option chosen by the user.

If you have any questions about our facilities or services, do not doubt to contact us.