OPEN Access protocol

ELECMI’s COMPETIVE OPEN ACCESS PROTOCOL

ELECMI offers open competitive access to its singular instruments. Researchers from public or private research centers and companies can benefit from such access. The competitive open access at ELECMI is regulated through an access committee that follows a transparent and independent evaluation process.

The competitive open-access calls have a periodicity of 6 months. To gain granted time in ELECMI singular instruments, the applicant must complete the Online Access Form. The form must be filled in English. The proposals will be submitted online through the ELEMCI Single Entry Point (ESEP) available at elecmi.es

The following scheme illustrates the phases of the procedure for granting access to ELECMI’s singular instruments.

PROPOSALS ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

The assessment criteria of the proposals include:

1. Technical selection criteria establishing whether the proposed experiment is technically feasible.
2. Assessment criteria of the scientific quality of the proposal. In this case, the following sub-criteria will be considered:

• • Scientific and technical quality of the proposal. Maximum score: 4 points.
  • Demonstration of the need to use advanced infrastructure. Maximum score: 3 points.
  • Access to new research groups/companies. To promote the access of research groups and companies that have not
  • participated in previous calls, their proposals will be scored with 2 additional points.
  • Quality and exploitation of results previously obtained in ELECMI. Maximum score: 2 points.
  • For applications within a publicly funded competitive GRANT. Maximum 1 point.

WHEN WRITING YOUR ACCESS REQUEST, PLEASE CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING ASPECTS

Before writing your proposal take into account:

Should you not be sure of the technical feasibility of your proposal, we recommend you to discuss it in advance with the technicians or scientists of ELECMI´s facilities. To this end, you can send us a brief description of your query at the following e-mail box: contact@elecmi.es. One of our experts in the field will contact you to discuss scientific or technical details.

The proposals will be written in English for their assessment by the ELECMI international Access Committee (AC). A concise and rigorous proposal that presents clearly the objectives of the experiment will enhance the opportunities to get granted time.

The proposal must be filled out online. Take into consideration the number of word limits established for each section

When writing your proposal:

ELEMI highly values access requests that are part of research supported by public funds, provided they are obtained from competitive calls at the regional, national, European, or international level. Therefore, if this applies to your case, please fill in the relevant project information, including the title, project code, and funding agency. Make sure your details are correct and consistent with the submitted application to benefit from the advantages of being supported by one of these projects during the evaluation process.

Should the applicant got previously granted time in ELECMI through an open competitive call, the quality and exploitation thereof will be assessed. It is very important that the applicant fills in the corresponding section in the application data form indicating the results achieved as a result of previous accesses (publications, patents, scientific breakthroughs, etc.). Please, indicate also in your application if the experiments to be done are a continuation of a previously granted proposal.

ELECMI aims to promote the use of its facilities among researchers or companies that have not previously accessed it through competitive access. Please indicate appropriately in your proposal if this is the case.

The proposal must include a title and an acronym.

You must fill in the objective and description of the proposal section (maximum 200 words). The objectives of the proposal must be clearly defined, as well as the type of information that is expected to be obtained from the requested experiments. Explain clearly the context in which it is framed. Indicate concisely the background and state of the art of the topic.

Include a brief description of the experiment to be carried out (maximum 200 words) indicating, if known, the estimated time of use of the facility and, if applicable, a description of preliminary or complementary results that demonstrate the feasibility of the hypotheses raised in the application. You may also include a limited number of relevant references in the field. It is necessary for the application to indicate the number of samples to be studied, as well as their main characteristics (including risks in their handling) together with any other type of information that may be relevant to determine the granted time if the proposal is approved.

Importantly, explain why this singular infrastructure is needed for your experiments (maximum 200 words) since this is a key factor for a positive assessment of your application. In addition, it must be indicated why this experiment will result in significant advances at a scientific or industrial level and the expected impact (maximum 200 words).

Additionally, you may upload a maximum of three figures, 20 Mb max. each, including schemes, graphs, etc. that may help the access committee assess your proposal.

Finally, risks associated with sample handling should be clearly set out in your proposal for the safety of ELECMI’s personnel.

EVALUATION PROCESS OF THE PROPOSALS

The proposals will be assessed first by ELECMI’s staff to ensure their feasibility. A report will be sent to the applicant whose proposal is not considered feasible from a technical point of view. The report will provide indications that may serve the applicant for future calls.

The technically feasible proposals will be sent to, at least, two referees, i.e., each proposal will follow a peer review process. All the technically feasible proposals and their assessment reports will be considered by the Access Committee, AC. The AC is integrated by 5 independent experts as well as 4 members from ELECMI, one per node. The Access Committee will prioritize the granted access by considering both the referees’ report, their own scientific criteria, and the available access time. The applicant will receive a report with the observations of the Access Committee in a maximum of 30 working days from the closure of the call. If eventually the outcome of the call is delayed, the applicants will be notified through the ELECMI website. The proposals will be classified by the AC as:

A. Approved proposal granted with time. The experiments will be allocated in a six-month period after the outcome of the call. These users will be prioritized to those that apply on demand. In the eventual case that technical problems impede the performing of the experiments within this six-month period, ELECMI reserves the right to postpone access until whenever possible.

B Approved proposal without granted time. The proposal will be included on a waiting list. If any cancellation or change in the circumstances makes the granted access possible, ELECMI will contact the user to provide the granted time. If the applicant does not get granted time, another proposal could be sent in the next call. ELECMI recommends the applicant to consider the evaluation report form the AC to improve subsequent proposals.

C Denied proposal. If the proposal is not accepted, the applicant will receive a feedback report. An improved proposal, taking into account the AC recommendations could be sent by the applicant in subsequent calls.

Immediately after the outcome of the call, applicants whose proposal has been rated as A-type will be contacted by ELECMI’s staff to organize the experiment. Applications evaluated as B will remain on a prioritized waiting list for a period of six months and, in the event that access time could finally be granted, ELECMI staff will contact the user.