Regulatory basis for the Elecmi access committee

Regulatory basis for the Elecmi access committee

MEMBERS

A group of international experts in the field of characterization of materials by electron-based microscopy methods will form the access committee (AC). In particular, the AC will be integrated by 5 members from independent institutions and 4 members –one per node- of ELECMI. The AC will be totally renewed every 3 years (half of the committee will be renewed after 18 months, and the other half after 36 months). The experts to form part of this access committee are invited to participate through a formal letter. The experts

TASKS

Once the call is closed, and after external peer review, the members of the access committee will meet to evaluate the proposals after every call is closed to determine the granted proposals (type A proposals), and rejected ones (type C proposals), and establish a prioritized waiting list of proposals that could get granted time if circumstances permit (type B). The members of the access committee will be aware of the policy for the assessment of the proposals and should confirm the acceptance of this policy upon acceptance as a member of the AC. This policy includes:

• • A member of the AC should judge objectively the quality of the proposal and respect the intellectual independence of the applicants. In no case is personal criticism appropriate.
  • A member of the AC should be sensitive to the appearance of a conflict of interest when the proposal is closely related to the AC member’s work in progress or unpublished. If in doubt, the member of the AC should advise the other members of the committee of the conflict of interest or potential bias.
  • Members of the AC should treat all the proposals as confidential documents. It should be neither disclosed to nor discussed with others except, in special cases, persons from whom specific advice may be sought; in that event, the identities of those consulted should be disclosed to ELECMI.

In each call, all the AC members will participate in the meeting for the prioritization of the proposals. The proposals will be rated by the access committee as A, B, or C accordingly to their own scientific criteria, the evaluations from two experts in a peer review process (the list of experts is also published on the ELECMI website), as well as the available time at the facility.