European Life Science Research Infrastructures
Access The LS RIs
Apply for Access
Our successful cross-RI applicants benefitted from open access to cutting-edge technologies and services available at Research Infrastructures working in fields such as biobanking, translational medicine, clinical research, curated databases, systems biology, mouse mutant phenotyping, marine model organisms, advanced imaging technologies, high-throughput screening or structural biology. Our pilot users were also fortunate to benefit from access funding thanks to the H2020-funded CORBEL project. While we are currently not in the position to offer cross-RI Open Call grants, we can still point you to funding opportunities to recover costs for travel and accommodation, access fees or consumables.
RIs are non-profit intergovernmental organizations; as such they are charging minimal user fees allowing them to operate on a cost-recovery model. This investment will get you access to excellent facilities, pioneering technologies and innovative services.
Access modalities vary between RIs. In general, access can be provided on site or virtually, and experiments are either performed by the user, by staff at the facility or jointly. You are therefore advised to contact the RIs directly to clarify access conditions and experimental requirements and to estimate the costs.
For inquiries, please contact RIs individually, mentioning your overall project plan. Many RIs are committed to continue collaborative approaches across RIs and might have a fast- track application process for access to multiple RIs in place and/or be able to facilitate the transition from one RI to another.
Access Individual and Multiple RIs
Identifying suitable technologies, services and sites for your project
LS RIs offer open access to a wide array of technologies and services from the fields of biological and medical sciences. To learn more about the services and technologies offered by the RIs, search and choose the desired services and technologies from the Catalogue of Services.
Submission of application
To learn more about the individual RIs’ access modalities, please reach out to the RI and their service providers to discuss your request. After initial project discussion with the service provider, it might be required to submit a project application.
During the service access
At the facilities and by the service providers, an effort will be made to serve you in the best possible way. As remote and/or on-site user you will receive hands-on training for the technologies and services you will use, access to equipment, materials, databases and scientific expertise, and expert support with data collection, processing and analysis. You will also be given guidance for the transport of materials, made aware of health and safety regulations and provided help with accommodation arrangements.
Accessing multiple RIs
Please first follow the guidance provided above. If you are working on an interdisciplinary project and are requesting access to multiple RIs, please mention your overall project plan in the discussion with the service provider. Many RIs are committed to continue collaborative approaches across RIs and might have a fast-track application process for access to multiple RIs in place and/or be able to facilitate the transition from one RI to another.
Information for Industry
Research projects from Industry using multiple LS RIs
Not only academic scientists have benefitted from the unique opportunity offered by the Life Science Research Infrastructures via e.g. the CORBEL Open Call for research projects: Companies were also invited to apply for access to multiple research infrastructures in biological and medical sciences. Both SMEs and large enterprises were able to get support from more than 20 service providers to move their R&D project forward!
Interested in a public-private collaboration?
It is possible to collaborate on commercial terms; the scope will vary depending on the research infrastructures or institutes involved. With the intention to promote lasting public-private research cooperation, proposals will receive appropriate attention as we are all driven by the common goal to accelerate innovation.
Access models
Various access models ranging from pre-competitive open access to more commercial arrangements involving confidentiality, intellectual property and use rights. Case by case, this will be examined and appropriate agreements will be set up with the participants.
Find out more about the resources available in our “Catalogue of Services”. If there is a match with your company’s requirements for a particular development, or if you would just like to gain a better understanding of what is available, please contact the individual RIs you are interested in. Together we will assess the possibilities and identify appropriate resources at the local institute level, i.e. at the service provider level.
Current Access Calls
ERINHA-Advance TNA Call for Proposals
Apply & get free of charge transnational access to ERINHA services to advance your research on SARS-CoV-2
Your application for free of charge TNA to ERINHA services may request in vitro and/or in vivo high containment services for supporting and advancing your research in one of the main following areas:
- SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis (e.g., innovative technologies, improvement of existing methods, etc.);
- Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2;
- Therapeutics with direct anti-SARS-CoV-2 effects, including new or repurposed drugs; monoclonal antibodies, synthetic antibodies, etc.;
- Pathophysiology of field variants in target cells, virus-host interactions, elicited immune responses;
- Transmission characteristics of field variants, including in animal models.
Submission deadline: Proposals are recommended to be submitted prior to February 7th (14.00 CET) for priority evaluation and implementation. Proposals received after this date may be evaluated, selected and implemented on a rolling basis depending on TNA budget availability. Find out more here.
EU-OPENSCREEN ERIC
Access to small molecule screening (continuous access, not funded)
EU-OPENSCREEN offers access to the European Chemical Biology Library (ECBL) and high-throughput screening facilities in eight European countries (Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Poland, and Spain). Assay providers can work with EU-OPENSCREEN and develop chemical ‘tool’ modulators for their target of interest or starting points for the development of drug candidates.
Researchers from academia, non-profit organisations and industry (including SMEs) can request access to EU-OPENSCREEN screening services.
For more information, choose one of the following pages:
- For biologists: https://www.eu-openscreen.eu/participate/access-for-biologists-assay-providers.html
For chemists: https://www.eu-openscreen.eu/participate/access-for-chemists-compound-providers/compound-providers-overview.html
INSTRUCT-ERIC
Funded* access to structural biology services/technologies
Application deadline: always open
Instruct-ERIC is the single point of access to technology and expertise for structural biology research offers access to structural biology services/technology and expertise through its specialist research centres in Europe. Access can be in the form of researcher visits to Instruct-ERIC facilities or via remote or mail-in access depending on the service.
Services offered by Instruct include:
Sample Preparation: Crystallisation, Nanobody Discovery, Protein Production;
Biomolecular Analysis: Imaging, Mass Spectrometry, Molecular Biophysics;
3d Structural Analysis: Electron Microscopy, Magnetic Resonance Techniques, X-ray Techniques;
Compuational Services for Structural Biology: Bioinformatics Tools, Integrative Modelling, Crystallography, Electron Microscopy, NMR
More information about our current technology offering can be found at
https://instruct-eric.eu/platform-catalogue
*Funded access is available for scientists from Instruct-ERIC member countries and organisations.
Instruct-ERIC provides a funding contribution towards the cost of use of the service/technology, and travel and accommodation for access visits. For more information on what Instruct-ERIC pays for, consult Funding for Access.
EMBRC offers a range of on-site and remote services to support basic and applied marine biology and ecology research. These services are offered by marine stations and institutes in EMBRC's member countries. We provide marine biology services to all interested parties including academic institutions, private sector stakeholders (SMEs, large industry actors), and policymakers in Europe and internationally. All service requests are evaluated for eligibility, feasibility and ethics. We can provide services on demand or be a project partner tasked with solving a particular technical issue. For more information on how our services can be incorporated into collaborative projects, or any other questions, please contact our Access Officer (access@embrc.eu). For more information, see here: https://www.embrc.eu/services/how-to-access
Past Access Calls
EU-OPENSCREEN ERIC
Chemoproteomics and Mass Spectrometry Imaging Call 2021 (open until May 17th 2021, 16:00 CET, funded)
EU-OPENSCREEN-DRIVE (grant agreement No.823893) offers trans-national access to target-based and phenotype-based workflows, proteomics and related advanced mass spectrometry-based technologies, with a focus on Mass Spectrometry Imaging (MSI). Our chemistry sites collaborate with partners that have a proven track-record in probe development, target deconvolution and MSI. The project will support at least 3 successful applicants, providing target identification and compound disposition studies. Users from institutions within European member states and associated countries, and up to one user from a non-EU country, can apply for access to seven advanced proteomics and MSI facilities across Europe. The complete call text is available at https://drive.eu-openscreen.eu/drive-startseite/calls/chemoproteomics-call-2.html.
The deadline for proposal submissions was May 17th, 2021.
EOSC-Life Digital Life Sciences Open Call
A European Open Science Cloud (EOSC-Life) call for projects sharing data, tools and workflows in the cloud
The purpose of this Open Call is to support the development of a wide variety of projects that will contribute to the long-term aims of developing an open digital space for data and tools in the life sciences, fostering interdisciplinary collaborations and advancing data-heavy research areas. The overarching goal of the project is to begin to populate EOSC with tools, data and workflows of use and impact to our life science communities. Find out more about the call and the successfully chosen projects on the EOSC-Life website here.
The deadline for proposal submissions was December 8th, 2020.
"I would definitely recommend other researchers to apply for access to the European Research Infrastructures. Their offer means a great chance to use instruments that you would normally not have access to and to benefit from their expertise."
- Jenny Ostrop, CORBEL cross-RI user
"I had a unique and exciting opportunity to deepen my knowledge in large-scale hit identification. Both through communication and hands-on experience, I learned the details of the high-throughput screening setup, beginning from assay transfer and adaptation and finishing with the statistical methods of quality control and large dataset treatment. Our project will strongly benefit from the results obtained […] at the requested CORBEL facilities."
-Alexey Koval, CORBEL cross-RI user
Past CORBEL Open Call for Research Projects
The CORBEL Open Calls -- transnational open access calls to a combination of the services and technologies offered by participating LS RIs -- have had a broad impact. Here we show examples of cutting-edge interdisciplinary research projects that can be realized when RIs come together to offer joint access.
Working together in the life sciences on challenging scientific projects can lead to progress in health and disease, combating marine pollution, accelerating drug discovery and improvements in many other areas.
These successful projects highlight just a few of the many ways Research Infrastructures can accelerate your cross-disciplinary research.
Browse our success stories here.
We would like to thank everybody involved - applicants as well as service providers - for their great enthusiasm and the efforts they invested.
Achievements from the CORBEL projects
From the end of 2016 until early 2020, CORBEL organized Open Calls for Advanced Research Projects to meet the prevailing need for combined service provision across multiple research infrastructures in Europe. More than 20 facilities from 10 different research infrastructures across Biological and Medical Sciences joined forces and combined their technologies and scientific expertise to support advanced research projects. Together, more than 90 cutting-edge services and technologies were made available, including access to advanced imaging technologies, high-throughput screening, systems biology, 3D modelling, data repositories and biobanks.
The Calls for Access to multiple RIs generated a lot of interest among European scientists. Among all eligible projects, 37 excellent scientific projects in need of on-site, remote or virtual access across two or more of the participating LS RIs were identified, selected and supported. The combinations of RIs were entirely selected by the user. Experimental project pipelines across the RIs were established for integrative approaches and seamless transition from one technology to the next. Examples of selected project pipelines are shown below.
Based on the needs identified in collaboration with the scientific community, the network of European Life Science RIs was born.
This user-led approach defines the services required for cutting-edge European research projects and supports a new model for biological research, visibly reducing redundancy. The established service pipelines will also continue to allow the realization of future community-driven cross-infrastructure research projects.
The CORBEL users were supported throughout the project, from planning to execution and analysis of the results. Aside from individual project discussions, two face-to-face meetings for CORBEL service operators and users were organized to facilitate the interaction, to exchange best practices and collect feedback.
Access to otherwise inaccessible technologies and highly skilled technical expertise, improving their skill set and technology know-how, producing high-quality data and establishing long-term collaborations are key factors for the high approval rate of the users.
The results generated will help the users to advance in their research and in their careers.
Download the complete survey results here
If the CORBEL Open Calls have sparked your interest...
...if you are working on a complex research project in need of multiple, different technologies,
...if you would benefit from access to state-of-the-art research infrastructures and services that are not available in your current research environment,
...if integrated access to multiple research infrastructures would take your research project to the next level,
...then reach out to any RI for more information on access to our Catalogue of Services and technologies, and see below for current funding or Open Call opportunities.
Industry & CORBEL
Research projects from INDUSTRY supported by CORBEL
Not only academic scientists have benefitted from the unique opportunity offered by the CORBEL Open Call for research projects: Companies were also invited to apply for access to multiple research infrastructures in biological and medical sciences. Both SMEs and large enterprises were able to get support from more than 20 service providers to move their R&D project forward!
Access models
Various access models ranging from pre-competitive open access to more commercial arrangements involving confidentiality, intellectual property and use rights. Case by case, this will be examined and appropriate agreements will be set up with the participants. Results of CORBEL Open Call projects will become available for (joint) publication. If patents have to be applied for, a time period will be reserved for this prior to disclosure via publication.
Costs and Budget
During the CORBEL Open Call participating institutes covered costs for instrumentation and facility staff, and to a certain extent also consumables.
Outside the scope or timing of the CORBEL Open Call?
The CORBEL Open Call may be over, but it is still possible to collaborate on commercial terms; the scope will vary depending on the research infrastructures or institutes involved. With the intention to promote lasting public-private research cooperation, proposals will receive appropriate attention as we are all driven by the common goal to accelerate innovation.
Find out more about the resources available in our “Catalogue of Services”. If there is a match with your company’s requirements for a particular development, or if you would just like to gain a better understanding of what is available, please contact the individual RIs you are interested in. Together we will assess the possibilities and identify appropriate resources at the local institute level, i.e. at the service provider level.
Info for Current CORBEL Open Call Users
Data resulting from access to CORBEL services should be intended for publication by the users, with the exception of data for SMEs.
Support received by the CORBEL project must be clearly stated in the acknowledgement section of a publication with the following sentence: “This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 654248”.
Relevant research data must be made available within one year after publication of the research results, or within five years after the service completion, whichever comes first, unless otherwise agreed or if the user has specific other obligations (e.g. towards a funding body).
Please note: Data that is generated from CORBEL access stays with the infrastructure user and can be used for publication. The support received from CORBEL and the individual service providers must be mentioned in the acknowledgement section of any publication resulting from this project.
Current CORBEL users can find any relevant information on the CORBEL website.
"When we read about the CORBEL Open Call we thought it was a great opportunity to gain access to important Research Infrastructures with experience that is not at all present in our laboratory. Through this call, we have filled a gap improving our research."
- Anonymous CORBEL cross-RI user