What is "Transnational Access" within INTERACT?

The INTERACT contract under FP7 has a Transnational Access program that offers access to 20 research stations in Northernmost Europe and Russia.

There are  TA calls annually open for projects to apply Transnational Access. The call for summer season (May-Sept) 2012 and winter season 2012/2013 is open 1 November - 15 December 2011.

Transnational Access (TA) offered by the participating research infrastructures within INTERACT includes:

·         Free access for eligible user groups to research facilities and field sites

·         Support for travel and logistics

·         Free access to information and data in the public domain held at the infrastructures

A large variety of research fields and topics is encouraged to apply for TA. Some examples of potential themes and research areas can be found from here (Word). Note that the list is not exclusive, and potential topics can be extended beyond the listing presented here!

Eligibility

The user group must satisfy the following three conditions to be eligible for TA:

a) the user group leader and the majority of the users must work in an institution established in a Member State or Associated State*

b) the user group leader and the majority of the users must work in a country other than the country(ies) where the legal entity(ies) operating the infrastructure is(are) established. In other words the users must come from outside the countries were the INTERACT stations are located. For clarification on this rule please contact WP4 coordinator Hannele Savela (hannele.savela (at) oulu.fi).

c) there should not be a corresponding infrastructure in the country hosting the institution employing the user group’s leader. If such an infrastructure exists, the applicant should show how the specific conditions of the requested visit cannot  be met by this national infrastructure.

*Associate states: Switzerland, Israel, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Turkey, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia, Albania and Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, the Faeroe Islands and Moldova.

 

Glossary

Access provider: an INTERACT participant that is in charge of providing access to the infrastructure/s

Infrastructure: a facility (in the case of INTERACT a research or field station) together with the related services, that is used by the scientific community to conduct research

User: a researcher within a user group, including the user group leader

User group: a research group of one or more researchers that is given access to the infrastructure under the project

User Group Leader: the principal researcher that is leading the user group and submits the application for Transnational Access