Call for proposals at the Bio-NMR Infrastructures

Bio-NMR provides individual researchers and research teams from European member states or associated states with transnational access to a distributed Research Infrastructure constituted by eleven major facilities.

Specific tools and techniques, often unique, are listed in the individual pages of each facility. 

Mobility expenses associated with transnational access will be covered by the EC.

Proposals for access to any of the Research Facilities in Bio-NMR can be submitted continuously filling the

• online form

• Instruction for filling the form sheet:  
  • Only principal investigators (PI) can apply for measurement time.
  • The funding will normally be limited to a maximum of two researchers from one institute present at the same time for work on a single project.
  • Select if you have a preferred facility for transnational access(TA), the step is not required:
  • Project description including important references
  • Provide information about the sample:
    • Concentration
    • Labelling
    • Stability
    • Buffer conditions
  • Upload spectra (e.g. ¹⁵N HSQC) of your sample showing the feasibility of the project. Either from your own spectrometer or contact a selected facility to record pilot experiments.
  • Indicate type of equipment and requested experiments

• The procedure for allotting resources is as follows:
  • After, receipt the form is processed by the pre-screening committee which consists of the local facility staff. This committee will screen the proposal on technical feasibility and give a preliminary advice on the type of equipment to be used.
  • After the pre-screening, the proposal is forwarded to members of an external panel (International Evaluation Panel):

• Reimbursement of Visiting Researchers  
  • The facility will reimburse all travelling costs. This includes economy fare by plane and/or train. Including connecting transport from airport or railway stations to the institute. Original receipts need to be sent to the administrative staff of the host RI after your visit.
  • Hotel costs will be paid directly by the facility.
  • Subsistence costs will be reimbursed either on a per day basis or against receipts.
  • Payment to the researcher is preferably done by bank transfer after filling out the appropriate declaration form at the end of the stay. For a fluent transfer, users should bring full bank details including the international bank code, can also fill in the intranet page.

• Users' feedback to the EC:  
  • To enable the Commission to evaluate the Research Infrastructures Action, to monitor the individual contracts, and to improve the services provided to the scientific community, each Group Leader of a user-project supported under an EC Research Infrastructure contract is requested to complete the "User Group Questionnaire". The questionnaire must be submitted once by each user group as soon as the experiments on the infrastructure come to end. You will find the questionnaire at: questionnaire 
    When completing the questionnaire please indicate the EC contract (Project number: 261863, Bio-NMR) and the acronym of the host institution.

• Users' feedback to the host Research Infrastructure.     
  • Project Summary Report After having completed their stay at the host institution users are requested to fill out the Project Summary Report and submit it to the host institution.  
  • Bio-NMR User Group Questionnaire In addition, users will be asked to complete the Bio-NMR User Group Questionnaire. The questionnaire's purpose is to get users' feed-back in order to evaluate Bio-NMR access programme, to give useful advice to the individual host infrastructure, and to generally improve the services offered to users.

• Publications resulting from Access to a specific Research Infrastructure. 
  • Users are expected to publish their results within a reasonable time in the open literature. Suitable publicity shall be made for the access provided to users under the contract by the EC, specifying that the project leading to the publication has received research funding from the Community's Seventh Framework Programme, e.g. "Financial support by the Access to Research Infrastructures activity in the 7th Framework Programme of the EC (Project number: 261863, Bio-NMR) for conducting the research is gratefully acknowledged".