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HORIZON EUROPE TOPIC · Research Infrastructures

Access to research infrastructures, their resources and services: large-scale pilots for more integrated scheme across (sub)domains

HORIZON-INFRA-2027-SERV-01-01 — the expected outcomes as checkable statements, what evaluators look for in this topic, and the conditions that shape the proposal.

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ForthcomingRIADeadline 15 June 2027around EUR 35 million per project

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TopicHORIZON-INFRA-2027-SERV-01-01
StatusForthcoming
CallHORIZON-INFRA-2027-01 — Research Infrastructures 2027
Type of actionResearch and Innovation Actions
Opening9 March 2027
Deadline15 June 2027
Budgetaround EUR 35 million per project · 3 projects expected · EUR 105 million in total
Part B page limit40 pages (standard application form; check your call)
TemplateWork Programme 2026–2027 application form

Expected outcomes

Projects should contribute to all of the expected outcomes. The topic says: “Project results are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes:”

  1. EO1 More efficient access to the best research infrastructures available to researchers and innovators to conduct basic and applied research and foster innovation, irrespective of location. A single-entry point access portal, integrated or interoperable catalogues of services and converging access conditions and selection procedures.
  2. EO2 A step towards a longer-term sustainable access programme harmonised across different ESFRI domains.
  3. EO3 Breakthrough and leading-edge research enabled by advanced research infrastructure services, including from emerging facilities, made available to a wider user community, including in emerging areas of research.
  4. EO4 A new generation of researchers trained to optimally exploit all the essential tools for their research with due attention to early-stage career researchers and researchers from widening countries and candidate countries.
  5. EO5 Interdisciplinarity and sharing of information, knowledge and technologies across scientific fields with due attention to research security; better management, including implementing FAIR data principles, of the continuous flow of data collected or produced by research infrastructures.

What evaluators will look for in this topic

Expected outcomes

  • Projects should contribute to all of the expected outcomes.
  • For each outcome (EO1 to EO5), name who will use or adopt your results (a specific group, not “industry” or “society”), how they get them, and the indicator that shows the change, with baseline, target and date.
  • Use the topic's own words for each outcome, so the evaluator can tick it off.

What the scope asks for

Evaluators check the proposal against these sentences of the scope. Answer each one visibly, in the call's own words.

  • “Proposals should adhere to the guidelines and principles of the European Charter for Access to Research Infrastructures.”
  • “Proposals are expected to address one of the following areas, based on ‘ESFRI scientific domains, and must explicitly state which area they address:.”
  • “These areas define in which pilot project a research infrastructure identified as a core access provider should be a beneficiary/affiliated entity.”
  • “On demand third party access providers should expand access opportunities within the area or across-areas for interdisciplinary research.”
  • “Proposals should make available to researchers and innovators a wide, inclusive and comprehensive portfolio of complementary research infrastructure services of European interest, including data services.”
  • “Proposals should include at least two ESFRI Landmark and/or European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) as beneficiary.”
  • “In addition, proposals should better exploit the training potential of successful transnational access user projects by inviting researchers, notably early-stage career researchers, or research infrastructure technicians from widening and candidate countries to team up with selected user groups.”
  • “Proposals should reserve sufficient resources for this purpose and should proactively advertise these opportunities.”
  • “(which should be arranged after the selection of user projects and have no impact on their evaluation).”
  • “Access provision to existing services should be clear in the proposed activities and reflected in the allocated resources.”
  • “Data management (and related ethics issues), interoperability, as well as the connection of digital services (e.g. data services) to the European Open Science Cloud, should be addressed where relevant.”
  • “Proposals should take due account of major European or international initiatives relevant in the domain.”

Conditions that shape the proposal

  • Part B, sections 1–3: 40 pages (standard application form). Text beyond the limit is not read; tables and figures count.
  • Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout: “Applicants are not required to include in their proposal a plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results as the main objective of these actions is the service provision.”
  • Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout: “The page limit of the application is 100 pages.”
  • Other Eligible Conditions: “Subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks.”
  • Other Eligible Conditions: “The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as member of the consortium selected for funding as a beneficiary with zero funding, or as an associated partner. The JRC will not participate in the preparation and submission of the proposal - see General Annex B.”
  • Other Eligible Conditions: “Given the specific nature of this topic, access provision activities must be included in the proposal. Please read carefully the provisions under the section “Specific features for Research Infrastructures” of this work programme part before preparing your application.”
  • Other Eligible Conditions: “Considering the Union’s interest to make accessible to its researchers the most advanced research infrastructures, wherever they are in the world, legal entities established in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, India, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore, and USA, which provide, under the grant,…”

Impact pathway and traps

  • The topic asks for social sciences and humanities (SSH) expertise. Evaluators look for SSH partners with a real role in the methodology, not a token task.
  • The scope expects pilots or demonstration. Name the sites, the partners who run them and what is measured there.
  • International cooperation is part of the scope. Explain what the non-EU partners add and how the cooperation is organised.
  • Open science or data practices are named. Make the data management plan concrete: which data, which repository, when.
  • Keep outputs, outcomes and impacts apart: what you deliver, what changes when others use it, and the long-term effect.
  • Link your outcomes to the destination's expected impacts in the Work Programme. Destination impacts are long-term effects, not project deliverables.
  • Name the barriers outside the project (regulation, markets, user behaviour) that could block uptake, and what you will do if they do.
  • Section 2.3 (the summary canvas) is optional on this call; the old split into scientific, economic and societal impact is no longer required.
The scope, as published

This topic aims at testing ‘access programme like’ projects providing trans-national access (on-site or remote) and/or virtual access to integrated and customised research infrastructure installations and services for excellent research, from frontier and curiosity-driven to applied research, offered by a wide range of complementary and interdisciplinary research infrastructures with experience in transnational access. Access is provided by a core of state-of-the-art research infrastructures as beneficiaries/affiliated entities and by third party access providers on demand. Proposals should adhere to the guidelines and principles of the European Charter for Access to Research Infrastructures. Proposals are expected to address one of the following areas, based on ‘ESFRI scientific domains, and must explicitly state which area they address: Area 1, covering the following domains: Physical Sciences and Engineering; Data, Computing and Digital Research Infrastructures Area 2, covering the following domains: Health & Food; Social Sciences and Humanities Area 3, covering the following domains: Environment; Energy. These areas define in which pilot project a research infrastructure identified as a core access provider should be a beneficiary/affiliated entity. On demand third party access providers should expand access opportunities within the area or across-areas for interdisciplinary research. Proposals should make available to researchers and innovators a wide, inclusive and comprehensive portfolio of complementary research infrastructure services of European interest, including data services. Proposals should include at least two ESFRI Landmark and/or European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) as beneficiary. Access could also be open, in accordance with the ‘Specific Features for Research Infrastructure’ section of this Work Programme, to non-associated third countries’ researchers. Research infrastructures from non-associated third countries may be involved as beneficiaries or affiliated entities when appropriate, if the proposal can demonstrate they offer complementary or more advanced services than those available in the EU Member States and Associated Countries. Access includes ad hoc users’ training and scientific and technical support (see Specific Features for Research Infrastructures). Additional training courses, including skills for data stewardship, may also be supported. In addition, proposals should better exploit the training potential of successful transnational access user projects by inviting researchers, notably early-stage career researchers, or research infrastructure technicians from widening and candidate countries to team up with selected user groups. Proposals should reserve sufficient resources for this purpose and should proactively advertise these opportunities. (which should be arranged after the selection of user projects and have no impact on their evaluation). Access provision to existing services should be clear in the proposed activities and reflected in the allocated resources. The improvement and development of services can also be supported, provided that the resulting services are offered already under the actions (short-term R&D) and that the long-term sustainability of such services is ensured. Data management (and related ethics issues), interoperability, as well as the connection of digital services (e.g. data services) to the European Open Science Cloud, should be addressed where relevant. Proposals should take due account of major European or international initiatives relevant in the domain. When appropriate, they should foster the use and deployment of (open) global standards. Proposals should include an outreach and engagement plan to actively advertise their services to the research communities, notably from widening countries and candidate countries and to relevant industries, including SMEs and, if applicable, provide dedicated support for the development of research partnerships and collaborations with researchers from widening countries and candidate countries. Proposals are expected to exploit synergies and to ensure complementarity and coherence with other EU grants supporting access provision. Proposals should include the list of core services/installations opened by research infrastructures for transnational or virtual access and the amounts of units of access made available for users. Further conditions and requirements relating to access provisions that applicants should fulfil when drafting a proposal are given in the “Specific features for Research Infrastructures” section of this work programme part. Compliance with these provisions will be taken into account during evaluation. Proposals should also present an indicative list of complementary services/installations opened by third party research infrastructures for transnational or virtual access. Proposals should reserve sufficient resources for access notably to these services/installations and allocate budget according to the demand after peer-review evaluation of the user-groups and users’ research and innovation projects, the ‘user projects’. This complementary part of the access to research infrastructures may be implemented through the mechanism of financial support to third parties (FSTP), provided that the beneficiaries ensure that the conditions and requirements relating to access provisions as given in the “Specific features for Research Infrastructures” are fulfilled. In such case, the relevant conditions and requirements should be included in the FSTP calls and the applicants to the FSTP open calls should be the third party research infrastructures demanded by user-group(s). In the case of transnational access, the beneficiaries select the user-groups according to the conditions and requirements of the “specific features for research infrastructures” section of this work programme. The beneficiaries ensure that the access provider selected through the FSTP…

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Source and attribution

Topic text from the official topic page on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, retrieved 19 October 2026. © European Union, reused under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU (CC BY 4.0). Changes: the expected outcomes and impacts are split into numbered statements, long passages are shortened, and the evaluator checklist is GrantWise's own commentary. Your call and the Work Programme always win; check them before you submit. GrantWise is independent and not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of the European Commission.