• Deadline: February 28th, 2023
• For users from a unit attached to the INSB who do not usually use Research Infrastructures’ services for their projects
• For access to technologies and related expertise
• For access to expertise in data analysis
• The scientific project must be a project in the process of being finalized

The field of Life Sciences has undergone major developments over the past two decades. The change of scales, both in spatial and temporal resolution, and the integration of data from a wide variety of sources, as induced by the development of technologies, have revolutionized the exploration of life. These technologies call for expensive investments and specific knowhow, carried out by highly qualified personnel, having led to the creation of common infrastructures such as research infrastructures (IRs) open to the entire scientific community.

The Institut des Sciences Biologiques (INSB) from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) is launching the second edition of a call for projects to fund full access to the national infrastructures in health and biology “INBS Access to national research infrastructures”. This call aims to encourage teams to get a first access to the services offered by Research Infrastructures to help their research project. The objective is to demonstrate the significant impact of these services to improve the quality of their results (resolution, reproducibility, change of scale, etc.) or to help remove technological barriers. We also aim to augment the awareness of our teams to the cutting-edge technologies, methods and expertise offered by these national infrastructures.

Program description

Access to Research Infrastructures is open to the entire French and international scientific community, with contribution to the running costs of equipment being charged to the users on quote, after project feasibility confirmation by the infrastructure. The purpose of this program is to facilitate and finance access to these infrastructures. Target audience are INSB teams new to a technology or method offered by these infrastructures, seeking to validate the contribution that the infrastructures could make to their research topic by removing barriers that impair the completion or finalization of an ongoing project of the team. A new project is not eligible to this call. The list of eligible Research Infrastructures, to which the research team could apply, is available here: https://www.insb.cnrs.fr/fr/infrastructures-nationales. Other infrastructures may be considered depending on the proven needs of the project. Several types of access can be supported by this call for projects:

• Access to technologies and related expertise, upon quote from the infrastructures and confirmation of feasibility in 2023
• Access to expertise in data analysis, upon quote from the infrastructures and confirmation of feasibility in 2023

In addition to the costs of access to infrastructure, upon a quote emitted by the infrastructure at the second stage of the call, travel/mission costs, as well as consumables that are not covered by the costs of access to infrastructure, may be covered. The funding for each project will be in the range of 10 to 30 K€.

Instructions for submission

This is two-stage submission.

The first stage consists of a letter of intent, prepared by the scientific leader of the project, outlining the project in finalization in which the application fits and highlighting the barriers that could be removed by access to IRs. The novelty for the team of the usage of the technology and methods to which this application would give access has to be underlined. This letter of intent must also be signed by the director of the applicant’s unit. The identification of the infrastructures to access is possible at this stage but not mandatory and the application can focus on the technology and methods needed. An estimated timeline is however welcome.

The letter of intent (maximum of three pages including figures and references, in French or English), signed by the unit director, accompanied by a CV of the project leader (maximum of two pages) must be sent before Tuesday 28th of February 2023 to the following address: insb.ain@cnrs.fr. These proposals will be screened for eligibility criteria and selected projects will go to the second phase on 8th of March: The second phase consists of a consultation between the INSB and the national Research Infrastructures. This will lead to putting the applicant in contact with the infrastructures that are able to meet the expressed needs, in order to evaluate the feasibility and to establish a quote from their official invoicing cost models.

This stage will lead to the final submission of the project, including the requested budget, signed by the heads of the involved IR(s), no later than Wednesday 22th of march 2023. Funding decision will be sent to the scientific leader beginning of April.

Project eligibility and selection criteria

Access to the infrastructure must be fully implemented before 31/12/2023 (deadline for the engagements of funds by the teams). A scientific and financial report will be asked to the granted team in June 2024.

The scientific project must be a project in the process of being finalized. Access to infrastructure must unlock or accelerate the project. The start of a scientific project is not eligible for this call.

The access to the infrastructure technology or expertise required should be new to the scientific leader.

A project can call to different infrastructures.

In the first stage, budget is not expected, but the project should demonstrate its feasibility from the team side before the end of 2023 if access to the required technologies or expertise is granted (for example identified human resource from the team to undertake the project) and by providing an estimated timeline. The infrastructure(s) will confirm it in the second stage.

Project will be screened for scientific quality of the scientific leader and of the project in finalization, the interest of the targeted method and technology to finalize the project, the novelty of access to the infrastructure. In the second stage, the quote produced by the infrastructure will assess the feasibility and adequacy to the budget.

Eligible expenses are:

• Billing from the infrastructure based on quote presented at the second stage
• Mission fees to access the infrastructures
• Consumables needed to prepare samples for access if not provided by the infrastructures