Understanding the Evaluation Criteria

Proposals are evaluated on three core criteria: Excellence, Impact, and Quality and Efficiency of the Implementation. For this call, specific aspects are emphasized, particularly under Excellence.

H1: 1. Excellence

This criterion assesses the scientific and technological quality of your proposal. The standard aspects apply, but for this call, evaluators will pay special attention to:

1. Quality of Services and Infrastructures: The extent to which your consortium offers access to state-of-the-art, world-class infrastructures and high-quality, in-demand services relevant to the chosen scientific domain.

2. Enabling Frontier Research: You must convincingly argue how the access provided will enable users to conduct excellent, curiosity-driven research that pushes the boundaries of knowledge.

3. Service Integration and Improvement: A key factor is the quality of your plan to facilitate, integrate, and harmonise access procedures across all partners. This includes developing remote/virtual services and improving the overall user experience.

H2: 2. Impact

This criterion evaluates the contribution your project will make towards the 'Expected Outcomes' listed in the call. Your proposal must clearly articulate a credible pathway to achieve:

1. Wider and More Efficient Access: Demonstrate how your project will simplify access for a broader community of researchers, irrespective of their location in your country or elsewhere.

2. Harmonisation and Sustainability: Show how the project will lead to more harmonised RI services and a more balanced use of resources across Europe, with a clear view on sustainability beyond the grant.

3. Training the Next Generation: Detail the impact of your training programs on creating a new generation of skilled researchers.

4. Fostering Collaboration: Explain how the project will encourage cross-disciplinary fertilisation and knowledge sharing.

5. Advancing Open Science: Describe the impact of your data management plan on implementing FAIR principles and connecting to the EOSC ecosystem.

H3: 3. Quality and Efficiency of the Implementation

This criterion assesses the feasibility of your project plan. Key elements include:

1. Coherent Work Plan: The work packages must be logical, well-defined, and clearly focused on the primary goal of access provision.

2. Consortium Strength: The evaluation will consider the complementarity of the partners and the suitability of the consortium to achieve the project's goals. The management structure must be robust.

3. Resource Allocation: The budget must be appropriate and reflect the focus on access. The use of unit costs for TNA/VA must be correctly calculated and justified. The proposal must include a clear list of services and the corresponding units of access being offered.

Strategic Guide for HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-SERV-03

This guide outlines a winning strategy for the 'Research infrastructure services advancing frontier knowledge' call. The central goal is to provide integrated, trans-national, and virtual access to a portfolio of top-tier research infrastructures (RIs).

H1: Foundational Strategy

## 1. Declare Your Domain

The proposal must explicitly address one of the two specified domains:

* Area 1: Environment: atmospheric chemistry and dynamics.

* Area 2: Physical sciences and engineering: hadron physics.

Your entire proposal, from consortium composition to service description, must be laser-focused on the chosen domain. For Area 2, remember to highlight links with particle and nuclear physics communities.

## 2. Build a Powerhouse Consortium

Your consortium is the core of the proposal. It must be:

* Comprehensive: Offer a wide, interdisciplinary portfolio of services that are complementary, not redundant.

* Pan-European: Involve a diverse set of RIs from multiple EU and Associated Countries.

* Anchored by Excellence: Crucially, you must include at least one ESFRI Landmark or European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) as a beneficiary. This is a mandatory eligibility criterion and a key indicator of quality. If including a distributed ERIC node, ensure you have the required declaration from the ERIC legal entity.

* Globally Aware: Consider including partners from third countries (e.g., USA, Japan, Canada) if they offer unique, advanced services not available in Europe. These partners are exceptionally eligible for funding under this call.

## 3. Center the Proposal on Access

The primary objective is service provision, not long-term R&D. Your proposal's narrative, work plan, and budget must reflect this. Structure your activities around:

* Trans-National Access (TNA): Researchers visiting your facilities.

* Virtual Access (VA): Remote access to services and data.

* Service Harmonisation: Integrating access procedures across all partner RIs to create a seamless user experience.

* User Training: Detail how you will train a new generation of researchers, including courses and ad hoc support, to maximize the scientific output from your RIs.

## 4. Articulate the Impact

Clearly link your project to the expected outcomes. Explain how your integrated services will lead to:

* Wider, simplified access for curiosity-driven research.

* Breakthrough scientific discoveries.

* Improved data management aligned with FAIR principles and the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

* Enhanced skills for young researchers.

## 5. Plan for Sustainability and Outreach

Demonstrate a vision beyond the project's funding period. How will the harmonised services and integrated community be sustained? Include a robust outreach and engagement plan to advertise your services, with a specific focus on attracting researchers from Widening countries and new user communities.