As part of our work in the EU-LAC Res Infra Instruct will allocate funds to support structural biology staff exchanges up to a maximum of €10,000 per proposal. A maximum of budget of €20,000 has been allocated to this activity. Awarded applicants will have the opportunity to visit Instruct Centres and exchange experiences in the area of delivering access to research infrastructures. The exchange will allow to share best practices and extend the knowledge in the technologies offered at Instruct Centres. The expectation is that the application has the support of the country of origin and it will help in setting up long term collaborations between the home and hosting organisations. Projects that include technology and/or software development are encouraged. Only researchers and facility managers from organisations with signed MOU in LAC countries are eligible for this call. To submit an access application please go to our website. 

Call Submission Guidelines

Application Process 

Only applications submitted online before the deadline will be considered. Applicants must be registered Instruct users, for any questions contact us directly at support@instruct-eric.org. Applicants must be members of organisations with signed MOUs with Instruct in LAC countries. 

Staff exchanges may be funded up to a maximum of €10,000. The intent of this support is to help researchers and facility managers to share best practices with Instruct centres and to expand their knowledge in technologies offered at Instruct, with view to expand the use of the Instruct infrastructure and exchange of experiences in the area of delivering access to research infrastructures to their home facility. 

Proposals should have the approval of the applicant’s home Institution and of the  Instruct Centre to be visited. 

After 3 months of the start of the exchange the applicant must submit a progress report to Instruct as well as a final report within 6 months of the conclusion of the exchange.  

The proposal should have well defined objectives with a expected workplan of 3 months to 1 year.  

Evaluation criteria: 

Proposals will be reviewed and funding decisions will be taken by the Instruct EU-LAC Res Infra team. Comments on the proposal will be available to the applicant.  

Assessment criteria 

The criteria that Instruct will use to determine successful applications are: (score 0-5 for each element: 0=low; 5=high) 

1. Novelty: Is the proposed project innovative and/or novel either in subject area or approach? (score 0-5) 
2. Feasibility: Is it likely that something useful will result from one the support? (score 0-5) 
3. Impact: Is there likely to be a high impact for the home organisation and country (score 0-5) 
4. EU-LAC integration: Will the exchange have implications for future EU-LAC collaboration? (score 0-5) 
5. Strengthen LAC science: Will the research help to build worthwhile links between Instruct and LAC structural biology community? (score 0-5) 
6. Applicant(s): Is the track record and expertise of the research grouping of high quality and relevant to delivering the project proposed? (score 0-5)  
7. Resources: How likely is Instruct funding to make a difference (taking account of other funding or institutional support available to the applicant)? (score 0-5)
8. Overall Quality: Is the overall scientific and technological merit of the proposal sufficient for Instruct support. (Y/N) 

Review and decision process: 

The Instruct EU-LAC Res Infra team will award applications with support from Instruct Centres not involved in the applications received. 

Before the Instruct financial officer transfer the funds to the Instruct Centre hosting the exchange a letter from the applicant’s institution supporting the project as described in the proposal is required. The award is sent to the host department upon receiving an invoice. This award doesn ot carry an overhead for the center accepting the visit. 

All publications must include this acknowledgement " The authors acknowledge the support and the use of resources of Instruct-ERIC through xxxxxx APPID xxx." The applicant is also required to complete their profile on our website. We will use the photo and information in the profile to publish the result of this award in our website. In addition to the award the applicant is encouraged to apply for access to Instruct infrastructure, when/where appropriate, to undertake some of the research (see our catalogue). For more information on the access process including the funding available.