GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

The Call “Small Scale Research Infrastructures” concerns the funding of projects aims to create new or upgrading small-scale research infrastructures that will be used for the implementation of a high-level cutting-edge research project by the Consortium.

Through the proposed research projects, effective collaboration between stakeholders and departments of the same organisation (where applicable) should be promoted to maximize the use of infrastructure.

Specifically, funded projects under the Program “Research Infrastructures” can concern:

• Acquisition of state-of-the-art equipment to upgrade the research capacity of an existing team/unit or
• Creation of a new team/unit (incl. recruitment of staff) through the acquisition of state-of-the-art equipment.

According to the “Framework for State aid for research and development and innovation (2014/C 198/01” and article 2 (91) of the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) ‘research infrastructure’ means facilities, resources and related services that are used by the scientific community to conduct research in their respective fields and covers scientific equipment or sets of instruments, knowledge-based resources such as collections, archives or structured scientific information, enabling information and communication technology-based infrastructures such as grid, computing, software and communication, or any other entity of a unique nature essential to conduct research.

The Consortium should:

• justify the need to establish or upgrade such infrastructure in Cyprus, and
• document the need and possibility of its extensive use (through the provision of relevant access) by the research and business community.

The proposed Research Infrastructures should have the ability to gradually penetrate the modern international research scene of their field and/or serve the research needs of Cypriot society, economy and industry. The Coordinator can be any high-level researcher who is either already an employee of the Host Organisation or an external one who will be called upon to undertake this role.

The proposed research infrastructure should:

• provide access on a transparent and non-discriminatory basis to other stakeholders of the ecosystem according to the state aid regulation and the RESTART 2016-2020 Framework. In this context, letters of expression of interest for the use of the infrastructure by additional entities not participating in the research project should be included. It is understood that the Host Organisation shall respect and comply with all applicable laws, policies and/or regulations relating to open access to publicly funded research infrastructures.
• be used for the implementation of a research project by the Consortium of at least three independent organisations. At least one of the participating organisations in the consortium must be from the private sector.