MESOAQUA offers Transnational Access to European Mesocosm Facilities

The MESOAQUA network offers researchers Transnational Access to a range of mesocosm facilities in contrasting environments located in different pelagic aquatic environments throughout Europe. The last is now announced with maximum amount of person-days for the respective facilities for activities starting in January 2012 and ending in July 2012.

General information about the mesocosm facilities involved in the MESOAQUA project can be found at Mesocosm Facilities at each respective facility's web page and by contacting each mesocosm facility directly (see MESOAQUA Contact). An overview of 2009 and 2010 experiments is shown below. The calendar for all mesocosm experiments to being conducted at the facilities in 2011 is available at Calendar 2011_final.

This LAST CALL is now open to apply for TA activities in mesocosm experiments from January to July 2012, see Calendar 2012.

Applicants have to contact the MESOAQUA facility providers directly and to acquaint themselves with possible collaborators at the infrastructures before submitting an application. Applicants (group leaders or individuals) have to include a confirmation letter from the facility provider stating that the project/participationis realistic/practical and fits to already planned activities (see Guidelines).

Since mesocosm work is a truly cooperative activity, well-integrated and cooperative applications effectively exploiting the abilities and special competencies at the different infrastructures will have greatest likelihood of success, and thus have a competitive advantage in the selection process. 

Before filling in the application form please read carefully the information below and ensure that the following requirements are fulfilled:
 

Who - What - About -When - How- Selection - Special

Who can apply for TA?

Users and user groups from all over the world can apply for transnational access as long as
(a) the user group leader and the majority of the users works in an institution established in a member state of the European Union or Associated States, see http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/who_en.html#countries
(b) the user group leader and the majority of the group members work in a country other than the country where the legal entity operating the infrastructure is established. See European Commission Requirement III.3 for further information on the eligibility of the applicants.

What does TA offer?

TA offered by the MESOAQUA project provides access free of charge to selected users/user groups to one of the mesocosm facilies managed by it, including all the logistical, technological and scientific support. The support offer includes provision of a limited amount of consumables and expendables. However, instrumentation that is not already present at the specific location, or brought by the applicant(s) may not be provided. It is therefore important to inquire about availability of specific machinery prior to final submission of the application.

Each TA work package leader is responsible for the local administration of the user/user groups after they have been assigned to the respective facility and period. The MESOAQUA scientific site coordinators at each site will be responsible for practical installation and day-to-day scientific supervision.

TA offered by the MESOAQUA project provides reimbursement of travel expenses from the town of the user’s home institution to the chosen installation and return on the following basis:

• The airfare shall be reimbursed on production of the ticket, which shall be for economy class. Bus or taxi fares for the arrival and departure dates may also be reimbursed upon presentation of receipts.
• If you need to travel by car, a justification and a budget should be included. Where the person travels by car, his/her travel expenses shall be reimbursed on the basis of the economy airfare. Where two or more persons entitled to reimbursement of travel expenses use the same car, only the person responsible for the car shall be reimbursed, at a maximum rate of 150% of the economy airfare. Costs of car rental or car insurance will not be covered!
• Lodging will be organized/booked and paid directly by the infrastructure facility. Users will either receive a per-diem fare and purchase their own food or being organized/paid directly by the host, depending on the arrangements at the different institutions. The duration of the proposed project is expected to be between ca 3 to 6 weeks, and under all circumstances less than three months.
• The MESOAQUA Transnational Access program will not cover salaries or honoraria! Appointed users should make their own insurance arrangements!

What to know about TA?

Soon after the completion of the project in one of the MESOAQUA partner facilities, the appointed group leader or (in case of individual application) the individual applicant should submit a short TA-report as well as filling a questionnaire available on-line at http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/capacities/questionnaire_en.html#fnote

• Travel expenses will be reimbursed upon approval of the report.
• All publications resulting from the project should acknowledge this EC-support, and all collaborators should be co-authors or acknowledged according to normal publication couresty.
• The applicant is entitled to publish the results of her/his work at the infrastructure in the open literature.
• Proprietary research (research where results are not generally available to the public or only made available under confidentiality arrangements) cannot be supported.

For more information about reports and deliverables, confidentiality, publicity, rights to knowledge, access rights see European Commission Requirement III.4-III.7

When to apply for TA?

The TA application must be submitted electronically via Web Application Form before the deadline. 

The deadline for the last call  for TA in 2012 is 30 September 2011, 12:00 CET.

How to apply for TA?

Before submission of applications interested users are requested to contact the work package leader or the site coordinator at the specific mesocosm facility they wish to work to obtain information on access opportunities and conditions. User groups or individuals can then apply for Transnational Access by reading the   Guidelines   and filling in the specific Web Application Form  before the deadline. Application submission is done electronically via the MESOAQUA TA website.

 Selection and evaluation of users/user groups for TA

1. Incoming applications will be initially administred (collected, sorted and registred) by the MESOAQUA Project Office and verified for formal compliance with EU regulations (see European Commission Requirement III.3). 2. The Project Office (PO) will forward the applications to the independent Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). SAB will evaluate, rank and recommend individual users/user groups to be offered transnational access to the different facilities. The SAB will judge the scientific content of the projects and rank the applications according to defined selection criteria (see Application Assessment) and sent the evaluation to the MESOAQUA project coordinator (PC). Applicants that are not recommended will be notified by the project coordinator. 3. All  recommended applications will then be sent to the respective facility provider/work package leader. Each facility provider awards access to their facility according to the rank order of the applications and the available funds. The facility provider will then inform the PO and all applicants to their facility whether they are accepted (grant letter), on a waiting list, or rejected.

After the completed evalution of the applications, the further process is as follows:

• after the user/user group(s) have been assigned to the respective facility and period, each TA work package leader is responsible for the local administration and the further procedure for organizing the access to the facility (travel, accommodation, material, etc) of the user/user group(s).

• the appointed MESOAQUA post docs/early career scientists (local site coordinators)  at each facility will be responsible for the practical installation and day-to-day scientific supervision.

• after the visit of the mesocosm facility the PO will forward to the project leader the questionnaire and information about reporting required for completing TA .

Special situations

1. Too many applicants
In the case of more qualified groups/users seeking access to the same facility than there are available time slots, the less qualified group/users will be directed to another facility, or put on a waiting list. Users/groups on waiting lists will be offered access to the facility in case of cancellations.

2. Possible cancelations
Deadlines for cancellations will be set in agreement what is practically / administrative feasible at each different facility.

3. Too few applicants
In the case of cancellations, or lack of competent applicants to a specific facility by the expiry of the application deadline, available access options will be announced on these web pages as soon as they are known, starting after the completion of the first selection process - BUT NO LATER THAN 2 MONTHS PRIOR TO START OF THE PLANNED ACTIVITY. Such applications will then be handled by a simplified process; the application will be received by the Project Office and sent to the leader of the Scientific Advisory Board for approval /denial of access (expected treatment time less than a month).

Transnational Access (TA) activities supported by MESOAQUA

in 2011

Transnational Access (TA) activities supported by MESOAQUA

in 2009 and 2010

During the first 18 month MESOAQUA supported in total 49 international scientists (out of 57 applicants) through the Transnational Access (TA) program: Depending on their interests and qualification 16 individuals and 8 groups with up to 9 members could actively participate and exchange their knowledge and in 8 mesocosm experiments at different sites. Please see the calendars 2009 and 2010 below to get an overview of the TA activities and the mesocosm experiments at the different facilities:

(click on the documents to enlarge or download as pdf at the end of this page)