Transnational Access Pilot Programme Platform

First Transnational Access call (January - April 2021)

The first TNA call is closed

MIRRI successfully concludes its 1st TNA call for proposals and thanks all applicants..........read more

The TNA programme aims to financially and logistically support the access (on-site and remotely) of external users to the 14 IS_MIRRI21 research infrastructures across Europe to carry out their research projects. This initiative offers access to a wide variety of microbial resources, laboratories and state-of-the-art facilities and technological platforms.

The Transnational access includes:

TNA funding does not include:

The TNA programme sponsors researchers’

Access to the IS_MIRRI21 research infrastructures including: facilities, platforms, laboratories, standard consumables, chemicals and disposables
Travel expenses (one round trip/person)
Subsistence (meals and accommodation for up to 30 days, weekends included).
Shipping costs of project materials from the IS_MIRRI21 facility to the home the institutions

The first TNA programme workshop targeted at Liaison Officers and MIRRI’s members was hosted in September 2020.

Modes of access

The TNA programme provides two means of access: on-site and remote access.

On-site access: in this type of access, the users visit the infrastructure and carry out their research projects on-site. The facility provides scientific, technical and logistic support.

Remote access: this does not involve an in-person visit of users to the infrastructures. There are two types of remote accesses:

The Access Officer is the main contact person to discuss the details about the TNA application.

Access Officer
Adriana Chiarelli
TNA@mirri.org

Eligibility

The first call of the IS_MIRRI21 TNA programme applies the following criteria:

The access must be transnational, in a country other than the country of the home institution
Open to worldwide applications
Applicants from beneficiaries or third-party organisations of the IS_MIRRI21 project are not eligible
Open to PhD students, postdocs, researchers or research engineers working/studying in recognised academic or research institutions, non-profit organisations or biotechnology companies
Masters students are not eligible

Access is funded for a period no longer than 30 days (20 working days)
Visits must be carried out from the signature of the contract to November 2021
Applicants must have an active contract with their home institution during the period of the access
Applicants must have complete support and validation of their home institution
Only proposals submitted before the call deadline will be accepted

Applicants should contact the Access Officer for technical verification and feasibility of their proposals before application.

Other aspects regarding the application to the TNA programme:

The applicant must be the principal investigator (main executor of the access project) in case the proposal is accepted
Collaborations with the access provider’s staff is encouraged but not mandatory
All data obtained during the TNA should be Open Access (except in the case of SMEs) and publications using this data should include the IS_MIRRI21 acknowledgement text
Early career researchers, multidisciplinary proposals and applicants from non-microbiology fields are encouraged to apply

For more information regarding eligibility for the TNA programme, please review the “Guideline for applicants” found on the TNA documents area.

Access Providers

The TNA programme provides access to carry out a part of your research project in any of the 14 IS_MIRRI21 partners across Europe.

Each access provider has a Liaison Officer, who is the contact person to discuss the technical feasibility of the TNA proposal.

You will find below the list of access providers and their respective liaison officers.

Access provider	Liaison officer(s)
🇪🇸 UVEG - CECT Spanish Type Culture Collection	David Ruiz Arahal
🇪🇸 ULPGC - BEA Spanish Bank of Algae	Antera Martel
🇬🇷 NKUA - CCUoA Culture collections of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens	Paris Laskaris
🇧🇪 BELSPO - MUCL Agro-food & Environmental Fungal Collection	Sylvie Cranenbrouck
🇧🇪 BELSPO - IHEM Fungi Collection: Human & Animal Health	Pierre Becker
🇧🇪 BELSPO - ULC Cyanobacteria Collection	Anne-Catherine Ahn
🇵🇱 IAFB - CCIM Culture Collection of Industrial Microorganisms	Joanna Bucka-Kolendo
🇳🇱 KNAW - CBS Westerdijk fungal biodiversity institute	Gerard Verkleij
🇵🇹 UMinho - MUM Micoteca da Universidade do Minho	Nelson Lima	Célia Gonçalves Soares
🇫🇷 INRAE - CIRM Centre International de Ressources Microbiennes	Marwa Zaarour	Emmanuelle Helloin
🇫🇷 IP - CRBIP Centre de Ressources Biologiques de l’Institut Pasteur	Liliana Avila Ospina
🇱🇻 UL - MSCL Microbial Strain Collection of Latvia	Vizma Nikolajeva
🇷🇺 RAS - VKM All-Russian Collection of Microorganisms	Alexander Vasilenko
🇮🇹 UT - MUT Mycotheca Universitatis Taurinensis	Cristina Varese	Valeria Prigione

TNA Catalogue

The offer of the TNA catalogue includes access to microbial resources, experimental facilities, technology platforms and the expertise and experience of their staff. Users could also carry out their projects within the workflow strategy, these research approaches were particularly designed for users who aim to deepen their research outcomes or mature their innovations.

Access Provider	Infrastructure	TNA offer	Country
PRODUCTS
Universitat de València – UVEG	Spanish Type Culture Collection - CECT	Delicate microorganisms	Spain
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens - NKUA	Culture collections of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens - CCUoA	Bacteria and archaea from extreme Greek environments	Greece
Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms, Russian Academy of Sciences – IBPM - RAS	All Russian Collection of Microorganisms - VKM	Microbial strains from extreme Russian environments	Russia
FACILITIES
Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria - ULPGC	Spanish Bank of Algae - BEA	Experimental plant for microalgae and cyanobacteria production	Spain
Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences-Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures - KNAW	Westerdijk fungal biodiversity institute - CBS	Heterologous expression of silent fungal gene clusters	Netherlands
Service Public Federal de Programmation Politique scientifique/Belgian Co-ordinated Collection of Micro-organisms - BELSPO-BCCM	Agro-food & Environmental Fungal Collection - MUCL	In vitro culture of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi	Belgium
BELSPO-BCCM	Fungi Collection: Human & Animal Health - IHEM	Dermatophytes: taxonomy, identification and medical importance	Belgium
BELSPO-BCCM	Cyanobacteria Collection - ULC	Cyanobacterial isolation, cultivation, preservation, taxonomy and molecular characterisation	Belgium
Institute of Agricultural and Food Biotechnology - IAFB	Culture Collection of Industrial Microorganisms - CCIM	Identification of Alicyclobacillus sp. by molecular biology techniques	Poland
SERVICES
University of Minho - UMinho	Micoteca da Universidade do Minho - MUM	Food mycology	Portugal
Institut national de recherche pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - INRAE	Centre International de Ressources Microbiennes - CIRM	In vitro screening of anti-infectious activities: antibacterial, antiviral and antiparasitic	France
Institut Pasteur - IP	Centre de Ressources Biologiques de l’Institut Pasteur - CRBIP	Analysis by BioNumerics of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry profiles	France
University of Latvia - UL	Microbial Strain Collection of Latvia - MSCL	In vitro screening and testing of Minimal Inhibitory Concentration (MIC)	Latvia
Università degli Studi di Torino - UT	Mycotheca Universitatis Taurinensis - MUT	Metabarcoding of fungal communities	Italy

Find a detailed description of the TNA offers and workflows in our TNA catalogue.

IS_MIRRI21 Workflows

This initiative proposes an interconnected set of products, services and resources offered by clusters of IS_MIRRI21 partners that will allow the users to refine and mature their research and innovation projects. Through this approach, the users also benefit from the experience and expertise of several access providers. The TNA programme offers 3 workflows:

WF1

From Field Collection to Metabolites Extraction

BCCM-ULC and BEA
Belgium and Spain

WF2

Identification of taxonomically related Streptomyces strains from extreme Greek environments using mass spectrometry profiles

CCUoA and IP
Greece and France

WF3

Coupling MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry protein and molecular biology techniques to identify taxonomically related Alicylobacillus strains

IAFB and IP
Poland and France

Find a detailed description of the TNA workflows in our TNA catalogue.

How to apply

Application process

First Transnational Access call was launched between January and April 2021. The first TNA call is closed.

Selection process for the 1^st TNA call in 2021

The TNA call involves 7 steps outlined in the figure below. Proposals must be submitted online through the TNA portal.

Step 1. Initial contact with Access officer

Applicants should review the TNA catalogue and identify the offer of interest. Afterwards, they should contact the access officer before the submission of the proposal. The access officer will guide the applicants throughout the process and will refer the proposals to the respective liaison officer to prepare a feasible project.

Step 2. Proposal submission

The applicants should draft a research proposal according to the parameters described in the application form. They should complete the application online and upload the requested documents.

Step 3. Evaluation procedure

The evaluation of proposals will be based upon the information provided by the applicant and it will be carried out taking into consideration the following steps:

Eligibility check: The access officer will select only the proposals that fulfil all requirements enlisted in the eligibility section to continue in the evaluation process. Incomplete proposals will not be considered.
Feasibility check: Liaison officers determine the feasibility of the projects regarding technical/logistical aspects and its coherence with the TNA offer. This is done prior the scientific review.
Scientific review: Selection of proposals is based on peer review evaluation with excellence as the main criterion. The scientific review uses a panel-based system called User Selection Panel (USP). This panel of external high-level scientist and scholars scores the research projects and the highest ranked proposals are selected to receive funded access to the research infrastructures.

Step 4. Publication of awarded proposals

Applicants will be notified of the final decision via Email and selected proposals will be announced through the web page of IS_MIRRI21

Step 5. User access contract

The access should be carried out under the terms of a contract signed by the access provider and the users’ host institution. This is a legally binding document in which rights, obligations and technical and logistical details of the TNA visit/project are specified.

Step 6. Reporting

Within 3 weeks after the TNA access is finished, users from both on-site and remote access are required to sign a “Confirmation of Access” form, deliver an “Activity Report” and to answer a “user group questionnaire” and submit a survey about the TNA Access experience. The reimbursement of expenses incurred by the Users during the TNA Access will take place only after these documents are delivered.

Step 7. Reimbursement

The reimbursement of travel and subsistence costs will be done according to the access provider’s national laws and procedures. It is expected to be completed within the first month after finishing the access.

Submit your proposal

To submit a research proposal, users must first register in the TNA portal. Once registered, applicants must follow the specifications (select the offers and access providers, fill the forms, upload the documents requested and accept terms and conditions) before submitting the proposal. After the call is closed, applicants can monitor the status of their application via the TNA web platform and stay up-to-date about the results.

Users data will be kept private and will be accessible only by those involved in the selection procedure of the IS_MIRRI21 TNA call. Personal information is required for statistical records of our programme and reporting to the European Commission. Its use follows EU laws on data protection.

Click here to register and apply for the TNA programme.

The first TNA call is closed.

Due to third-party provider technical difficulties, the proposal submission platform for IS_MIRRI21’s first TNA call is temporarily unavailable. We expect the situation to be solved in a short time. We apologize for any inconvenience and suggest our prospective applicants to proceed with the first steps of the application process.

We are entirely available for any question at tna@mirri.org.

The proposals evaluation process

The selection of proposals for the IS_MIRRI21 TNA is based on peer review evaluation with scientific excellence as the main criterion. The TNA programme uses a panel-based evaluation system called User Selection Panel (USP). This panel of independent, high-level scientists and scholars score the proposals for funding the access to the IS_MIRRI21 partners. A minimum of 2 evaluators will be assigned to each proposal.

The applications will be scored using the following values:

Score	Definition
5	Excellent. Proposal successfully address all relevant aspects of the criterion.
4	Good. Proposal addresses the criterion very well. Any shortcomings are minor.
3	Fair. Proposal addresses the criterion, but a number of shortcomings are present.
2	Poor. The criterion is inadequately addressed, or there are serious inherent weaknesses.
1	The proposal fails to address the criterion or cannot be assessed due to missing or incomplete information.

The evaluation and selection of proposals will be carried out under the principles of excellence, transparency, fairness and impartiality, confidentiality, efficiency, ethics and research integrity considerations and according the following criteria:

Ground-breaking nature and potential impact of the project

How many of these challenges are addressed by the current proposal: (1) environmental, (2) food and feed, (3) biodiversity, (4) innovation and (5) health.
Are the objectives ambitious and beyond the state of the art? Do they propose original concepts, approaches or development between or across disciplines?
Is the proposed research high-risk/high-gain? There is a higher-than-normal risk that the research project does not entirely fulfil its aims but if successful the payoffs will be very significant.

Scientific Approach

Are the proposed research methodologies and the access arrangements appropriate to achieve the goals of the project?
Does the proposal involve the development of novel methodologies or the use of technology non-commonly applied in the field?
Are the uses of the facility, the proposed access planning, resources and applicant’s commitment adequate and properly justified?

Impact

Intellectual capacity and creativity of the applicant

Access

Support provided before, during and after the access
The access officer is the main contact for the applicants during the TNA call. She will assist the applicants during the application, evaluation and reporting process.

Logistical support
The facilities’ local staff will advise and assist users with logistics including bookings, travel itineraries, on-site accommodation and local transportation.

Technical support
Users will have access to a laboratory, services, machines, products and assistance during the TNA. The access provider will guarantee the access to core facilities, machines, resources and data necessary to carry out the TNA project. If needed, training will be provided for the proper and safe use of the facility.
In case of remote access, the access provider will guarantee the implementation of user access programme (which are the research activities and logistics previously agreed in the user access contract t).

When shipping of material is required for the project execution at the access provider, the user should take charge of the shipping and cover the costs. When shipping of material produced during the TNA visit is required, the access provider will handle the shipping and its costs to the users’ home institution.

Scientific support
The facilities provide with basic equipment to the users who request on-site access. Experimental support includes the supply of standard disposables and the use of standard laboratory. The applicants should list in the project proposal the equipment and disposables needed for executing their work. The access provider specifies what items in this list constitutes “standard” and which are not. Items outside the aforesaid definition of “standard”, such as unusual and/or expensive consumables are not included in the access and either must be supplied by the user or ordered by the access provider and then charged to the user.

Research staff from the access provider might collaborate with the users. In that case, users and collaborators at the facility share all foreground knowledge developed during the TNA visit. Both should specify, in a signed agreement, which relevant background knowledge will be excluded from such collaboration.

MTA and User Access Contract

An MTA [Material Transfer Agreement] (for shipping of strains/biological material) or a “user access contract” (for on-site access and remote services) should be agreed between the user and the access provider specifying the terms and conditions of the access.

The user access contract is a legal document that specifies the rules, obligations, logistics and technical details of the TNA visit. This also specify the administrative procedures for the reimbursement of travel and subsistence expenses. The user will negotiate details with the liaison officer or the legal office from the access provider.

Users are encouraged to check in advance with the liaison officer the reimbursement procedures required by the access provider.

The contract is signed by the legal representatives of the access provider, the user’s home institution and the user.

The project starts officially as soon as the contract is signed according to the dates and conditions specified in the document.

Reporting

After completion of the project, the users are requested to provide a confirmation of access and a TNA activity report within 3 weeks after the access via Email. Additionally, a User group questionnaire and a feedback survey must be filled by the users to evaluate and improve the quality of access. These questionnaires should be completed within 2 weeks after the end of the TNA visit through the on-line reporting portal. Failure to provide these documents will result in no-reimbursement of the entire access costs.

Confirmation of access
A confirmation of access form should be downloaded from the TNA portal on https://ismirri21.mirri.org/project- platforms/tna/. Users and access providers should complete and sign this form for each access provider visited during the TNA. The document (in PDF format) should be delivered to the access officer via Email within 2 weeks after the end of the TNA visit. The confirmation of access is mandatory for the on-site and remote access.

TNA activity report
A form of the TNA activity report should be downloaded from the TNA portal on https://ismirri21.mirri.org/project- platforms/tna/. Users should describe in this document the objectives, methods, and preliminary results of the research project carried out during the TNA visit and deliver it to the access officer via Email. This report is mandatory only for the on-site access and the remote services.

One document for each access provider visited during the access should be filled and signed by the user within 3 weeks after the end of the TNA visit.

User group questionnaire and TNA Feedback survey
Each user from a project funded by an EU Research Infrastructure is requested to complete the “User Group Questionnaire”. The questionnaire enables the Commission to evaluate the Research Infrastructures Action, to monitor the individual grant agreements, and to improve the services provided to the scientific community.

Please complete the User group questionnaire within 2 weeks after the end of the TNA visit.

For the TNA feedback survey, the user will receive a link to answer a questionnaire within 2 weeks after the end of the TNA visit. Through this user feedback, the users will express their outcomes and experiences of their access at the visited infrastructures. These exchanges will give rise to improvements for the future TNA calls of the IS_MIRRI21 project.

Dissemination of results and acknowledgements

IS_MIRRI21 follows the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and Open Access principles. All projects receiving Horizon 2020 funding are required to make sure that any peer-reviewed journal article they publish is openly accessible, free of charge (article 29.2. Model Grant Agreement).

Scientific research data, which is the data underlying publications and/or other data (such as curated but unpublished datasets or raw data) should be Open Access when there is no case of conflicts of interests regarding commercialisation of the scientific information, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), privacy concerns and security. SMEs are excluded from this rule.

Acknowledgements
Any subsequent publication resulting from the work carried out in the framework of the IS_MIRRI21 TNA programme must acknowledge the support of the IS_MIRRI21 project and the funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and innovation programme under the grant agreement N° 871129.

Researchers awarded in the first MIRRI/IS_MIRRI21 TransNational Access (TNA) call 2021

We are pleased to announce the first four users awarded by MIRRI's IS_MIRRI21 project during the 1st TransNational Access (TNA) call:

These users will be granted access to IS_MIRRI21 resources and facilities from July to November 2021.

The Transnational Access Pilot Programme aims to test the feasibility of access to resources and services provided by IS_MIRRI21 and standardise the procedures among the project partners. This action will be used to evaluate the reliability of the access platform for the communication and management of access requests. Two calls will be launched in January of 2021 and 2022 for the first and second TNA programmes!

More information about the TNA Pilot Programme will be available soon.

Transnational Access Pilot Programme Platform

First Transnational Access call (January - April 2021)

The first TNA call is closed

MIRRI successfully concludes its 1st TNA call for proposals and thanks all applicants..........read more

WF1

WF2

WF3

5

4

3

2

1

Researchers awarded in the first MIRRI/IS_MIRRI21 TransNational Access (TNA) call 2021

We are pleased to announce the first four users awarded by MIRRI's IS_MIRRI21 project during the 1st TransNational Access (TNA) call:

Roksana Majewska

Assunta Saide

Agapi Doulgeraki

Fortunato Palma Esposito

These users will be granted access to IS_MIRRI21 resources and facilities from July to November 2021.

Transnational Access Pilot Programme Platform

First Transnational Access call (January - April 2021)

The first TNA call is closed MIRRI successfully concludes its 1st TNA call for proposals and thanks all applicants..........read more

WF1

WF2

WF3

5

4

3

2

1

Roksana Majewska

Assunta Saide

Agapi Doulgeraki

Fortunato Palma Esposito

The first TNA call is closed

MIRRI successfully concludes its 1st TNA call for proposals and thanks all applicants..........read more