Access programme of the NMI3 project

General

The NMI3-II project falls within the activity 'Research Infrastructures' of the EU Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration (NMI3-II Grant number 283883). The Integrated Infrastructure Initiative for Neutron Scattering and Muon Spectroscopy (NMI3-II) brings together 18 partner organizations from 12 countries, including all major facilities in the fields of neutron scattering and muon spectroscopy, together with other interested organisations (see overview on the web).

NPL is funded as one of the partners within the NMI3-II program. Therefore, within its Access activities, we are able to support our users from EU member countries and associated states, except those from Czech Republic, by the reimbursement of travel and subsistence expenses.

Criteria for Eligibility:

Only user groups that are entitled to disseminate the knowledge they have generated under the project are eligible to benefit from access to the infrastructure under the NMI3 project. The sole exception to this rule shall be user groups from an SME (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, see on Wikipedia for informative description) that wish to use the infrastructure for the first time.

A necessary condition for being eligible for funding is that the proposal clearly originates from a EU member country or an EU associated state (however, according to the EU regulations, users from the host country (i.e. Czech Republic) are not eligible). Hence, both the user group leader and the majority of the user group members must be affiliated to an institute located in a EU member state (except Czech Republic) or in an associated state (called "eligible countries" in what follows). [Note: the affiliation of the researchers is decisive, not their nationality.] In order to assess the eligibility of the proposal immediatelly after the decision of the Selection Panel, it is also requested that the main proposer is affiliated to an institute located in one of the eligible countries and the majority of proposers and co-proposers are affiliated to an institute located in one of the eligible countries.

Proposals:

Please submit the standard NPL proposal (or proposal for NAA). If you are affiliated to an institute originating from one of the eligible countries and you would like to apply for European funds, please mark the appropriate field in the proposal.

Once being eligible, the proposal is peer reviewed by the NPL Selection Panel together with the non-eligible proposals. The main criterion for funding is scientific excellence of the project followed by the intention to fund young scientists and new neutron users. The proposers are informed about the success of their application for funding together with the information about the general acceptance/rejection of the proposal.

Funding details:

For the users eligible to obtain financial support from Access activity of NMI3, we can offer the reimbursement of the following costs:

• Travel costs: reimbursement of APEX flight or second class railway tickets to/from Prague. According to the institute rules, the local connection within the Prague Integrated Transport System zones P, 0 and 1 (Řež is inside the zone 1) is not directly reimbursed but it is included in the subsistence-costs reimbursement (see below).
• Accomodation: in the institute Guesthouse, if available; eventually in a hotel in Rez village.
• Subsistence costs: a daily allowance for expenses of 450 CZK/day (this amount is lowered in case the accomodation includes breakfast), which is related to the institute rules, will be provided.

We usually reimburse the expenses for one member of a group of scientists performing an experiment at NPL. Nevertheless, if the character of the measurement requires a presency of two experimenters (e.g. tedious experiment, complex sample environment), we can support in a similar way also the second participant. One of the participants should be, however, a young scientist.

The group leader of the experimental team is free to decide which scientist (scientists) out of his team should be supported; but it has to be someone affiliated to one of the elligible countries.

Report duties and data provision for Funded Projects:

As a condition of accepting EU support for the NMI3-supported experiment, the user have to agree to the conditions described in detail at "Conditions of EU support" section. A short overview is given below:

The users funded by EU within the NMI3 access programme are required to provide some personal data, which will be recorded and used for funding, administration connected with your research proposal, and statistical analysis of the membership within the neutron scattering community.

• User questionnaire

The NMI3 guidelines also foresee that the funded users should provide a short summary report, where the objectives and also the achievements/difficulties of the performed experiment are summarized shortly. It must be completed promptly after finishing the experiment.

• Summary report

Please, fill the report form and send it back to user.admin@ujf.cas.cz within one month after finishing the experiment.

Finally, users are required to complete the on-line satisfaction report after the experiment.

Experiment proposal can be submitted anytime as e-mail attachment to user.admin@ujf.cas.cz. After feasibility assessment by the instrument responsible, it will be promptly sent to the NPL International Selection Panel for evaluation. Please, read the eligibility conditions for EU funding support.

Proposals:

• Neutron physics experiments at horizontal channels
• Experiments at the neutron activation analysis facility
• Proposal form for the measurement in Neutron Physics Laboratory

As a condition of accepting EU support for your experiment, you have to agree to the following conditions:

1. Acknowledgement

The NMI3 project has to be acknowledged in any papers or conference proceedings that are published as a result of this work. The following paragraph have to be included in the acknowledgments section:

This project has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under the NMI3-II Grant number 283883

The statement above does not replace proper acknowledgement of the Neutron Physics Laboratory (NPL) in your publications.

2. User questionnaire and Summary report

can be found at the "Summary report and User questionnaire" section.

These forms have to be completed promptly after the completion of your experiment (approximatelly within one month). Once completed, please send them to NPL (user.admin@ujf.cas.cz).

In addition, please complete following on-line document:

• EC questionnaire

We kindly remind you that filling out these questionnaires helps to show the interest of maintaining the support of the European Commission to these research infrastructure facilities! Many thanks for your contribution!

3. Data protection

On the user questionnaire, you are requested to provide some personal data which will be recorded and used for the purposes indicated below. The data will be processed only for statistical and administrative purposes in order to guarantee future funding opportunities, and to statistically analyse the size of the neutron-community.

The data are collected by the NMI3 project manager on behalf of the European Commission, and therefore may be accessed by the NMI3 project coordinators and the European Commission for official use only, and will remain confidential. Your personal data will not be shared with other organisations without your knowledge, unless this is required by law. If your e-mail address is requested, this is solely for the purpose of conducting a mid-term review if necessary, and it will not be divulged to any third party, or used for marketing purposes.

These forms have to be completed promptly after completion of the experiment (approximatelly within one month). Once completed, please e-mail the reports to NPL (user.admin@ujf.cas.cz).

• User questionnaire (doc)
  The users funded by EU within the NMI3 access programme are required to provide some personal data, which will be recorded and used for funding, administration connected with your research proposal, and statistical analysis of the membership within the neutron scattering community.
  Only group leaders and users who have made direct use (physically or remotely) of the infrastructure in the reporting period should be listed; do not include other group members.
  Please list all crew members of your collaboration who have been at NPL in order to perform the experiment, independent of whether they got access funding or not.
• Summary report (doc)
  The experimental report form for EU-supported experiments. It must be completed promptly after finishing the experiment. As the 'project acronym', use your NPL proposal number with a prefix NPL_ (i.e. NPL_nnnn, where nnnn is the 4-digit number of your proposal, for example NPL_2003).
• Beam time receipt (doc)
  Confirmation of measurement time actually provided by NPL has to be signed and returned back to the NPL manager upon completion of the experiment.
• Template - BeamTime receipt
  BeamTime receipt to be filled after the NMI3- supported experiment is completed.

EU satisfaction report

After the experiment, you are required to complete a satisfaction report. Please use NMI3 (226507) as "Number of the EC Grant Agreement", and NPL_nnnn as "User Project Acronym" (where nnnn is the four-digit number of your experiment) in the satisfaction report form.

Can be submitted through the CANAM User portal