AQUASERV_ServicesCall_Guidelines_Mar2025

1 Call for Service Creation and Customisation AQUASERV call to develop new services or integrate, customise and combine existing services, ensuring data availability and interoperability. Proposals should seek to develop new pipelines of existing services to answer challenges from EU priorities such as the Green Deal, Farm to Fork, the Common Fisheries Policy, the Sustainable Blue Economy, and the Mission to Restore our Oceans by 2030. Proposals should ensure standardisation and harmonisation among RIs, open access, and data FAIRness. With this focus, Aquaserv can help address EU strategies and the transformation of the Blue Economy for a sustainable and resilient future. 1. WHY IS THIS CALL BEING OPENED? The first aim of this call is to develop new services or integrate, customise and combine existing services spanning two or more AQUASERV Research Infrastructures (EMBRC-ERIC, AnaEE-ERIC, METROFOOD, AQUAEXCEL 3.0), facilitating interdisciplinary research addressing the EU priorities/strategies Green Deal, Farm to Fork, the Common Fisheries Policy, the Sustainable Blue Economy, and the Mission to Restore our Oceans by 2030. Customised services include (but are not exclusive to) the creation of service pipelines or workflows within and between RIs optimised to tackle important scientific questions, bringing together complementary technologies and resources at different facilities to address policy challenges, adding new services to fill existing pipeline/workflow gaps, combinations of the above, or other possibilities that fit the objectives. The second aim is to improve the data management of existing services by providing enhanced data interoperability and standardisation among service providers, as outlined in the AQUASERV Data Management Plan (DMP). The aim is to create or refine components of existing physical or virtual services to make their data more findable, accessible, interoperable, and/or reusable (FAIR). The call will prioritise the gaps identified in D3.2 (The landscaping and gap analysis) following the recommendations of D3.1 (The Data Management Plan). One of the expected outcomes of this task is to create a more valuable and interoperable connection of the services to other infrastructures, specifically those of the EU (Blue Cloud, EU DTO and EOSC). If your project has a strong data management and interoperability component, you are strongly encouraged to contact WP3 ([email protected]) before making an application. 2 WP3 can provide digital and interoperability expertise and human resources for new and enhanced services where necessary. Each successful application will write a final report describing the improved services, summarised in Deliverable in M48 (D3.6). A condition is that the multiple integrated services will then be part of the AQUASERV catalogue of services and are offered as soon as they are established according to the proposed timeline. Examples of hypothetical pipelines: ● Pipeline for food nutrition and quality (to address the Farm to Fork strategy “Building the Food Chain that Works for Consumers …”): A possible workflow would allow testing novel protein sources in fish diets. It could include TA to an installation to prepare and test fish diets (UNITO AQUEXCEL 3.0), followed by remote access to an installation for chemical analysis (UNINA METROFOOD) and a TA to an installation that offers packaging, freezing, and sensory analysis (TUBITAK METROFOOD). ● Pipeline for fish gear testing (to address the Common Fisheries Policy “healthy stocks”): A possible workflow to test mesh size selectivity on juvenile fish would entail tests in tanks (UPV/EHU EMBRC Spain) followed by tests at sea (CCMAR EMBRC-PT) with data deposition in the Marine Data Archive (VLIZ EMBRC Belgium) and sharing the data via the data catalogue of Marine Info (VLIZ EMBRC Belgium) for open access. The management and advisory boards will review the services offered annually to identify gaps and shortcomings. The blue bioeconomy is rapidly developing and constantly faces new challenges ranging from scientific to policy/regulationand society-linked expectations. The service offer must be relevant and move with the times and the demand. Therefore, priority will be given to actions to review, update, or adapt services and workflows to integrate new approaches and protocols that fit the user needs. AQUASERV KPIs: number of integrated multi-RI service offers (target: 10); number of joint research activities/customised services (target 15); number of services made fair (target: 15). 2. WHO CAN APPLY? The financial support is intended for AQUASERV partners to integrate, customise and combine services, including data FAIRness, spanning two or more AQUASERV Research Infrastructures. Therefore, the following criteria must be fulfilled to be eligible to apply: ● The participants must be AQUASERV partners ● The customised services must span, i.e., include members of at least two of the Research Infrastructures (EMBRC-ERIC, AnaEE-ERIC, METROFOOD, AQUAEXCEL 3.0, ICES). 3 3. WHAT IS COVERED? The AQUASERV financial support (up to €20,000 plus overheads) contributes to: ● consumables, maintenance and other costs required for service integration/customisation/combination; ● personal costs associated with software development, data standardisation, and procedures increasing the FAIRness and interoperability of data; ● purchase of equipment is not eligible. 4. HOW LONG? The funding period is not expected to exceed 6 months in most cases, though exceptions can be justified. New calls will be issued at approximately 6-month intervals. 5. HOW? Applications should be submitted online and include: - Contact name for the proposal - Contact e-mail for the proposal - Type of service request - Name and contact of AQUASERV partners involved in the proposal - Indicate the Infrastructures involved: EMBRC-ERIC | AnaEE-ERIC | METROFOOD | AQUAEXCEL 3.0| ICES - Proposed workplan and budget. Please refer to the call guidelines for required information. - Proposed Layout : 1. Proposal title and acronym 2. What are the services involved? 3. Describe current services related to the one to integrate, customise or combine. 4. Describe the proposed service customisation or pipeline of services and modality of access. 5. Describe the AQUASERV objectives/European policies to be addressed by the customised services and expected user base. 4 6. What is the data FAIRness focus of the improvements? 7. Describe the proposed work plan. 8. Timeline 9. Budget breakdown 10. Access tables for the service 11. Proposal title and acronym 12. What are the services involved? 13. Describe current services related to the one to integrate, customise or combine. 14. Describe the proposed service customisation or pipeline of services and modality of access. 15. Describe the AQUASERV objectives/European policies to be addressed by the customised services and expected user base. 16. What is the data FAIRness focus of the improvements? 17. Describe the proposed work plan. 18. Timeline 19. Budget breakdown 20. Access tables for the service 6. WHEN? This is a continuous open call until the budget runs out before the end of 2026. A selection committee will evaluate the submitted proposals. Results of the application will be sent to all the applicants within three months from the date of application submission. 7. SELECTION PROCESS Selection committee: The Executive Committee (ExCom) with the help of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Board (STAB) Evaluation Criteria: 5 To integrate, customise or combine services spanning two or more Research Infrastructures while improving data management of the services offered by providing enhanced data interoperability and standardisation among service providers 1. What are the services involved? Are the services from two or more research infrastructures? 2. Is the pipeline proposed related to one of the EU priorities and AQUASERV’s objectives? 3. Does the proposal address data interoperability and standardisation among service providers? 4. Is the proposal adequately described and justified? 5. Given the above, is the work plan feasible within time and funding constraints? ● Each of the 5 criteria above will be scored from 0 (not relevant/not applicable) to 5 (maximum score). Applications that score at least 15 will be eligible for funding. 8. COMMUNICATION OF CALL RESULTS Candidates must be informed of the evaluation decision within three months of application submission. 9. AGREEMENT AND FINANCIAL SUPPORT As soon as the services project proposal is approved, an agreement will be signed between the Coordinator and the parties involved, stating the work to be done and the payment schedule: 50% at the start of the project and 50% upon delivery of the final report deemed satisfactory by the Executive Committee. 10. IMPLEMENTATION Successful projects should be implemented according to the approved timeline. Services should be implemented no later than December 2026. 11. REPORTING The AQUASERV coordination can request short progress reports anytime. A final report must be submitted within 3 months after project completion, describing the services, pipeline of services created/customised 6 and or service data interoperability and standardisation. These will be summarised in a Deliverable in M48 (D3.6). A report template will be sent with the call results communication.