Feedback document on access modalities from the perspective of the national stakeholders v1

This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme through the ATMO-ACCESS Integrating Activity under grant agreement No 101008004 atmo-access.eu Title Feedback document on access modalities from the perspective of the national stakeholders Work package n° 3 Milestone/Deliverable n° 3.1 Lead beneficiary UHEL Author(s) Tuukka Petäjä, Ilona Ylivinkka, Silja Häme, Ulla Wandinger Deliverable Type R Dissemination Level Public Estimated delivery date M32 Actual delivery date M35 Version 1 Reviewed by Sabine Philippin, Matilde Olivieri Accepted by Comments This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme through the ATMO-ACCESS Integrating Activity under grant agreement No 101008004 atmo-access.eu Table of Contents 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 3 2 Survey methods ............................................................................................................................ 4 3 Internal discussions – initial feedback ........................................................................................ 4 4 Analysis of the current situation ................................................................................................. 5 On current access funding opportunities .................................................................................................. 5 On current access modality options ........................................................................................................... 6 5 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................. 7 This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme through the ATMO-ACCESS Integrating Activity under grant agreement No 101008004 atmo-access.eu 1 Introduction ATMO-ACCESS WP3 explores pathways to integrate national and international stakeholders and funders into specific programs with the Research Infrastructures (RIs) that would ensure the long-term engagement of the partners in making transnational access sustainable beyond the EU funding. WP3 approaches this issue by creating connections and consulting key national and international stakeholders to investigate potential methods and modalities for the co-funding of access programs. The work in the WP3 has proven to be challenging. The interactions and the discussions with the national stakeholders regarding access modalities rely on national connections and their timing is difficult as every country has their own culture and tradition for the interactions with the researchers and research infrastructures. This has led to a change in the WP in terms of the deliverable timeline and content. A joint questionnaire to the national stakeholders (both national RI representatives and funding agencies) was prepared and shared with the stakeholders. The questionnaire itself has been reported as MS10 Draft on potential advanced access modalities based on interactions with the national stakeholders1. This deliverable provides a concise summary of the results from internal discussions with six target countries and a summary of the results of the questionnaire mentioned above with a perspective of access modalities. Deliverable 3.2 will deepen the analysis as well as report on further information gathered within ATMO ACCESS in relation to access modalities and co-funding perspectives. The established National Facilities, such as observational platforms (measurement stations) and exploratory platforms incl. atmospheric simulation chambers, have a key role in national research, innovations, and air quality monitoring. They are, however, important also for international scientists, since they can serve as platforms for scientific breakthroughs, testing of novel technologies, verification of methods, and drivers of innovations towards large scale deployment through transnational access (TNA, including physical, remote, or hybrid access) and virtual access (VA) modalities. TNA and VA opportunities at atmospheric facilities are available for all scientific innovations driven by curiosity, development, and new challenges. The visits bring visibility to the facilities, but also enhance open science and efficient utilization of the equipment, services, resources, and data, implementing the sustainability goals of the European Union (EU). For the past two decades, support for TNA and VA to international users has mainly been enabled by various integrated activities within EU funded projects. It should be noted that there is currently a large variation in access funding in the different European countries due to 1 https://wp1.aeris-data.fr/wp-content-aeris/uploads/sites/82/2023/10/ATMO-ACCESS_WP3_MS10.pdf. This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme through the ATMO-ACCESS Integrating Activity under grant agreement No 101008004 atmo-access.eu variability in available facilities participating the EU-funded projects. To ensure continuation of the possibility for TNA and VA for international users, a long-term sustainable funding strategy is needed that considers complementary financial mechanisms. Currently, the facilities and their operations (including some access of national scientists) are financed by the research performing organizations, national funding agencies and ministries. The available funding mechanisms for access were investigated based on a questionnaire addressed to the national RI contact points to understand the available resources, possible obligations, and the general interests for co-funding schemes in different counties. This document summarizes the results of the questionnaire sent to national funding agencies in ACTRIS and ICOS countries via ACTRIS National Contact Persons (6 answers were received) and the internal discussions with seven selected countries. 2 Survey methods The approach took place in two steps. Some internal discussions on access funding modalities with the National Contact Persons (NCP) of seven countries took place in early fall 2023. The countries were Finland, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, and the United Kingdom. Based on these discussions, as a second step, an open questionnaire – released in early October 2023 and closed in mid-November 2023 – was sent to all the NCP (22 ACTRIS countries of which many are also ICOS countries). The national contact persons were asked to share the survey with their national funding agencies. Six responses from funding agencies were received: from Bulgaria, Finland, Norway, Romania, Spain, and the UK. The questionnaire directed to the funding agencies and ministries surveyed the possibilities for access funding at national, bilateral and international levels, and investigated potential obstacles foreseen in different funding methods. Additionally, the survey inquired funders’ preferences to fund different access modalities (physical, virtual, hybrid, or remote) or type of activities (e.g., to support scientific breakthroughs, business potentials, or educational and training visits). 3 Internal discussions – initial feedback The initial feedback from the internal discussions on options for advanced access modalities was received from seven country representatives (FI, FR, DE, CZ, PL, AU, UK). According to the answers, the situation regarding existing access modalities and co-funding options across Europe appears very heterogeneous. The responses are summarized in MS10. While most of the countries have funding opportunities for national access to RIs, they do not yet have a strategy for funding or co-funding transnational access to their national facilities. Most funding This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme through the ATMO-ACCESS Integrating Activity under grant agreement No 101008004 atmo-access.eu agencies traditionally support national or bi-lateral research projects, and access to RIs can be a part of such projects. 4 Analysis of the current situation On current access funding opportunities Within the ATMO-ACCESS project, new sustainable funding methods are explored for supporting TNA and VA to research services (scientific exploration and breakthroughs), technological and innovation services (for instrument and method development and testing), training services (for education and capacity building), and data services (for online data and computing services). Access also promotes efficient use of the facilities and instruments and give visibility for the RIs as well as for the single facilities. Despite the distinguished value of the TNA-VA, the survey revealed that the national stakeholders and funding agencies currently do not have the means to provide direct access funding to individual national or international users. Furthermore, the resources of the national funding agencies originate in the publicly collected tax money and the financing is attributed as part of the national research programs and priorities, and therefore primarily or exclusively directed to projects having established societal impact at national level, and/or involving national scientists or RIs. However, access for individual users has been supported indirectly via research projects (involving both researchers using a facility and associated facility operators and personnel, by providing indirect financial support for maintenance and operational expenses of the RIs in the funding schemes. In this way, facilities have been accessible for users even if costs for provision of access were not funded by the national stakeholders. Funding of access to RIs requires information about the full costs for access including the costs for running the facility (fixed access costs) and the costs associated to the provision of access (variable costs). A sustainable access scheme would require that at least the variable fraction of access costs was covered. Different funding options exists via national mechanisms, such as direct calls and bilateral agreements, co-funding schemes with European Commission, funding directed through RIs and other funding (including user fees) and a synergy of funding sources should be aimed at, depending on the available funding in time. The use of certified access cost statements would require justifying the necessary expenses for the provision of access. However, the national funding agencies and stakeholders report that they do not accept cost statements from the access providers (neither do the European funding agencies except for those that are part of the above mentioned TA-VA programmes). The national funding is directed only to RIs for their operations or specific research projects rather than for supporting This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme through the ATMO-ACCESS Integrating Activity under grant agreement No 101008004 atmo-access.eu physical/remote/hybrid access of national and international users. Only in Bulgaria, mobility funding with cost statements for access providers can be accepted in bilateral projects supported through their National Science Fund. Since funds, directed through national pathways, differ from country to country and since user access cannot be directly supported, bilateral access funding is not considered feasible in many countries, based on the survey, and clear strategies do not yet exist. The same applies with cofunding schemes with the European Commission (e.g. with cost-sharing EU/National: 70% /30%) and Joint Programming Initiatives (JPIs). In Romania, for example, the national funding is currently subsidized with bilateral cooperation agreements, and the project propositions to access RIs are accepted individually during calls for tender. France and Germany have solutions for bilateral agreements, but co-funding is only realized via in-kind contributions of research performing organizations (RPOs). Moreover, Bulgaria and Romania are open for co-funding with the European Commission, but with concerns on practicalities related to equity, transparency and increased bureaucracy, when fundings are administered by international entities. In Finland the funding agency has a positive attitude towards co-funding solutions with the EU programs. On current access modality options Resources allocated to RI-related access are administrated by the RIs themselves, meaning that the national funding agencies do not intervene in the decision-making process regarding the access modalities. Therefore, the funding agencies do not have preferences between different access modalities, such as physical, remote, virtual or hybrid access. The feasibility of the resource usage, however, may be followed on a yearly or funding-period scale. Although in general the funding agencies do not have preferences on specific research topics or whether the research is performed by a research organization or by the private sector (except for the UK), as long as the projects are evaluated as impactful, the agencies obligate the funds to be utilized for research benefitting the national civil society and researchers. Hence, projects lead by other European or international institutes can be funded only if they have a distinct positive impact for the national society or involve also national researchers. Bilateral funding scheme benefitting both parties is viewed positively in some countries, such as Bulgaria, France, Germany and Finland. This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme through the ATMO-ACCESS Integrating Activity under grant agreement No 101008004 atmo-access.eu 5 Conclusions In this deliverable, the possibilities for access funding modalities are reviewed based on questionnaires sent to national stakeholders – initial feedback from seven countries via national RI representatives and feedback received from six funding agencies. Based on the feedback, the provided RI funds are mainly aimed at operating and maintaining RI facilities instead of supporting access of individual users. Additionally, the funds typically originate from publicly collected tax money, and hence the funded activities need to benefit the national research objectives and user communities (researchers, RPOs, and civil society). Therefore, the current funding schemes do not have the means to provide access funding for TNA projects. However, responses highlighted that the current funding strategies allow financial support for TNA projects by covering operational costs of the RIs. Currently, the funding schemes are operated differently in various European countries. In some countries, the funding is provided only through strict and already well-established procedures, whereas in some other countries the procedures are more open for developing new possibilities. The critical obstacles here is the distributed nature of the RIs and service provision. Additional obstacles arise from the existing, and possibly increasing, bureaucracy and to the national guidelines on the usage of funds equally and transparently. Moreover, the funds are generally provided in short-term periods, which leads to competition between projects for funding. Short-term funding schemes may additionally cause instability in the long-term development of RIs, especially if government programs and priorities differ between electoral periods. To enable and integrate the use of (national RI) services in national programs and grants, the national funding agencies should develop in parallel a national strategy. This is still not very mature in most of the interviewed countries, even in those having national RI roadmaps. Without available mechanisms on national level for recognizing the use of facilities and services and the related financial mechanisms, the readiness to co-fund Transnational access (either access of national users from abroad or access of users abroad to national services) is less likely to take place.