Winners announced! Check the winning proposals here
The SLICES Research Infrastructure (RI) aims to develop and provide services related to experimentation in the context of digital sciences such as 5G, 6G, NFV, Internet of Things and cloud computing. The SLICES-SC project builds a community of researchers around SLICES-RI, which offers the necessary solutions to create and manage efficiently IT-related experiments. Among the features to be implemented by the SLICES-RI for the experimenters, SLICES-SC investigates a facilitated access for the experiments, the reproducibility of the research experiments, the validation of the experiment results and finally, the publication of the results in open data access.
SLICES-SC provides Transnational Access to its available infrastructures. Transnational Access (TA) means free of charge, transnational access to research infrastructures for selected user groups. The access includes the logistical, technological and scientific support and the specific training that is usually provided to external researchers using the infrastructure. TA can be Physical Access and Remote Access.
Physical Access (PA) is “hands-on” access when Users physically visit an infrastructure.
Remote Access (RA) is a form of Transnational Access in which the user(s) do not visit the infrastructure physically themselves; instead they access the infrastructure remotely via the Internet and the staff of the infrastructure provides local assistant if needed.
In both cases the available services or resources are not unlimited and a competitive process is required following a defined procedure and criteria for selection of Users.
The available SLICES-SC nodes that can be accessed within the 2nd Open Call via transnational access are listed below.
The objective of the transnational access is to offer to the users free-of-charge access to the research and testing facilities of the SLICES-SC network. Transnational access is not limited to a single RI, large experiments can access to several interconnected SLICES RIs at the same time. As there are limitations (i) to the amount of access available for each facility, and (ii) to the capacity to support the users and their experiments, and as we want to ensure high quality and excellence in line with the SLICES-RI objectives, it is necessary to set a procedure over the whole duration of the project allowing optimum use, results and impacts.
The evaluation of the proposals will be based upon the information provided in the completed application form, which should be correct, sufficient and adequate for this purpose, taking into consideration the outlined evaluation criteria.
Eligibility
To be eligible to benefit for free access to any of SLICES infrastructures, a User Group (a team of one or more who wish to use a facility, led by a User Group leader) must satisfy the following conditions:
• The User Group leader and the majority of the users must work in a country other than the country(ies) where the installation is located (this rule applies for the entire duration of the access period). This rule does not apply in case of remote access to a set of RIs located in different countries.
• Only user groups that are allowed to disseminate the results and the knowledge they have generated under the action may benefit from the access free of charge. User groups must explicitly declare their willingness and eligibility for dissemination and also agree to comply with the SLICES-SC data policy.
• Access for user groups with a majority of users not working in a EU or associated country is limited to 20% of the total amount of units of access (time-based) provided under the grant. User groups should give an upper limit estimation of the time (in days) they want to access the selected SLICES RIs.
Obligations
• The access provider (the SLICES-SC partner that is in charge of providing access to the chosen infrastructure) shall provide access free of charge to the selected user groups to the infrastructure managed by it, including all the logistical, technological and scientific support as well as specific training, that is normally provided to external researchers using the infrastructure.
• The test setup will remain the property of the party that provided it, unless otherwise agreed upon.
• Before accessing the Infrastructure, the User may (at the discretion of the access provider) be requested to sign a contract with the access provider outlining access terms to the Infrastructure, agreement to be bound by the provisions of the Grant Agreement, liabilities of the access provider and the User towards each other, rights with regards to Foreground and Background and consequences of a breach of these obligations by the User.
• If necessary, the User may be required to attend a meeting(s) with the access provider prior to the access period to discuss planning and to help make the access project a success.
• Users shall abide by the post-access requirements.
Post-access requirements
• After completing the experiment the User Group leader should provide an experiment feedback report based on the Experiment Feedback Report Template.
• All the data collected during the experiment should be stored in the SLICES-SC experiment repository and should be made open and available for other researchers.
Application for physical access
• The application must explicitly indicate if physical access is required for the experiment.
• If physical access to the facility is requested, users shall abide by the normal working practices, working hours, and health and safety regulations of the Infrastructure while present on the site.
• Travel grants for physical access to the RI can be requested. The maximum duration of a visit is four weeks, and the maximum amount of a mobility Grant is 6.000 Euros, covering travel costs and related subsistence. Note that it is possible to split the visit into two separate parts, the first one to perform the activities of the first stage (i.e., training) and the second one to carry out the activities of second stage (i.e., experimentation). If such grant is needed it must be indicated and justified in the application providing a detailed visit plan and schedule. Reimbursement is eligible if the experiment has successfully completed including the post-access requirements.
Current Call important datesOpening: 15/12/2022
This is a continuous submission call with multiple cut-off dates. These are:
• 28 Feb 2023
• 15 May 2023
• 30 Sep 2023
• 29 Feb 2024
Notification of results:
• 31 March 2023
• 30 June 2023
• 31 October 2023
• 31 March 2024
Accesses (implementation of projects):
• 1 April 2023 – 30 June 2023
• 1 July 2023 - 30 September 2023
• 1 November 2023 - 10 January 2024
• 1 April 2024 - 30 June 2024
