Within the 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission, EUSAAR offers transnational access to 11 supersites indicated in the below map. For the period April 1st 2006 through March 31st 2011, the participating research stations provide opportunities to research teams from European member or associated states to obtain access for the study of atmospheric aerosols. The identification of the supersites is based on the following criteria:
- High level of implemented instrumentation for the study of atmospheric aerosols (chemical, physical and optical properties) and on their atmospheric probing capacity in an identified environment.
- Specific location in Europe which is representative of a particular climate or ecosystems of interest to atmospheric scientists.
Providing access to such research supersites in an identified environment of interest to air quality and climate studies is one of the main objectives of EUSAAR (click on the station photos below to obtain a detailed description).
Access is offered free of charge and is granted on the basis of proposals which will be reviewed by a EUSAAR selection panel.
For more detailed information concerning TNA, please click on any of the items below:
- Access opportunities
- Eligibility criteria
- How to apply for access
- Evaluation procedure
- Selection criteria
- Information for users
For a detailed description of the stations, click on the station image above.
Access opportunities
The objectives of transnational access to the EUSAAR supersites is to promote scientific excellence ("mobility of experts") and access of research scientists, in particular new users, to the high quality infrastructures. Scientific user refers to an engineer or scientist who needs the support of an advanced research station to conduct research in environmental sciences such as atmospheric dynamics, cloud microphysics, atmospheric chemistry, climate studies, remote sensing atmosphere, and atmospheric radiative transfer.
The facilities providing transnational access for studying atmospheric aerosols are the following:
| Cabauw (CBW, NL) | Melpitz (MEL, GE) |
| Finokalia (FKL, GR) | Pallas (PAL, FL) |
| Ispra (ISP, IT) | Puy de Dôme (PDD, FR) |
| Jungfraujoch(JFJ, CH) | Smear II (SMR, FL) |
| K-Puszta (KPO, HU) | Zeppelin (ZEP, NO) |
| Mace Head (MHD, IE) |
Access to the EUSAAR supersites is offered free of charge to European research teams. EUSAAR will provide money to the host research infrastructures to operate their stations. The support to users of the facility includes:
- administrative support to researchers (e.g., customs, transport),
- use of general infrastructure of the research station,
- on-site logistic support by the infrastructure staff.
The acceptance of access to a EUSAAR supersite does not include any financial support to the user group. Researchers wanting to receive funding for their project concerning travel, subsistence or shipping of instrumentation must apply to other funding programmes (e.g., INTROP, ACCENT “Access to Infrastructures” or other national funding schemes).
Eligibility criteria
To be eligible, a research team must satisfy the following conditions:
- The project group leader and the majority of research team members must come form an EU member, associated state, or candidate state. (Information about eligible countries outside the EU can be found on the Cordis website.),
- The requested access must be transnational (i.e., the home institution of the user must be located in a country other than the country where the infrastructure is established),
- The home institution of the users must be EUSAAR partner or be formally associated with EUSAAR,
- The users must agree that any publication resulting from work carried out under the EUSAAR TNA activity must acknowledge the support of the European Community – Research Infrastructure Action under the FP6 “Structuring the European Reearch Area” Programme.
How to apply for access
The call for the EUSAAR transnational access activities (TNA) is a continuous call and proposals are accepted at any time from any eligible researcher or research team.
Interested researchers are requested to contact the access provider in charge of the infrastructure they wish to visit to obtain information on access opportunities and conditions.
Proposal submission is done via the TNA application form. The completed application
should be sent by email to the EUSAAR
Coordination Office.
Download here the TNA Application Form
Evaluation procedure
Incoming proposals will be verified by the EUSAAR Coordination Office for formal compliance with the EU regulations and EUSAAR conditions.
The proposal will be examined by the access provider or director of the infrastructure for the scientific quality of the proposal and the necessity/feasibility for the use of the facility (keeping in mind that the access provider shall not unreasonably withhold its agreement to such request).
The Coordination Office will forward the proposal to the EUSAAR User Selection Panel (USP). The USP will judge the scientific content of the project and rank the proposals according to defined selection criteria. The final decision will be reported to the EUSAAR Coordination Office who will notify the applicant of the decision of the USP.
Selection criteria
The selection of users is performed by the EUSAAR User Selection Panel (USP).
The USP is composed of eleven (11) international experts both within and outside
the EUSAAR projects and is a single selection panel for each of the eleven
EUSAAR supersites providing transnational access. It evaluates and selects
the user groups benefiting from TNA. The procedures applied for proposal selection
are unique for all 11 infrastructures within EUSAAR. The USP will assess the
proposals on the basis of scientific merit which will take into account the
following criteria:
- Originality and scientific value of the proposal
- Interest to the scientific (aerosol) community
- New user
- Training benefit / Mobility of expert
It is important to note that priority will be given to new users, i.e., researchers who have not previously used the infrastructure before and who would not normally have access to it. Evaluation will also include the possible training benefit to young researchers and the expertise of the user group in the research field
Proposal assessment is independent from financial criteria as the acceptance of access to a EUSAAR supersite does not include any financial support to the user group (e.g., travel, subsistence, ...).
Information for users
In case the proposal for TNA is accepted, the Coordination Office will inform the access provider who will make a final decision concerning the quantity of access provided to the user group. Before access is granted, the Coordination Office will ensure that the home institution(s) of the prospective users of the EUSAAR supersite are formally associated with EUSAAR.
The applicant will have to contact the host institution about the further procedure for organizing the access to the infrastructure.
The project leader of the user group will be requested to provide the following documents to the EUSAAR Coordination Office as soon as the experiments come to end:
- a confirmation of visit at the infrastructure, signed by the project leader and the access provider in charge of the infrastructure.
- a TNA project report summarizing the work performed and achievements obtained.
- Furthermore, an online questionnaire must be filled in for the Commission to allow to evaluate the Research Infrastructures' action and to improve the services provided to the scientific community.
The documents are available here:
Confirmation of Visit TNA Project Report EU user group questionnaire
Users are expected to publish their results within a reasonable time in the open literature.
The users must agree that any publication resulting from work carried out under the EUSAAR
TNA activity must acknowledge the support by the Access to Research Infrastructures activity
in the Sixth Framework Programme of the EU (contract RII3-CT-2006-026140, EUSAAR) for
conducting the research.
