Access: EASI-Genomics provides Transnational Access through its 11 Infrastructure nodes/facilities. The support offered comprises sample processing, sequencing and/or large-scale genomics data analysis. EASI-Genomics will support between 150 and 300 access projects for a total budget of 6 million € over the next 4 years.

• Applicants will be able to submit their proposal through an online application platform on the website for a period of 4 weeks.
• Applicants will be notified about acceptance/rejection of their proposal 10 to12 weeks after the closure of proposal submission platform.
• The selected users will have to sign a Memorandum of Understanding no later than 3 months after notification of acceptance of their proposal.
• Samples and/or data will have to reach the EASI-Genomics providers within 6 months after proposal acceptance notification.

Online application system: The ARIA application platform for EASI-Genomics Transnational Access Calls is handled by Instruct-ERIC. Although potential EASI-Genomics users are requested to register with the ARIA system, the application, review and reporting process will be handled by EASI-Genomics.

Open science policy: Data resulting from EASI-Genomics access should be published by the user. Open access (gold or green) is required for any publication of access results. Costs of open-access publication should be covered by the user.

An exception may be considered for SMEs accessing EASI-Genomics services, which are encouraged but not obligated to disseminate the access project results.

Sequencing data generated with EASI-Genomics facility(ies) have to be deposited to the open access repositories legally set up and maintained by the EBI and CNAG-CRG, namely the ENA and EGA databases for open and controlled access respectively, no later than publication time.

Funding statement: EASI-Genomics funding must be clearly acknowledged in all publications by: “EASI-Genomics - This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 824110”.

Transnational Access: The rules of the European Commission only allow Transnational Access, users cannot get access to a facility that is located in their home country. Provision of services can only operate across national boundaries.

• Applicants may come from academia or industry (including SMEs).

• Applicants should have their home institutions based in EU Member States or Associated Countries as defined by the Horizon 2020 programme.

• Access is transnational only, applicants cannot request access to services only offered by facility(ies) from their home country.

• EASI-Genomics principal investigators and members of their research groups are not eligible to apply.

• Applicants commit to have legal and ethical consent regarding their research, their samples and/or their data prior to submitting their application.

• Applicants agree with the data sharing and publication policy of EASI-Genomics.

EASI-Genomics applications will go through three stages of review. The application will remain strictly confidential throughout the review process.

Stage 1: eligibility check: The first stage will be an eligibility check. (cf. above)

Stage 2: external reviewers and feasibility check: The second evaluation stage is an independent scientific review, conducted by two external reviewers. Proposals will be assessed based on the following detailed criteria:

1. Scientific merit of the proposal;
2. Impact and innovation potential;
3. Availability of biological samples and data;
4. Quality of phenotypic data;
5. Dissemination of results in open access media and data management plan. (SMEs may be released from this criterion in case of documented conflicting reasons).
6. Management of gender and diversity aspects in research design

In addition to the external experts, one internal EASI-Genomics member will contribute by reviewing the technical feasibility of each project. The call managers will generate a ranked list of the applications that could benefit from access.

Stage 3: decision and allocation (Access Committee): Access Committee of EASI-Genomics, consisting of representatives of the infrastructure sites and one Scientific Advisory Board member, will establish a threshold score for successful project proposals.

The successful projects will be allocated by the committee to the most appropriate EASI-Genomics sites according to the strengths of specific methodology and various expertise of the facility, always considering the trans-nationality requirement.

Applicants will be informed about the decision within 10 –12 weeks after the end of the submission period.

• Applicants of non-selected proposals will be informed by email about the result of the selection process, including provision of reasons for non-acceptance.
• Successful applicants will be informed by email about the results of evaluation and the assignment of the project to an EASI-Genomics facility.

Selected project proposals, in particular those dealing with human samples and attached data, will be further evaluated for compliance to ethical standards and laws by EASI-Genomics ELSI experts.

No later than 3 months after notification of proposal acceptance and EASI-Genomics facility allocation, successful applicants are expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding regulating the interactions between EASI-Genomics and the users. Both users and the allocated EASI-Genomics facility(ies) will be responsible for establishing a Material and/or Data transfer agreement (MDA or DTA) directly among themselves.

Applicants are responsible to provide the allocated EASI-Genomics facility(ies) with biological samples and/or data described in the proposal within 6 months of notification of proposal acceptance and EASI-Genomics facility allocation.

Applicants are encouraged to get in contact with the potential provider facilities before submission of their proposal to discuss the feasibility and technical specificities of their project through the generic email address provided at each facility page.

Applicants are invited to submit their proposal through an online application system, the ARIA application platform for EASI-Genomics Transnational Access Calls. ARIA is handled by Instruct-ERIC and is accessible from EASI-Genomics website at the open call page and directly using this link. 

Applicants are required to register upon their first visit to ARIA, or login directly if they have previously registered onto ARIA platform.

Once registered, the applicants are required to follow ARIA instructions.

A note on Information to Data Subjects relative to the processing and management of user’s personal data through the reviewing process can be found here.