Periodic Reporting for period 3 - NEP (Nanoscience Foundries and Fine Analysis - Europe|PILOT)
Reporting period: 2024-03-01 to 2025-08-31
NEP research infrastructure (RI) (www.nffa.eu) is regularly operating and, including access provided under the previous NFFA-Europe grant, has reached the 31st call for proposals that makes overall more than 1700 experiments and 7630 units of access (8 hours) delivered.
An amendment has been requested and approved for extending by one year the activity of NEP that will ensure the execution of access by all outstanding projects, including those of the last call of July 2025 that registered over 100 new proposals.
The user pressure has been high throughout the NEP grant with a peak on the last call that represents the worries of risk of discontinuity of service in case new suitable TA support would be delayed. The service to the user community has been regular with the exception of neutron availability, still unexpectedly missing due to the very long shutdown of MLZ. The reduction of access to synchrotron radiation methods due to the upgrade shutdowns of several sources in the consortium has been compensated by enrollment of new providers (Aarhus Universitet).
The science merit selection of users' proposals by the Access Review Panel (ARP), after the feasibility assessment by the Technical Liaison Network (TLNet), confirms a rate of success of about 61%, somewhat higher than physiological. NFFA has been deposited as registered mark that will also accompany the exploitation of any result, including the SEP platform.
The IDRIN design-while-operating programme is ongoing, as well as the piloting of FAIR-by-design technology development. To this aim, benefits to NEP community came indirectly from the independent facility upgrade that was obtained by Italian partners through the NRRP, which focused on digitalization of the RI. NEP partners have applied to OSCARS calls for specific developments, and have drafted a proposal to INFRA-2025-SERV-01 (NEDI) to be submitted by the deadline of September 2025, also focused on digital developments of the RI offer and operation.
An amendment has been requested and approved for extending by one year the activity of NEP that will ensure the execution of access by all outstanding projects, including those of the last call of July 2025 that registered over 100 new proposals.
The user pressure has been high throughout the NEP grant with a peak on the last call that represents the worries of risk of discontinuity of service in case new suitable TA support would be delayed. The service to the user community has been regular with the exception of neutron availability, still unexpectedly missing due to the very long shutdown of MLZ. The reduction of access to synchrotron radiation methods due to the upgrade shutdowns of several sources in the consortium has been compensated by enrollment of new providers (Aarhus Universitet).
The science merit selection of users' proposals by the Access Review Panel (ARP), after the feasibility assessment by the Technical Liaison Network (TLNet), confirms a rate of success of about 61%, somewhat higher than physiological. NFFA has been deposited as registered mark that will also accompany the exploitation of any result, including the SEP platform.
The IDRIN design-while-operating programme is ongoing, as well as the piloting of FAIR-by-design technology development. To this aim, benefits to NEP community came indirectly from the independent facility upgrade that was obtained by Italian partners through the NRRP, which focused on digitalization of the RI. NEP partners have applied to OSCARS calls for specific developments, and have drafted a proposal to INFRA-2025-SERV-01 (NEDI) to be submitted by the deadline of September 2025, also focused on digital developments of the RI offer and operation.
The NEP catalogue offers 200 methods and over 600 instruments operated by partner institutions (NEP beneficiaries) and Third Parties. The Single-Entry Point (SEP) (www.nffa.eu/new-application) gives access to the catalogue and is supported by the user guide (www.nffa.eu/apply/) covering all eligibility criteria and access procedures for academic and industrial proposals. The TLNet assesses the feasibility of the proposals and assigns the most suitable access node or optimum combination of nodes. The independent ARP ranks the scientific merit. Successful proposals are granted TA with travel and subsistence covered within limits, upon acceptance of the access rules and data management plan (general and specific-under implementation).
Users and access providers compile a report on every access. The new version of the TLNet ICT platform is very efficient in sharing and bringing up to date information on all the technical aspects of user proposals, updating the catalogue of the SEP and monitoring the effective availability and workload of each instrument.
Efforts to design a sustainable User Office network (UONet) continued, albeit the difficulty in establishing common administrative practices across independent beneficiaries linked to mandatory institutional and national regulations remains great.
The first set of Virtual Access services are now available for metadata management, analytics & machine learning on experimental data, and for computational simulations & predictions, all described and made accessible via the SEP (https://nffa.eu/apply/virtual-access-services(opens in new window)) as it was foreseen by the GA.
NFFA-Europe/NEP maintained a dialogue with the other H2020 PILOT projects (ATMO-ACCESS, OPTICON-ORP) and developed a common “white paper” on TA that was prepared for discussion with the EC officers (scheduled in September 2025).
The publication rate and highlights are satisfactory.
Users and access providers compile a report on every access. The new version of the TLNet ICT platform is very efficient in sharing and bringing up to date information on all the technical aspects of user proposals, updating the catalogue of the SEP and monitoring the effective availability and workload of each instrument.
Efforts to design a sustainable User Office network (UONet) continued, albeit the difficulty in establishing common administrative practices across independent beneficiaries linked to mandatory institutional and national regulations remains great.
The first set of Virtual Access services are now available for metadata management, analytics & machine learning on experimental data, and for computational simulations & predictions, all described and made accessible via the SEP (https://nffa.eu/apply/virtual-access-services(opens in new window)) as it was foreseen by the GA.
NFFA-Europe/NEP maintained a dialogue with the other H2020 PILOT projects (ATMO-ACCESS, OPTICON-ORP) and developed a common “white paper” on TA that was prepared for discussion with the EC officers (scheduled in September 2025).
The publication rate and highlights are satisfactory.
The effort of designing-while-operating the IDRIN is adding knowledge and experience in practicing the interoperability of the NEP services and has formed the basis for two proposals: one, NEDI (NFFA-Europe-Digital-Infrastructure), to seek for continuous RI service and to develop elements of advanced digitalization of the distributed-RI model, and one major initiative to apply for the ESFRI Project status on the ESFRI Roadmap 2026 with the project NFFA2050. NFFA2050 will deeply transform the RI workflows integrating AI in the optimization of the users’ research by optimizing the access to the physical RI thanks to the development and exploitation of digital twins of the research object (e.g. the sample) and of the methods/instruments, further integrated with an optimizer of the access also including automation of selected methods and procedures.
The MoU for long term sustainability of NFFA was the basis for the NFFA2050 project with further adhesion of three more NEP beneficiaries (FZJ, INL and KIT) and of two new research institutes (Politecnico di Milano and AREA Science Park).
A draft statute for a European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) has been elaborated and will serve as the basis for the potential legal status of NFFA2050 when on the ESFRI Roadmap.
The above activities have progressed in the Third Period, in line with specific goals and ambitions of the NEP programme, and with long term vision of NFFA.
The MoU for long term sustainability of NFFA was the basis for the NFFA2050 project with further adhesion of three more NEP beneficiaries (FZJ, INL and KIT) and of two new research institutes (Politecnico di Milano and AREA Science Park).
A draft statute for a European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) has been elaborated and will serve as the basis for the potential legal status of NFFA2050 when on the ESFRI Roadmap.
The above activities have progressed in the Third Period, in line with specific goals and ambitions of the NEP programme, and with long term vision of NFFA.