ECT* Transnational Access

ECT*, within the EC’s HORIZON 2020 programme, receives support as a Transnational Access facility through the contract ENSAR2 from March 1st, 2016 for a duration of four years.

ECT* has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 654002.

This access includes local logistical, technical and scientific support as well as specific training which is provided to external researchers using the infrastructure.

The European Centre for Theoretical Studies in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas (ECT*) offers a broad spectrum of activities for established and young researchers, theoretical and experimental physicists from all over the world (users). The scientific projects are carried out under the responsibility of the Scientific Board (Selection Panel) and with the daily supervision of the Director (Activity Leader). The Centre is based in Villazzano (Trento, Italy) at Villa Tambosi. It offers ample office space and conference rooms, different meeting rooms, a library and a canteen. Furthermore, the Centre is equipped with computing and networking facilities able to serve a wide range of needs.

All ECT* activity are open to all qualifying users (participants). Participantion is, however, limited by the capacity of the Centre and goes through a selection procedure.

Projects carried out at ECT* can be dedicated workshops and associated collaboration meetings. The role of the projects is to enhance cooperation and discussions among smaller groups of workshop participants in order to stimulate new scientific endeavours and joint research activities. Project proposals can be submitted online through an ECT* web interface.

Partial or full financial support towards food and lodging, and occasionally, towards travel expenses is available. If you wish to submit a project proposal please go to submitting a proposal.

The Transnational Access is provided to selected user groups, i.e. teams of one or more researchers (users) led by a user-group leader.

The selection of projects and users are decided by the ECT* Scientific Board. This internationally composed Selection Panel has an excellent record of working efficiently and in accordance with scientific excellence.

The selection procedure is as follows.

The Scientific Board, which acts as Selection panel, has two or three annual meetings (usually in January, June, October), during which it carries out the selection of the projects and the nomination of the project group leaders that should benefit from access.
2. Time schedule:

January meeting: definition of major research themes and possible projects for the next year followed by a call for proposals announced on the ECT* web page and disseminated to the community
June meeting: first selection of projects
October meeting: the Board finalises the full programme of activities for the next year
3. Selection criteria:

Scientific excellence
Timely and forefront scientific topics
Balance between theoretical and experimental research
Interdisciplinarity with other/related fields
Professional status of the project leader and organisational skills
Balance between nationalities as well as senior/junior participants
The selected projects, once approved by the Board, are announced on the web and publicized by email to the ECT* Associates and to research institutions worldwide.

Eligibility criteria under ENSAR2: to be eligible to benefit from access to the infrastructure under the contract, both the user group leader and the majority of the users must work in a European Member State or Associated Country other than Italy.