SLICES-SC Open Call – ID CALL 1

Extension of the deadline

Submission deadline: 10/6/2022 24/06/2022, 23:59:59 (CET)

The future SLICES Research Infrastructure 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 is currently building a community of researchers around SLICES-RI, which will offer the necessary solutions to create and manage efficiently the experiments. Among the features to be implemented by the SLICES-RI for the experimenters, SLICES-SC will investigate 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.

The SLICES-SC nodes are listed below. Within the 1st Open Call, SLICES-SC access to its infrastructures will be limited only to the following ones:

NITOS – UTH, Greece
Open5GLab - EURECOM, France
5TONIC, Spain
5G Test Network (5GTN), Finland
ELKH Cloud – SZTAKI, Hungary
Imec, Belgium
PSNC, Poland

Objective of the Transnational Access Open Call

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. 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 installations located in different countries offering the same type of service.

• 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 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.

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.

• Access will be offered to a particular facility through the call process as it will be published as part of each Call for Proposals. Two calls for proposals are foreseen.

• 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.

• Users shall abide by the post-access requirements.

• 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.

OTHER CONDITIONS:

• Detailed description of SLICES-SC Open Call rules and conditions: SLICES-SC_Open Call rules and conditions
• Language in which the proposal must be submitted: English
• Proposals must follow the proposal template
• Submission through the SLICES-SC webpage Proposal Submission