Research infrastructures

The abstract, or the summary of the action plan, provides an overview of the content of the project for which RCF funding is sought.

The abstract is filled in under a dedicated tab in the online services.

To facilitate the international review, the abstract should contain the following information:

• brief description and significance of research infrastructure: how it supports research, development and innovation activities
• objectives of development project
• method of implementation of development project
• expected results and impact.

Prepare the abstract carefully. The maximum length is 2,500 characters including spaces. The abstract is subject to secrecy.

If the research infrastructure has ongoing RCF research infrastructure funding for which a final report has not yet been submitted, the person responsible for the application will append a progress report to the application. The progress report covers the entire research infrastructure. For a consortium-based infrastructure, only one joint report on the entire research infrastructure will be submitted on the ongoing development project.

The progress report is appended to the application on the ‘Appendices’ tab. Prepare the progress report following the instructions below. Name the attachment file as follows: infrastructureabbreviation_report_2026.

Title: Progress report(s) on ongoing research infrastructure development projects

• Name of research infrastructure:
• Applicant organisation(s)
• Description of the progress and/or key achievements of each ongoing project and how the project differs from the funding requested. If there are several ongoing development projects, each project is described separately in the same appendix.
• Use no more than 2,000 characters to describe each development project.

In research infrastructure calls, a description of the research infrastructure’s data management policy shall be appended to the application. This page contains instructions on how to prepare the data management policy.

A research infrastructure (RI) should have a data management policy (DMPol) that offers guidelines to owners, staff and users, and ensures the appropriate management of both administrative and research data.

The RI should also have clear instructions on how and where the data produced can be stored for a reasonable period of time, and on how the data can be made available for verification and (re)use. Data produced by the RI should aim to be FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and re-usable), responsible and secure.

You should also familiarise yourself with the data management guidelines in your organisation where applicable.

Answer only those questions that are relevant to the RI.

• The maximum length of the DMPol is five pages.
• The paper size is A4.
• The font is Calibri/Carlito 12 pt.
• The line spacing is 1.
• The margins are 20 mm.
• The text is left-aligned.
• Do not use paragraph indents.
• The font size in tables and images must be at least 10 pt.
• Use a single-column layout when writing the text.

1. General description of administrative data of RI

• What administrative data are processed within the RI?
• What administrative personal data (e.g. user names, contact information) does the RI process?
• Provide a link to all privacy policies/notices of the organisation(s) or RI where it is explained how the RI processes administrative personal data.
• How are the roles and responsibilities for the use of the RI’s administrative personal data defined in the case of a multi-organisation RI?

2. General description of research data managed within RI

NB: In this section, we recommend that you partially present the information in table or figure format, for example.

• What types of research data, such as numerical values, images and texts, does the RI process? What are the most common file formats?
• What are the sources of the research data?
• If research data from different data sources are combined into larger entities, i.e. datasets, mention this and explain how it is done.

3. Ethical and legal compliance of personal or sensitive research data

NB: This section can be left blank if the RI does not process personal or sensitive research data (e.g. health, genetic and personal information, location of endangered species or other conservation efforts, or trade secrets).

• Does the RI process personal research data?
• Provide a link to the privacy policies/notices where it is explained how personal research data are processed.
• How are the roles and responsibilities for the use of the RI’s personal research data defined in the case of a multi-organisation RI?
• If the user needs a research permit to collect data, will the RI verify that?
• Does the RI process sensitive research data?

4. Agreements on research data rights

• What has been agreed about usage rights, for example access to pre-existing data, ownership, intellectual property rights, merging files, resharing, administrative use, opening, use for training and awareness, and disposal?
• Does the RI have documents for agreements on rights of use? If not, consider preparing such.
• How should the user cite the RI?

5. Documentation and metadata

• What kind of tools and guidelines (e.g. OpenAIRE Guidelines for documentation) does the RI provide for documentation or metadata collection of research data? If possible, please provide links to research data documentation guidelines.
• How does the RI implement and guide quality control, such as automatic data validation or manual checks, to ensure data quality, consistency and integrity?
• Does the RI use any recommended metadata standards or README files or other documentation guidelines for data(sets)?  What disciplinary vocabularies or classifications does the RI recommend or require to be used in metadata?
• Does the RI provide unique and persistent identifiers (PID) (e.g. DOI, URN) for data(sets), records or other digital objects? Or which services will the RI use to provide them?

6. Access control, backup, storage and disposal of administrative and research data

• Who will be responsible for controlling access to the RI’s data, and how will secure access be controlled?
• Estimate roughly how much research data is produced or received in the RI over a given period of time (e.g. daily, monthly, yearly). Use GB, TB or other units.
• Does the RI provide the users with backup or backup instructions?
• What kinds of data storage services does the RI provide or recommend?
• For how long will the data be stored, and does the RI provide long-term preservation? Or does the RI recommend that data are preserved in the long term by the user?
• Does the RI or its host organisation have procedures or recommendations for data disposal (when and how)?

7. Opening research data and/or metadata

• Briefly describe the plans of actions with which the RI or its host organisation promote openness of research data.
• Please justify if the research data or parts of the data cannot be made openly available.
• Does the RI or its host organisation have any guidelines for the users on how and where to make the research data or the metadata openly available?
• What licence(s) (e.g. CC licences) does the RI or its host organisation recommend or require for making the data openly available?

Long-term financial plan

The national research infrastructures must have a sound and sustainable funding base and a long-term financial plan. The maintenance of research infrastructure cannot rely on competitive funding granted by the RCF. The long-term financial plan for the research infrastructure is a mandatory appendix to the application, appended by the person responsible for the consortium application. The information will be used to assess the sustainability of the infrastructure’s funding base and the commitment of the organisation(s). In addition to the table, the text shall briefly explain the expenditure and revenue of the research infrastructure, the principles used to produce the figures in the table, how expenditure and revenue are monitored, and the risk assessment associated with the long-term financial plan.

Prepare the long-term financial plan using our template and append it to the application on the dedicated tab in the online services.

Lifecycle stages of research infrastructure

The action plan in the application describes the function and organisation of the research infrastructure in relation to its lifecycle stage.

See the RI lifecycle stages here.

Authorisation by person designated by applicant organisation

The authorisation to apply for funding in this call, given by the person designated by the applicant organisation, is a mandatory appendix to the application, appended by each responsible person. The organisation may authorise up to three individual applications or consortium subproject applications. Each authorised research infrastructure shall append the authorisation to its application. You may transfer the data to the organisation’s own template, but make sure that the authorisation contains all necessary information.

Create an authorisation letter using our template.

Long-term financial plan

The research infrastructure must have a sound and sustainable funding base and a long-term financial plan. The maintenance of research infrastructure cannot rely on competitive funding granted by the RCF. The funding is not intended for maintenance costs or permanent operating expenses of the research infrastructure.

The long-term financial plan for the research infrastructure is a mandatory appendix to the application, appended by the person responsible for the consortium application.

Prepare the long-term financial plan using our template and append it to the application on the dedicated tab in the online services.