• All members of the research team (“Users”), including the Principal Investigator (PI), must create individual accounts in ARIA, (access portal – Login/Register), enabling the Applicant to identify and select all team members when filling in the full Proposal Form.¹

¹ This step does not replace the creation of User accounts at selected facilities, which must be done separately after a proposal is accepted by RIANA in order to be scheduled.

• The Applicant can submit a title and informal abstract through the access portal using the pre-proposal form (accessible via “Calls” in the top menu of the portal).
• The Applicant can include any questions for our experts, be it in relation to the choice of technique, the experiment itself, data analysis, or application procedures.
• The Applicant will be contacted by email within one week after submission and matched with the most appropriate expert to discuss their idea.

• Before completing the form itself, the team should complete the Word template of the Project Description as the main proposal document that should then be uploaded to the online form.
• In the portal, the Applicant will first be requested to select two (or more) options from the list of techniques (“services”). After the technique selection, the Applicant is requested to select a preferred infrastructure (“service host”). The preference will be considered, but RIANA reserves the right to appoint a different infrastructure.
• All team members should then be added to the proposal. Once they have created accounts, their names can be found through the search field.
• Next, the online Proposal Form should be completed in the portal. Word and PDF versions are available to prepare and review content in advance. The online form can be saved as a draft and returned to later.
• The Applicant will then be asked to have read and accepted the Terms of Use, this User Guide, the eligibility criteria, and the privacy policy.
• After submission of the form, the Applicant and all team members including the PI will receive confirmation by email.

• All proposals will be checked by the RIANA TNA Coordinator. For each proposal, the selected infrastructures will either be confirmed by the TNA Coordinator, or different infrastructures will be assigned. This may happen due to scientific considerations or available instrument time.
• If the assigned infrastructures are different from the chosen ones, this amendment will be done in the proposal directly by the Project Administrator, and the Applicant will be notified.
• The technical feasibility of each proposal will be assessed by scientists at the assigned infrastructures.

• All proposals will be assigned three Reviewers from our Proposal Review Panel and given an overall grade. The main criteria for evaluation by our Reviewers are:
  • Scientific/technological excellence (10/30)
  • Methods (10/30)
  • Impact (5/30)
  • Level of cross-disciplinarity (5/30)

Details of the evaluation criteria are given in the Guidelines for Reviewers.

• In case of projects at equal ranking by Reviewers, preference will be given to:
  • Users who have not previously used RIANA infrastructures
  • Users who are working in countries where no equivalent research infrastructure exists
  • Proposals of greatest benefit to Europe (proportion of EU scientists, collaboration within Europe, EU company benefiting from the research, participation of widening countries)
  • Users with a fair balance of female/male team members.
• An email will be sent to notify the Users of the outcome of their submission:
  • Accepted – the proposal has been granted TNA access.
  • Rejected – the proposal has not been granted TNA access. Comments explaining the reasons for rejection are provided.

• After proposal acceptance, the infrastructures will contact the Users to clarify details of access,² including infrastructure-specific aspects such as safety, availability of resources, and local contact.
• Access should be completed within a maximum of 18 months after acceptance.

² The RIANA proposal submission and review replaces the scientific review at the infrastructure level. However, further technical details may need to be provided to the infrastructure prior to access.

• After the visits have taken place, the Applicant will be required to complete the User Feedback Form to provide feedback on the visit and the RIANA project in general.
• The submission of an Experiment Report is required as well based on a template on the RIANA documents page. The Experiment Report can be submitted via the User Feedback Form.

RIANA makes every effort to respect timelines with the active collaboration of our Users.