ACCESS TO THE “PLATAFORMA SOLAR DE ALMERÍA”

CALL MODALITIES

Competitive Access

Access to ICTS is regulated by a competitive concurrence regime procedure, with an independent and transparent evaluation process. The Call for Proposals will be open on a yearly basis for most of the services. However, due to the nature of some services provided by some installations, e.g., characterizations in laboratory, testing in solar simulators and materials testing, applications for these services will be possible at any time.

As the proposals are received, it will be noted that they contain all the necessary information, then referring them to the Evaluation Committee. After the evaluation, the Access Coordinator shall inform the applicant of the decision.

The projects positively assessed will be included in the planning of use of the ICTS, taking into account the time requested, the characteristics of the experiments to be carried out and possible recommendations of the evaluation committee.

Applicants participating in the National Plan for Research and Development may express their interest in the use of the ICTS at the time the project proposal is prepared and include the corresponding budget item within the cost of the project implementation. The expenses of access to the ICTS are eligible and accepted by MCI within this cost.

For access to the ICTS in the framework of national and international financed projects on a competitive basis, no scientific evaluation of project quality by the Evaluation Committee of the ICTS will be necessary. In this case, all identification data of the Project (identification code, name of the granting agency, etc.) must be indicated in the proposal.

In the absence of calls for financial aid from the Ministry of Science and Innovation or other bodies for accessing the ICTS, the costs associated with the execution of the project must be covered by the applicant researcher taking into account the current fees of the ICTS.

The Plataforma Solar de Almería reserves the right to encourage the use of the available infrastructures by means of the partial financing of the projects coinciding with the strategic lines of research of the ICTS.

Other access modes

Besides competitive access, another mode exists to access the facilities at the Plataforma Solar de Almeria. External on demand access to the Plataforma Solar de Almeria is given to those proposals supported by a bilateral agreement between CIEMAT and another research organization or company.