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Call for proposals
Call for proposals for access to integrated multidisciplinary facilities for Materials and Biomaterials
CERIC-ERIC offers access through a single entry point to more than 60 different and complementary state of the art techniques and support laboratories, distributed in 11 countries, with the submission of single or multi-technique proposals. A detailed description of the facilities available in CERIC can be found here.
Access to CERIC is open to scientists from all over the world and free of charge, provided the results end data are made available to the community in a reasonable time, according to our Scientific Data Policy.
Deadlines
- September 1st 2026, at 17:00 CEST to have a pre-evaluation and the possibility to improve your proposal
- September 30th 2026, at 17:00 CEST final submission, recommended only for users that are expert in all the techniques requested.
How to apply
Proposals should be submitted online through the Virtual Unified Office (VUO), more information here. The best projects will be selected through international peer review.
Partial support for user’s mobility will be available for a maximum of two users through funding provided by CERIC. Read the policy here.
What is new in this call
Four nuclear laboratories of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) have just been added to the CERIC portfolio, allowing studies of neutron-induced reactions, irradiations in well-characterised neutron and gamma fields and accurate measurements of radioactivity for science and technology applications.
- MONNET Accelerator-based fast-neutron source
- GELINA Neutron Time-of-Flight Facility
- HADES Underground laboratory for ultra-low level gamma-ray spectrometry
- RADMET Radionuclide Metrology laboratories
Upgrades & Maintenance
Elettra 2.0
Starting from July 2nd, 2025 the removal of Elettra and the installation of the new Elettra 2.0 machine has begun at the CERIC Italian Partner Facility. The new source will exhibit a major increase in the brilliance and coherence fraction of the photon beams. The Elettra 2.0 optics is based on our enhanced symmetric six bend achromat structure (S6BA-E) with a 12-fold symmetry and an emittance of 200 pm-rad at 2.4 GeV. The new structure creates also straight sections in the arcs permitting the installation of additional insertion devices, thus increasing the number of beamlines. Existing beamlines are being upgraded, and new beamlines will be installed to take full advantage of the characteristics of Elettra 2.0. The new machine is scheduled for commissioning in the first half of 2027.
Hence, in the current call for proposals access will not be offered to the beamlines located at Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste.
Three offline beamlines will instead keep offering access:
- Inelastic Ultraviolet Scattering Offline laboratory (IUVS-Offline)
- Offline Synchrotron Infrared Source for Spectroscopy and Imaging – Chemistry & Life Science (SISSI-Bio OFF-line)
- Czech Materials Science Beamline (MSB) at Elettra offers offline photoemission experiments with a dual-anode (Mg/Al) X-ray lamp as photon source. Most of the end-station facilities described on the website https://www.elettra.eu/lightsources/elettra/elettra-beamlines/msb/manuals.html remain available, please contact the local staff before submission.
In addition, the following instruments, continue to offer access to CERIC users:
Although the Austrian SAXS beamline located at Elettra is currently unavailable, SWAXS measurements are offered at the TUG SAXS instrument on an Anton Paar SAXS Point 7000 (Lab SAXS).
Ruđer Bošković Institute
The Croatian ion beam facilty at the Ruđer Bošković Institute is undergoing a major upgrade to the accelerator building, currently in its final implementation phase. Consequently, approved proposals will be executed starting in the summer of 2027.
National Synchrotron Radiation Centre SOLARIS
Due to the ongoing expansion of the research infrastructure, the PHELIX beamline will not be available and is therefore excluded from the current call.
Two-step application
The first step allows a pre-evaluation of the proposal at the facilities, followed by two weeks for editing before final submission at the second deadline. Although we suggest taking advantage of the pre-evaluation, expert users may decide to submit their proposals directly at the second deadline.
Fast track access
Read the CERIC Scientific Data Policy here
CERIC user office: useroffice@ceric-eric.eu