D6.3 Guidelines on proposed harmonisation measures for TA policies and procedures for the service provision

This document (project Deliverable D6.3) offers guidelines for harmonising policies and procedures for physical, remote and hybrid service provision in the IRISCC (Integrated Research Infrastructure Services for Climate Change risks) project. It is released in Work Package (WP) 6 “Integrated Knowledge Service assessment”, Task 6.3 “Harmonisation of procedures for transnational access”. The work is based on a preliminary mapping and analysis of the access modalities adopted by the different distributed Research Infrastructures (RIs) involved in the project. It seeks to formulate common access practices and mechanisms to prepare optimal conditions for Transnational Access (TA) management in WP8 “IRISCC TA and VA access management” and TA provision in WP10 “AO01 – Transnational access provision for climate change risk services”. As a result, users from all the different, close or less close research communities, are expected to experience uniform, simplified and more efficient transnational access to the wider and integrated set of advanced RIs’ services developed in IRISCC.

Following the analysis realised, five key areas for harmonisation were identified and described along with the harmonisation measures proposed for each: i) harmonised access policies, ii) application and selection procedures, iii) evaluation criteria, iv) user support services, and v) user duties, which together provide the common concept for TA management in the IRISCC project. This common concept is intended to serve as a major input to help prepare and arrange TA activities in WP8, specifically for Tasks 8.1 “Centralized TA management” and 8.3 “Transnational and virtual access related service user and service provider support”.

Not all the RIs in IRISCC were found to have a dedicated, official document establishing their access policy. For those RIs not having a formal access policy, the recommendation is to formalise it in a document. For those who already have policy documents, it is advised to update them according to the latest indications from EU strategic documents and to include more operational principles to guide access management.

The EU guidance documents call for considering and introducing new access modes (priority-driven and crisis modes, and reference to access for education/training); extensive experience in TA management suggests that flexibility, effectiveness and efficiency, transparency, and accountability should be key operational principles to include in the policies as well.

Concerning the second key area — application and selection procedures — the main harmonisation measures address, on one hand, the steps in the selection process and their sequence, and on the other, the detail and type of information required for a valid access application and selection based on a suitable scientific review. Recommendations are towards simplifying the process, which should consist of a lean eligibility check, feasibility or plausibility check, and merit evaluation phases as well as simplifying the forms needed in the various steps.

Evaluation criteria for assessing and selecting user TA proposals represent a third key area needing harmonisation between the IRISCC RIs. Harmonisation efforts here mainly concern the number of criteria and their weight in the overall assessment. These should be a maximum of around six and could include scientific/technical value and relevance, impacts, novelty and innovation, and quality and efficiency of the implementation, which are currently widely shared among the RIs.

User support services represent the fourth key area. The proposed harmonisation for this strategic aspect regards the implementation of a helpdesk service involving multiple players at different levels for optimal management of support requests, also to give detailed input to WP8.

The last key area for harmonisation is identified in the duties selected users for TA need to comply with, both before access begins and occurs at the facility, and once access is complete. Recommendations are to reduce these tasks as much as possible, simplify the forms and documentation the users need to complete, and mainly harmonise the content of the paperwork to produce, which is recommended to be as simple as possible.

Finally, an implementation plan for the proposed harmonisation measures is provided to base and guide interlinkages with WP8 and inform interactions, according to the main steps and phases already identified in the IRISCC project:

1.  Initial customisation of the TA management tool in WP8
2.  Definition of the strategic IRISCC Access Programme in WP7
3.  Establishment of International Assessment Panel in WP8
4.  Optimisation of the TA management tool in WP8;
5.  Definition of the TA User support and feedback system in WP8.

All these phases and steps shall ideally be completed with the collaboration and supervision of WP6.