A ninth call for free access to over 30 of Europe’s best marine research facilities and services has been announced as part of the EU-funded ASSEMBLE Plus project.

Researchers are invited to apply now for access between April and July 2022. ASSEMBLE Plus programme supports marine researchers to carry out their own projects using resources not available in their home institutes. The initiative helps participants to enhance their skills, create new collaborations and contribute to scientific understanding.

Since January 2018, the ASSEMBLE Plus Transnational Access (TA) programme has received more than 600 applications, with access granted to more than 500 groups of European and international researchers from 46 different countries! Projects have covered a range of marine research, including molecular biology, ecology and biochemistry. The many success stories emerging from these projects highlight their value.

Kate Schoenrock-Rossiter, National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway in Ireland, received an ASSEMBLE Plus TA award to work with the Centre for Marine Sciences, Portugal (CCMAR):

“During my two weeks at CCMAR, we created a calibration metric for microsatellite data generated for a cold-water kelp, Laminaria hyperborea. We were able to expand the project to Station Biologique de Roscoff (SBR). Our work was eventually published in the European Journal of Phycology.  Three labs from CCMAR, SBR and NUI Galway/University of Alabama at Birmingham continue to hone this calibration and work together to generate EU wide data sets, a key output of this transnational access.”

Kate Schoenrock-Rossiter, NUI Galway

Applications are now open for this TA programme call. The award covers access costs for up to 30 days, in addition to travel, accommodation and meal expenses for up to two researchers per project.

The deadline to apply is 13 February 2022. This is expected to be the last call for the TA programme and therefore the final opportunity for researchers to benefit.

For more information about the programme, please visit assembleplus.eu/access/transnational-access  or email assembleplus_ta@embrc.eu. Follow @ASSEMBLE_Plus on Twitter for regular updates from the project.