Making research infrastructures accessible – a handbook

Important terms

Clarification of some terms used in the handbook; research infrastructure, higher education institutions, host organisation, external user and mediator.

Important terms

Checklist for open research infrastructure

A quick checklist that can be used as a starting point for granting access to research infrastructure.

Checklist for open research infrastructures

Background

There is advanced research infrastructure that is strategically important for conducting excellent Swedish research and innovation located at higher education institutions and research institutes in Sweden. Some uncertainty exists as to how to interpret the regulations that in various ways govern the granting of access to these research infrastructures to actors who are external to the infrastructure’s host organisation. How these matters are handled has become even more relevant for Swedish higher education institutions since the introduction of the Fees for Research Infrastructure Ordinance (2022:1378) in October 2022.

Research institutes, and their staff, often have more experience in making their research infrastructures accessible for external use and thus already have established procedures equivalent to many of the recommendations given in this Handbook.

How the Handbook was produced and its uses

This Handbook was produced as part of the Swedish collaboration for access to laboratory infrastructure (the SESAM project), funded by Vinnova. The project participants are Lund University, Stockholm University, Uppsala University and the research institute RISE. Additional HEIs and an external reference group have contributed to the Handbook’s content¹. The Handbook is based on a survey and needs inventory that was carried out at the beginning of the project in which 42 research infrastructures participated via interview or survey responses.

The project’s starting point was to target research infrastructures relevant to or somewhat related to materials, engineering and life sciences. During the project, it became clear that the Handbook is in fact relevant to all research infrastructures that fall within the EU’s definition of a research infrastructure². The project’s recommendations are also relevant for technology infrastructures included in the EU’s definition of technology infrastructures³, as well as testing and experimentation infrastructures⁴.

This Handbook is provided for information purposes only and is intended to clarify a selection of acts, regulations and ordinances and their potential consequences when making the various types of research infrastructures that exist at HEIs and research institutes accessible to external actors. When reading this Handbook, if you are unsure about how the rules should be applied, you should always refer directly to the rules, such as those referenced in this Handbook, or seek legal advice within your organisation. Legal assessments of how the rules are to be applied need to be based on the circumstances in each individual case, which is why the Handbook itself cannot replace legal advice. Any implementations of the Handbook in internal governing documents and management processes are dependent on subsequent decisions within each organisation.

Annexes

The annexes form the basis for the handbook and have been produced during the SESAM project as working materials or reports, or by project partners where the content is relevant to the handbook.

• Annex 1 – Instruction and Guide to the Fees for Research Infrastructure Ordinance
• Annex 2 – Offering, pricing and competition matters for laboratory infrastructures
• Annex 3 – Technical service or product
• Annex 4 – A memorandum on public access to information and secrecy
• Annex 5 – Problems in the area of intellectual property and making research infrastructures accessible at Swedish HEIs
  

Footnotes

1. Chalmers University of Technology, University of Gothenburg, University of Dalarna, University in Gävle, Karolinska Institutet, Royal Institute of Technology, Linköping University, Luleå University of Technology, Swedish University of Agriculture, Umeå University, AlfaLaval, Astra Zeneca, CR competence, Edwards science & technology, RISE, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, SARomics biostructures and Swerim.
2. Chapter 1 Article 2(91) of Commission Regulation No 651/2014.
3. European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Technology infrastructures – Commission staff working document, Publications Office, 2019,
   https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2777/83750
4. Chapter 1, Article 2(98a) of Commission Regulation No 651/2014.