AMOF welcomes applications from all parts of the scientific community, including commercial users, but priority will be given to NERC-funded science and applicants eligible for NERC funding. Prospective users are encouraged to contact the Facility Manager or the relevant AMOF instrument scientist prior to making an application, to discuss the project’s requirements. AMOF will always endeavour to support a user’s scientific aspirations whenever possible.

Accessing the Facility

AMOF welcomes applications from all parts of the scientific community, including commercial users, but priority will be given to NERC-funded science and applicants eligible for NERC funding. Prospective users are encouraged to contact the Facility Manager or the relevant AMOF instrument scientist prior to making an application, to discuss the project’s requirements. AMOF will always endeavour to support a user’s scientific aspirations whenever possible.

Accessing existing data: Users accessing the facility in this mode will typically do so via the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA). In line with the NERC data policy, there will be no charge at the point of use for the data. However, there may be staff costs involved in helping users interpret the data. Users requiring such help should apply through Direct Access. Where a project is likely to require more than 40 person-days of Facility staff time, funding will need to be provided.

Mobile instrumentation: Users apply for access to the Facility through one of the routes described below. As AMOF is a community Facility, instrument deployments should be restricted to 6 months duration on site (this does not include shipping time). Longer deployments can be supported if:

The project is funded through a NERC grant, or

The project is funded through a cross-council UKRI programme involving NERC: e.g. GCRF, Newton Fund, Grand Challenges, or

Deployment beyond 6 months can be supported through a NERC Centre-commissioned science programme (e.g. LTSM).

Where a project is currently making use of the Facility (instruments deployed or activities occurring at Laboratories or Observatories) and the project is funded through NERC grant or a cross-council UKRI programme involving NERC, extensions to the active loan period can be supported if:

The project PI contacts the Facility by email to request an extension to the loan period in the last quarter of the current active loan period,

No other funded requests for the instrument(s) have been made in the meantime.

Extensions of up to 6 months can be requested and no more than two extensions may be applied for.

Access to Laboratories and guest instrument access to Observatories: Users apply for access to the Facility through one of the routes described below.

Access to Observatories: Operation of on-demand instruments and of long-term measuring instruments in a user-defined configuration (provided this does not prejudice the long-term measurement programme): Users apply for access to the Facility through one of the routes described below.

Applying for use via NERC grant schemes.

PIs preparing NERC grant proposals (including applications to UKRI cross-cutting schemes where the application comes through NERC on JeS) which plan to use AMOF should apply to the Facility (via the online application form) to obtain a ‘technical assessment’ and cost estimates for submission with their proposal. This should be at least one month before the grant submission deadline.

The Facility Manager will provide a Facility Charge for the project. These are included in the Facility cost section on the JeS form and recovered by NERC at source. The Facility charge has two components, equipment rental and staff time.

Additional Facility costs required to carry out the project, e.g. consumables, shipping or travel and subsistence, will also be provided by the Facility Manager and should be included as Directly Incurred costs on the JeS form.

A separate Science case is not needed as the relevant Research Council Peer Review outcome will be used to determine access to AMOF.

Applying for use via other grant schemes from national and international funding agencies, and applications from public sector not-for-profit organisations.

All public not-for-profit organisations that do not directly involve NERC fall into this category.

To comply with NERC reporting requirements, ensure transparency of access, and to ensure science quality, PIs will be required to submit a 2-page Science Proposal alongside the AMOF application. This document will be peer-reviewed by 3 independent members of the Facility Steering Committee (AMOFSC) and scored following the NERC grant scoring scheme. Applications receiving a score of 7 or over will be considered eligible for Facility support, subject to prioritisation (section 2.1).

EU projects will be expected to recover costs as allowed by EU rules.

Projects led by public sector not-for-profit organisations will be granted access at marginal cost (including staff costs), subject to the Facility having available capacity.

PIs preparing grant proposals that plan to use AMOF should apply to the Facility (via the online application form) to obtain a “technical assessment” and cost estimate for submission with their proposal. This should be at least one month before the grant submission deadline.

Applying for use in support of commercial contracts.

AMOF does not normally have the capacity to undertake commercial work, but if there is spare capacity commercial work will be costed according to the procedures of the institution that employs the relevant staff member (and owns the equipment). Prospective users should contact the Facility manager for further details.

Direct Access

This scheme is open to academic and research staff employed at UK Universities and NERC research centres. NERC-funded PhD students may also apply through this scheme.

Direct access allows for small projects which require 20 working days (1 month) or less of Facility staff time. The majority of applicants will be required to submit a Science Proposal of up to 2 pages which will be peer-reviewed by AMOFSC: the exceptions are discussed below.

Minor additional support may be awarded to projects already supported by AMOF at the Facility Manager’s discretion. No additional peer review will be needed in such a case.

NERC-funded PhD students and those funded through UKRI cross-council schemes involving NERC may apply in their own right for AMOF, and in this case, may request up to 40 working days (2 months) Facility staff support.

PhD students not funded by NERC are not eligible to apply directly to AMOF, but eligible supervisors may apply on their behalf through Direct Access as above (and are restricted to 20 working days of instrument scientist support).

NERC Grant holders cannot apply through DA to use NERC facilities in support of existing grant-funded projects – this must be requested through the original proposal. AMOF is required by NERC to refer such requests to NERC Head Office.

Not-for-profit organisations can apply through DA access and will be charged for staff time and equipment rental. There is no cap on staff time.

National Capability Access: NERC research centres may use the Facility as part of their commissioned National Capability Underpinning or Long-Term Science programmes. Such usage will not be subject to further peer review, but an application to the Facility will be needed through the Direct Access route to allow AMOF to meet NERC reporting requirements. Such applications are restricted to 40 working days of staff support and must provide the necessary non-staff costs.

A Science Proposal is not required.

Usage of Facility by AMOF staff: The Facility staff may utilise up to 10% of the NERC-funded capacity for Facility research and development purposes. This will be by agreement with the Facility Manager. If a particular project requires an abnormally large amount of the capacity of the facility (>10% of that available annually), the cost of the work should normally be funded externally (e.g. via a grant or NC science programme).

An application to the Facility will be needed through the Direct Access route to allow AMOF to meet NERC reporting requirements.

Where the request is in support of commissioned National Capability Underpinning or Long-Term Science programmes no 2-page Science Proposal is required and no external peer review by the AMOFSC occurs.

NERC grants, including applications to UKRI cross-cutting schemes where the application comes through NERC on JeS

Facility (ready-to-go) Charges:  These are included in the Facility cost section on the JeS form and recovered by NERC at source. The Facility charge has two components, equipment rental and staff time.

Equipment Rental:

A daily charge will be applied for each part the facility requested – see Appendix B for details of these charges.

The charge will be applied for the time “science” is occurring

The charge will be applied for a maximum of 14 days of transit.

There is no equipment rental charge when a project deploys instrumentation at an AMOF Observatory.

Staff time:

Staff time is charged at £270 per day

This is the time Facility staff require to prepare instruments, train users, deploy equipment, monitor during deployment, QC and archive data. The time is determined by the Facility scientist as part of the technical review.

No charges apply if < 3 working days of staff time is required.

A maximum of 40 working days of staff time, charged at the Facility rate, are available per project.

For the NERC Large Grant scheme, this is extended to a maximum 40 working days per project per participating institution.

Where a proposal requires more than 40 working days of Facility staff time the PI must consult NCAS (via the Facility Manager) and include the extra staff time costs on the JeS form: for example by making the staff member a Co-investigator or named researcher on the grant.

Facility Charge Capping

For NERC large grants the Facility charge is capped at £50k

For all other schemes where the application comes through NERC on JeS form the Facility charge is capped at £30k

User Costs: These are the additional Facility costs required to carry out the project, e.g. consumables, shipping or travel and subsistence and should be included as Directly Incurred costs on the JeS form.

Consumables: project is liable for any consumables the project will require. An appropriate amount will be arrived at after discussion with Facility staff involved.

Marginal T&S (travel and subsistence) will be charged and this will be costed as directed by the staff member concerned host institution guidelines.

Grant schemes from national and international funding agencies, and from public sector not-for-profit organisations. This applies to all public not-for-profit organisations that do not directly involve NERC.

Facility (ready-to-go) Charges:

Equipment Rental:

A daily charge will be applied for each part the facility requested – see Appendix B for details of these charges.

The charge will be applied for the time “science” is occurring

The charge will be applied for all the time the instrument is in transit.

There is no equipment rental charge when a project deploys instrumentation at an AMOF Observatory.

Payment to institution(s) employing relevant NCAS staff member(s)

Staff time:

Staff time is charged at £270 per day

All staff time must be met by the grant.

PI must discuss with the Facility Manager how staff costs will be met.

Payment to institution(s) employing relevant NCAS staff member(s)

User Costs: These are the additional Facility costs required to carry out the project, e.g. consumables, shipping or travel and subsistence and should be included as Directly Incurred costs on the JeS form.

Consumables: project is liable for any consumables the project will require. An appropriate amount will be arrived at after discussion with Facility staff involved.

Marginal T&S (travel and subsistence) will be charged and this will be costed as directed by the staff member concerned host institution guidelines.

Payment to institution(s) employing relevant NCAS staff member(s)

Direct Access

Facility (ready-to-go) Charges

Equipment Rental:

Not applicable

if the applicant is a researcher in a UK University or NERC Centre

if the applicant is a NERC Ph.D student

if the applicant is a researcher in a UK University or NERC Centre supervising a non-NERC Ph.D student

Not-for-profit organisation charged at the daily rate in which case payment is to institution(s) employing relevant NCAS staff member(s)

Staff Time:
No charges apply

if the applicant is a researcher in a UK University or NERC Centre

if the applicant is a NERC Ph.D student

if the applicant is a researcher in a UK University or NERC Centre supervising a non-NERC Ph.D student

Maximum of 20 working days of Facility staff support for researchers in UK Universities or NERC Centre

Maximum of 40 working days of Facility staff support for NERC Ph.D students

Not-for-profit organisations charged at £270 per day

Maximum of 20 working days of Facility staff support time

Payment to institution(s) employing relevant NCAS staff member(s)

User Costs

These are the additional Facility costs required to carry out the project, e.g. consumables, shipping or travel and subsistence.

Consumables: project is liable for any consumables the project will require. An appropriate amount will be arrived at after discussion with Facility staff involved.

Marginal T&S (travel and subsistence) will be charged and this will be costed as directed by the staff member concerned host institution guidelines.

Direct Access for large instruments

This applies to the mobile X-band, Ka-band and Radar Wind Profiler when deployed at its ‘home’ location.

Facility (ready-to-go) Charges

Equipment Rental

Not applicable

if the applicant is a researcher in a UK University or NERC Centre

if the applicant is a NERC Ph.D student

if the applicant is a researcher in a UK University or NERC Centre supervising a non-NERC Ph.D student

Not-for-profit organisation charged at the daily rate shown in Appendix B; payment to institution(s) employing relevant NCAS staff member(s)

Staff Time

Maximum of 20 working days of Facility staff support for NERC eligible researchers in UK Universities or NERC Centre

Maximum of 40 working days of Facility staff support for NERC Ph.D students

Maximum of 20 working days of Facility staff support time available to none NERC, not-for-profit organisations

None NERC, not-for-profit organisations: Payment to institution(s) employing relevant NCAS staff member(s)

User Costs

These are the additional Facility costs required to carry out the project, e.g. consumables, shipping or travel and subsistence.

Consumables: project is liable for any consumables the project will require. An appropriate amount will be arrived at after discussion with Facility staff involved.

Marginal T&S (travel and subsistence) will be charged and this will be costed as directed by the staff member concerned host institution guidelines.

Commercial users.

Costs for commercial users are determined individually by the institutions hosting the NCAS staff member and the equipment concerned. Full economic costs apply. Contractual and invoicing arrangements are between the applicant and the host institution.

Daily Charges.

Mobile Instrument: Facility instruments are placed in bands based on their replacement market value and used to determine the daily equipment rental charge.

Cost band for the mobile instruments available through AMOF

Observatory Access for guest instruments

There is no daily charge for hosting guest instruments at any of the AMOF Observatory sites. The only costs are the additional User Costs and these cover local staff costs, power and any additional services required.

Laboratory Access

This applies to the EnFLO COZI (CO and ozone calibration) & PTU (Pressure, temperature and humidity calibration) laboratories.

The daily equipment rental for COZI and PTU

For EnFlo a daily charge of £70 per day is only applied to the NERC schemes (including applications to UKRI cross-cutting schemes where the application comes through NERC on JeS). For all other funding pathways applications are made directly to the EnFlo Facility and any access costs incurred are discussed with them.

For research projects, the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) will retain ownership of data and will make the standard products publically available according to RCUK policy (currently within two years of measurement).

Users will have the first opportunity to publish the data within this period. NCAS will expect appropriate acknowledgment rather than co-authorship of papers where standard data only have been supplied – although NCAS staff should be offered co-authorship if they contribute substantially to the research or the writing of the paper.

For commercial projects, the user may require ownership of the data. In such cases, NCAS will seek to reserve permission to use the data for research.

The following guidelines are intended to encourage and facilitate early publication.

• AMOF reserve right of ownership of all data collected and processed by AMOF staff.
• AMOF data will become open access (through the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis) after a period of 2 years
• Both NCAS and AMOF are acknowledged as the data source.
• AMOF scientists should always be offered co-authorship if they have contributed scientifically to a paper, over and
• above the provision of the standard dataset and a general statement of the instrument specification.

Sharing & Distribution

• AMOF Long-term Observations
  • All long-term observations will be made available with a minimum of delay following collection and data quality assessment.
  • At remote locations, data may be locally stored and retrieved periodically on stage media. Data will be made available as soon as possible after retrieval and data quality assessment.
  • All quality controlled data are open access and freely publishable. Access and usage will be facilitated and monitored by CEDA.
  • Any campaign-type observations requested with an instrument providing a long-term dataset will not compromise the integrity of that dataset.
• AMOF Observations for NCAS science
  • Campaign participants will have early access to all AMOF data acquired. Direct transfer of preliminary data in the field may be necessary and, where possible, AMOF will arrange common electronic sharing mechanisms. Preliminary data are defined as not quality controlled or documented and should not be considered publishable.
  • Non-NCAS participants in a campaign who wish to use AMOF campaign data will be required to register with the campaign PI for permission to access the data. This will be achieved through CEDA access control protocols.
  • All NCAS staff will have free and open access to the data.
  • AMOF campaign data will become open access and free to publish after a period of 2 years. Access and usage will be facilitated and monitored by CEDA.
• AMOF Observations for non-NCAS science
  • Campaign participants will have early access to all AMOF data acquired. Direct transfer of preliminary data in the field may be necessary and AMOF will where at all possible, arrange common electronic sharing mechanisms. Preliminary data are defined as not quality controlled or documented and should not be considered publishable.
  • Non-participants, be they part of NCAS or not, in a campaign who wish to use AMOF campaign data will be required to register with the campaign Principle Investigator (PI) for permission to access the data. This will be achieved through CEDA access control protocols.
  • AMOF campaign data will become open access and freely publishable after a period of 2 years. Access and usage will be facilitated and monitored by CEDA.
• AMOF Observations for Commercial Customers
  • Campaign participants will have early access to all AMOF data acquired. Direct transfer of preliminary data in the field may be necessary and AMOF will where at all possible, arrange common electronic sharing mechanisms. Preliminary data are defined as not quality controlled or documented and should not be considered publishable.
  • The customer will have the right to determine whether the data will be openly available and if so what embargo period to impose, if any, to a maximum of 2 years.

Click Data Policy (.pdf) to view the full policy

Public Liability Insurance

The AMOF is not liable for any damage or injury arising from the deployment or operation of any AMOF instrument when unattended by the Facility responsible instrument scientist.

The user is liable for any damage caused by their activity.

AMOF Staff attending an instrument have Public Liability Insurance courtesy of their host institution.

Capital Insurance

By making an application to use the facilities offered by AMOF the user agrees to:

• To ensure that facilities are returned to the AMOF in good working condition.
• Where repair is possible the user is liable for the full cost of repair.
• The user is liable for full replacement cost where an item is lost, stolen or damaged beyond repair.
• The user is responsible for the instrument from the time it leaves the AMOF to the time it is returned and signed off as in an acceptable operating condition by the responsible instrument scientist: this will be done as soon as is possible on its return.

It is for the user to make an informed decision concerning the risk posed by the project to the capital asset and how the possible replacement of the asset is covered. The full replacement cost of the asset is provided on the individual instruments page and the user is reminded of this at the time of application.

This is inline with the Indemnity- Guide for Users of NERC Services & Facilities

AMOF accepts that these terms do not cover all eventualities and a PI should contact the Facility as soon as possible if exceptional circumstances arise. The Facility will always endeavour to support a user’s scientific aspirations whenever possible.

All potential users, other than commercial users are required to submit an application through the AMOF website. The Facility Manager, through his/her support staff, will be responsible for monitoring the progress of each application and will ensure that adequate communication is maintained with the user. 

When allocating resources the Facility Manager will prioritize as follows:

1. Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) grant applications
2. UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) cross-council schemes involving NERC
3. NERC National Capability
4. Direct Access
5. UKRI Non-NERC Research Council grant applications
6. EU grants, public not-for-profit organisations and recognised national\international funding bodies
7. Commercial organisations

The score obtained by a NERC grant and the score resulting from AMOF peer review (based on the NERC grant scoring scheme) determines prioritisation within a category.

If a scheduling clash still occurs then allocation of resources within that category will be on a first-come-first served basis.

Applications from NERC-funded Ph.D students will be considered as part of Direct Access.

In the event of a scheduling clash that cannot be resolved within these guidelines, the FacilityManager will consult by email with AMOFSC.

Disputes will be referred to the Chair of AMOFSC.

By making an application to use the facilities offered by AMOF the user agrees to abide by the following terms and conditions:

• To ensure that facilities are returned to the AMOF in good working condition.
• Where repair is possible the user is liable for the full cost of repair.
• The user is liable for full replacement cost where an item is lost, stolen or damaged beyond repair.
• The user is liable for any damage caused by their activity.
• The user agrees to return facilities at the time and to the place agreed at the time of application.
• The user will not, under any circumstances, make any hardware or software alterations to a facility unless directed specifically to do so by the IS.
• The user agrees to abide by the AMOF Data Policy
• The user agrees to abide by the risk assessments provided by AMOF
• The user agrees to abide by the AMOF system of prioritization.
• To keep AMOF informed of scientific presentations and papers resulting from the use of the Facility.

The user project is liable for the T&S costs incurred by any Facility staff member when servicing the project. 

Staff will follow the T&S policy of their host institution and submit claims to the grant PI