Access Pathways

Who is eligible to apply?

• people preparing a NERC grant application
• people preparing an UKRI cross-council grant application that involves NERC

When to apply: You should apply to AMOF at least six weeks before the grant submission deadline, but preferably earlier.

Limits on what you may apply for:

• There is typically an upper limit of 6 months (excluding any time required for shipping) on access to mobile instruments. Extensions to an existing loan will be considered if a new application is submitted within 3 months of the end of the current loan period. However, this relies on no-one else having previously booked the instrument. No more than two extensions may be applied for, which puts a hard limit of 18 months on any deployment.
• AMOF will produce a Facility Charge covering both equipment rental and AMOF staff effort. These charges need to be included in the “Directly Incurred Costs” section of your grant application. This charge may not exceed £30k. Follow this link for further details about the facility costings.
• There is an upper limit of 40 days on the amount of AMOF staff effort that is needed to support a project.

Who is eligible to apply?

• People preparing a grant application for a non-NERC UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) research council 
• People preparing a grant application for a national or international  not-for-profit funding agency

When to apply: You should apply to AMOF at least 6 weeks before the grant submission deadline, but preferably earlier.

Limits on what you may apply for:

• There is an upper limit of 6 months (excluding any time required for shipping) on access to mobile instruments. No extensions will be considered.
• Since the project will need to cover all AMOF costs, there is no limit on the amount of AMOF staff effort required to support the project.

Other considerations:

• Applicants will need to email a 2-page science case to amof@ncas.ac.uk in addition to submitting the usual application through the online form
  
• EU-funded projects are 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.

Who is eligible to apply?

• NERC-funded PhD students (non-NERC-funded PhD students are not eligible, although their supervisors may apply on their behalf as long as the supervisor fits into the following categories)
• People based at a UK higher education institute
• People based at a UK Research Council or Research Centre, including for National Capability work
• People based at a UK not-for-profit organisation
• AMOF staff

When to apply: You should apply to AMOF at least 6 weeks before you would like access to the AMOF instruments or services, but preferably earlier.

Limits on what you may apply for:

• In general, the Direct Access pathway may not be used to provide supplementary support for a project that is already funded by a grant award. This is consistent with the 2020 edition of NERC’s Grants Handbook. Some exceptions will be considered, e.g.  when AMOF has acquired instruments that were not available at the time of the grant application. However, such cases will need to be referred to NERC for prior approval. This will increase the amount of time required to process the application.
• There is an upper limit of 6 months (excluding any time required for shipping) on access to mobile instruments. Longer deployments are only considered if they have been approved by the chair of the AMOF Steering Committee. You will need to contact AMOF in advance of submitting such an application.
• There is an upper limit of 20 days for the number of AMOF staff days required to support your project (or 40 days in the case of a NERC-funded PhD student).

Other considerations:

• Applicants will need to email a 2-page science case to amof@ncas.ac.uk in addition to submitting the usual application through the online form. The 2-page science case is not required for the exceptions given below.
  
• 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 person-days staff support, and must provide the necessary non-staff costs.  A Science Proposal is not required.
• AMOF 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 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.
• Where the request is in support of facility development no 2-page Science Case is required and no external peer review by the AMOF Steering Committee occurs. The Facility Manager provides overview and sign off and a report to Facility Management is expected at the end of requested period.
• There will be no direct charge to the project for instrument rental and the AMOF staff time required to support the project. Nevertheless, the applicant will be responsible for covering the basic costs.
• 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.

AMOF does not normally have the capacity to undertake commercial work. Nevertheless, prospective commercial users may contact amof@ncas.ac.uk for further details. Note that they should not apply through the online form.

Any commercial work will be costed according to the procedures of the host institution that employs the relevant AMOF staff member (and owns the equipment).

• All applications will undergo a technical review by the AMOF scientist(s) responsible for the instruments/services being requested in the application.
• This review will establish:
  • if the proposed project is feasible
  • if the requested instruments/services are available for the proposed period
  • any costs associated with supporting the proposed project

In cases for which either the proposed use is unfeasible or the instruments/services are unavailable for the proposed period, the instrument scientist(s) will contact the applicant in order to determine if an alternative solution can be found.

• In order to ensure that AMOF resources are only being used to support good quality projects, applicants making use of the Non-NERC Grant and Direct Access pathways will need to submit a 2-page science case to amof@ncas.ac.uk in addition to submitting their application through the online form. Direct Access applications made by AMOF staff and in support of NERC commissioned National Capability science are exempted from this requirement.
• This 2 page science case will be peer reviewed by members of the AMOF Steering Committee (NERC grant applications will have already undergone a peer review and so applicants using this access pathway are not required to submit an additional science case).
• Members of the Steering Committee have expertise in some aspect of atmospheric science, but not necessarily in the particular area covered by the application being reviewed. Consequently, the 2-page science case should give some general scientific background to the project, which can be understood by a general reader, as well as some specific details.
• The application should make clear how the AMOF instruments will contribute to the aim of the project. 
• The application will be graded according to the following criteria:
  • an overall impression of the application (this is graded using the 10 point NERC grant scoring scheme and must achieve a minimum score of 7 in order to be considered for AMOF support. There is no minimum score for the following criteria.)
  • the quality of the proposed science
  • the impact potential of the project
  • if the AMOF resources requested are justifiable
• Applicants should consider the context given above when writing their 2-page science case.

• Contact AMOF using amof@ncas.ac.uk to discuss your requirements 
• Check that the instruments/services you would like access to are available for the duration of your project
• Submit your AMOF application through the online form
• In the case of the Non-NERC Grant and Direct Access pathways, submit a 2-page science case to amof@ncas.ac.uk

Applications to AMOF will be prioritised in the following order:

1. NERC grant applications
2. 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 occurs, then allocation of resources within that category will be on a first-come-first served basis.

In the event of a scheduling clash that cannot be resolved within these guidelines, the Facility Manager will consult the AMOF Steering Committee. Disputes will be referred to the Chair of the Steering Committee.