How to apply for MICE facility access

Submission procedure   Expenses covered   Evaluation procedure

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Submission Procedure

If you are eligible to apply for Transnational Access, you can download and fill in the MICE Transnational Access application form (Word file). Completed forms should be submitted to the MICE office.

Submission deadlines for applications are 31st January or 31st July. The final deadline has now passed (31st January 2012).

Applications should normally request periods of access during a six-month period, from 1st April to 30th September or 1st October to 31st March, although in exceptional circumstances access for a period of up to one year may be possible.

The results of the applications will be available on or before 28th February and 31st August respectively.

Find out more about the MICE facility >>

Expenses covered

For applications that are approved, the following expenses will be covered:

• Receipted costs of round-trip international travel to Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in the UK, up to a maximum of 500 Euro per visit;
• Receipted costs of accommodation, up to a maximum of £50 per night;
• A daily subsistence of £40 per day will be available to cover meals and other incidental expenses.

Expenses higher than these limits will be met only if higher costs were specifically identified and requested in the application, and these higher costs were approved by the review board.

Visitors are strongly encouraged to seek on-site accommodation at RAL, which can be reserved through the MICE office (MICEADMIN@rl.ac.uk).

Evaluation Procedure

Incoming proposals will be examined by the MICE office for formal compliance with the EU rules, and then forwarded to the selection panel. The panel consists of outside experts:

• Prof K. J. Peach, Chairman (John Adams Institute, University of Oxford)
• Prof S. Geer (FermiLab)
• Prof F. Terranova (INFN)

and is assisted as necessary by MICE scientific and technical management. The panel reviews applications and makes recommendations to the MICE TA co-ordinator, currently Prof. Norman McCubbin (STFC).

Evaluation and selection will be based on the following criteria:

• Eligibility of the applicants to the TA access program;
• Relevance and excellence of the proposed activity for the MICE cooling project;
• Uniqueness of the MICE beamline for the proposed activity;
• Excellence and impact of the proposed activity for the design of future facilities.

The final decision will take into account the following guidelines:

• Selection will be done on the basis of scientific merit taking into account the interest of the Community.
• Priority will be given to User Groups who have not previously used the infrastructure and who would not normally have access to it.
• Selection will also take into account that the TA support is intended to finance primarily short visits to the infrastructure.

The applicants shall be formally informed of the decision by the MICE TA co-ordinator. If the application is successful RAL will advise the applicants about the further procedure to follow.

Explanatory note:

In case of any technical problems or undue delays, applicants are encouraged to contact the MICE office, or the EuCARD Coordination Office. Applicants should not contact the Selection Panel directly.

Oversubscriptions

If more applications are judged worthy of support than can be accommodated concurrently at the MICE facility, the panel will advise the TA co-ordinator, who will take all reasonable steps to schedule the applications in a timely fashion.