Members of the ASSEMBLE Plus partnership met from 9th – 12th September in Naples, Italy, for almost of week of meetings as part of a project review, General Assembly and Project Implementation Committee meeting. The project’s Joint Research Activities were reported to be on-track and updates on their activities will feature in the next issue of the ASSEMBLE Plus newsletter which will be released at the end of October 2019.

ASSEMBLE Plus’ most notable news was in relation to its Transnational Access (TA) programme. This programme supports research projects in marine biology and ecology, providing access to facilities and research services for marine biology to researchers from academia and industry at more than 30 partner institutes. The objective of this programme is to enable researchers to carry out their own research projects, offering them free access to platforms and marine biological resources not available in their own institutes, also gaining the opportunity to establish new scientific collaborations.

Started on January 2018, the TA programme has received so far more than 250 project proposals from European and non-European researchers. Researchers who have been granted access to ASSEMBLE Plus marine stations have reported enthusiastic success stories.

The last call for the TA programme will close in April 2020, and on-site and remote access to our facilities will be granted until January 2021. Next deadline for submission (for access during April to September 2020) is 9th February 2020. ASSEMBLE Plus covers all access costs for your project up to 30 days, and up to two persons per project can ask for sponsorship for their travel, accommodation and meals costs.

If you are interested in learning more about the TA programme and applying, please visit assembleplus.eu/access/transnational-access or get in touch with our access officer at assembleplus_ta@embrc.eu. You can also download the 6th call flyer and share with your colleagues. You can follow updates of our project on Twitter at @ASSEMBLE_Plus.

The ASSEMBLE Plus partnership at the 2nd General Assembly in Naples, Italy.