National Research Infrastructures (NRIs)

National Research Infrastructures — 1st-Step Expression of Interest

Funds Greek infrastructure consortia preparing strategic proposals for national research roadmap inclusion.

⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.

The National Research Infrastructures 1st-Step Expression of Interest 2023 is the prerequisite gate established by GSRI in December 2023 to pre-qualify consortia for the two-step process of building Greece's National Research Infrastructure Roadmap for the 2021-2027 programming period. Rather than constituting a direct funding application, the 1st-step EOI required consortia to submit concise proposal summaries describing strategic goals, partner composition, personnel, RI maturity level (Full Operation Phase or Preparatory Development Phase), anticipated user base, expected socio-economic impact, and an indicative budget. Submission was in English via the GSIS digital platform. Successful submissions received an invitation letter from GSRI to participate in the 2nd-step full proposal call issued in July 2025.

Two categories of RI were eligible to apply. First, the 28 RIs already covered under the Multiannual Budgeting Plan 2014-2020, whose prior performance was reviewed by the European Commission's Policy Support Facility and whose results informed the evaluation criteria at both steps. Second, new RI candidates operating within the eight Smart Specialisation 2021-2027 thematic priority areas: agri-food; bioscience, health and pharma; sustainable energy; materials and manufacturing; digital; transport; tourism, culture and creative industries; and environment and circular economy. New RIs — including any RI resulting from the split of an existing 2014-2020 RI — could only propose for the Preparatory Development Phase, not the Full Operation Phase. The National Roadmap caps at a maximum of 20 NRIs in total.

The submission deadline for the 1st-step EOI was 30 January 2024 at 17:00 Athens local time; the call closed before mid-2026. Consortia that passed the first step proceeded to the 2nd-step full proposal call, under which awards ranged from EUR 4 million (preparatory) to EUR 8 million (mergers), within a total programme budget of EUR 120 million including a potential 15% performance bonus. Adhesion to Open Science and FAIR data principles was a hard condition at both steps, and KPI-based performance evaluation at the three-year mark was built into the programme design from the outset.