Background. SeIBER is a consortium of national einfrastructures for biodiversity and ecosystem research. The consortium currently includes the Swedish nodes of GBIF (gbif.se), SLW (swedishlifewatch.se), WRAM (slu.se/wram), and CAnMove (canmove.lu.se), and acts as an umbrella organisation for these and similar e-science programs. The main purpose of the SeIBER umbrella is to better coordinate all relevant national and international e-infrastructure initiatives, enable the transfer of technology and know-how between related infrastructures, and establish common operations within the consortium. The umbrella organisation will be used to seek long-term support from the Swedish Research Council’s Research Infrastructure Program (RFI) and speak with one voice to related infrastructure initiatives in Sweden and abroad.
Purpose of the call. The objective of the call is to collect declarations of interest for hosting the umbrella organisation from all potential host universities/bodies in the country, and thereafter identify the best-qualified applicant through an open evaluation process. The reason why SeIBER launches a competitive announcement is to promote long-term sustainability and self-governance of the Swedish e-science infrastructures through institutional support.
Host assignment. The host will run the secretariat of the organisation and be responsible for the overall coordination within the partner consortium. The host will furthermore be responsible for the overall communication of the infrastructure program to users (please note, this will not include training and support services), and administrate the finances and budget allocations of the consortium partners. The host may represent the consortium in legal and financial agreements with international consortia, such as e.g. European Research Infrastructure Consortia (ERIC), or delegate this responsibility to a qualified consortium member. The host will also maintain the communication with the steering group, coordination group, advisory bodies, and related national and international infrastructures.
Terms and conditions. The call is open to all state-run universities, or university colleges covered by the Higher Education Act, as well as public agencies with a research mission. All co-/applicants have to be consortium members in the SeIBER umbrella organisation. The applicant is the vice-chancellor/Director General of the university/body.
Qualifications. We encourage applications from universities/bodies with a distinct commitment and abilities to sustain the host assignments in the long-term. The applicant should likewise have established firm links to relevant international networks and European ESFRI infrastructure programs. More specifically, the applicant will be evaluated based on the following criteria
(i) Strategic incentives and administrative capabilities that contribute to the sustainability of the infrastructure consortium
(ii) Commitment from the host to support the infrastructure as a whole, i.e. in-kind (and possibly in-cash) provision of staff and resources to maintain central functions within the consortium.
Content of the application. The application should include a description of the host’s role in the envisioned SeIBER organisation in terms of economic, legal, and administrative responsibilities, with reference to the long-term goals of the consortium as well as the quality criteria described above (maximum 4 A4 pages).
Applications should be submitted as a single pdf document to matthias.obst@bioenv.gu.se.
Evaluation process. The SeIBER consortium will use the steering committees of existing partner infrastructures to evaluate the applications against the quality criteria stated above,rank the applicants, and appoint the host.
More information. To obtain more information or guidance, please contact Matthias Obst, Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, matthias.obst@bioenv.gu.se.
Time line. 22. December 2014: Call opens and is published on the SeIBER partner websites. 30. January 2015: Call is closed and evaluation process initiated 20. February 2015: Evaluation process finished and host is appointed
