Aim of the Programme

The aim of the New Instrumentation for Research programme is to fund the development of novel instrumentation for use in basic research. The funds allocated to a project must be used to build a functional model in the lab with which to test the new technology and eventually perform the key experiment that demonstrates the effectiveness of the new method for research use (referred to as 'proof of principle'). If this is successful, funds can then be requested in a follow-up project to build a demonstrator suitable for real-life use and to conduct a pilot project, with a view to achieving the first research results using the new instrumentation. If such a demonstrator has already been developed, applicants can immediately propose a project to test the new instrumentation in practical research use.

The proposal must present a convincing explanation of what new research approaches will be possible with the instrument to be developed, and how its use will enable new scientific findings to be made. Ideas for new research instruments should therefore be clearly distinct from technologies already available on the market. Improvements to existing technologies and instruments do not usually fulfil this requirement.