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Proposal Guidelines

User Application Guidelines v5.0 – 250121  

EU-OPENSCREEN Small Molecule Screening Application Guidelines

Access 

  • EU-OPENSCREEN ERIC offers access to the European Chemical Biology Library (ECBL) and the European Academic Compound Libray (EACL), as well as access to academic high-throughput screening facilities in eight European countries (Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden).  
  • Assay providers can work with EU-OPENSCREEN and develop chemical tool modulators for their target of interest or lead compounds for the development of drug candidates. For a complete overview of our screening partner sites please visit https://www.eu-openscreen.eu/services/screening.html. 
  • The ECBL is a chemically diverse library composed of approx. 100,000 small molecules. The pilot library consists of a representative set of 2,464 diverse compounds and 2,464 known bioactives compounds, which are modulating more than 1,000 known biological targets or pathways. The European Academic Compound Library (EACL) is a unique library consisting of compounds submitted to EU-OPENSCREEN by academic institutions (approx. 7,000 small molecules). More information about the EU-OPENSCREEN libraries can be found at https://www.eu-openscreen.eu/services/compound-collection.html.  
  • For further information and support in the application process please contact us at scientific-projects@eu-openscreen.eu. 

Who can apply? 

  • Researchers from academia, non-profit organisations and industry (including SMEs) can request access to EU-OPENSCREEN screening services.  
  • Any scientist can apply for access. However, different compound replenishment fees apply, depending on whether the applicant is affiliated to an institute in an EU-OPENSCREEN member country or not (see “Costs and funding” below). 

General criteria for application 

How to submit a proposal 

  1. Applicants submit their project idea to the EU-OPENSCREEN project management team via a dedicated Contact Form at https://www.eu-openscreen.eu/screening-project-submission.html. 
  1. Applicants will then be contacted to arrange a short call to discuss the projects feasibility and potential partner sites.  
  1. Suitable applicants will be asked to complete a full application form by connecting to the ARIA online submission platform (at https://apply.eu-openscreen.eu/submit-proposal/ )(for the full application template please download the application guidelines from https://www.eu-openscreen.eu/services/screening.html and refer to “Application step by step (via ARIA)”.  

 

  • Applications for access can be submitted at any time and will be evaluated on a rolling basis. 

Proposal evaluation 

  • The review process consists of a scientific and a technical evaluation. The application will remain strictly confidential throughout the review process. Reviewers are bound by a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). 
  • Two independent experts in the field of chemical biology will evaluate the scientific excellence and novelty of the proposal. An exception will be made for those proposals that were already subjected to a peer-review evaluation prior to submission (for instance as part of a funding application). In such a case, applicants will be asked to report the available funding and related grant agreement number during the application process. 
  • Technical feasibility of the submitted project will be assessed by one of our screening partner sites. Herein, the degree of pharmacological validation of the user assay in a microplate format, the suitability for transfer to a miniaturised automated screening format, and the availability of key assay reagents will be taken into consideration. Moreover, technical reviewers will evaluate the resources needed for the technical implementation of the projects at the chosen screening partner site.  
  • The complete evaluation is carried out online in ARIA, and evaluation results are visible on the applicant’s dashboard (at https://apply.eu-openscreen.eu/dashboard/).  
  • Incomplete proposals and those that did not pass the minimum threshold/ criteria for acceptance, will be returned to applicants for amendments according to the reviewer’s comments. Users will be able to re-submit their revised proposals which will be re-evaluated.  

Discussion between applicant and partner sites 

If the proposal is positively evaluated, the EU-OPENSCREEN project management team will circulate it to partner sites that were either selected by the applicant, or match the service/ technology requested for the proposed research. At this stage, each contacted partner site will consider the project feasibility (i.e. robustness of the assay, maturity of the assay, other pre-requisites, if applicable) and prepare a cost estimation for the proposed research. The EU-OPENSCREEN team will then put you in contact with the partner sites of interest for further discussions on the project implementation (costs, timelines etc).  

Costs and funding 

  • A compound replenishment fee will apply for the usage of the ECBL. The net replenishment fee is: 
  • 15.000€ for academic users coming from an EU-OPENSCREEN member country (Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden). 
  • 40.000€ for academic users from any other country.  
  • 42.000€ for users from industry irrespective of the seat of their organization.  

If you apply for an open call funded by an EU grant (e.g. CanServ, AgroServ etc) replenishment fees for successful projects may be funded. 

  • The compound replenishment fee applies for the usage of the full set of the ECBL (~100,000 small molecules), while approx. 5,000 small molecules of the pilot library containing 2,464 bioactive compounds and 2,464 HTS representative compounds are provided free-of-charge. The EACL (~7,000 non-commercially available small molecules) is also provided free of charge. 
  • EU-OPENSCREEN does not provide funding for the services offered by the partner sites. These costs (e.g. personnel, machine time, consumables, labware etc) are discussed with the relevant partner site and depend on the complexity and duration of the project.  

If you apply for an open call funded by an EU grant (e.g. CanServ, AgroServ etc) costs of successful projects for instrumentation time, consumables, regular assay readout reagents, and personnel required at the facilities are funded. 

 

Partner site selection  

  • Once the partner site is selected, a written project agreement between the applicant and the site has to be signed. The agreement regulates the usage of the ECBL and/or EACL, IP rights, acknowledgments etc.  
  • Before the start of the project, you will be also asked to prepare together with the partner site a project workplan indicating main project milestones and timelines. 

Publication 

Users have to acknowledge EU-OPENSCREEN for using the EU-OPENSCREEN Compound Collection in publications and/ or communication activities that contain data which are based on testing the ECBL by using the following sentence: “EU-OPENSCREEN ERIC is acknowledged for providing its Compound Collection for the presented scientific work.”  

European Chemical Biology Database (ECBD) 

Data will be made publicly available through the ECBD for its rapid and safe dissemination and exploitation. Data ownership stays with the user. An embargo period of up to three years on primary screening results can be requested by the applicant within a time frame of six months from the identification of a validated hit. The time should allow publication and/ or patent filing to secure intellectual property. Data are disseminated according to the FAIR data principles (i.e., Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable), allowing scientific communities to fully benefit from these research activities. Please read more about our EU-OPENSCREEN database at https://www.euopenscreen.eu/services/database.html. Visit the ECBD at https://ecbd.eu/.