About FAST
The Facility Access SysTem (FAST) is a web-based application that enables the storage of information related to facility access, and manages the facility access application and review process.
What's Facility Access?
Facility access involves a researcher conducting science at a research facility other than the one they’re working at themselves. This access can be trans-national (across borders) or trans-institute (across institutes). A researcher can visit the facility themselves (physical access) or sends a sample for analysis by the facility (remote service).
Facility access typically entails short-term access, often free-of-charge, to world-class research facilities, to foster collaborations and exchanges of experiences. Facility access aims to encourage open science and innovation, and to increase the efficient and effective use of scientific instrumentation.
How FAST and Facility Access Works
The aim of FAST is to reduce the workload of the involved actors by simplifying and automating the facility access procedures. A typical facility access cycle consists of the following steps:
- Preparatory phase – the access coordinator collects requirements from the involved facilities and sets out rules and regulations.
- Call phase – applicants submit their facility access proposals.
- Review phase – facility managers review the technical feasibility of proposals and, when required, a scientific review of the proposals by topical experts is conducted.
- Operational phase – the necessary legal agreements between applicant and facility are signed and the research is subsequently conducted.
- Reporting phase – the required documentation is filed by the applicant and the facility access cycle is concluded.
You can find more information about facility access, working with FAST, and submitting your proposal on the FAQ page.
FAST is developed at Utrecht University and received funding through the EXCITE Network (EC H2020 grant number: 101005611 ) and EPOS Netherlands (NWO grant number: 184.034.005 ).