Remote NMR (R-NMR): Moving NMR infrastructures to remote access capabilities

ended

Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) is one of the major analytical methods applied in all chemical, physical, biological, and medical sciences. NMR's leading role stems from its analytical power in terms of molecular resolution, quantification, reproducibility, and broad application envelope. It requires sophisticated and expensive equipment, operated by scientists with diverse background ranging from service-oriented researchers to highly trained experts. The aggregated capital investment in European NMR facilities, operating at local, national, and European level, exceeds 500 Million Euro. The NMR community maintains excellent networking between sites and serves a broad community within the focal points of European research interests. With the application Remote-NMR (R-NMR), we wish to establish remote access for all NMR users throughout Europe. While routine NMR applications are routine in every university and in industry, more specialized applications are performed in dedicated research infrastructures offering access and help to local and outside users. During the pandemic, NMR infrastructures slowed down their operations to variable degrees, and particularly access by remote users dropped significantly, raising the need to establish standardized procedures for remote access to improve their resilience to adverse external factors. In this proposal an inclusive network of NMR-infrastructures throughout Europe will be established, surveying if and how remote access can be made possible according to the needs of the community, and implementing GDPR at facilities and sample shipment procedures. Routines for remote NMR-usage will be established, including dissemination of research and teaching protocols, archiving of data, and sample shipment. The overall CO2 footprint of the operation of the consortium will be evaluated, as well as its reduction due to the reduction of travels.