Ricerc@Sapienza

1. MISSION The governance of the SNOM laboratory will be aimed at making the research infrastructure, a laboratory of excellence within the Sapienza University, of general interest and usefulness also for contributing to the development of new collaborations (especially those with interdisciplinary character), and to the consolidation of pre-existing scientific collaborations at local, national and international levels, as explicitly required in the context of Bando per le Medie Attrezzature e per le Grandi Attrezzature 2023 and of the Sapienza Notice "Large Equipment" (DR n.1352/2018, prot. n. 43920 of 24/05 /2018). Beside basic research (of inspiration prevalently academic) the innovative instrumental platform SNOM here considered will be involved also in the R&D activities of the industries active in our territory. Therefore, one of the main objectives of the governance of SNOM will be the concentration, development and enhancement of the already existing infrastructures, personnel, and skills with the aim of promoting long-term transversal and interdisciplinary collaborations that translate into projects and researches of national and international relevance, quality and competitiveness. Furthermore, the SNOM infrastructure will pursue the selection and growth of highly specialized technical/operator personnel and researchers, through the training of graduates, PhD students and PhD students. In this way SNOM will increase the competitiveness, importance, and attractiveness of Sapienza teaching programmes, although the training courses of the SNOM infrastructure will be open to industries and private companies. Finally, SNOM laboratory also aims to interface with civil society and the media, through the creation of a constantly updated website and the dissemination of the main results - following a synthetic and informative-scientific approach - on social platforms (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter). Furthermore, given the attention now paid to scientific dissemination, SNOM will organize educational experiences and tours tailored for primary and high school students. With these initiatives, we intend to contribute to bridging the gap between science/technology/innovation and civil society. The diversity of the requested type of information and the kind of users imposes the dictation and the adoption of clear and unambiguous rules of access and usage to exploit the SNOM laboratory in a safe and efficacious way for longtime. 2. GOVERNANCE/ORGANIZATION In case of success, we trust the long-term commitment of “La Sapienza”, which will be necessary in the successive years to guarantee the development and support of know-how, skills, and all activities that will be boosted by the presence of a state-of-the-art tool like SNOM platform. The required equipment is of high complexity and involves various and complementary skills and know-how. If the project will be funded, the first operative step will be the establishment of a Scientific & Managing Board (SMB) which includes the Delegate of the Rector of the University, the Project Investigator (PI), the Co-Proponents (CPs), and four or five experts in the field of IR spectromicroscopy, selected directly by SMB and belonging to the personnel of Sapienza University. The SMB will remain in charge for six years, to follow the several phases of instrumentation purchase and its positioning. Each member of SMB has an equal decision-making power and supervise instrumentation operation for ensuring its efficiency and to monitor if the use is correct. The SMB will establish the appropriate fees for the instrument use considering the current international fees, the different procedures of sample preparation, type of sample investigation/modification and data analysis. SMB will also have a steering role to ensure an adequate representation of all the different cultural areas, to define access strategies, management, and future developments. Part of the SMB will form a board, i.e. the Scientific Technical Committee (STC), the main role of which is the establishment of guidelines for the management of the instrumentation (for example, to ensure the access to the largest number of users or to decide who is sufficiently qualified in the use of the instrumentation). 3. ACCESS RULES TO SNOM Access and working hours to the SNOM laboratory will be regulated as follows: 1. The 30% of available time-machine will be reserved for the proposed activities, 70% at external users prioritized by the management team (SMB). Overall, the accesses to SNOM laboratory will be possible: 1. Based on scientific collaborations between Sapienza University of Rome and other universities and public research institutions/centers 2. And service for external users and companies (with fee payment). The fees will be definitely fixed by the SMB. Instrumentation use will be permitted only to qualified technicians and expert users. These will be explicitly made aware of the rules of the SNOM facility (see Appendix 1) and will formally declare their acknowledgment and observation of the conditions of access to the Laboratory (see Appendix 2). The access to SNOM facility will require the filling in of a request (see Appendix 3) submitted to the scientific committee, who in case of approval will release the formal samples approval form (see Appendix 4). The SMB defines and approves the list of experienced users based on proven experience gained through training and use of the instrumentation, whom will be acknowledge by releasing of proper certification (see Appendix 5). In case any damage or malfunction of the instrumentation should occur, a form will be filled in describing the damage and the user responsible for it (see Appendix 6). The SNOM Laboratory will also organize training courses for the education of researchers who are interested in obtaining expert enabling. This instrumentation will play an important role in our university’s offering, for hosting graduate students, and for the training of PhD students, also foreign. There are already courses on IR spectroscopy, IR spectromicroscopy and imaging data analysis in some master and doctoral programs PhD students will also be directed to internationally organized schools, such as those associated with the Italian Society of Microscopic Sciences (SISM) or the European Microscopy Society (EMS), Italian Society of Optics and Photonics (SIOF), etc.