The OPEN SESAME project will ensure optimal exploitation of the Synchrotron light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME) light source. With this aim, OPEN SESAME has three key objectives: 1. To train SESAME staff in the storage ring and beamline instrumentation technology, research techniques and administration for optimal use of a modern light source facility. 2. To build-up human capacity in Middle East researchers to optimally exploit SESAME’s infrastructure. 3. To train SESAME staff and its user community in public outreach and corporate communications, and to support SESAME and its stakeholders in building awareness and demonstrating its socio-economic impact to assure longer term exploitation. Each objective is tackled by a work package. Firstly, SESAME staff training is addressed by 65 staff exchanges planned between SESAME and the European partners. Secondly, capacity-building is targeted by five training schools, a short-term fellowship programme and an industrial workshop. Finally, a proactive communications strategy will be created, including an educational “roadshow” to all of the SESAME Members, and a training programme in research infrastructure administration and their economic role and impact for young science managers of SESAME Member stakeholders. The project directly addresses the INFRASUPP-2016-2017 call to support SESAME. OPEN SESAME is well aligned to the broader scope of the work programme with activities that will have a lasting impact on a reinforced European Research Area, and particularly in strengthening international cooperation for research infrastructures with a key Region located close to Europe. The project has been developed closely with SESAME, its Directors and international Training Advisory Committee. The OPEN SESAME consortium is composed of ten European institutes (six light sources, The Cyprus Institute, CERN, CNRS and Instruct) along with SESAME itself.

In the last decade, a number of initiatives were crucial for enabling high-quality research - by providing e-Infrastructure resources, application support and training - in both South East Europe (SEE) and Eastern Mediterranean (EM). They helped reduce the digital divide and brain drain in Europe, by ensuring access to regional e-Infrastructures to new member states, states on path to ascension, and states in European Neighborhood Policy area – in total 14 countries in SEE and 6 in EM. This VI-SEEM proposal brings together these e-Infrastructures to build capacity and better utilize synergies, for an improved service provision within a unified Virtual Research Environment (VRE) for the inter-disciplinary scientific user communities in the combined SEE and EM regions (SEEM). The overall objective is to provide user-friendly integrated e-Infrastructure platform for regional cross-border Scientific Communities in Climatology, Life Sciences, and Cultural Heritage for the SEEM region; by linking compute, data, and visualization resources, as well as services, models, software and tools. This VRE will provide the scientists and researchers with the support in full lifecycle of collaborative research: accessing and sharing relevant research data, using it with provided codes and tools to carry out new experiments and simulations on large-scale e-Infrastructures, and producing new knowledge and data - which can be stored and shared in the same VRE. Climatology and Life Science communities are directly relevant for Societal Challenges. The driving ambition of this proposal is to maintain leadership in enabling e-Infrastructure based research and innovation in the region for the 3 strategic regional user communities: supporting multidisciplinary solutions, advancing their research, and bridging the development gap with the rest of Europe. The VI-SEEM consortium brings together e-Infrastructure operators and Scientific Communities in a common endeavor.

In the present project, CALIPSOplus, the relevant synchrotrons and free electron lasers in Europe and the Middle East join forces to contribute to the completion of ERA and to tackle the new challenges arising from the commitment of the EU to Open science, Open innovation and Open to the world. Integration with respect to user access, support, instrumentation, data analysis and data management is strongly pushed forward by this advanced community, looking back at a long tradition of integrated activities funded under FP6 and FP7, and largely profiting from the experiences already gained. The European Synchrotron and FEL User Organisation will be consolidated and the performance and use of the wayforlight portal as pivotal platform of the light sources community will be boosted. Data management of the different facilities will be harmonised and a data management plan for the CALIPSOplus consortium be defined. Particular focus will be on leveraging scientific excellence in EU-13 countries and on widening the use of light sources by users from these regions. This will be achieved by visits to universities in these countries, by dedicated schools and by an especially set-up Twinning programme. As a pilot action a specific Trans-national Access programme will be offered for users from SMEs, closely related to an awareness raising campaign for light sources use and the role of light sources as customers among local industry around the facilities. Joint Research Activities will focus on metrology of diffraction limited optics in collaboration with the manufacturing industry, of particular importance for the new hard X-ray free electron lasers as well as for the next generation synchrotrons, and on software tools for remote data analysis. Focusing on the horizon beyond 2020, established programmes and activities of the light source community will be evaluated with respect to their future importance and corresponding sustainability and business plans will be developed.