Instruct-ULTRA

Instruct-ULTRA aims to accelerate the expanded implementation of Instruct by opening up to new members in Europe and partnerships at the global level and a sharp focus on increasing the effectiveness of user access to key technologies, working as appropriate with manufacturers.

Instruct began its transitional, baseline, operational phase early, to start providing services as a proof of principle, both of the processes being developed to deliver services and to demonstrate value to the structural biology community. This phase has been successful and the intention now is to achieve substantial growth in coordination with the transition to ERIC status.

Instruct-ULTRA is key to achieving this in a timely fashion and to keep pace with the accelerating demand for Instruct services. Essential to expansion is the further consolidation of the financial foundations and operational sustainability of the infrastructure.

Instruct-ULTRA will achieve this goal by addressing specific objectives: to expand the Instruct membership by targeted interactions with countries, to widen the user base by engaging with new European and international communities and to improve efficiencies in service delivery to enhance the scale and reliability of the infrastructure.

Membership will focus on the Eastern European member states and EFTA countries, integrating their structural biology communities into Instruct activities and providing new opportunities to support research excellence and raise standards.

Opportunities for engaging with industrialised countries and developing countries outside the ERA will build on existing international relationships, for example those already established with the Mercosur countries, with a view to expanding the impact of Instruct beyond European borders and contributing at the global level.

Finally we will, by means of an independently reviewed open call, seek to identify unique strengths, particularly in countries which do not have existing Instruct Centres, so that more countries can act as suppliers of expertise and not simply consumers of services. For each of these objectives we define ambitious but achievable outcomes, against which success will be measured.