JRC ELSA HopLab Training and Capacity Building Call
The European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) has launched a Training and Capacity Building call offering access to the ELSA HopLab (Hopkinson Bar Laboratory) infrastructure. This call provides hands-on training in an advanced research facility dedicated to studying the behavior of materials and structural components under very fast dynamic loads, such as blasts and impacts, high strain-rate. Designed for researchers in earthquake engineering, structural engineering, materials science, and impact analysis, the program covers strain-rate sensitivity, instrumentation, sensors, simplified and advanced data elaboration (including 3D wave propagation), Hopkinson bar experiment design, and hands-on demonstrations of compression and tension tests on metal and concrete specimens.
📅 Call Timeline
- Opening Date: 2 February 2026
- Deadline Date: 30 April 2026 (23:45 CEST)
- Training Dates: 12 – 16 October 2026
✅ Eligibility
- Universities, research or public institutions, and SMEs from EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries (including Türkiye) can apply.
- Individual users must be nationals of these eligible countries.
- Proposals are evaluated in a single stage based on the Quality of the Consortium (30 points) and Rationale (40 points).
📂 Support Scope and Duration
- The training duration is 4 days, accommodating approximately 25 participants in total.
- A financial or in-kind contribution is provided to cover Travel & Subsistence (T&S) costs for users from "Widening Participation" countries (including Türkiye), subject to the availability of funds and resources.
💶 Funding Opportunities
- An estimated total of 32 short-term "User Stay Days" eligible for T&S support are allocated to this call.
📌 Useful Links
