In December 2017, ASSEMBLE Plus launched its first call for its transnational access. A programme where researchers from academia or industry could apply to gain access to 39 marine installations to conduct research projects or work with samples held at the marine stations; not simply for training, workshops or outreach activities. 

On 15 March 2018, ASSEMBLE Plus’ expert panel gathered to review 71 applications and have selected 50 projects to support.  
The applicants of the successful projects, coming from 15 countries, will gain access to 16 marine biological stations. The next call for transnational access will open later this year and information on future calls will be provided on the project website when it becomes available (www.assembleplus.eu/access).

The awarded projects are listed below: 

Andreas Hejnol: Early cell fate specification of the nemertodermatid Nemertoderma westbladi (Xenacoelomorpha)

Lee Hsiang Liow: Inferring phylogenetic relationships among species of a little studied phylum from the Baltic to the Norwegian Sea

Jose Maria Martin Duran: Establishment of cell fates in the early branching annelid Owenia fusiformis

Fredrik Pleijel: Molecular and morphological analyses of polychaetes

Stacy Krueger-Hadfield: FungAlBase: combining a culture dependent and independent approach to assess the endophytic diversity in different algal life history phases

Andrea Waeschenbach: Arctic bryozoan collection for 'Molecules meet fossils – an integrative approach to studying palaeodiversity'

Joanne Porter: Collection of Arctic Bryozoa by SCUBA

Jan Geert Hiddink: Assessing impact of bottom trawl fishing and oxygen depletion on the longevity distribution of benthic invertebrates

Valeria di Vato: Molecular characterization of a Cyclooxygenase synthesizing animal-like prostaglandins in the diatom specie Skeletonema marinoi

James Waggitt: Quantifying seabird use of tidal stream environments in the Ria De Vigo, North-Western Spain.

Silke Van den Wyngaert: Diversity and ecophysiology of phytoplankton-parasite interactions in the Baltic sea.

Pedro Martinez: Generating genomic resources for Xenoturbella bocki

Ulf Jondelius: Diversity, distribution and phylogeny of Acoelomorpha from the Iberian Peninsula

Manuel Olivares Requena: Non-lethal effects of predators on the diel activity rhythms of marine zooplankton

Silvia Messinetti: Marine pollution from microplastics: effects on ascidians development

Salvatore D'Aniello: Mouth development in chordates: atudy of Nitric Oxide signaling pathway during amphioxus embryogenesis.

Alexandre Paix: Establishing functional gene analysis techniques using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knock-out and knock-in for the marine invertebrate chordate Phallusia mammillata (Tunicata/Ascidian)

Silvia Mercurio: Cdk5, from physiological neurodegeneration to Alzheimer’s disease onset

Colin Ingham: Searching for colours in the marine environment (x 2)

Øjvind Moestrup: Determination of the identity of the type species of the dinoflagellate genus Durinskia

Giovanni Andrea Vitale: New anti-oxidant molecules from the sea

Maria Protopapa: Ecotoxicological effects of emerging pollutants and microplastics on barnacles: the use of biomarkers

Simona Candiani: Development of neuroglia in amphioxus

Luigia Santella: Role of the actin cytoskeleton in the regulation of the fertilization and early stages of development in sea urchin eggs

Danilo Calliari: Structure and rates of energy fluxes in the plankton assemblage of the Gullmar Fjord

Tiphaine Monsinjon: Effects of oestradiol on the adaptive immune system of sea bass

France Collard: Settlements as contributors of microplastic to the Arctic marine environment

João Neiva: Evolutionary history and molecular species discrimination of Cystoseira

Philippe Laissue: Elucidating biomineralization in corals using advanced live microscopy

Ashley Peterson: Predator-prey interactions in the devil lionfish (Pterois miles)

Diana Catarino: Ichthyoplankton biodiversity on the Atlantic seamount, Condor, using DNA metabarcoding

Antonietta Spagnuolo: omparative eco-toxicological study on different ascidian models

Ana Lopes: Impacts of future global changes on a marine temperate fish species

Volker Hartenstein: Development and evolution of enteroendocrine cells in cnidaria

Halldor Halldorsson: Biomarker analysis of mussels samples from Northern Atlantic

Jacob Carstensen: Effect of diel cycle and community composition of phytoplankton on DOM dynamics in coastal system

Martina Coppari: Shedding light on the reproductive strategies of Antipathella subpinnata

Stefano Carboni: Enotype environment interaction in the North Atlantic mussels species complex

Valentina Panettieri: Digestibility study of diets containing increasing levels of honey bee pollen in meagre (Argyrosomus regius) and evaluation of immunological response of fish

David Domínguez: Bone cell culture of gilthead seabream cell lines for analysis of mineralization and differentation with different minerals

David Garfield: Analysing gene regulatory network evolution via hybridisation between species of strongylocentrotid sea urchins

Russell Orr: Sampling, assembly and annotation of a bryozoan reference genome from Scandinavian coastal waters

Aline Tribollet: Effects of ocean warming and acidification on the interactions between the coral holobiont and microborers

Maria Modica: Cryptic speciation and larval ecology shifts in marine snail of the genus Rissoa

Sebastien Colin: Morpho-genetic exploration of protistan symbiosis from warm oligotrophic oceanic ecosystems

Luciana Migliore: Where the epiphyte microbial community of Halophila stipulacea come from and does it change with time?

Cédric Hubas: Microphytobenthos Biofilm structure and function under environmental challenge

Lan  Zhaohui: Light regulates the physiological activities of the caudal neurosecretory system in flat fish

Sonia Bejarano: Revealing the multifaceted nature of fish herbivory on Red Sea coral reefs