ReDIB COA Portal - User Guide

Version 1.4 | Last Updated: September 2026

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. What is the ReDIB COA Portal?
3. Understanding the COA Workflow
4. Getting Started
5. User Roles and Permissions
6. Email Notifications
7. Using the Portal
   • Your Profile
   • For Applicants
   • For Node Coordinators
   • For Evaluators
   • For ReDIB Coordinators
   • For Administrators
8. Getting Help

Introduction

This guide explains how to use the ReDIB COA Portal to apply for, review, evaluate and manage Competitive Open Access (COA) to the imaging equipment of the ReDIB network. It is written for everyone who uses the portal — applicants, node coordinators, evaluators, the ReDIB coordinator and administrators — and assumes no technical background.

Read the workflow overview first, then go to the section for your role under Using the Portal.

What is the ReDIB COA Portal?

The ReDIB COA Portal runs the whole Competitive Open Access process on the web, from publishing a call to following up on the publications that result. It replaces the email-based process ReDIB used before.

What does the portal do?

For researchers, the portal is where you:

• Apply for time on specialised imaging equipment (MRI, PET, CT and more)
• Follow your application from submission to decision
• Accept the access you are granted and get put in touch with the node
• Report the publications that come out of the work

For ReDIB staff, it is where they:

• Publish calls for applications
• Review the technical feasibility of each request
• Evaluate the scientific merit of each application
• Decide, node by node, which applications get equipment time, and how many hours
• Report on each call, including the published resolution table

The ReDIB Network

The portal serves the 4 ReDIB nodes in Spain:

1. CIC biomaGUNE (San Sebastián)
2. BioImaC (Madrid)
3. Imaging La Fe (Valencia)
4. TRIMA@CNIC (Madrid)

Each node offers its own imaging equipment and expertise in preclinical, clinical and radiochemistry research.

Understanding the COA Workflow

A call moves through the phases below, from setting up the portal (phase 0) to reporting (phase 10). Knowing them tells you where an application is and who has to act next.

Phase 0: Foundation and Setup

Who: Administrators

• User accounts, roles, nodes, equipment and email templates are set up in the admin panel.

Phase 1: Call Management

Who: ReDIB coordinator

• The ReDIB coordinator creates each call as a Draft, with its dates and the equipment on offer.
• Announce lists the call publicly under Upcoming Calls before it opens; it then opens by itself on its submission start date. Publish opens a call straight away.
• The portal does not send a mass email when a call is announced or opens. The ReDIB coordinator announces the call through ReDIB's own channels and links people to its public page.
• While a call is announced or open, anyone can ask a node about equipment on it with Request a Consult, without an account.
• The call closes by itself when its submission deadline passes.

A call's status goes Draft → Announced → Open → Closed → Resolved.

Phase 2: Application Submission

Who: Applicants (researchers)

• Applicants fill in a 5-step application form for an open call: basic information, funding and project, equipment and hours, scientific content, and declarations.
• A draft can be saved at any point and finished later. Applicants who still hold a draft are reminded 7 days and 2 days before the submission deadline.
• On submission the application gets a code built from the call code, for example REDIB-2602-APP-001.

Phase 3: Feasibility Review

Who: Node coordinators

• Each node whose equipment is requested checks that the work is technically feasible there. This is not a judgement of scientific merit.
• Every node must approve for the application to go on to evaluation. One rejection ends it. A request for edits sends it back to the applicant as a draft; when it is resubmitted, every node reviews it again.

Phase 4: Evaluator Assignment

Who: ReDIB coordinator

• The ReDIB coordinator assigns evaluators — normally two per application — automatically or one by one. Automatic assignment never picks an evaluator from the applicant's own organization, prefers evaluators whose specialization matches the application, and spreads the work across the pool.
• Evaluators are emailed as soon as they are assigned.

Phase 5: Evaluation Process

Who: Evaluators

• Evaluation is blind: evaluators do not see who applied.
• Each application is scored on 6 criteria, 0–2 points each (maximum 12):
  • Category 1: Scientific and Technical Relevance — quality and originality; methodology, design and work plan; expected scientific–technical contributions
  • Category 2: Timeliness and Impact — advancement of knowledge; social, economic and/or industrial impact; exploitation, translation and/or dissemination
• Each evaluator also gives an Access Decision: Approved or Denied. A Denied decision must be explained in a comment.
• The application's final score is the average of its evaluators' totals. When the last evaluation is in, the application becomes Evaluated.
• Evaluations can still be submitted for 7 days after the evaluation deadline. After that the form locks.

Phase 6: Release and Resolution

Who: ReDIB coordinator (release), then node coordinators (decisions)

• Evaluated applications wait until the ReDIB coordinator releases the call's results to the nodes, all at once. Each node then weighs the whole set of applications against its capacity instead of deciding them one at a time as the scores trickle in.
• Each node coordinator decides for the equipment at their node: Accept, Waitlist or Reject. They also set the approved hours for each piece of equipment and, when accepting, the date the project's access ends.
• The node decisions combine into the application's outcome:
  • all nodes accept → Accepted
  • any node rejects → Rejected
  • no rejection, but at least one waitlist → Pending (Waiting List)
• Competitive funding rule: an application with competitive funding cannot be rejected at this stage unless at least one evaluator recommended Denied. Rejection at feasibility, and an evaluator's Denied, are not affected by funding.
• When every node has decided, the applicant is emailed the outcome.

Phase 7: Acceptance and Handoff

Who: Applicants, then node coordinators

• Accepted and waitlisted applicants have 10 days to accept or decline. Reminders go out 7, 3 and 1 days before the deadline.
• When an applicant accepts an accepted application, one hand-off email goes to the applicant with the node coordinator(s) copied, so they can arrange the work by replying to all.
• Accepting a waitlist offer keeps the application in the queue. If a slot opens, a node coordinator clicks Promote to Accepted and the applicant gets the acceptance and hand-off emails. If no slot opens, the node closes it out as Not Reached This Call.
• Nothing expires by itself. If the 10 days pass without an answer, the applicant can no longer respond in the portal, and the node coordinator is reminded (with the ReDIB coordinator copied) until they either Expire the application or Accept on Behalf of the applicant. An expired application can be reinstated if that was a mistake.

Phase 8: Execution and Completion

Who: Node coordinators and applicants

• Node coordinators and applicants arrange the equipment time directly, by email or phone, outside the portal.
• Each accepted project has an execution period end: the call's date unless the node coordinator sets a different one.
• The applicant and the node coordinators are reminded to close the project out, starting 60 days after the hand-off and then every 30 days, plus once after the execution period ends.
• When the work is done, the applicant or a node coordinator marks the application complete and records the actual hours used.

Phase 9: Publication Follow-up

Who: Applicants

• About six months after the hand-off, applicants who have not yet reported a publication get a follow-up email.
• Publications must acknowledge ReDIB. The publication form shows the required text:

  "This work acknowledges the use of ReDIB ICTS, supported by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU) at [NODE NAME]."

Phase 10: Close-out and Reporting

Who: ReDIB coordinator

• Once every application on the call has an outcome, the ReDIB coordinator marks the call Resolved.
• Reports include a statistics page, an Excel workbook for the current call, and a per-call resolution table in English and Spanish, ready to publish.

Application statuses

These are the status labels you will see on applications, and what each one means:

Getting Started (Phase 0)

Accessing the Portal

The portal is at https://portal.redib.net.

Pages you can read without logging in:

• /calls/ — the open calls and the upcoming (announced) ones, with their dates and the equipment on offer. Each call has its own page, with a Request a Consult button while it is announced or open.
• /newsletters/ — ReDIB newsletters, reachable from the Newsletters button on the calls page. Each one opens as a full newsletter inside the portal; links inside a newsletter open in a new tab.
• /help/user-guide/ — this guide, also linked from the Need help? menu at the top of every page.

Creating an account and logging in

• Register: click Register at the top right (or go to /accounts/signup/), enter your email address twice and a password twice, then click the confirmation link that is emailed to you. Confirming gives your account the Applicant role, so you can start an application straight away. The registration page needs JavaScript switched on in your browser.
• Log in: click Login and sign in with your email address and password. Forgot password? on the login page emails you a link to set a new one.
• First login: the portal takes you to your Profile until the required fields are filled in — see Your Profile.

Every other role — node coordinator, evaluator, ReDIB coordinator, administrator — is assigned by an administrator.

User Roles and Permissions

What you see and can do depends on your role. You can hold several roles — for example Applicant and Evaluator — and then see everything each of them gives you. Your roles are listed under My Roles on your profile page.

Everyone also has Dashboard at the top of the menu and Public Calls under General.

The roles

• Applicant — a researcher applying for equipment time. You see only your own applications.
• Node Coordinator — staff at a ReDIB node. You review the technical feasibility of requests for your node's equipment, decide which evaluated applications your node accepts, waitlists or rejects, and look after accepted projects until they are complete. You see only applications that request equipment at your node; one that requests equipment at several nodes appears in each of those nodes' lists.
• Evaluator — an expert reviewer who scores the applications assigned to you. The review is blind: you never see the applicant's name, organization, contact details, project title, project code or funding agency.
• ReDIB Coordinator — runs the calls: creates and announces them, assigns evaluators, releases each call's results to the nodes, follows the process to the end, and produces the reports. Only ReDIB coordinators can create calls. The feasibility and resolution decisions belong to the node coordinators, and the scores to the evaluators.
• Administrator — maintains accounts, roles, nodes, equipment and email templates in the admin panel. See For Administrators.

How roles are assigned

Registering through /accounts/signup/ gives you the Applicant role. Every other role is assigned by an administrator.

What happens if you have no roles assigned

An account with no active role — one created by ReDIB whose roles are not set yet, for example — sees a "You don't have any roles assigned yet" notice on the dashboard and can browse the public calls, but cannot apply, review or evaluate. Contact the ReDIB administrator to have the right role added.

Email Notifications

The portal emails you whenever something needs your attention. Every subject starts with ReDIB COA. Each role section under Using the Portal ends with a list of the emails that role receives.

• Reminders are grouped. An evaluator with several pending evaluations gets one email listing all of them, and node coordinators get one digest covering their node's projects rather than one email per project.
• No call announcement emails. The portal does not email users when a call is announced or opens. ReDIB announces each call itself and links to the call's public page.
• Turning emails off. There is no email setting on your profile. If you want to stop a kind of email — reminders, for example — ask the ReDIB administrator, who can change your notification preferences in the admin panel.

Using the Portal

This section walks through what each role sees and does, screen by screen. After you log in, your dashboard and the menu down the left side are tailored to your roles; with several roles, the panels combine.

Every page has:

• A navigation bar at the top with Need help? — User guide (this page) and Contact us, which opens an email to ReDIB support — plus Dashboard, Calls, and your name, which opens Profile and Logout.
• A footer with the same support email address.

If your profile is missing a required field, every page sends you to your Profile until you complete it. This guide stays readable in the meantime.

Your Profile

Every user has a profile page. Completing it is the first thing to do after you log in for the first time.

Navigating to your profile

Click your name in the top-right corner of any page and choose Profile, or go to portal.redib.net/profile/.

Required fields

Until these are filled in, the portal keeps bringing you back to this page:

• First Name and Last Name
• Phone — the number node coordinators will use to reach you
• Title / Position — for example Principal Investigator, Researcher, Technician
• Organization — pick your institution from the list. If it is not there, choose Other (create new) and fill in the new organization's details.

Click Save Changes. You go to your dashboard and the rest of the portal opens up.

Other profile fields

• ORCID — pre-fills into your applications.
• Evaluator Specialization Areas (evaluators only) — Preclinical, Clinical and/or Radiochemistry. These decide which applications you are preferably matched with, so keep them up to date.
• Automatic data consent for applications — tick it to give the data-processing consent once, for all your future applications, instead of on every application.

The page also lists My Roles, the roles on your account.

Changing your password

1. On your profile page, click Change Password (in the Password box).
2. Enter your Current Password, then your New Password and Confirm New Password.
3. Click Change Password.

You can also go directly to portal.redib.net/accounts/password/change/.

For Applicants (researchers)

You apply for time on imaging equipment, follow the application through review and decision, accept the access if you are granted it, and report any publications that result.

Your dashboard

My Applications lists every application you have created with its status badge (see Application statuses) and the next thing you can do:

• View — open the application.
• Continue — carry on with a draft.
• Accept/Decline or Accept/Decline Waitlist — respond to a decision.

The left-hand menu (under Applicant) gives you:

• My Applications — the full list. Drafts on a call that has closed show Call closed instead of Continue, and completed applications have an Add Publication button.
• My Active Access — the applications you have accepted, with their equipment, hours and node contacts.
• Publications — your reported publications, and the form to add one.
• Open Calls — the public list of calls.

Asking a node about equipment before you apply

The public /calls/ page lists open calls and, under Upcoming Calls, calls that have been announced but are not open yet. Each call's page lists its equipment, with a Consult button next to each instrument and a Request a consult button above the list.

Use it when you want to know whether an instrument suits your study, what it can do, or whether time is likely to be available:

1. Click Consult next to the instrument you are interested in — it arrives already ticked. You can tick more, at as many nodes as you like.
2. Fill in your name and email (pre-filled from your profile if you are logged in) and, optionally, a phone number, your institution and what you would like to discuss.
3. Click Send request. The coordinator(s) of every node whose equipment you ticked get your enquiry by email and will contact you directly. You get a copy for your records.

This is informal contact only. It does not start an application or commit you to applying, and you do not need an account. To apply, log in and use the application form once the call is open.

Submitting an application

1. Find the call on the Calls page and click Apply Now (or Apply for Access on the call's own page). You can hold one draft per call — if you already have one, you are taken back to it.
2. Work through the form. Next checks the current step and saves it. From step 2 on, Save Draft saves whatever you have typed so far, even a half-finished step, and returns you to your dashboard. Come back any time with Continue.
   • Step 1 — Basic Information: Name and Surname, ORCID, Entity, Email and Phone come from your profile and cannot be changed here — use Edit your profile on the step to correct them. Node coordinators reach you through this email and phone. The only thing you type on this step is the Project Title.
   • Step 2 — Funding & Project Information: a one-line Project Summary, the Subject Area, and whether the project has competitive funding. If it does, give the Project Code and Funding Agency (pick from the list, or choose Other (enter new)) and its Origin of Funds.
   • Step 3 — Equipment Request: the Service Modality, the Specialization Area (used to match evaluators), and the equipment from this call with the hours you need on each. You can request equipment at more than one node in the same application.
   • General Information and Instructions — after step 3 you see a read-only page with the instructions from the original ReDIB application form. Read it and click I have read this — Continue to Scientific Content. The same text is available later from the info button on step 5.
   • Step 4 — Scientific Content: six free-text sections, one for each criterion the evaluators score.
   • Step 5 — Declarations & Consent: use of animals or human subjects, ethics approval, insurance, informed consent, and data-processing consent. Some boxes only appear when earlier answers call for them. One of them is "I have confirmed technical feasibility with the ReDIB node" — see the next section.
3. Preview Application shows the whole application as the reviewers will see it. Click Submit Application and confirm. The status becomes Under Feasibility Review and the node coordinators are emailed. Once submitted, you cannot change it unless a node sends it back for edits.

The preview also offers Download PDF for your records (optional), Back to Edit and Save and Continue Later. Cancel Application (on the preview and on steps 2–5) permanently deletes the draft.

Talking to the node before you submit

ReDIB expects you to discuss your proposal with the node(s) whose equipment you are requesting before you submit — feasibility is a technical conversation, and it goes much faster if it has already happened. Clicking Next: Preview & Submit on step 5 triggers a short check:

• If you left the feasibility box unticked, the portal asks whether you would like to request a consult. Yes, request a consult emails every node coordinator at each node with equipment on your draft (or ReDIB, for a node with no coordinator); they will contact you. Your draft is saved and you return to My Applications. No, continue without a consult takes you to the preview.
• If you ticked the box, the portal asks you to confirm you really did speak to the node. Yes, I confirmed feasibility continues to the preview. No, not yet unticks the box and offers the consult request.

Requesting a consult does not submit your application and does not stop you submitting later — request one, wait for the node's reply, then come back and submit. If you have not picked any equipment yet, the request is recorded but no email goes out; choose your equipment on step 3 and request again. The request is shown on your application, so the coordinators can see the conversation is under way.

If the call closes while you are drafting

Once the submission deadline passes, every page of the form shows a banner saying when the call closed: you can still read and edit your draft, but it can no longer be submitted. In My Applications the draft shows Call closed instead of Continue.

The exception is an application a node sent back for edits. You can still resubmit it after the deadline, so it keeps Continue, and the banner says you can resubmit. This lasts until the call is Resolved.

What happens after you submit

Each step emails you, and your dashboard shows the current status:

• Feasibility. Each node with equipment on your application approves, rejects, or asks for edits. If a node asks for edits, the application returns to Draft with the node's comments at the top of the application page; click Edit Application, make the changes and submit again — every node then reviews it afresh. If a node rejects it, the application ends as Rejected - Not Feasible. When every node has approved, it goes to evaluation.
• Evaluation. Evaluators score your application. You do not see the scores during this phase.
• Decision. Once ReDIB releases the call's results to the nodes, each node decides for its own equipment, and the combination becomes your outcome (see Phase 6). You are emailed when every node has decided.

Responding to a decision

If your application is Accepted or placed on the waiting list, you have 10 days to respond. Click Accept/Decline (or Accept/Decline Waitlist) on your dashboard. The page shows the equipment and hours granted and the days you have left.

• Accept Access — you are put in touch with the node(s): one hand-off email goes to you with the node coordinator(s) copied. Reply to all to arrange your equipment time.
• Accept Waitlist Offer — you stay on the waiting list. If a slot opens, a node coordinator promotes your application and you receive the acceptance and hand-off emails straight away, with no second click. If no slot opens this call, you are told once that it was Not Reached This Call.
• Decline Access — you give up the offer; you can add a reason. This cannot be undone.

You are reminded 7, 3 and 1 days before your deadline. After the deadline the page no longer accepts a response — your node coordinator will be in touch about what happens next.

After you have been accepted

• My Active Access lists the applications you have accepted. Open View Equipment & Hours to see the approved hours and each node's contact. Scheduling happens outside the portal, by email or phone with the node coordinators.
• The application page shows the Execution period ends date: the call's date, or a date your node set for your project (marked set by node). Plan your work to finish by then.
• From about 60 days after the hand-off you get occasional reminders to report your final hours. When the work is done, click Mark Complete, enter the Actual Hours Used for every piece of equipment, and click Mark Application Complete. The application becomes Completed; this cannot be undone.

Publications

About six months after the hand-off, if you have not reported a publication yet, you get a follow-up email. Publications can only be reported against a completed application, so if your project is not marked complete yet, the email asks you to do that first. To report one, open Publications and click Submit Publication (or Add Publication next to a completed application in My Applications). Enter the application it came from, the title, authors, journal or conference, DOI and publication date, and confirm that ReDIB is acknowledged; you can paste the acknowledgment text too. Publications are how ReDIB demonstrates its research impact, so this matters even years after the work.

Emails you will receive

• Application [code] Received — when you submit.
• Edits Requested for [code] — a node needs changes; the application is back in draft.
• Feasibility Review Complete for [code] — every node has decided on feasibility; says whether your application goes on to evaluation.
• Application [code] Accepted, Application [code] Placed on Waitlist, or Application [code] Resolution (not granted) — the decision.
• Reminder to accept access for [code] or Reminder to respond to your waiting-list offer for [code] — 7, 3 and 1 days before your response deadline.
• Access Approved - Application [code] Ready for Scheduling — the hand-off, with the node coordinator(s) copied.
• Update on your waitlisted application [code] — no slot opened this call.
• Application [code] has been closed — only if a node coordinator expires your application after the deadline and chooses to tell you by email.
• Log your final hours for [code] — reminders to complete your project.
• Publication Follow-up for Application [code] — about six months after the hand-off.
• Your Application for [call] is Still a Draft — 7 and 2 days before the submission deadline, while your draft is unsubmitted.
• We received your consult request for [call] — your copy of a consult request sent from a call page.

For Node Coordinators

You make the node's two decisions on every application that requests your equipment: feasibility (can we do this?) and resolution (do we accept it on our equipment, and for how many hours?). Afterwards you arrange the work with the applicant and see the project through to completion.

Your dashboard

• Pending Feasibility Reviews — submitted applications waiting for your node's feasibility decision, each with a Review button.
• Pending Resolution Decisions — evaluated applications waiting for your node's decision, each with a Resolve button.

The left-hand menu (under Node Coordinator) gives you:

• Feasibility Reviews — the full feasibility queue.
• Resolution Queue — applications awaiting your decision, and the ones you have already decided.
• Scheduling — applications the applicant has accepted, with contact details and hours.
• Access Tracking — every application at your node, and the buttons for waitlist promotion, stalled acceptances and completion.

Most emails about your node's applications go to all of its active node coordinators, and any one of you can act on them.

Consult requests

• From the public call pages. While a call is announced or open, anyone can ask about specific equipment. The coordinators of each node concerned get the enquiry by email — contact details, the instruments asked about and the message — with a link to the list of requests for that call. Reply to the person directly; nothing else happens automatically.
• From an applicant's draft. An applicant who has not yet confirmed feasibility with you can ask for a consult from step 5 of their form; you get an email naming the equipment. The request also shows on their application.

Feasibility review

1. Click Review on a queue entry. You see the application — applicant, project, the equipment requested at your node (other nodes' equipment is theirs to judge), the scientific content and the declarations. The application page's Download PDF gives you the same content as a document, for applications at your node in any status, drafts included.
2. Choose a Feasibility Decision:
   • Approve — technically feasible at your node.
   • Request Edits — the applicant must revise it first. The comment is required: say clearly what to change.
   • Reject — not feasible at your node. The comment is required.
3. Click Submit Feasibility Decision.

Every node must approve before the application goes to evaluation. A rejection from any node ends it. A request for edits returns it to the applicant straight away; when it comes back, every node reviews it again. You can request edits after the submission deadline too: the applicant can still resubmit, until the call is Resolved.

Resolution

Applications reach your Resolution Queue only after the ReDIB coordinator has released the call's results to the nodes — all of the call's evaluated applications at once, so you can weigh them together against your capacity. You get an All Evaluations Complete email for each one. (If you follow an older link before the release, the portal tells you the call has not been released yet.)

1. Click Review in the Resolution Queue (or Resolve on the dashboard). You see the application, the final score, each evaluator's score and recommendation, and the equipment requested at your node.
2. Under Approved Hours per Equipment, enter the hours you grant for each item — up to the hours requested. They default to the request.
3. Execution period ends is prefilled with the call's date. Change it if this project's access will run to a different date. It only counts if you accept; a waitlisted project gets its date when it is promoted.
4. Choose a Resolution Decision: Accept, Waitlist or Reject. If the application has competitive funding and no evaluator recommended Denied, Reject is not offered — a banner at the top explains why. If an evaluator did recommend Denied, the banner says rejection is available.
5. Add an optional comment and click Submit Resolution. Other nodes' decisions, if any, are shown at the bottom of the page.

When every node involved has decided, the application's status is set (Accepted, Pending (Waiting List) or Rejected — see Phase 6) and the applicant is emailed.

Access tracking

Access Tracking lists every application at your node with its status. The Node-accepted, awaiting applicant button above the list filters it to accepted or waitlisted applications whose applicant has not responded yet. The buttons offered depend on where each application is:

• Promote to Accepted (waitlisted, and the applicant has accepted the waitlist offer) — use it when a slot frees up. The confirmation page asks you to confirm the approved hours for each item (at least one must be above zero) and the Execution period ends date, then Confirm & Promote to Accepted. The application becomes Accepted, your node's decision is recorded as an acceptance, and the applicant gets the acceptance and hand-off emails.
• Not Reached This Call (same situation) — no slot will open. Give a reason (it is shared with the applicant), then Confirm & Close Out. The applicant is emailed once. This is final.
• Expire and Accept on Behalf — see Stalled acceptances below.
• Mark Complete + Log Hours (accepted and the applicant has accepted) — once the work is done, enter the Actual Hours Used for every piece of equipment and click Mark Application Complete. This is final.

Accepted, unfinished projects also show the date their execution period ends.

Stalled acceptances

Nothing expires by itself. When an applicant's 10-day window passes with no answer, their Accept/Decline page closes and you get a Reminder #N email the next day and every 3 days after, with the ReDIB coordinator copied, until you act. On Access Tracking the application then shows two buttons:

• Expire — ends the application. A reason is required and stored on the application. Tick Also email the applicant only if you want the system to tell them; leave it unticked if you have already spoken to them. Expiring an accepted application frees its hours, so you can promote a waitlisted one in its place; a waitlisted one holds no hours, so nothing is freed.
• Accept on Behalf — not recommended. Use it only if you know the applicant is ready to go ahead (say how you know in the required reason). On an accepted application the hand-off email goes out straight away; on a waitlisted one it records that they accept the waitlist offer.

The ReDIB coordinator is emailed whenever either button is used.

Reinstating. If an application was expired by mistake, or the applicant gets in touch afterwards, open the application page and click Reinstate. With a required reason, it returns to Accepted or Pending (Waiting List) — whatever the node decided — and the applicant gets a fresh 10-day window and an email saying their link works again.

Changing a project's end date

On the page of an accepted, unfinished application at your node, the Execution period ends line has a date field and an Update button. The date cannot be earlier than the call's execution start. If several nodes share the application, the last change wins. Choosing the call's own date makes the project follow the call's date again.

Emails you will receive

• New Application for Equipment at [node] — a submission needs your feasibility decision.
• Feasibility review pending for [code] — a review has been waiting more than 5 days; repeats until someone at your node acts.
• Pre-submission consult requested for [node] — an applicant asked to talk before submitting.
• Equipment consult requested for [node] ([call]) — an enquiry from a public call page.
• All Evaluations Complete for [code] — the call has been released; this application is ready for your decision.
• Access Approved - Application [code] Ready for Scheduling — the hand-off (you are copied); the applicant accepted.
• Capacity freed on [code] — an accepted applicant declined, or an accepted application was expired; you may be able to promote a waitlisted one.
• Reminder #N - [code] needs your decision — an applicant missed their response deadline.
• Waitlisted applications need a decision — a digest of waitlisted applications whose applicants have accepted: first 30 days after they accepted, then every 30 days, and once after the execution period ends.
• Applications Awaiting Completion — a digest of your node's projects that are not marked complete yet, at most once a week.

For Evaluators

You score the applications assigned to you. The portal hides who applied, so your scoring is independent.

Your dashboard

My Pending Evaluations lists your assigned applications with the call, the date you were assigned and the evaluation deadline, each with an Evaluate button.

The left-hand menu (under Evaluator) has My Evaluations: counts of pending, overdue and completed evaluations, then the lists themselves. Completed evaluations open read-only with View.

Submitting an evaluation

1. Click Evaluate. The Download Blind PDF button at the top gives you a printable copy if you would rather read offline.
2. Read the application. You see the application code, project summary, origin of funds, subject area, specialization, the equipment requested, and the six scientific-content sections. You do not see the applicant's name, ORCID, organization or contact details, the project title (shown as withheld for blind review), the project code or the funding agency.
3. Score the six criteria, 0, 1 or 2 points each. The form describes what each score means for each criterion.
   • Category 1 — Scientific and Technical Relevance: quality and originality; methodology, design and work plan; expected scientific–technical contributions.
   • Category 2 — Timeliness and Impact: advancement of knowledge; social, economic and/or industrial impact; exploitation, translation and/or dissemination.
4. Choose an Access Decision: Approved or Denied. A Denied decision requires a comment — an evaluator's Denied is what allows the node to reject an application that has competitive funding (see Phase 6).
5. Click Submit Evaluation. The page shows your total. Submitted evaluations cannot be changed.

You can still submit for 7 days after the evaluation deadline; the page warns that you are overdue. After that the form locks and can no longer be submitted, and the ReDIB coordinator is told which evaluations are missing.

How you get assigned

The ReDIB coordinator assigns evaluators after applications pass feasibility, usually by running automatic assignment across a call. It prefers evaluators whose specialization areas (Preclinical, Clinical, Radiochemistry) match the application, but a match is a preference, not a requirement: if no matching evaluator is available you may be assigned outside your areas so that no application is left short. It never assigns you an application from your own organization, and it caps how many applications any one evaluator takes in a call. Keep your areas up to date on your Profile.

If your account or your evaluator role is deactivated, you are left out of assignment altogether.

Emails you will receive

• Evaluation Assignment for [code] — one for each new assignment.
• Evaluation Reminder ([n] Pending) — one email listing all your pending evaluations, 7, 3 and 1 days before the evaluation deadline.
• [n] Evaluations Overdue — on the deadline day and then every 2 days, until the form locks 7 days after the deadline.

For ReDIB Coordinators

You run the calls and watch the process end to end. The feasibility and resolution decisions belong to the node coordinators and the scores to the evaluators, but you can see everything, and several steps wait on you: announcing the call, assigning evaluators, releasing results, and closing the call out.

Your dashboard

• Active Calls — announced, open and closed calls, with Manage Calls and Create New Call.
• Quick Stats — applications waiting for a node decision, recent applications, and a link to the reports.
• Recent Applications — the latest submissions across all calls.

The left-hand menu (under Coordinator) gives you Call Management, Assign Evaluators, Resolution and Reports.

Creating a call

1. In Call Management, click Create New Call and fill in:
   • Call Code (for example REDIB-2602), Title, Description (shown to applicants) and, optionally, Guidelines.
   • Submission Period (Start Date, End Date), Evaluation Deadline, Execution Start and Execution End. All dates are whole days: start dates open at 00:00 on the day you pick, and end dates and deadlines run to 23:59, so applicants get the whole of the closing day. The evaluation deadline must fall after the submission end.
   • Equipment Allocations — every active piece of equipment at every node is included by default. Tick Remove to leave one out. A call needs at least one before it can be announced or published.
2. Click Save Call. The call is a Draft, visible only to coordinators.

A call's status only ever changes through the buttons on its page (or by the calendar), never on the form. A draft call with no applications can be removed with Delete Call; once a call has been announced or published it cannot be deleted.

After you save changes to an existing call, the portal warns you if the dates you saved contradict its status — for example, a call marked Open whose start date is now in the future is not accepting applications or listed publicly until then, and moving a closed call's deadline does not reopen it.

Announce vs Publish

The call page (open it from Call Management) shows the buttons for its current status.

• Announce — for a call whose submission period starts in the future. The call becomes Announced and appears on /calls/ under Upcoming Calls, with its own page (dates, equipment list and Request a Consult). No one can apply yet. It opens by itself on its start date — checked daily just after midnight and whenever someone loads the public calls pages.
• Publish — opens the call for submissions now. It is refused while the start date is still in the future; announce the call instead. On an announced call the same action is Open Now, which also needs the start date to have arrived — edit the start date first if you want to open early.

No email goes to users when a call is announced or opens, and the confirmations say so. Announce the call yourself — through ReDIB's newsletter, mailing lists and website — and link people to its public page (the Public View button on the call page opens it).

While a call is announced or open, anyone can send a consult request about its equipment. The requests go to the coordinators of the nodes involved and are listed under Consult Requests on the call page (Open list shows them full-page). If a node has no active coordinator, the request comes to you instead. They are informal enquiries: nothing else is created.

Closing submissions

An open call closes by itself once its submission deadline passes. Close Submissions on the call page closes it early. A closed call cannot be reopened from the portal.

Assigning evaluators

Open Assign Evaluators, then View Details or Manage on the call. Applications that have passed feasibility show as Pending Assignment.

• Auto-Assign Evaluators assigns Evaluators per Application (2 by default) to every application pending assignment, across the whole call at once:
  • it never assigns evaluators from the applicant's own organization, nor the same evaluator twice to one application;
  • it caps how many applications each evaluator takes in the call, counting those they already hold, so the work is spread out;
  • it prefers evaluators whose specialization areas match the application, but uses any eligible evaluator rather than leave an application short;
  • it skips deactivated accounts and evaluator roles.
• Afterwards, the page warns you if some applications could not be filled, or were filled with evaluators outside their specialization area. In each application's list of evaluators, ✓ marks an area match and no area match marks a mismatch — swap them by hand if a better evaluator is available.
• Assign on an application adds one evaluator by hand (evaluators whose areas match are marked ✓ in the list). Remove takes off an evaluator who has not submitted yet. If everyone left has submitted, the application moves on to Evaluated.

Evaluators are emailed the moment they are assigned — there is no review step before the emails go out. You can assign while the call is still open (the page reminds you of this); applications submitted later will need a second run.

Watching a call

A call's page is the status wall for the call: every submitted application with its current status, plus drafts a node has sent back for edits, so you can see who is waiting on the applicant (drafts never submitted stay hidden). A Consult badge marks applications whose applicant asked for a pre-submission consult. View opens an application; as a coordinator you see its feasibility status per node and, once scored, the evaluation summary with each evaluator's scores, recommendation and comments. Download PDF works on any application, drafts included.

The Reminders panel sends the same reminder emails the daily schedule sends, right now, for this call only:

• Remind Evaluators with Unsubmitted Scores
• Remind Open Feasibility Reviews

Each shows first who will be emailed and who will be skipped because they were already reminded today. Tick Send anyway, including people reminded today to include them, then Send Reminders.

Releasing results to the nodes

When a call's evaluations are complete, the evaluated applications wait for you: node coordinators are not told and cannot decide until you release them. The Resolution page lists calls that are waiting on you.

1. On the call page, click Release to Nodes.
2. The confirmation page lists every evaluated application with its final score, each evaluator's score and recommendation, and the spread between evaluators. A warning mark flags a spread of 5 points or more — whether such a pair needs a closer look is ReDIB's call, not the portal's.
3. Click Confirm & Release to Nodes. Every node coordinator involved is emailed for each application at once. This cannot be undone.

Applications that finish evaluation after the release go to their nodes straight away.

Watching resolution

The Resolution page lists released calls that still have applications waiting for a node decision, with counts of accepted, waitlisted and rejected applications. View opens a call's list of those applications, ranked by score. Both pages are read-only: the node coordinators make the decisions, and each applicant is emailed as soon as their last node decides.

The portal chases evaluators, applicants and nodes for you (see the email list below). From an application's page you can also Reinstate it or change its Execution period ends date, just as a node coordinator can.

Closing out a call

When every application on a closed call has its outcome, click Mark Call Resolved on the call page, then Confirm & Mark Resolved. The call moves to Resolved and its resolution is locked. No emails are sent. It is refused while any application is still Evaluated.

Reports

Reports opens the Statistics & Reports page:

• Totals for calls, applications, reported publications and pending evaluations.
• Current Call — the most recent open or closed call, with its applications by status, average score, acceptance rate, and Download Excel Report: a workbook with Summary, Applications and Equipment Summary sheets.
• Resolution Tables — every call, each with View Resolution Table.
• Publication statistics, including the share that acknowledge ReDIB, and recent applications. View Report History lists the reports generated.

The resolution table is the per-call results table ReDIB publishes. It shows two tables, English then Spanish, one row per submitted application:

The resolution is each node's own decision — an application promoted from the waiting list reads Accepted. An application involving several nodes lists each node on its own line within the row. Copy the tables straight into a document, or use Download CSV (English) and Download CSV (Español). Warnings above the tables tell you if the call has not been released yet (the table is then provisional), which applications have no node decision recorded (for example, those rejected at feasibility), and which applicants have no organization on their profile.

Emails you will receive

• Overdue Evaluations for Call [call] — the morning after the evaluation deadline, if any evaluations are missing, naming them and their evaluators.
• Evaluators Locked Out - Call [call] — the morning after the 7-day grace period ends, if evaluations are still missing.
• Reminder #N - [code] needs your decision — you are copied on the node coordinators' reminders about stalled acceptances. The node coordinator must act; you are copied so you know.
• [code] was expired / force-accepted / reinstated by [name] — a record each time a node coordinator (or another coordinator) uses Expire, Accept on Behalf or Reinstate, with their reason.
• When a node has no active node coordinator, the portal sends you what would have gone to them: new-application alerts, public and pre-submission consult requests, and stalled-acceptance reminders. Ask an administrator to give the node a coordinator — until then nobody can do that node's feasibility review.

For Administrators

Administrators look after the data behind the portal in the admin panel at /admin/, reached from Admin Panel in the left-hand menu.

• Accounts and roles. Create users and assign roles under User Roles. A role can be switched off without deleting it. Deactivating an evaluator's account or evaluator role takes them out of automatic assignment.
• Nodes and equipment. Equipment marked inactive is not offered on new calls.
• Email templates. Switching a template off (Is active) stops that email being sent, and stays off when the portal is updated. Changes to a template's subject or wording, however, are replaced by the standard text whenever the portal is updated — ask the developers to change the wording permanently.
• Email preferences. Notification preferences for any user can be changed here.

The Administrator role adds the Admin Panel link. To use call management and the coordinator dashboard, the account also needs the ReDIB Coordinator role, and the admin panel itself only opens for accounts with staff access. A superuser passes every role check in the portal and has full access to the admin panel; keep such accounts to a minimum.

Getting Help

Common questions

Q: I can't see Call Management. Why? A: Only ReDIB coordinators create and manage calls. Contact the administrator if you need this access.

Q: Can I change my role? A: No — roles are assigned by administrators. Ask the ReDIB administrator if you need a different or additional role.

Q: Why can't I see the applicant's name when I evaluate? A: Evaluation is blind to keep it objective. The applicant's identity is hidden on purpose.

Q: I'm a node coordinator. Why don't I see every application? A: You see only applications that request equipment at your node.

Q: An evaluated application isn't in my Resolution Queue. Why? A: The ReDIB coordinator has not released that call's results to the nodes yet. You will get an email for each application once they do.

Q: I missed my 10-day deadline to accept. What now? A: The portal no longer accepts a response, but nothing has been cancelled automatically. Contact the node coordinator — the node decides what happens next.

Q: How do I stop receiving reminder emails? A: There is no setting on your profile. Ask the ReDIB administrator to turn reminders off for your account.

Technical support

For problems with the portal, questions about using it, or role requests, use Contact us in the Need help? menu, or email the address at the bottom of this page.

Document Version History

• v1.0 (January 2026): Initial user guide created for ReDIB COA Portal
• v1.2 (April 2026): "Using the Portal" rewritten as four role-based walkthroughs (Applicants, Node Coordinators, Evaluators, ReDIB Coordinators) covering each role end-to-end as the user sees it.
• v1.3 (August 2026): caught up with the portal changes since April — the wizard's General Information interstitial and the pre-submission feasibility consult, Save Draft behaviour, applicant role on self-signup, the public newsletters section, draft PDFs and bounced drafts for reviewers, load-balanced evaluator auto-assign, and call open/close times. This guide is now served as a portal page at /help/user-guide/ rather than downloaded as a PDF.
• v1.4 (2026-09-28): checked against the portal as deployed for the October 2026 call. New: releasing a call's results to the nodes; the execution period end set per project; stalled acceptances (nothing expires by itself — Expire, Accept on Behalf, Reinstate); waitlist promotion and Not Reached This Call; Mark Call Resolved; the bilingual resolution table; grouped reminder emails and the on-demand Reminders panel; the closed-call banner; no call announcement emails; an application status table and per-role email lists. Corrected the dashboards, buttons, email timings, publication follow-up and notification preferences, and removed the duplicated role and dashboard sections.