I don’t know about Fraunhofer but my experience in other European countries (mainly the UK, France and Italy) is that you just need to be nice with someone with access to the facilities you need. Unless you need something very specific (read dangerous), there is no problem. We don’t let visitors play with the instruments or anything, but we’re happy to do it for them if we have the right gear and our schedule permits.
In more serious cases (if things like hydrofluoric acid, liquid sodium, or uranium are needed), then sure there would need to be a risk assessment, the health and safety people would need to get involved, and visitors could not be present. But otherwise there is pretty much no problem. In general, the decision would be taken with no involvement of any manager beyond the team level (~20 people). And that would be following the rules in place.
Great to know your experience! Maybe I’m in the wrong country, but my experience here is that nobody will lift a finger for you unless (a) it is part of their previuosly allocated workload and (b) it is risk-free. By risk-free I mean really risk free; even wrongly spending 10 euro in a ham sandwich could get you fired and in legal trouble. Plus, just getting people to spend a few minutes to talk to you (if it’s not their preallocated duty to do so) is a nightmare, let alone expect them to actually make an unorthodox decision.
In more serious cases (if things like hydrofluoric acid, liquid sodium, or uranium are needed), then sure there would need to be a risk assessment, the health and safety people would need to get involved, and visitors could not be present. But otherwise there is pretty much no problem. In general, the decision would be taken with no involvement of any manager beyond the team level (~20 people). And that would be following the rules in place.