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EU Launches 54.4 Billion Euro Research Funding Program

Funding :The European Union now has the world’s largest research funding program with a budget of more than 54 billion euros.

The European Union now has the world’s largest research funding program with a budget of more than 54 billion euros. The EU’s Seventh Framework Program for Research and Technological Development, launched this week in Bonn, will provide significant impetus for economic growth, German Research Minister Annette Schavan said.

"The program will help us create additional jobs," Schavan said, adding: "It shows our determination to do more for research and technology development in Europe than ever before."

Schavan and EU Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik were keynote speakers at the opening of a national launch event: "The 7th EU Research Framework Program – Europe on its way to the top", Bonn, January 15-16.

The overall budget of the Seventh Framework Program, covering the period from 2007 to 2013, is 54.4 billion euros. This amounts to an increase of 60 percent per year over the Sixth Framework Program (2002-2006).

High participation in EU-funded research

The program is playing an increasingly important role in the German research sector. German scientists are involved in some 80 percent of all EU projects. Around 20 percent of EU research funds applied for are granted to German institutions.

Money received from Brussels is now equivalent to about 50 percent of what the German Research Ministry provides for the funding of research projects.

Expediting application of research results

The EU program’s goal is to strengthen the scientific and technological foundations of industry in the European Union.

The fields energy, health, environment, climate change are among the priorities.
The program will also promote research in the fields of food and agriculture and bio- and nanotechnology.
Research in new materials, production technologies, transportation systems, safety engineering, aerospace engineering, as well as information and communications technologies are also important parts of the program.
Effectively transfering research results to practical applications will play an especially important role.
Allocations for research in the social sciences and humanities have been included for the first time.

Stimulating creative basic research

“We need to deal more intensively than we have in the past with the question as to how we can bring basic research and applied research closer together," Schavan said.

The EU has opened up a new chapter by creating the European Research Council (ERC) for the specific purpose of stimulating creative basic research. It provides a distinctive funding mechanism for "investigator-driven" research, i.e. for proposals put forward by scientists on their own initiative. The ERC’s first Secretary General, Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, was for many years President of the German Research Society.

Bureaucracy reduction

Bureaucracy reduction is a further focus of the program. Simplification of funding application procedures is a case in point. The latter will be of benefit to public research institutions as well as to private companies that engage in research activities.

The new rules will help reduce costs and increase the attractiveness of the program for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

January 17, 2007

Links

German EU Presidency

Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7)

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