Q&A on the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)
Contents
What is the Framework Programme?
The Framework Programme (FP) is the European Unions main instrument for the funding of research and development in science, engineering and technology and has a legal basis in Article 163 of the EC Treaty. Since its inception in 1984, it has grown considerably in scale and scope. Any legal entity within the Member States and certain third countries can apply and receive support.
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What is the budget for FP7?
The overall EU budget for FP7 covering the seven-year period 2007-2013 is €53 billion.
This is distributed amongst the Specific Programmes as follows:
- Cooperation €32.4 million
- Ideas EUR €7.5 million
- People EUR €4.8 million
- Capacities €4.2 million
and also
- EU Joint Research centre (JRC) (non-nuclear) €1.75 million
- Euratom (to 2011) €2.75 million
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Why should Science and Research be funded at EU level? What can an international programme achieve that a national programme cannot?
Funding at a European level supports collaborative research and trans-national research activities on a scale that is far greater than any national programme. It provides a mechanism for pooling facilities and perspectives and offers a diversity of specialised knowledge that may be difficult to replicate at a national level, thus representing a useful additional mechanism through which the UK researchers can gain access to wider networks and competence.
Increasingly, public policy challenges are international, if not global in terms of impact and degree of effort needed and therefore seem to be more appropriately addressed at the European level. International funding can also promote excellence through greater technical competition and by building networks/collaborations between the best researchers and businesses.
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How has the UK performed in past Framework Programmes?
Historically UK performance in past Framework Programmes has been strong. In FP5, UK organisations received nearly 16% of the overall funding, equating to over €2bn. FP6 data suggests that, despite spanning a period of EU enlargement, UK organisations accounted for an impressive 14.2% of the budget allocated (This equates to over £2.3billion).
|
UK |
France |
Germany |
Total FP6 |
Participants |
8,791 |
7,911 |
10,430 |
74,440 |
Funding received (€ Billion) |
2.37 |
2.17 |
3.02 |
16.67 |
The UK academic sector continued to lead the way in FP6 and received 8.5% of all FP6 funding, 22.9% of the funding to the academic community across Europe as a whole. The UK academic community took more funding than their counterparts from Germany and France combined.
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Will Full Economic Costing (FEC) inevitably reduce UK universities' ability to secure FP funding?
No. The implementation of FEC and associated increases in FP funding levels should place UK HEIs in a stronger financial position to secure external project funding from EU Framework Programmes and other sources. Where external project sponsors, including at present EU Framework Programme, pay less than 100% of FEC, HEIs will continue to be able to bid for and accept such funding, having regard to the sustainability requirement mentioned above and given their stronger financial platforms from increased UK public funding.
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Is it true that UK businesses are losing out? What is being done about this?
Research commissioned by DIUS indicates that almost 80% of UK business participants in FP4 did not go on to participate in FP5. Industry participation (both large and small) in research programmes is likely to be more volatile than that of public sector researchers, but there are concerns that over half the large companies surveyed for this research indicated that their involvement in the Framework Programme was in decline.
FP6 introduced a number of new factors into the FP equation, which resulted in apparently increasing bureaucracy, supposedly less relevant research themes and less attractive funding arrangements ('instruments'). Member States have worked with the Commission to address these problems during FP6 and to ensure that similar problems are avoided in FP7. In particular, we pressed for the bulk of funding for FP7 to be concentrated on industrial competitiveness where the long-term research agenda must clearly reflect the needs of industrial users, and for the existing instruments to be simplified to reduce barriers to participation. In addition, Government Office for Science is working with stakeholders to implement an action plan to increase UK business participation.
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