 Sources
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CORDIS
CORDIS is the Commission’s dedicated RTD and innovation Web site. It contains all the information necessary for preparation and submission of a proposal. For each of the thematic activities there is a specific information area on CORDIS. These have links to sub-themes and all kinds of background and current information, such as open calls, as well as links to prior work done under FP5.
The documents necessary to prepare a proposal are call- and instrument-specific. For each instrument in each call for proposals, CORDIS provides a specific “information package” via the respective call page, comprising the respective work programme, call text and guide for proposers with application forms. To find a specific call, one should start at /fp6"justify"> National Contact Points (NCPs)
Each Member State and Associated State has a network of National Contact Points for the different priorities of FP6. These are your local experts who should always be your first point of contact for personalised help and advice in your own language. National Contact Points are listed at /fp6/ncp.htm
Europa
Europa is the European Union’s main public information site. It carries information about the structure of the EU and its institutions, and about the work of the research Programmes.
Programme infodesks
Each priority within the Framework Programme has a specific infodesk. Once you have looked through all the published information and contacted the relevant NCP you can email any remaining questions to the priority infodesk listed at /fp6/infodesks.htm.
Practicalities
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Downloading files
All the documents you need in order to understand FP6 and to submit a proposal are downloadable via the Web. There are a number of documents for each part of FP6 and so in total the document set is very large and complex. This can cause a number of problems, from server overload at peak times to your organisation’s security systems blocking access to some file types. In order to prevent this most of the documents are in Portable Document Format (pdf) and are ‘zipped’. This means that opening a document requires that you have installed on your computer the software utilities to unzip files and open pdf files. The download pages on CORDIS have links to sites where you can download this free software.
What documents do you need?
As there is a lot of information to download a good tip is to adopt a structured approach from the beginning. It is also a good idea to re-name files in your own way as you download them. The Commission only gives them formalised file names that are part of its document control system.
First of all there are a number of documents that give the legal background to the Framework Programmes and FP6.
Further on, each of the Specific Programmes of FP6 has a Work Programme (with subsections by priority) that defines and plans what it is trying to achieve as a Programme. As FP6 is not structured by research disciplines, it is essential to consider what is the innovative element that is at the core of your project idea and to search for this subject within the Work Programmes. A short cut to searching for relevant research subjects rather than looking through all the Work Programmes is to look at the list of activity codes at /fp6"100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
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The 'FP6 step by step' section is a structured walk- through of what FP6 participation entails.
