FET-Proactive


Proactive Initiatives

WHAT ARE FET PROACTIVE INITIATIVES?

FET-Proactive initiatives aim at focusing resources on visionary and challenging long-term goals that are timely and have strong potential for future impact. These goals provide a common strategic perspective and a focal point around which a critical mass of research can be assembled and synergies developed.

Proactive Initiatives

WHAT ARE FET PROACTIVE INITIATIVES?

FET-Proactive initiatives aim at focusing resources on visionary and challenging long-term goals that are timely and have strong potential for future impact. These goals provide a common strategic perspective and a focal point around which a critical mass of research can be assembled and synergies developed.

Proactive initiatives are launched through calls for proposals. The total budget per initiative in a call may be in the range of 15 to 30 million Euro.

Topics covered by the Proactive Initiative

Proactive initiatives are launched on topics where early ground breaking work has already demonstrated an important potential, but where significant scientific or technological barriers and risk justify a concerted action at basic research level before the area can be taken up as mainstream industrial research. The initiatives usually involve multidisciplinary work at the frontier of information technology and other disciplines such as physics, chemistry, life sciences, psychology, etc.

The choice of topics includes on the one hand, an evolution of successful initiatives in earlier calls and, on the other hand, new topics added to the portfolio. The choice of topics to be included in see workprogramme ( 480KB)).
We organised open consultations for proposing and discussing topics that may be the object of future proactive initiatives. Read the report

Implementation in FP7

The intention in FP7 is to implement the proactive initiatives through collaborative projects: Integrated Projects (IPs) and Specific Targeted Research Projects (STREPs).

Each proactive initiative will typically consist of two or more integrated projects and several STREPs. In addition, Coordination actions (CAs) will also be called for in each proactive initiative. Coordination actions should support the consolidation of research communities, their visibility, the coordination of research agendas, the mapping and benchmarking of research at European level, and the identification of drivers to assess research in the domain addressed by each proactive initiative. They also address the coordination of national or regional research programmes or activities. The initiative also encourages international cooperation in foundational research.

In addition it is planned to hold regular meetings, involving participants of the IPs, STREPs and/or CAs within each proactive initiative.

Links with national activities

Proactive initiatives should pursue co-operation with related initiatives in the Member States and the countries associated to FP7, seeking to maximise synergies with national research programmes and the leverage effect of European funding.

Each IP should clearly demonstrate how its work relates to projects taking place at national level. CAs should attempt to identify national or private funding that could be secured to increase the strategic impact of the proactive initiative as a whole.

International Collaboration

Collaborative projects of a proactive initiative may consider to collaborate with and integrate in their teams, research entities from non-associated third countries. Such collaboration is strongly recommended when these entities are bringing into a project critical knowledge and expertise not available within the EU and the countries associated to FP7, and which are considered essential for realising the project objectives.

In most cases, such entities participate in the project at their own cost.
However, when an entity is coming from Russia, New Independent states, Mediterranean Countries (including the western Balkans) and Developing Countries, its financing is possible. The International Co-operation Partner Countries (ICPC) are listed in the Annex I to the Workprogramme. Total Work Programme 2009-2010 ( 600KB)

Participants from other third-countries than the above (e.g. USA, Japan, Canada, etc.) may also get financial support in duly justified cases (e.g. integrating an entity that would permit a project to save spending substantial resources for catching up the state-of-the-art in an essential sub-area of research). Please look for further information on the International Co-operation activities web site.

Details on the participation and financing possibilities by country of establishment of a participant are provided in the document 'Regulation laying down the Rules for the participation to FP7 EC (2007-2013)' (click on "additional documents on each Call webpage)

Proactive initiatives are launched through calls for proposals. The total budget per initiative in a call may be in the range of 15 to 30 million Euro.

Topics covered by the Proactive Initiative

Proactive initiatives are launched on topics where early ground breaking work has already demonstrated an important potential, but where significant scientific or technological barriers and risk justify a concerted action at basic research level before the area can be taken up as mainstream industrial research. The initiatives usually involve multidisciplinary work at the frontier of information technology and other disciplines such as physics, chemistry, life sciences, psychology, etc.

The choice of topics includes on the one hand, an evolution of successful initiatives in earlier calls and, on the other hand, new topics added to the portfolio. The choice of topics to be included in FP7-call 1 and FP7-call 3 was finalised ( see workprogramme ( 480KB)).
We organised open consultations for proposing and discussing topics that may be the object of future proactive initiatives. Read the report

Implementation in FP7

The intention in FP7 is to implement the proactive initiatives through collaborative projects: Integrated Projects (IPs) and Specific Targeted Research Projects (STREPs).

Each proactive initiative will typically consist of two or more integrated projects and several STREPs. In addition, Coordination actions (CAs) will also be called for in each proactive initiative. Coordination actions should support the consolidation of research communities, their visibility, the coordination of research agendas, the mapping and benchmarking of research at European level, and the identification of drivers to assess research in the domain addressed by each proactive initiative. They also address the coordination of national or regional research programmes or activities. The initiative also encourages international cooperation in foundational research.

In addition it is planned to hold regular meetings, involving participants of the IPs, STREPs and/or CAs within each proactive initiative.

Links with national activities

Proactive initiatives should pursue co-operation with related initiatives in the Member States and the countries associated to FP7, seeking to maximise synergies with national research programmes and the leverage effect of European funding.

Each IP should clearly demonstrate how its work relates to projects taking place at national level. CAs should attempt to identify national or private funding that could be secured to increase the strategic impact of the proactive initiative as a whole.

International Collaboration

Collaborative projects of a proactive initiative may consider to collaborate with and integrate in their teams, research entities from non-associated third countries. Such collaboration is strongly recommended when these entities are bringing into a project critical knowledge and expertise not available within the EU and the countries associated to FP7, and which are considered essential for realising the project objectives.

In most cases, such entities participate in the project at their own cost.
However, when an entity is coming from Russia, New Independent states, Mediterranean Countries (including the western Balkans) and Developing Countries, its financing is possible. The International Co-operation Partner Countries (ICPC) are listed in the Annex I to the Workprogramme. Total Work Programme 2009-2010 ( 600KB)

Participants from other third-countries than the above (e.g. USA, Japan, Canada, etc.) may also get financial support in duly justified cases (e.g. integrating an entity that would permit a project to save spending substantial resources for catching up the state-of-the-art in an essential sub-area of research). Please look for further information on the International Co-operation activities web site.

Details on the participation and financing possibilities by country of establishment of a participant are provided in the document 'Regulation laying down the Rules for the participation to FP7 EC (2007-2013)' (click on "additional documents on each Call webpage)

FAQs on general questions for ICT proposal submission131KB



Topics covered by FET Proactive Initiatives in FP7