Public organisation
How can such organisations participate in FP7?
The Seventh Framework Programme has a simple and clear structure, based on four principal programmes, with public sector bodies eligible to participate across all four:
- The biggest in budgetary terms, with € 32.4 billion, called Cooperation, has the ambition to help Europe gain leadership in key areas of science and technology by having our best brains from across Europe working together.
- The second programme is called Ideas, with a budget of € 7.5 billion to foster competition and excellence in frontier or fundamental research.
- The third programme, People with € 4.7 billion will enable tens of thousands of researchers to benefit from fellowships for research training. The programme will help with training and career development in different sectors both public and private.
- The fourth programme is Capacities, with a budget of € 4.2 billion to ensure scientific and technological capacity-building, for example in the area of infrastructures or in helping European regions to gear up their scientific potential.
The European Commission will fund FP7 research by selecting project proposals submitted following the publication of a ‘Call for proposals’. When the first calls are published they will be announced on the FP7 Calls page.
The proposal process is triggered by the call. The legal text of the call defines the necessary specifications to prepare and submit a proposal, i.e. research theme, funding instruments used, address and other technical means for submission, deadlines etc. Proposals that do not meet the specifications in the call will be disqualified.
Are there any specific measures for publicly-funded organisations in FP7?
While the Seventh Framework Programme is open to both public and private organisations across all its major activities, there are a few that are worth highlighting as of specific interest to public bodies:
The European Research Council (ERC), newly created under the Ideas programme, will operate as a single pan-European public funding body for high-impact research.
Public-private partnerships will be set up in certain key sectors as Joint technology initiatives (JTIs).
Regional authorities are singled out as key participants in the two activities under the Capacities programme targeting regional innovation, competitiveness and research capacity:
- the ‘Regions of knowledge’ initiative for research-driven clusters;
- stimulating the ‘Research potential’ of the EU’s least-developed regions.
In some cases, conditions for funding and intellectual property arrangements are favourable to publicly-funded organisations. For example, for most research and technological development activities, the Community financial contribution may reach a maximum of 50% of the total eligible costs. However, in the case of public bodies, secondary and higher education establishments, research organisations and SMEs, it may reach a maximum of 75% of the total eligible costs.
See the European Commission’s proposals for the ‘ Rules for participation’ in FP7 for more details. These are currently going through the co-decision approval procedure with the European Parliament and Council – the final version will be available here once approved.
Where can public-sector organisations find support?
The network of National Contact Points (NCPs) provides locally-tailored support for participants in the EU’s framework programmes. The contact details for the newly-appointed FP7 NCPS are now available – in particular:
Last updated on: 2007-08-21