Welcoming the Accession Countries

From Achilleas Mitsos, Programme Director

Dear Applicant,

As you are probably aware, eleven new countries are now able to participate fully in the Human Potential Programme. This is a very significant development that provides a tremendous new opportunity both for researchers and organisations in the accession countries and also for those located in the European Member and Associated States.

With the launch of the second round of calls for a number of activities, I would like to encourage those from the accession countries who may be applying to this programme for the very first time, as well as those who may be developing projects involving partners in these countries. I am very positive that this wider participation in the programme will help to increase the impact of our objectives, including the training and mobility of researchers, raising public awareness of science and technology, and improving Europe's socio-economic knowledge base.

We look forward to your applications,

You may have noticed a new heading,'Towards a European Research Area', which has just appeared on the Human Potential Web Page. Click here and go directly to the new Commission communiqué on the future of European research.

The Commissioner for Research, Philippe Busquin has asked for direct feedback from the research community on this document. If you would like to take this opportunity to express your views on the analysis and actions proposed in the Commission paper, then make sure that you are not too late. The deadline for short reactions is 29 February and the deadline for substantial reactions is 5 May 2000.

Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia