Scientific Support to Policies

The overall objective is to support the formulation and implementation of Community policies, by providing scientific contributions to policies that are targeted precisely on policy needs ("demand-driven"), coherent across the various Community policy areas and sensitive to changes in policies as they take place.

Under this part of the programme, research to support Community policies is organised as an integrated activity, according to specific principles designed to ensure:

Timely and effective scientific inputs, covering a wider field of policies than in the past, and with the prospect of improved information, exploitation and uptake of results, at national and EU level;

A coherent research base that reflects the increasing integration of Community policies and the science that underpins them;

Systematic improvements in the relationship between research and policy at all levels in the EU;

Development of the European Research Area, by encouraging a single "playing field" in relation to policy-related research.

The activities under this section of the programme are naturally diverse in their subject matter, and will be implemented in such a way as to ensure co-ordination across the various topics and complementarity with the thematic priority areas.

A set of initial research priorities has been defined in the specific programme, on the basis of foreseeable needs, corresponding to an intervention budget of about 247,5 EUR million over four years. These initial priorities will be adapted and supplemented during the course of the programme, by means of a programming method that responds to requirements identified by policy makers, taking into account the opinions of the relevant Scientific Committees associated with the policies concerned. An additional allocation, amounting to an intervention budget of about 71 EUR million will be available to cover the additional topics so defined.

Links exist between some initial priorities under policy-oriented research and the priority thematic areas of research. Complementarities among projects to be funded will be identified and possible synergies taken into consideration.

In relation specifically with the "Global Change and Ecosystems" thematic area, the following research priorities open for the first call for proposals are of particular interest:

The total indicative EC contribution for these priorities is 31.7 EUR millions. Within each of them, specific tasks have been defined in order to meet the objectives allocated to each research priority. Research projects financed in the framework of the Scientific Support to Policies are expected to respond to the specific requirements of the tasks set out under each of the subject headings. The tasks often involve a requirement to address different disciplinary aspects, in view of the increasingly integrated nature of Community policies.

For a detailed description of the objectives and specific tasks to be addressed within each research priority, please refer to the specific call information and Work Programme available here.

The instruments to be used to address the research priorities are mainly the Specific Targeted Research Projects (STREPS) and Co-ordination Actions (CA).

Research for policy support in FP6