Estonia appoints National Contact Point
Estonia has appointed its National Contact Point (NCP) under the Fifth Framework Programme (FP5). The Ministry of Education will be responsible for the Estonian participation in FP5 and the NCP is formed in co-operation with Ministry of Education and Estonian Fellow Member to the Innovation Relay Centre network (FEMIRC). The national coordinator at the Ministry of Education takes care of the State-level coordination and supports the Estonian participation, and FEMIRC Estonia at the European Union Educational and Research Programmes Foundation is responsible for the information dissemination, consulting and partner search, and so on. Estonia is one of the Central and East European countries which, despite not being members of the European Union (EU), will participate to a certain extent in the FP5. A meeting between the Research Ministers of the EU and Ministers of the Central and East European countries was held in June 1995. In 1997, FEMIRC was established in ten Central European countries (CECs) to: - Contribute to extending European cooperation in research and technological development (RTD), innovation and technology transfer to CECs; - Facilitate the participation organisations from the CECs in EU RTD programmes; - Offer information and advice on EU RTD activities and services related to innovation and technology transfer; - Create an infrastructure for services in the field of RTD, innovation and technology transfer. Since the first meeting in 1995, efforts have been made to increase RTD cooperation with these countries, both within FP4 and now within FP5.
Countries
Estonia