Figures for Fission: 155 proposals for RTD activities in fission and radiological sciences in negotiation
Some 155 proposals from the 337 received by staff working on the European Commission's Nuclear Energy programme have been selected for negotiation. At the time of writing, 33 contracts have been signed and about 120 contracts are under negotiation. The Commission has now released figures on EU researchers' response to the first two calls for proposals for RTD actions related to nuclear energy, managed by the specific programme for Energy, Environment and Sustainable development, under the Fifth Framework programme (FP5). Of the proposals submitted to the Commission in this area, 68% were in the frame of the Key Action for Nuclear Fission, with the rest focusing on RTD activities of a generic nature in the field of radiological sciences. The 1,100 partners now waiting for final approval of their projects are set to share a budget of 100 million euro. So far, the typical number of partners involved in the successful proposals is seven and each proposal will receive on average 0.6 million euro of Community funds to facilitate their research. The Commission now reports that around 2,500 partners sought some 360 million euro of funds from the programme, requesting on average 1 million euro for each proposal. Of these, around 14% of partners were from non-EU countries. About 85% of the proposals sought funding for shared cost actions. Non-university research organisations dominate the selected proposals at this stage, accounting for 50% of the proposals selected for evaluation. Participation of universities or other higher institutes is about 20% - as is participation from industrial partners.