The Commission's Annual report for 2000 is now on-line
The entire annual report of the European Union's research and technological development activities in 2000 is now available to download on-line. The report 'takes stock of a period in which there were many new developments,' says the Commission. 'Following the European Parliament elections and the appointment of the new Commission, there has been a substantial move towards giving research policy a more political and ambitious profile as endorsed by the research Ministers.' The report also describes the initial response to the Commission communication 'Towards a European Research Area,' published early in 2000. 'The Commission's ideas aroused considerable interest among all the parties concerned and were supported by the European Parliament and endorsed by the Lisbon European Council, which gave them operational status by setting out implementation details and a timetable,' reports the Commission. The report also reviews the launch of the Fifth RTD Framework programme. Since the first call for proposals were launched in March 1999, over 16,000 proposals have been submitted to the Commission, according the report. 'This massive number of proposals is encouraging especially as it reflects significant participation by countries in the pre-accession phase which are now associated with the Framework programme', says the Commission. 'The Key Actions accounted for 85 per cent of the resources for the thematic programmes and made it possible to launch large-scale research partnerships (with an average Community contribution of 1.7 million euro) with major synergies between projects,' it continues. 'Generic RTD activities and infrastructure support activities also generated large scale projects and support for researcher mobility was stepped up.' In addition, the report reveals that so far, SMEs account for 22 per cent of all participation in the Framework programme. Special efforts were also made to encourage participation by women and comply with fundamental ethical principles, and 'to reconcile the need for consistency and administrative rigour with ease of access,' adds the Commission. As a next step, the Fifth Framework programme's mid-term review will include an appraisal of how it can contribute to bring about the European Research Area in practical terms, and, this autumn, the Commission plans to adopt a strategic communication setting out its initial thinking on Community research after 2002.