FAIR publishes synopses of cooperative research projects for SMEs
The European Commission has published the project synopses of a number of studies on cooperative research for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The publication contains synopses on a range of cooperative research projects relevant to agriculture, agro-industrial and fisheries research that are selected and funded under the FAIR programme, part of the Fourth Framework programme. Ultimately, FAIR aimed to help secure a better match between production of land and water based biological resources and their use by consumers and industry through pre-competitive research and technological development and demonstration. Cooperative research projects enable trans-national groups of SMEs with a common problem, but with limited or no in-house RTD capability to sub-contract the research they need to a specialist (called an 'RTD performer'). The Commission supports up to half the cost, and while the RTD performer is paid in full for its work, the results belong to the SME alone. The new publication includes chapters on four of the five scientific areas covered by the FAIR programme: integrated production and processing chains (18 projects); generic science and advanced technologies for nutritious foods (26 projects); agriculture, forestry and rural development (7 projects) and fisheries and aquaculture (10 projects). (The area not included is scaling and processing methodologies). The publication provides statistics on the distribution of project participants around Europe and provides synopses of each of the 61 projects.