Supporting the cooperation and coordination of research activities carried out at national or regional level (ERA-NET scheme)
The European Commission has published a call for proposals for supporting the cooperation and the coordination of research activities carried out at national or regional level (ERA-NET scheme) under the Sixth Framework Programme's 'Support for coordination activities' area. This is one of the areas covered by the 'Integrating and strengthening the foundations of the European Research Area' specific programme. Coordination actions and specific support actions will be used to fund activities under the ERA-NET scheme. The objectives of the 'Support for coordination activities' priority are to encourage and support initiatives undertaken by several countries, in areas of common strategic interest, to develop synergy between their existing activities through coordination of their implementation, mutual opening and mutual access to research results, as well as to define and implement joint activities. The objective of the ERA-NET scheme (area 11.3.1.1 of the work programme) is to step up the cooperation and coordination of research activities carried out at national or regional level in the Member States and Associated States through: - the networking of research activities conducted at national or regional level; - the mutual opening of national and regional research programmes. The scheme will contribute to making a reality of the European Research Area by improving the coherence and coordination across Europe of such research programmes. The scheme will also enable national systems to take on tasks collectively that they would not have been able to tackle independently. Both networking and mutual opening require a progressive approach. The ERA-NET scheme therefore has a long-term perspective that must also allow for the different way that research is organised in different Member States and Associated States. The budget for 2003 for this call will be 24 million euro. Indicative budgets for the closure dates of 2004 to 2006 will be given in the relevant updates of the work programme.To see the call text, please visit: http://fp6.cordis.lu/fp6/call_details.cfm?CALL_ID=31(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)