SMEs welcome FP7
UEAPME, the European small-to-medium enterprise (SME) employers' organisation, has welcomed the European Parliament's revisions to the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), which sets a 15 per cent target for SME participation in FP7. But, UEAPME recommended tightening definitions to ensure money will end up with SMEs. The UEAPME Research and Innovation Committee, meeting, held in Brussels on 4 July, welcomed the new focus on SMEs. FP7 will specifically allocate 15 per cent of the 'Cooperation' programme budget to SMEs in addition to the specific 'Capacities - Research for the benefit of SMEs' heading. However, UEAPME worries that if the definition of SMEs is not tightened, then some of the €6 billion currently pegged for SME research may end up elsewhere. For example, dedicated research institutes may be also able to tap into these funding streams, fulfilling a much looser definition. 'Without such a concrete budget decision, all other amendments concerning SMEs would become rhetoric sentences without a proven impact,' said Rainer Neumann, Chairman of the UEAPME Research and Innovation Committee. 'Lessons learnt from FP6 [Sixth Framework Programme], however, show that a stricter definition of SME is needed in the text to avoid research organisations employing fewer than 250 staff benefiting from part of this budget heading, which should be reserved for businesses only,' he said. UEAPME believes that under FP6, many SMEs passed the 'quality mark' but did still not manage to tap into funding. Under FP7 they want many more quality organisations to receive funding. 'Under the previous programme, only one SME proposal out of 10 reached the financing stage. The new programme should aim at backing all proposals ranking above the quality threshold - therefore, the Commission should not reduce the specific budget line below the €1,328 million recommended by the Parliament,' said Mr Neumann. Another move, to include SMEs in the decision-making process of Technology Platforms was welcomed, but again, the UEAPME qualified its support by stating that SMEs often lacked the resources to participate in the first place. Although by including SMEs in the strategic research agenda and decision-making process, then SMEs ought to be able to increase their presence. 'By introducing the 15 per cent clause and the redirection system to sustain oversubscribed budget lines, the Parliament supported the main requests made by UEAPME in the past. We hope that the Commission will follow the Parliament's shift from rhetoric to actions and ensure a workable FP7 for SMEs', said Mr Neumann.