Call for expressions of interest in RTD horizontal activities
The European Commission, DG XII, has published a call for expressions of interest for the establishment of a list of persons or organizations to assist the Commission in horizontal activities relating to the European Community research and technological development actions. The Commission will draw up a list of suitable candidates. The list will be divided into 15 sublists, each one of which will correspond to one of the types of service referred to below. Each time a specific contract is to be concluded relating to the areas described below, the Commission will send the specifications to all the candidates on the list, or to some of them selected on the basis of special criteria for the contract concerned. The list drawn up following this notice will be used solely for contracts whose estimated value is below the thresholds laid down in the relevant public procurement directives. The European Community is carrying out research and technological development (RTD) activities giving rise to specific programmes under successive framework programmes. The objective of this call is to draw up a list of suitably qualified persons or organizations to assist the Commission in the activities carried out by Directorate A, "RTD actions: strategy and accompanying measures", of DG XII. These activities are of a horizontal nature, i.e. they do not pertain to any specific programme; they include preparatory work for forthcoming framework programmes, liaison between science and technology (S&T) policy and other Community policy areas, coordination of national RTD policies, evaluation of RTD programmes, and inter-institutional relations. The work may relate to services listed in 15 sublists (presented hereafter under three main headings): - Policy analysis, monitoring and evaluation: (i) Analysis of S&T policy objectives, themes, structures and interactions at regional, national and international level (i.e. of the set of policy structures/instruments, including fiscal and financial measures, aimed at promoting research and research cooperation, mobility of researchers, innovation, etc.); (ii) Analysis of policy integration and interaction (i.e. R&D in the context of other policy developments such as those related to industry, competition, trade, environment, etc.); (iii) Analysis of administrative/institutional/organizational/legal aspects of S&T policy development and execution (decision-making process in S&T policy, juridical basis, budgetary aspects, etc.); (iv) Development and validation of methodologies to support conception, priority setting (including foresight methods), management and evaluation of RTD policies, programmes and projects; (v) Evaluation of S&T policy impacts (technological, industrial, economic, social, managerial, etc.); - Socio-economic analysis as related to S&T developments: (vi) Technological and economic monitoring and intelligence (i.e. identification of significant scientific and technological breakthroughs and trends, market development, etc.); (vii) Development and exploitation of (micro-, meso- and macro-) indicators of relevance for S&T policy development (bibliometric, patent, technological competitiveness, R&D resources, and others), including the development of new indicators; (viii) Analysis of international linkages and strategic issues relating to technology in the context of economic growth, trade and competition; (ix) Techno-economic analysis at firm and sectoral level (technology trajectories, organizational and management issues, industrial structures, capital and labour markets, and the modernization process, including defence reconversion); (x) Analysis of national and regional systems of innovation and related institutional issues (intellectual property rights, environmental regulation, fiscal regimes, etc.); (xi) Analysis of public responses and social shaping of S&T, social impact and risk assessment; (xii) Analysis of regional, geographical and development aspects (specific problems of less-favoured regions, geographical concentration and cohesion gaps); - Technical assistance: (xiii) Assistance with the management of monitoring and evaluation of R&D programmes and with the organization of specialized workshops, conferences, seminars, consensus conferences and events to promote S&T expertise; (xiv) Assistance of "technical editors" for the preparation of publications and dissemination material and for the exploitation of study results; (xv) Assistance for information and database management relating to S&T policy. The list will be valid for three years from 2 June 1995. Applications should be sent to: European Commission Directorate-General XII Directorate A "RTD Actions: strategy and accompanying measures" T61-2/30 200 rue de la Loi B-1049 Brussels