FEICRO Statement on the Fifth Framework Programme
Following its recent Council meeting, the Federation of European Industrial Cooperative Research Organizations (FEICRO) has issued a statement on the Community's Fifth RTD Framework Programme which sets out a number of recommendations aimed at ensuring that the changes introduced are of optimal benefit to Europe's SME sector. The main recommendations of the FEICRO statement are as follows: - CRAFT type measures specially adapted to the needs of SMEs should continue and be reinforced under the Fifth Framework Programme; - SME representative organizations and specialized research centres should be admitted as prime proposers, on the same terms as industrial companies; - The revised SME definition recently proposed by the Commission should not be applied too rigidly; - Improvements should be made in the management of future CRAFT type measures and more guidance provided to potential applicants; - Structural changes in programme management could include partial decentralization to qualified and properly resourced organizations at the regional level.