311 environmental RTD projects selected for Community funding
The European Commission has selected a total of 311 projects for funding under the Environment and Climate and Marine Science and Technology (MAST) programmes. The projects were selected following calls under the Environment and Climate programme: the second main call of 17 September 1996 (OJ No S 180 of 17.9.1996 p. 40) and the ENRICH (European network for research in global change) call of 15 October 1996 (OJ No S 200 of 15.10.1996 p. 36), which also covered the MAST programme. In total, 1,180 proposals were submitted in response to the Environment and Climate call, which covered all areas of the programme except the Centre for Earth Observation (CEO). The 1,180 proposals requested total funding of ECU 974 million. Of these, 291 proposals have been selected for Community funding totalling ECU 203 million. Examples of projects to be supported include areas such as: - Research into waste water treatment and monitoring; - Protection of artistic heritage from insects; - Follow-up projects to European research on the ozone layer; - The response of natural ecosystems to increases in greenhouse gases; - Flood management and risk assessment; - Assessment of seismic sensitivity of motorway bridges; - Satellite earth observation; - European research forum on integrated environmental assessment; - Sustainability through spatial planning. The ENRICH call attracted a further 62 proposals, with requested funding totalling ECU 7 million. A total of 20 projects have been selected for funding totalling ECU 2.7 million. Of these, 15 will be supported by the Environment and Climate programme, while the remaining five will be supported by the Marine Science and Technologies (MAST) programme. Nineteen of the projects selected include participants from the Central and Eastern European countries and the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union, and/or developing countries. This participation is funded by the International Cooperation programme (INCO). Further calls for space techniques applied to environmental monitoring and research under the Environment and Climate programme were launched on 17 June 1997. A further ENRICH call will be published on 16 September 1997.