Commission and EIB give innovation budget boost
8 June 2001 - 8 June 2001
European Research Commissioner, Philippe Busquin, signed an agreement on 7 June with Philippe Maystadt, president of the European investment bank (EIB) to strengthen cooperation in innovation and research by offering complementary forms of financial support to researchers.
At the signing of the joint memorandum, Mr Busquin emphasised that it represented a new understanding between the Commission and the EIB. 'When funding research and innovation, the Commission and the EIB have always shared a number of common objectives such as fostering innovation and a competitive economy, but now we will also combine our funding possibilities to optimise the effect of the money invested,' he said.
The new funding arrangement will not mean that funding cannot be received from both sources, but it does mean that there will be greater collaboration before funding is allocated. The areas that are expected to benefit from this are areas key to European competitiveness, such as biotechnology and nanotechnology. Fotis Kafatos, director general of the European molecular biology laboratory, who attended the signing, said he will be able to demonstrate the improved situation brought about by the signing. Mr Busquin said that the new arrangements would 'better respond to the needs of research organisations and businesses'.
Closer cooperation will be fostered between the Commission's Framework programmes (the present Fifth Framework runs until 2002 and has a budget of just under 15 billion euro) and the EIB's innovation 2000 initiative (i2i), aimed at helping to create a knowledge-based society. It has a budget (over three years) of 12 to 15 billion euro, with an additional one billion euro for the development of venture capital operations. The i2i initiative has five key aims; to develop SMEs and entrepreneurship; diffusion of innovation; research and development; IT and communications networks and the formation of human capital.
In order to gauge the new arrangements, a steering group will be established to monitor the activities of three working groups, which will oversee research projects, research infrastructures and venture capital for incubators and companies.
'This new cooperation between the Commission and the EIB should significantly increase our positive impact on the research and innovation community in Europe and in European society,' said Mr Busquin.
For further information on the research framework programme, please consult:
http://cordis.europa.eu/rtd2002(opens in new window)
for more information on the EIB, please consult:
http://www.eib.org(opens in new window)
At the signing of the joint memorandum, Mr Busquin emphasised that it represented a new understanding between the Commission and the EIB. 'When funding research and innovation, the Commission and the EIB have always shared a number of common objectives such as fostering innovation and a competitive economy, but now we will also combine our funding possibilities to optimise the effect of the money invested,' he said.
The new funding arrangement will not mean that funding cannot be received from both sources, but it does mean that there will be greater collaboration before funding is allocated. The areas that are expected to benefit from this are areas key to European competitiveness, such as biotechnology and nanotechnology. Fotis Kafatos, director general of the European molecular biology laboratory, who attended the signing, said he will be able to demonstrate the improved situation brought about by the signing. Mr Busquin said that the new arrangements would 'better respond to the needs of research organisations and businesses'.
Closer cooperation will be fostered between the Commission's Framework programmes (the present Fifth Framework runs until 2002 and has a budget of just under 15 billion euro) and the EIB's innovation 2000 initiative (i2i), aimed at helping to create a knowledge-based society. It has a budget (over three years) of 12 to 15 billion euro, with an additional one billion euro for the development of venture capital operations. The i2i initiative has five key aims; to develop SMEs and entrepreneurship; diffusion of innovation; research and development; IT and communications networks and the formation of human capital.
In order to gauge the new arrangements, a steering group will be established to monitor the activities of three working groups, which will oversee research projects, research infrastructures and venture capital for incubators and companies.
'This new cooperation between the Commission and the EIB should significantly increase our positive impact on the research and innovation community in Europe and in European society,' said Mr Busquin.
For further information on the research framework programme, please consult:
http://cordis.europa.eu/rtd2002(opens in new window)
for more information on the EIB, please consult:
http://www.eib.org(opens in new window)