Details of FP7
in this section
The main objectives of FP7
- European final decision on FP7, Decision of the European parliament and of the council concerning the Seventh Framework Programme of the European community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007–2013)
- FP7 miscellaneous aspects: Evolution of Framework budgets since the beginning, duration and outreach of FP7 (International S&T Cooperation in FP7, The EU Research Framework Programme 2007–2013, an extract of the presentation by Alessandro Damiani, DG RTD, INCO, Decmber 2006)
Cooperation
The core of FP7, representing two thirds of the overall budget, is the Cooperation programme. It fosters collaborative research across Europe and other partner countries through projects by transnational consortia of industry and academia. Research will be carried out in 10 key thematic areas:
- Health
- Food, Agriculture and Biotechnology
- Information and Communication Technologies
- Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and New Production Technologies
- Energy
- Environment (including climate change)
- Transport (including Aeronautics)
- Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities
- Space
- Security
For each thematic priority a yearly work programme is published by the European Commission. This document defines the exact topics to be open for calls, the grant schemes, the budget and the specific selection criteria and participation rules for each invididual call.
Calls within pre-defined topics (top-down) for multidisciplinary consortia gathering several partners from different countries and with complementary competences, utilise the following grant schemes in each thematic area:
- Collaborative projects and networks: Collaborative Projects, Network of Excellence, Coordination and Support Actions
- Joint Technology Initiatives (JTI): public-private partnership bringing together industry, research institutions and the public in a specific area of interest to define and fund research projects based on a Strategic Research Agenda. Joint Technology Initiatives will be chosen from existing European Technology Platforms.
- Co-ordination of national research programmes: networks bringing together national research programmes and agencies to launch transnational research activities (ERA-NET, Article 169)
- International Co-operation: integration of international researchers and research institutions into collaborative projects and networks.
Ideas
The Ideas programme, implemented through the European Research Council (ERC), will support risk-taking and high-impact research in new, fast emerging, fields. During FP7 the Ideas programme will fund EU frontier research. ERC grants will be available, operating on a “bottom-up” basis through open calls without predetermined priorities, across all fields of research.
The Grants will support projects carried out by individual teams which are headed by a single principal investigator of any nationality and, if necessary, include additional team members. These teams could be of national or trans-national character. From 2008 onwards it is anticipated that Grants will be the subject of annual calls.
- The ERC Starting Independent Researcher Grants (ERC Starting Grants)
- The objective is to provide support to the independent careers of outstanding researchers. They are either located in, or moving to, the EU and associated countries, and are at the stage of establishing their first research team or programme (less than 10 years after PhD), whatever their nationality.
- The ERC Advanced Investigator Grants (ERC Advanced Grants)
- The objective is to support excellent frontier research projects by leading, established, researchers across the EU member states and associated countries, whatever their nationality
People
The People programme supports researcher mobility and career development, both for researchers inside the EU and internationally. It is implemented via a set of Marie Curie actions, providing fellowships and other measures to help researchers’ careers:
- Initial training of researchers — Marie Curie Networks
- Life-long training and career development — individual fellowships: intra-European fellowships, European reintegration grants and co-funded programmes
- Industry-academia pathways and partnerships
- International dimension — outgoing and incoming fellowships, international cooperation scheme, reintegration grants
- Excellence Awards
- International Research Staff Exchange Scheme
| Targetted audience | Scheme |
|---|---|
| European researcher to work in Australia for 1–2 years | International Outgoing Fellowships |
| Australian researcher to work in Europe for 1–2 years | International Incoming Fellowships |
| European researcher working in Australia for more than 3 years and wanting to return in Europe | International Reintegration Grants |
| Australian institutions working in a network of European institutions for staff exchanges | International Research Staff Exchange Scheme |
| Australian institutions working in a network of European institutions for PhD training | Initial Training Networks |
Capacities
- Research infrastructures
- Research for the benefit of SMEs
- Regions of Knowledge
- Research Potential
- Science in Society
- Support for the coherent development of research policies
- Specific activities of international cooperation
Euratom
The programme for nuclear research and training activities will comprise research, technological development, international cooperation, dissemination of technical information, and exploitation activities, as well as training. Two specific programmes are planned:
- the first programme includes: fusion energy research (inparticular ITER), and nuclear fission and radiation protection;
- the second programme covers the activities of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) in the field of nuclear energy, including nuclear waste management and environmental impact, nuclear safety and nuclear security. In addition to direct actions in the nuclear field, the JRC carries out research in a number of other areas to provide scientific and technological support to EU policy making
More details about Euratom from cordis.europa.eu/fp7/euratom.
Joint Research Centre (JRC)
The JRC is the EU’s own research organisation.
- Direct actions in Euratom
- Non-nuclear actions
More at www.jrc.ec.europa.eu.
