SALIS

The Framework Program

Running from 2007 to 2013, FP7 will have €50.5 billion available, a 40% increase over the amount available under FP6. The underlying strategy is creation of a European Research Area (ERA) which replaces loose cooperation with integrated cross-border and multi-disciplinary research programmes, which can more effectively achieve critical mass.

There are four strands to FP7:

/Cooperation/

collaborative research in health, food, agriculture, fisheries, biotechnology, information and communication technologies, nano-sciences, nanotechnologies, materials and new production technologies, energy, environment (including climate change), transport (including aeronautics), socio-economic sciences and the humanities, space and security. This will take the lion's share of the money, accounting for €32.4 billion in all;

/Ideas/

which includes the establishment of the European Research Council (ERC) to support research at the frontiers of science (€7.5 billion);

/People/

human resources, which has an allocation of €4.75 billion to be spent, for example, on scholarships for young researchers, fellowships for life-long training and career development, partnerships between industry and academia, fellowships for non-EU researchers to come to the EU and vice-versa, and awards for excellence;

/Capacities/

research infrastructures, development of the potential research capacity of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME's), developing knowledge and science clusters in Europe's regions, and promoting science in society as a whole (€4.1 billion).

For more information on the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).