European research needs Eastern European SMEs on board

"SMEs are the cornerstone of Europe's economic competitiveness and key to creating a world-class knowledge-based economy by 2010," Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin said at an event held in Estonia. With enlargement, SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises) from the new Member States are expected to actively contribute to the shaping of the European Research Area and to help boost the EU's competitiveness.

The European Commission invested 13 million euro last year to improve SME participation in 6th Research Framework Programme of SMEs from the new Member States. However, only 12.7 per cent of applications to participate in FP6 first calls came from these countries. FP6 is the largest global tool for SME research support, and it has set itself the target of increasing SME participation to 15 per cent. From the four-year 20 billion euro FP6 budget, 2.3 billion euro is given to SME-led research projects to help them "to promote innovation and turn bright ideas into profitable businesses".

A report assessing the success of the new instruments (i.e. Networks of Excellence and Integrated Projects) in meeting the goals of FP6 was published on 21 June 2004. The report states that the costs and risks of participation in the FP6 projects using the new instruments seem unreasonably high for industry, notably SMEs, and emerging groups and partners from the New Member States (see EurActiv 7 July 2004).