In line with its proposals for the 'financial perspective' (see EurActiv 19 February 2004), the Commission has proposed to increase the EU's research funding to an average of ten billion euro a year for the 7th Research Framework Programme (2006-2010). This would represent an increase of 100 per cent compared to the current Framework Programme.
In the communication, the Commission outlines six major objectives of EU action in the field of research.
1. Creating European centres of Excellence through collaboration between laboratories in research centres, universities and companies. The new instruments of FP6, Networks of Excellence and Integrated Projects are designed to contribute to this goal, and their efficiency will be evaluated by an expert panel.2. Launching European technological initiatives in promising industrial sectors such as energy, transport, mobile communications, embedded systems and nanoelectronics. 'Technology platforms' are being set up to bring together stakeholders to define a common research agenda.
3. Stimulating basic research by setting up a 'European Research Council', which would select projects on the basis of scientific excellence, without any obligation for transnational collaboration.
4. Making Europe more attractive for researchers by promoting the development of science careers. A special emphasis will be put on attracting young people to science, boosting the participation of women, knowledge transfer, international mobility and life-long learning.
5. Developing research infrastructure of European interest using a similar mechanism to the one used for the trans-European networks (TENs).
6. Strengthening co-ordination between national research programmes, as well as ties between European intergovernmental research organisations (such as CERN or the EMBO) and the EU.
The Commission also intends to improve the regulatory and administrative environment of the Community Framework Programmes, in particular by increasing transparency of the evaluation process, reducing delays and minimising the cost of preparing projects.
