EU R&D project agencies launched

Two executive agencies to manage the R&D project proposal and evaluation process for the EU’s 7th Research Framework Programme (FP7) have been created to increase the efficiency of research management and liberate the Commission’s resources for policy-making.

Two new agencies were established on 14 December 2007 to manage research projects funded by the EU. 

One is dedicated to the management of the basic research projects funded by the European Research Council (ERC) and the other, the Research Executive Agency, to managing the process of receiving proposals and organising their evaluation for the whole FP7 programme. According to the Commission, in 2007 alone, the number of proposals to be evaluated reached 27,000 and required the hosting of 8,000 experts.

According to the Commission, “these agencies are just one strand of wide-ranging actions within FP7 to improve the efficiency of research management […] Other examples include: reducing the reporting requirements on project participants; creating the Risk-Sharing Finance Facility so that FP7 money is used to leverage considerable additional financial resources for research; a unique registration facility for project applicants and a more streamlined computer system.” 

By concentrating on management tasks, the new agencies are expected to improve efficiency in implementing the project cycle and provide, by easing administrative hurdles, a better service for the research community. 

“We want to outsource management of research projects so that, in-house, we can be more efficient on policies. We will slowly phase out by 2013 [end of the current framework programme FP7]” said EU Research Commissioner Janez Poto?nik in October 2007, adding that the Commission then hopes to have the time and resources, during FP8, “to get closer to researchers and the market”.

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