Research : EU
to finance projects worth €5 billion,
The European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin
suggested that “the strong and balanced response to these first calls for
proposals is encouraging: it shows that the European scientific and business
community is vibrant and willing to pool resources at the European level”. On
the other hand, “our research funding scheme, although important, only
represents 5% of overall European research spending. It is for EU Member States and industry to join forces and overcome
the present fragmentation of resources. The latest EU
Research Framework Programme can encourage this endeavour by helping achieve
the critical mass in key scientific areas”.
The particular programme is supposed to be one of the major research
funding plan in the world, as it involves a budget of €17.5 billion and over 100 000
participants from more than 50 countries responding with 12 000 projects on the
first call, especially from accession and third countries.
Further Information
http://fp6.cordis.lu/fp6/calls.cfm
http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/fp6