European Commission Funding Opportunities

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European Commission Funding Opportunities for
Transatlantic Cooperation
Laurent Bochereau Head of Science, Technology and
Education Section European Commission Delegation
to the US
USC, 11 April 2008
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r
27 EU Member States 500 million
inhabitants 1957- Treaty of Rome
MAP EUROPE
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RD Recent Data
Note (1) 2000 data (2) 2002 data (3) 2003 data
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Research and economic development
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Evolution of EU STI Policies since 2000

• Moved up the political agenda (EU, national)
• - Key element in EU strategy for growth
  employment
• - European Research Area more integrated, open
  and attractive
• - Increase investment (3 of GDP by 2010 2/3
  by private sector)
• Broad policy approach
• - Research-innovation-education
• - Wider policy mix supply push and demand pull
• Wider range of instruments at EU level
• - Funding instruments
• - Legislation (visa for entry and stay of
  foreign scientists)
• - Voluntary guidelines (university-industry
  relations, fiscal incentives)
• - Agenda for modernisation of universities
  (education and research)

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Funding Instruments

• Research Framework Programmes
• European Research Council (grants to individuals
  based solely on excellence)
• Joint Technology Initiatives (large scale PPPs)
• Cross border cooperation between regions
  (research driven clusters)
• Coordinated calls with third countries
• Increased mobility budget (e.g. within and
  outside of Europe and between industry and
  academia)
• EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities
• Competitiveness and Innovation Programme
• Structural Funds

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EU budget 2006 5.3 billion for research
123.5 billion expenditure (commitments)
Source "EU Budget - The figures" EU COM, Jan.
2006, ISBN 92-79-01144-8
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EU Research Framework ProgrammesAnnual Budgets
between 1984 and 2013
NB budgets in current prices. Source Annual
Report 2003, plus FP7 revised proposal
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EU research changing priorities
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FP7 The Structure
Cooperation Collaborative research
Ideas Frontier Research
People Marie Curie Actions
Capacities Research Capacity

JRC non-nuclear research
Euratom direct actions JRC nuclear research
Euratom indirect actions nuclear fusion and
fission research
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FP7 Indicative breakdown ( million)
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International cooperation in FP7

• Guiding Principles
• Shared objectives
• Mutual benefit
• Equal treatment
• Reciprocity

• Objectives
• More integrated
• More competitive
• More targeted
• More coordinated

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FP7 Categories of Countries
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Transatlantic ST co-operation

• EC-US Science and Technology Co-operation
  Agreement
• Originally signed 1998
• Renewed in 2004
• Negotiation towards a renewal in 2008
• Pan-European dimension to transatlantic
  STco-operation to complement bilateral
  arrangements with Member States
• Actions through implementing arrangements
  Environment, metrology, materials science,
  nanotechnology, biotechnology, non-nuclear and
  renewable energy

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FP7 Cooperation bringing together our best
talents (researchers, industry and SMEs) to
tackle the following areas

• Health
• Food, Agriculture and Biotechnology
• Information and Communication Technologies
• Nano-sciences, Nano-technologies, Materials and
  new Production Technologies
• Energy
• Environment (including Climate Change)
• Transport (including Aeronautics)
• Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities
• Space
• Security.

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FP7 2007 Cooperation ResultsParticipation of
Third Countries
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US-EC Task Force on Biotechnology Research

• Task Force
• Established in 1990 by EC and the US White House
  Office of Science Technology (anticipate the
  needs of tomorrows science, today)
• Mission to promote information exchange and
  coordination of biotechnology research programs
  funded by the EC and the US government
• Members
• US ARS, NSF, NIH, FDA, EPA, NASA, NIST)
• EC Biotechnology, Agriculture and Food Research,
  Food Quality, External Relations, Health,
  Research DG
• Scientific advisory panel
• Working groups (past)
• Bioinformatics, Neuroinformatics
• Farm Animal Genomes

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US-EC Flagship Projects

• Flagship themes
• Plant cell walls Increasing accessibility for
  biorefining
• Plant oils Produce industrial oils biofuels
  in oilseed crops
• Biopolymers High value/high performance
  polymers
• Selection criteria clear consumer benefit,
  scientific challenge, economic benefit and risk
  analysis, private sector involvement
• Biobased Products Initiative (includes all
  flagships)
• EC-US working group developed a strategic vision
  paper
• Flagship coordinators developed research
  framework
• Program reviewed by stakeholders in 2005
  (Beltsville, MD)
• Program approved by US-EC Task Force

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Mouse Mutagenesis

• The European Commission, US National
  Institutes of Health and Genome Canada are
  co-funding a global collaborative research
  programme aimed at creating mutant mouse lines in
  every single gene present in the mouse genome.
• Objective to better understand the ways a
  single gene influences the health and well-being
  of mice by deleting, or knocking out,
  individual genes.
• Networking three major initiatives
• the EUCOMM project (13 million, EC)
• the NorCOMM project (4.4 million, Canada)
• the Knockout Mouse Project (KOMP, 39.2
  million, NIH)

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FP7 PeopleMarie Curie Actions- Fellowships,
Grants, Awards

• 1. Initial training
• Networks for Early stage researchers

• 2. Life long training and career development
• Intra European Fellowships
• European Reintegration Grants
• Co-funding of national programmes

• 3. Industry dimension
• Industry-academia partnership and pathways

• 4. International dimension
• Outgoing fellowships
• International reintegration grants
• Incoming fellowships
• International staff Exchange Programmes (ST,
  ENP)

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FP7 Ideas conducting Frontier Research- The
European Research Council (ERC)

• European Research Council (ERC) the first
  pan-European funding agency for Frontier Research
• Support investigator-driven frontier research
• over all areas of research
• competition as EU level
• excellence as sole criterion
• Budget 1 billion per year (2007-2013 7.5
  billion)
• Autonomous scientific governance (Scientific
  Council)

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ERC Applications from Researchers 1st stage
(8794 proposals evaluated)
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EU Members FP7Associated Countries
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9
149
6
2
3
2
15
4
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FP7 PeopleMarie Curie Actions- Fellowships,
Grants, Awards

• 1. Initial training
• Networks for Early stage researchers

• 2. Life long training and career development
• Intra European Fellowships
• European Reintegration Grants
• Co-funding of national programmes

• 3. Industry dimension
• Industry-academia partnership and pathways

• 4. International dimension
• Outgoing fellowships
• International reintegration grants
• Incoming fellowships
• International staff Exchange Programmes (ST,
  ENP)

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Outgoing fellowships (from EU)

• Career development/ life-long training for EU
  researchers
• EU outgoing individual fellowships, to be trained
  in a third country institute or organisation
• at least 4 years after graduation
• Funding for up to 3 years in total
• -- with 1-2 years abroad
• To establish cooperation
• Based on a personal career development plan
• Application together with the host of the return
  fellowship,
• mandatory return phase

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Incoming fellowships

• Incoming individual fellowships to attract top
  class researchers to EU and Ass.
• at least four years after graduation (post doc)
• to develop cooperation
• Proposal is submitted by the researcher together
  with the host organisation
• For 1 to 2 years
• Salary plus contribution towards research
  related costs
• Eventually a 1 year return phase for researchers
  from ICPC

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International Reintegration Grants

• Financial assistance to any EU or Ass researchers
  who wish to return and find a position in Europe
• After having worked in research in a third
  country
• for at least three years
• grant of 2 to 4 years
• At least four years research experience after
  graduation
• Researcher applies together with the host
  organisation
• Flat rate of 25 000 annually
• Commission signs grant agreement, while
  re-integration host will sign employment
  agreement
• Regular cut off date twice a year

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FP7 People Programme Preliminary Results

• 19 US out of the 127 Incoming International
  Fellows
• 2nd place after India (20) AUS (18) CN (12)
• 102 International Reintegration Grantees were in
  the US at the time of applying (out of 224)
• help stabilise in research careers

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New IRSES International Research Staff
Exchange scheme

• For EU Neighbourhood Countries and Countries with
  ST Agreement
• To establish or deepen partnership between min 2
  research organisations within EU/associate and
  one or more organisations in third countries.
• Joint exchange programme to/from Europe (not
  between EU/AS partners)
• 24 - 48 month partnership
• Short term exchanges (up to 1 year per person)
• Partner institutes select their staff for
  exchange (Researchers, management, technical
  staff )

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EracareersResearchers Mobility Portal
http//europa.eu.int/eracareers/index_en.cfm

• Information about research, fellowships, grants,
  job opportunities
• Information about legal and administrative issues
  (entry, social security, tax, etc)
• Access to European Network of Mobility Centres.

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Call for Evaluators

• The European Commission operates a database of
  experts.
• The registration service for FP7 is available in
  CORDIS.
• Further information on the appointment of
  independent experts can be found in the CORDIS
  FP7 participation section
• https//cordis.europa.eu/emmfp7

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Key European issues for international cooperation
in ST

• How to work better together between MS/AS and the
  EC? How to achieve  speaking with one voice  in
  multilateral intitiatives?
• How to reach greater coherence between
  international ST cooperation and other EC
  external policies and instruments?
• How to set thematic and geographical priorities?
• How to address global challenges?
• How to promote European agendas in multilateral
  organisations and agreements?
• How to make bilateral ST agreements more
  effective? Do we need other instruments (eg joint
  calls for projects involving MS where possible)?

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More Information

• EU research http//ec.europa.eu/research
• Seventh Framework Programme http//ec.europa.eu/r
  esearch/fp7
• Information on research programmesand projects
  http//www.cordis.lu/
• RTD info magazine http//ec.europa.eu/research/rt
  dinfo/
• Mobility (Marie Curie)
• http//europa.eu.int/mariecurie-actions
• http//europa.eu.int/eracareers
• http//europa.eu.int/mc-opportunities/
• Information requests http//ec.europa.eu/researc
  h/enquiries/