Activity 7.6 Integrating Europe's neighbours into the ERA (FP7-INCO-2010-6, ERAWIDE)

Identifier: FP7-INCO-2010-6

Publication Date: 30 July 2009

Budget: € 7 500 000 (1 project/500.000 euros to be financed per targeted country)

Deadline: 19 January 2010 at 17:00:00 (Brussels local time)

For more information:

http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=UserSite.CapacitiesDetailsCallPage&call_id=231

The reinforcement of the cooperation with Europe's neighbours in the context of the European Research Area (ERA) is an important part of the EC communication on the Strategic Framework for international S&T cooperation1. In order to promote closer scientific cooperation with the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) countries and to prepare their possible future association to the Framework Programmes, dedicated activities aimed at improving the cooperation capacity of these countries should be carried out under the Specific international cooperation activities of FP7. This should complement the Research and Innovation activities described in the National Indicative Programmes and covered by the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instruments (ENPI).

Technical content/scope

The objective of this action is to reinforce the cooperation capacities of research centres located in the ENP countries, which are not associated to FP72. The call will give these countries the possibility to improve the research activities of their highest quality and/or promising centres in the thematic priorities of FP7.

Proposed activities

The activities covered by the call are:

• Networking with research centres in Member States or Associated Countries in view of disseminating scientific information, identifying partners and setting up joint experiments;

• Developing training modules to build competency and facilitate the participation in FP7 of the centres located in the targeted third countries;

• Developing the research centres’ strategy in order to increase their scope in particular their regional coverage and to improve their responses to the socio-economic needs of their countries and of the region.

The joint development of training modules to build competency and facilitate the participation of these centres in FP7 should build on already existing expertise or successful collaboration experience. In the development of the research centres' strategies the involvement of internally well established, independent researchers is recommended, and external peer review activities of strategies should be foreseen. In some cases, the involvement of well-recognised international S&T policy experts might be of help.

The activities proposed should form a coherent plan for improving the centre’s capacities in a given research area and therefore they should be described in detail and justified. Preference should be given to activities with a regional impact.

Funding scheme(s)

The funding scheme that applies is the Coordination and Support Action (supporting action). Community contribution for each project is expected to be about EUR 0.5 million. The typical duration of the project would be between 2 to 3 years.

Participants

This call is addressed to research centres of proven high level S&T capacities, which are located in an ENP country not associated to FP7. The research centre is defined here as an existing working unit, either independent or functioning within a locally established research organisation of one of the countries concerned, having preferably distinct organisational and administrative boundaries. The centre should not be a subsidiary or branch of an organisation established in another country.

In order to be eligible, the proposal must target only one such centre, the consortium should however include additional participants, in particular from the Member States and/or Associated Countries so as to fulfil the objectives of the Activity. The consortium must include the research centre that is targeted in the proposal.

The research centre targeted by the proposal should be the coordinator of the proposal. The participation of organisations from Member States and/or Associated Countries in the proposals would be welcomed and this will be reflected in the evaluation. The consortia should also ensure equitable representation and promote gender equality.

Areas open to this call:

The call will be open to the fields of science addressed by the thematic priorities of FP7 and will target centres located in the following regions:

• Area INCO.2010-6.1: Eastern Europe and South Caucasus: Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan,

• Area INCO.2010-6.2: Mediterranean Partner Countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Palestinian-administered Areas, Lebanon, Syria

It is important to have as many countries covered under the call. For this reason, the following scheme for selection of projects will be applied:

At least one project per country covered by the areas of the Activity 7.6 of the work programme will be funded, provided that it has passed thresholds of all evaluation criteria. Therefore, the highest ranked proposal for a given target country will be considered for funding, subject to the result of the evaluation and availability of the budget. After allocating a budget to the best projects in this way, all remaining projects in each Area will be ranked together in one list according to the marks obtained during evaluation. The remaining budget will be allocated to the projects according to their position in this overall ranking without further concern for country coverage. The panel of experts evaluating the proposals will apply this rule when recommending a priority order for the proposals, in particular for proposals with the same score.

Expected impact:

The outcomes of the Activity should be:

• Contribution to RTD capacity building in the target country,

• Enhanced participation of the country in the 7th Framework Programme,

• Increased scope (regional coverage, subjects, activities) of the centres with increased linkage with economic and social environment,

• Networking with other research centres in Member States or Associated Countries (mobilising the human and material resources existing in a given field, disseminating scientific information as well as the results of research, facilitating communication between the centres having similar scientific interest),

• Increased job opportunities in the country for young scientists (measures to avoid 'brain drain' phenomena: better career opportunities, better work conditions, access to research infrastructures).