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Participating in FP7 has many potential benefits: there are large sums of money available; there are opportunities to be part of a pan-European consortia sharing knowledge, skills and expertise. It will open up new contacts, networks and markets within Europe and beyond, and it could enable you to become involved in ambitious, leading-edge projects.
However, application is not for the faint-hearted. There are fundamental questions that you need to ask yourself before proceeding. Take a look at the table below and make a note of those questions to which the answer is yes.
Your project
- Is the project European focused, aimed at making an impact and providing a major step forward?
- Is your research project actually important to the work and priorities of your organisation?
- Are you undertaking research to develop a usable end product orto deliver knowledge and best practice?
- Will your project benefit from the involvement of a number of development partners?
Working in Europe
- Do you see benefits in collaborating with other European organisations (access to larger markets, shared risk, new contacts, facilities and expertise)?
- Could you work in a consortium with a high level of responsibility, including collective liability?
- Are you prepared to negotiate around the project outputs,including ownership of intellectual property?
Commitment
- Are you prepared to commit considerable management time and resource to meeting consortium partners across Europe and preparing an application?
- Are you prepared to resource and manage the administrative responsibilities that the grant will place on you?
- Are you prepared to enter a competition where the rules can be complex, the procedures drawn out and the success rate relatively low?
- Can you commit to a 2 to 5 year project?
- In addition to the time and effort required, the grant will in most cases fund not more than 50% of your portion of the cost of the project. Are you prepared to invest in the project yourself, or seek alternative funding (called match funding) to ensure you can afford to undertake the work?
The rules of participation for the Framework Programme set out the framework that governs the relationship between the Commission and the institutions that participate in the programme. The European Commission has issued a proposal for the rules for the 7th Framework Programme that covers a number of important aspects of FP7, including:
- procedures for calls for proposals;
- types of grants;
- levels of financing;
- consortia composition;
- the evaluation process;
- financial management of projects;
- cost reporting; and
- dissemination of project results.
The programme proposes the setting up of a European Research Council (ERC) to implement EU frontier research activities. Research areas covered will be independent of the thematic orientations of other parts of the Framework Programme. Information on the implementation of the ERC can be found HERE |
