EU launches new project agencies

14 January 2008, 3:42pm

The EU's 7th Research Framework Programme (FP7) €50 billion budget marks a significant increase on the previous programme. To help manage this, the European Commission has created two executive agencies to manage the R&D project proposals and evaluation process. This will lead to increased efficiency of research management as well as liberate the Commission's resources for policy-making.

Paperwork is a constant nadir for researchers, and many often feel as though they are being drowned by it. The European Commission therefore has sought to make FP7 as administratively efficient as possible, for this reason they have created two agencies to manage research projects funded by the EU.

The "European Research Council Executive Agency" will be dedicated to the management of basic research projects funded by the European Research Council. It will support the implementation of the Ideas Programme of the 7th Research Framework Programme (FP7), which deals with frontier research.

The other body, the Research Executive Agency, will administer the Marie Curie fellowships schemes, research for the benefit of SMEs and parts of the Space and Security research themes. It will also provide evaluation and support services to all other parts of FP7. 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.

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.

"These agencies are good news for European research," said European Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik. "Our aim is to make sure that as much of the Framework Programme as possible is dedicated to research. We already have one of the lowest levels of administrative expenditure internationally for a research programme. I have made it a priority to ensure that FP7 gives great service to the research community for less cost, and that as much money as possible can be used to finance research activities."

The agencies are a new option for research support in specific circumstances. Such as areas of the Framework Programme where there are large numbers of relatively small, regular grants. These include Marie Curie fellowships, or grants where there is not likely to be significant policy input, such as support for SMEs, which will be managed by the Research Executive Agency. The European Research Council Executive Agency will be the implementing arm of the European Research Council, applying scientific funding strategies and methodologies defined by the ERC's Scientific Council.

The creation of the two agencies is just one of the ways in which the administrative red tape is being minimised. 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.

ec.europa.eu/research/

Geo: International