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Consultations: Framework Programme 7

The Framework Programme is the EU's primary funding mechanism for supporting and encouraging Research, Technological Development and Demonstration in the European Community. Any legal entity within the Member States, the Accession States and certain third countries can apply and receive support.

The new five-year Programme (FP7) was launched in December 2006 and will run from 2007 -2013. It has a budget of 50.5bn euros (an increase of 40% from FP6). The progamme aims to strengthen the competitiveness of the EU economy and improve the research infrastructure in Europe.

FP7 is divided into four programmes:

• Co-operation: covers collaborative transnational research activities. In it divided into 10 different strands one of which is health. The health strand area specifically allows for the funding of projects in the area of cancer. It will also fund for the first time Joint Technology Initiatives (JTI’s). JTI’s, mainly resulting from the work of European Technology Platforms, will cover one or a small number of selected aspects of research and will combine funding from the private sector, national and European public funding.
• Ideas: will fund frontier research via the new European Research Council.
• People: relates to projects in the area of training and education such as Marie Curie programme.
• Capacities: covers projects aiming to improve research infrastructure, SME’s and international cooperation.

The original proposal was drafted by the European Commission following a consultation with interested parties and EU Member States. Cancer Research UK responded to a consultation run by the Office of Science and Technology within the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The results of the consultation were used by the Government as a basis for UK input to discussions during the adoption of the programme by EU Member States and the European Parliament.

To find out more about our position on research funding in the UK, go to the Science, Research and Technology section of our website.

To find out more about the FP7 programme go to the European Commission’s Cordis website: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/

To find out more about how to access FP7 funding go to the website of the UK Research Office (UKRO). http://www.ukro.ac.uk

To find out more about the European Research Council see: http://erc.europa.eu