Framework 7 Opportunity - Summary
This is your money
Most people are familiar with the Common Agriculture Policy to support the European agricultural agenda, but not so many people know of a parallel investment scheme by the European Commission into technology. The programme called “Framework”, has grown and evolved over the years and we are now into its seventh iteration, “Framework 7”, or FP7 as it is often referred.
Essentially the Commission acts as an investor in consortia assembled from European industry and academia to work on research projects aligned to technological objectives set out by the Commission in a Work Programme. The Commission is quite generous with funding of between 50% and 100% of incurred cost, depending on the type of organisation and the nature of the activity.
There is also a wide range of technology themes supported by the programme including Information Communications Technology, Aerospace, Bio Sciences, Nanotechnologies, Manufacturing Processes, Security, Energy, Environment, Transport and Socio-economic sciences. This is a wide ranging list and plenty of opportunity for organisations of all sizes to become involved. In fact there is a particular emphasis on getting more SME’s involved in this level of research with additional incentives.