Transcript Making a reality of the European Research Area:

European Commission
Research
The 6th FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME New instruments for Old
Mike W Rogers
European Commission
[email protected]
with thanks to my colleagues
who attended the FP6 Launch
Conference!
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European Commission
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Wider range of suitable instruments
New instruments
• Integrated Projects (IP)
• Networks of Excellence (NoE)
• Article-169 (joint implementation-national programmes)
• Adventure, Insight, Pathfinder - NEST support
unconventional and visionary research exploring new
avenues of S&T
Traditional instruments - only where needed
• Specific targeted research projects
• Co-ordination actions
• Specific support actions
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Why NEW Instruments
• Natural Progression - Networks have been getting
larger as FP’s progress
• New Policy targets aim at greater co-operation at
operational not project based level
• New Instruments offer greater possibility for structural
co-financing and strategic support
• Possibilities to reduce Bureaucratic overheads
• Widen possible participation
• Old instruments continued for specific purposes.
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Principles guiding their design
• Simplification and streamlining
– minimise the overheads for all concerned: applicant, contractor
or the Commission
– speed up procedures, especially time-to-contract
• Flexibility and adaptability
– enable common instruments applicable throughout the themes
– enable projects to evolve
• Increased management autonomy
– eliminate duplicating micro-management
• While preserving public accountability and protecting
interests of the Community
• At the end of the day it is YOUR Taxes and Rules
approved by the EP and CoM - your democratic reps.
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Instruments to be used in priority
• Calls for proposals identify which instruments to
be used when
• From start, IPs and NoE will be the priority means
– for implementing themes where it is deemed appropriate
– while maintaining the use of specific targeted research projects
and co-ordination actions
• 2004 independent evaluation of the NEW instruments
– may lead to an adjustment of their relative use
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Integrated Projects
“Vertically self sufficient projects to make a
strategic impact”
IPs
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Purpose of IPs
• Designed to generate knowledge
– integrating the critical mass of activities and
resources needed
– to achieve ambitious, clearly defined scientific
and technological objectives with an
identifiable European dimension
IPs
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Activities
• Integrated projects may cover the full research spectrum:
–Obligatory:
– objective-driven research
– effective management of knowledge
– a coherent management framework
–Optional:
– technological development/demonstration component
– training component
IPs
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What is the scale of critical mass (I)?
• Concerning resources:
• An IP must assemble critical mass of resources needed to
achieve its ambitious objectives
– activities integrated may range up to 30-50 millions €
• no minimum threshold,
• provided necessary ambition and
• critical mass is achieved
IPs
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What is critical mass (II)?
• Partnership: minimum of three participants from three
different Member States or Associated States,
• of which at least two should be Member States or
Associated (candidate) countries
– but in practice likely to be substantially more
– SME participation is strongly encouraged
– ‘Third country’ participants may be included, with a possibility of
Community financial support for certain groups of countries
• Concerning its duration:
• typically 3-5 years
– but more if necessary to deliver the objectives
– can be less subject to other constraints.
IPs
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Financial regime
• Community support will be in the form of a “grant to the
budget”
• Paid as a contribution to actual costs
– that are necessary for the project
– that are recorded in the accounts of the participants
• or, when provided for in contract, in the accounts of 3rd parties
– that exclude indirect taxes, duties, interest…
• Annually, each participant to provide a summary cost
statement supported by:
– certification of total costs by an independent (LOCAL)
auditor
– management-level justification of costs
IPs
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Cost models
• A single family of three closely related cost models
– FC: all actual direct and indirect costs;(Full Costs)
– FCF:all actual direct costs plus 20% of these direct
costs
(excluding subcontracting) to cover related indirect costs; and
– ACF: additional (actual) direct costs plus 20% of these direct
additional costs (excluding subcontracting) to cover related
indirect costs
• Each organisation may use only 1 model for all
its FP6 participation, where they are relevant.
• The same cost methodologies will be used for all instruments
implemented through ‘grant to the budget’
IPs
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Rates of Community support
• Maximum rates of support for FC and FCF participants:
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50% for RTD and innovation-related components
35% for any demonstration component
100% for any training activities
100% for consortium management
• ACF participants: supported at up to 100% for all
components of the project (except for consortium
management which will be supported as under FCF)
• For IPs, no more than 7% of the Community
contribution can be used to support consortium
management costs reimbursed at rate of 100%
IPs
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Proposal submission
• Through calls for proposals
– may be preceded by expressions of interest to
• help focus calls
• assist in consortium building
• Simplified proposal-making, reflecting evolutionary
nature of the project
• summary description of activities for entire
duration
• detailed implementation plan for first 18 months
• Updated after review stages, on a rolling basis
• Every “Call” will be free to choose the
most suitable method!!!!! Watch them!!!!!!!!
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IPs
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Evaluation process
• Evaluation by a strengthened peer-review system
– possibly in stages, involving individual reviews, panel sessions,
perhaps hearings of applicants as needed
• Key issues to be addressed during evaluation:
– relevance to the objectives of the specific programme
– scale of ambition and potential impact
– S&T excellence
– quality of the consortium
– quality of the project and ‘knowledge’ management
– critical mass in terms of activities and resources
• Link to Annual/Rolling Review basis
IPs
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Initial contract and advance payment
• The contract will specify the maximum Community
Contribution, but not its distribution among participants
• consortium autonomy, eliminates source of micro-management
• Technical annex contains
– overall description of the project
– detailed implementation plan only of first 18 months
• Advance payment: <=85% of EC contribution for 18m.
• Simplified (single) signature procedure -faster start up
• Consortium designates a ‘coordinator’
• liaison with Commission,
• receives and distributes budget
• Consortium agreement is a prerequisite, not a posteriori
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IPs
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Payments and reporting
schedule
(example of a 4 year
contract)
Activity report
Detailed work plan
Reported costs
Adjusted advance
Activity report
Reported costs
Activity report
Detailed work plan
Reported costs
Adjusted advance
Activity report
Detailed work plan
Reported costs
Adjusted advance
Detailed work plan
Initial advance
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Months
IPs
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Flexibility and autonomy of
implementation
• For the implementation plan, each year, the consortium
– proposes a detailed plan for the coming 18 months
– and may propose to update the overall plan
• both need approval of the Commission to enter into force
• For changes in the consortium
– the consortium may itself decide to take in new participants (though
without additional funding)
• the contract will specify when this must involve a competitive call
– the Commission may decide to launch calls to add activities and
participants (with additional funding)
• e.g. to enhance SME participation
IPs
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Networks of Excellence
Designed to integrate specific research
activities in the European Research Area by
creating networks of the best researchers in
Europe on any given subject matter.
NoEs
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Objectives
• Designed to strengthen Europe’s excellence on a
particular research topic
– by integrating the best expertise needed to provide European
leadership and be a world force
– around a joint programme of activities
• Tackling the fragmentation of European research
– where the main deliverable is a durable structuring and
shaping of how research is carried out in Europe
• Each NoE has a mission to
– spread ex
NoEs
cellence beyond the partners
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The joint programme of activities (1)
• A range of “new or re-oriented” activities
• integrating activities
• coordinated programming of the partners’ activities
• sharing of research platforms/tools/facilities
• joint management of the knowledge portfolio
• staff mobility and exchanges; relocation of staff, teams
and equipment
• reinforced electronic communication systems
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Joint research activities : programme of joint research to
support the goals of the network
• develop research tools and platforms for common use
• generate knowledge extending joint portfolio
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NoEs
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The joint programme of activity(2)
• Activities to spread excellence
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training researchers and other key staff
dissemination and communication activities
networking activities transfer knowledge to external teams
where appropriate, promoting exploitation of the results generated
where appropriate, innovation-related activities: protection of knowledge
generated, assessment of the socio-economic impact of the knowledge
and technologies generated, developing a plan for use and
dissemination of the knowledge, take-up activities (especially for SMEs)
• Network management
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NoEs
overall coordination of the joint activities
communication with the Commission, reporting
activities to consortium financing/accounting management/legal issues
coordination of the knowledge management activities
promotion of gender equality
science and society issues related to the topics of the network
supporting the governing board and other network bodies
All activities within a unified management structure
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Critical mass
• Expertise: assembling of the critical mass needed to
achieve the ambitious goals of the network
– variable from topic to topic
– larger networks may involve several hundreds of researchers
– but may be smaller, provided the necessary ambition and
critical mass are achieved
• Partnership: in general at least six (legal minimum: 3
from 3 different countries)
• Duration of Community support: typically 5 years
– more if necessary to create durable integration BUT no more
than 7 years
• Indicators are that some networks will have 20-50
partners
NoEs
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Financial regime (1)
• Community support targeted
– at overcoming the barriers to a durable integration
• these barriers are mainly organisational, cultural and human
•
cannot be quantified in normal accounting terms
• Led to the concept of an incentive,
– taking the form of a global “fixed grant for integration”
NoEs
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Financial regime (2)
• A fixed grant for integration acting as an incentive,
calculated on basis
– of the degree of integration
– of the total number of researchers
• that make up the research capacities of the partners on the topic of
the network
• where a researcher has a PhD or at least four years research
experience
• with a bonus for registered doctoral students
– of the characteristics of the field of research
– of the joint programme of activities
NoEs
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Financial regime (3)
• Average annual grant (example):
50 researchers
100 researchers
150 researchers
250 researchers
500 researchers
1000 researchers and above
€ 1 million/year
€ 2 million/year
€ 3 million/year
€ 4 million/year
€ 5 million/year
€ 6 million/year
(for intermediate numbers, the grant would be calculated
by linear interpolation)
• Illustration: network of 200 researchers supported over 5
years -> fixed grant of €17.5 million (plus bonus for
registered doctoral students)
NoEs
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Why are EU networks such a
Powerful Paradigm
1-Euro
RC-B
1-Euro
RC-C
1-Euro
1-Euro
RC-A
RC-D
1-Euro
You invest: 1€
Other Res: 6 €
2-Euro
RC-A
EC adds: 5 €
RC-E
TOTAL:12€ R&D for1€
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Measuring integration
• In the proposal, participants define indicators for
measuring progress towards integration
• The main factors to be examined:
– extent of mutual specialisation and mutual complementarity
– sharing and development for common use of research
infrastructure, equipment, tools and platforms
– regular joint execution of research projects
– interactive working through electronic communication systems
– joint management of the knowledge portfolio
– joint training programme (researchers-other key staff)
– coherent management framework
NoEs
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Flexibility - Autonomy of
Implementation
• For the joint programme of activities, each year, the network
– proposes a detailed JPA for the coming 18 months
– and may propose to update the overall JPA
• both need approval of the Commission to enter into force
• For the allocation of the Community grant
– the partnership will have freedom to distribute it between partners
and activities
• For changes in the network partnership
– Partnership may itself decide to take in new partners (without
additional funding)
– Commission may decide to launch calls to add partners (with
additional funding)
NoEs
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Elements to be looked at
• Demonstrated need for structuring
– description of fragmentation in the topic
– existence of excellent capacities in Europe in the topic
– network of excellence could constitute an answer to the
fragmentation problem identified for that subject
• Features of the network planned
– composition of the partnership: the presence key actors
– potential synergies/complementarity/specialisation
– quality /degree of integration proposed
– Viability of the network beyond the period
• awareness of high-decision level representatives of the
participating organisations: strong lasting commitment
• security regarding network’s funding beyond the period
NoEs
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Characteristics of Instruments
Instrument
Purpose
Primary
deliverable
Scale
IP
objectivedriven research
knowledge
med-high
NoE
tackle
fragmentation
structuring
med-high
Art. 169
joint MS
programmes
knowledge and/or
structuring
high
STREP
research
knowledge
low-med
CA
coordination
coordination
low-med
SSA
support
support
low-med
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Overview of Financing Schemes
Grant for
Grant to the Grant as
integration
budget
a lump sum
Networks of Excellence
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Integrated Projects
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Targeted research projects
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Specific Research activities for SMEs
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Integrated initiatives for Infrastructure
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Actions to promote human resources
and mobility
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Coordination actions
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Specific support actions
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
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ONE THING IS FOR CERTAIN
The future of the new Europe
is built on the success of our
NETWORKING.
Interconnected Communities whose aims and
objectives are inextricably linked, whose
future well being is tied by mutual trust and
respect are secure and strong Communities.
Science can lead the way.
YOU can set example
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More Information ? Use the one “nearest” to you
• Katarzyna Lazarz: [email protected]
• Elzbieta Ksiazek: [email protected]
• Primary NCPs : 16 Thematic for Poland
Coordination of national NCPs by Andrzej SIEMASZKO,
at [email protected]
– (details on
http://www.cordis.lu/fp6/ncp.htm)
•
•
General EU information - http://europa.eu.int
General information on R&D http://europa.eu.int/comm/research
• All about FP6 - http://www.cordis.lu/fp6
• General Information requests - [email protected]
• GOOD
LUCK
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