11.1 INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................................

11.2 OBJECTIVES, STRUCTURE, AND OVERALL APPROACH........................................................................

11.3 TECHNICAL CONTENT .................................................................................................................

11.4 LINKS TO OTHER RESEARCH TOPICS.....................................................................................................

11.5 IMPLEMENTATION PLAN AND RELATED ISSUES..................................................................................

11.6 CALL INFORMATION FOR THE OPEN CALL OF THE ERA-NET SCHEME ..........................................

The objectives of Community action under the first part of "Strengthening the foundations of the European Research Area" is to contribute to the creation of the European Research Area by stimulating and supporting programme coordination and joint activities conducted at national or regional level, as well as among European organisations, and thus help to develop the common knowledge base necessary for the coherent development of policies. These activities may be in any scientific and technological area, including in the thematic priority areas.

The objectives are to encourage and support initiatives undertaken by several

countries, in areas of common strategic interest, to develop synergy between their

existing activities through coordination of their implementation, mutual opening and

mutual access to research results, as well as to define and implement joint activities.

To reach these objectives, several types of actions will be supported :

· the ERA-NET Scheme: the objective of the ERA-NET scheme is to step up the

cooperation and coordination of research activities carried out at national or

regional level in the Member States and Associated States through:

§ the networking of research activities conducted at national or regional level, and

§ the mutual opening of national and regional research programmes.

The scheme will contribute to making a reality of the European Research Area by

improving the coherence and coordination across Europe of such research

programmes. The scheme will also enable national systems to take on tasks

collectively that they would not have been able to tackle independently.

Both networking and mutual opening require a progressive approach. The ERANET

scheme therefore has a long-term perspective that must also allow for the

different way that research is organised in different Member States and Associated

States.

· schemes developed in European cooperation frameworks: in particular the

EUROCORES collaborative scheme of the European Science Foundation (ESF).

· the development of an integrated information system: the Commission intends to

support the development of an integrated information system that will facilitate

the provision and exchange of information on national or regional research

policies, programmes and activities.

The objective is to enhance the complementarity and synergy between Community

actions undertaken under the Framework Programme and those of other European

scientific cooperation organisations, such as COST, EUREKA and thematic

international organisations, as well as among these organisations themselves. Through

increased coordination and collaboration the various European cooperation

frameworks will contribute more effectively to the overall coherence of European

research efforts and the establishment of a European Research Area. Community

participation in international activities can be supported in duly justified cases.

The ERA-NET scheme will be implemented through a bottom-up approach in the

sense of giving no preference to one specific research topic over another.

Coordination activities under this scheme may be carried out in the whole field of

science and technology, including the social and human sciences1.

Activities developed within the ERA-NET scheme consist of the networking of

research activities carried out at national or regional level, including mutual opening

of research programmes.

"Research activities carried out at national or regional level" should be understood

either as full research and innovation programmes, or parts of such programmes or

similar initiatives. Such activities should have both the following characteristics:

a) strategically planned and executed at national or regional level;

b) financed or managed by national or regional public bodies or structures closely

related to or mandated by public authorities.

1 The specific programme "Integrating and strengthening the European Research Area" gives the

To advance the process of better European cooperation between research activities

carried out at national or regional level, the ERA-NET scheme will allow for a

progressive approach. As such, an ERA-NET may contain an evolving set of

activities, starting with increasing mutual knowledge through information exchange

among policy makers and managers of similar scientific areas, and expected to lead

step-wise to stronger forms of cooperation and coordination.

ERA-NET activities should be related to coordination activities developed by

programme managers and for this reason should not be directly related to specific

scientific projects or to the work of individual scientists.

Networking activities may involve many levels of cooperation and coordination under

a step by step perspective and depending on the degree of maturity of the network. An

ERA-NET should be designed in such a way that the foreseen coordination is

ambitious in the sense that it will cover at least the two first steps described below [(i)

and (ii)] and will lead to concrete deliverables.

The goal of such an activity is to improve communication, to develop better

mutual knowledge and trust-building through a mutual learning process,

systematic exchange of information and good practice among programme

makers and among managers of similar scientific and technological areas.

"Information" should be understood as information on national and regional

research and innovation activities such as national and regional programmes,

funded projects, research priorities, evaluation practices, organisation and

management.

Possible mechanisms for promoting the exchange of information are:

· fora of research programme makers and programme managers;

· short-term exchanges of programme managers;

· benchmarking and dissemination of good practice;

· development and use of electronic communication tools, including the use

of common portals.

The following types of strategic activities could be developed by programme

makers and managers of national or regional research activities:

· development of mutual complementarities between the programmes of the

ERA-NET partners;

· identification and analysis of research activities carried out by different

programmes that have similar goals and that could lead to the design of

future multinational schemes;

· identification and analysis of practical networking activities and mutual

opening mechanisms;

· identification and analysis of barriers that hinder transnational cooperation

activities such as, for example, administrative and legal barriers;

· identification of new opportunities and gaps in research and stimulation of

new interdisciplinary work on the basis of technology assessment and

foresight analysis carried out at regional, national and European level;

· design of common evaluation systems.

Based on such strategic activities, ERA-NETs could establish the following

joint activities:

· A posteriori clustering of nationally or regionally funded research projects

In order to cluster a posteriori national or regional research projects,

programme managers will define activities to achieve this purpose. This

could involve the identification and the selection of projects and the

organisation of activities such as workshops and working groups among

scientists involved in the nationally funded research projects. Such

activities should have programmatic objectives that go beyond a simple

exchange of scientific information between researchers.

· The systematic use of multinational evaluation procedures

In the long term, this measure could contribute to the integration of

multinational evaluation in national or regional research systems (covering

proposal, project and programme evaluation). This could involve the

identification of common evaluation criteria and methods.

· Joint training activities

Developing joint training schemes or activities such as co-supervised

theses and international PhD schemes could be envisaged, provided that

they are an integral part of a wider cooperation in research.

· Mutual opening of facilities or laboratories

Developing a scheme to facilitate mutual access to facilities or

laboratories in one country for scientists from another.

A stronger form of networking would consist of implementing a programme

of transnational research activities. This could imply setting up a common

strategy, a joint work programme, common calls for proposals, a common

multinational evaluation and a common plan for dissemination of results or

experiences. In this case, projects submitted to a joint call for proposals should

involve at least two teams from two different countries. A posteriori clustering

of selected projects should also be done if possible.

In this context, several possibilities could be envisaged:

a) Each country or region would pay for the participation of its own

researchers and research activities.

b) The implementation of a programme of transnational research activities

entails transnational flows of national funding. Two approaches are

possible:

· a country pays for participation of other countries' researchers or

research teams on the basis of mutually agreed conditions;

· countries pool funds in order to finance projects resulting from a joint

call for proposals, according to commonly agreed evaluation criteria.

Given the long-term nature of the cooperation inside an ERA-NET, the partners will

be advised to establish a "coherent management framework", with dedicated staff, to

coordinate their activities and to ensure a continuity of operation. Management tasks

could include:

· scientific and administrative management of the activities of the ERA-NET,

including communication with the Commission and reporting;

· development of strategic activities;

· launching, implementing and following up joint research activities;

· ensuring that high standards of scientific excellence are maintained throughout the

activities of the ERA-NET;

· ensuring that gender equality is promoted within the ERA-NET.

Activities undertaken through European frameworks will be supported, in particular

the EUROCORES collaborative scheme of the European Science Foundation (ESF).

The ESF has 70 members in 27 countries. Its EUROCORES scheme is aimed at

providing an effective and efficient need-driven collaboration mechanism at a

multinational level within Europe, which can be responsive to the emerging priorities

of national funding agencies and their analogues within the European Science

Foundation membership. It builds on existing national structures and maximises their

value through collaboration while leaving funding 'ownership' with the national

agencies.

The development of an integrated information system will be supported, to facilitate

access to information on national or regional research policies, programmes and

activities. The main goal of the system will be to provide electronic access to

information about Member and Associated States’ research policies via national or

regional sources of information which are already available, but not necessarily

accessible. Mutual compatibility between different information systems developed by

the Commission will also be ensured, in particular with the "platform for the

monitoring of industrial R&D activities in Europe" (see section 12.3.4). A plug-in

facility should wherever possible allow access to the integrated information system.

The target audience will include: firstly policy-makers, programmes managers, public

and private research organisations; secondly a wide range of institutions and

researchers with interests in the field.

The integrated information system will be designed on the basis of the results of the

feasibility study carried out for the Commission in 2001. Further to the

recommendations of this study and discussions in the framework of the High Level

Group (HLG) for "Benchmarking of national RTD policies, mapping of S&T

excellence and networking of national RTD programmes" (23 March 2002 and 16

July 2002), and CREST (24 May 2002), the integrated information system will take

the form of an "added value hub", offering more than a simple portal, but costing less

than a centralised database. The "added value hub" system will make it possible to

access a detailed meta-structure and meta-data on distributed sources, in a consistent

format. It will also provide sophisticated search, fusion, analysis and presentation

tools. It will be an effective and user-friendly system, which is flexible enough to

adapt to future needs.

The following operational structures are foreseen: CORDIS will develop and host the

central point of access, around which the "added value hub" will be developed. The

participating Member and Associated States will, through nominated local agents, be

responsible for providing and validating the content of the hub (key information about

their policies and programmes, plus links to relevant national/ regional websites). A

steering committee representing Member and Associated States will provide political

guidance. A co-ordinating organisation will be responsible for managing the whole

system.

Coordination actions and specific support actions, two instruments of the Sixth

Framework Programme, together with dedicated grants will be used to implement the

programme as reflected by the indicative financial breakdown (point 11.5.4).

· Coordination actions (CAs) are intended to be used for implementing

ERA-NET proposals. The financial support from the Community will be

limited to the costs of the additional activities undertaken to implement the

ERA-NET. No support will be provided for the research activities

themselves, for which the members of the ERA-NET will be expected to

use their own resources. Community funding for an ERA-NET could be as

high as 3 M€. In exceptional cases, for example if several fields of

research are covered by a single ERA-NET, a greater contribution could be

envisaged. Each ERA-NET should last sufficiently long to have a durable

impact on the research programmes involved. Duration of up to 5 years

may be envisaged.

· Specific support actions (SSAs) will be used to support preparatory actions

aimed at developing future ERA-NET proposals, as well as for activities

undertaken through European cooperation frameworks (e.g.

EUROCORES). In addition, specific support actions may be used to set up

fora aimed at strengthening cooperation at a strategic level between

managers of major national research organisations.

Specific support actions should have a limited scope and may involve

conferences, seminars, studies and analyses, working groups and expert

groups, operational support and dissemination, information and

communication activities, or a combination of these, as appropriate in each

case. Community funding could be as high as 200,000€ for a duration of

one year and will exceed 200,000 € only in exceptional cases.

Specific support actions may also provide an excellent tool to encourage

and facilitate the participation of organisations from the candidate

countries in the ERA-NET scheme.

Calls for tender will be used, in particular for the development of the integrated

information system.

COST is a long-standing bottom-up mechanism that facilitates coordination and

exchanges between nationally funded scientists and research teams in a variety of

research fields. In order for COST to continue to fulfil its intergovernmental role and

to ensure a cost-effective contribution to research coordination within the European

Research Area, its management arrangements are being adapted to the new context.

This will entail the establishment by COST member countries of an appropriate

organisation to which financial support may then be granted under this programme

(through a contract to be concluded between the Commission and the organisation).

Reinforced coordination among the activities of the European Science Foundation,

COST and the Framework Programme will also be sought in areas of common

interest.

The specific programme will support coordination activities aimed at increasing

synergy and complementarity between EUREKA and the Framework Programme in

areas of common interest. The Community is a member of EUREKA.

The following activities are foreseen:

· creating and strengthening synergies between the Framework Programme and

EUREKA in order to carry out large-scale projects across the full spectrum of the

research and innovation cycle. The European Investment Bank could be closely

associated to such actions;

· bringing together information and assistance networks in support of research and

innovation in SMEs (technology transfer, access to funding, intellectual property);

10

Some joint events for mutual exchange of information, project stimulation

("brokerage events") as well as to support the work of the joint technical groups could

be developed.

With regard to thematic European organisations, such as CERN, ESA, ESO, ENO,

EMBL, ESRF, ILL2, the Community will encourage and support specific initiatives

aimed at strengthening the coherence and synergies between its own activities and

those undertaken by these European organisations, in particular through the

development of joint approaches and actions on issues of common interest.

Since the development of coordination activities relates to different research topics,

clear links with all other parts of the Framework Programme will be established.

It has to be noted that coordination activities similar to the ones covered by the ERANET

scheme on topics addressed by the priority thematic areas of part I of the

Specific Programme "Integrating and strengthening the European Research Area"

may also be supported by the priority thematic areas themselves.

An open call inviting proposals for ERA-NET activities (coordination actions and

specific support actions) on a bottom-up basis, will be published in the Official

Journal on the 17 December 2002. The first closure (cut-off) date will be 3 June 2003

with an indicative budget of 24 M€. From March 2004 there will be a intermediary

closure (cut-off) date roughly every six months up to October 2005.

Ongoing ERA-NET projects willing to enlarge subsequently the scope of their

activities and/or their partnership will be allowed to submit a supplementary proposal

at any of the foreseen closure (cut-off) dates.

A grant of up to 20 million € will be provided to the European Science Foundation in

order to support the implementation of the EUROCORES scheme, corresponding

approximately to 20 EUROCOREs, each EUROCORE benefiting of no more than [1]

M€. The grant will be the subject of a contract (specific support action) between the

Commission and the European Science Foundation. The grant will be disbursed on

the basis of eligible costs defined in the contract.

The provisional budget foreseen for the development of the integrated information

system is 10 M€, to be executed mainly via calls for tender.

The grant to COST will be at least 50 M€ and up to 80 M€ as specified in annex II of

the specific programme "Integrating and Strengthening the European Research Area".

This grant will be paid on the basis of a contract between the Commission and a legal

entity identified by COST as its implementing agency and communicated to the

Commission by the Secretary-General of the Council.

Funding from the Commission, within this part of the specific programme, consists

primarily of approximately 2 M€ for the Community’s membership fee of EUREKA

for the duration of the Framework Programme.

The participants in the ERA-NET scheme will be:

· public bodies responsible for financing or managing research activities carried out

at national or regional level;

· other national or regional bodies that finance or manage such research activities,

such as research associations, private research and innovation organisations, and

charities;

· bodies operating at European level that include as part of their mission the pan-

European coordination of nationally-funded research.

For ERA-NET coordination actions, the minimum number of participants has been set

at three independent legal entities managing publicly funded national or regional

programmes, established in different Member States or Associated States, of which at

least two shall be Member States or Associated candidate countries.

In addition, a single participant such as an European Economic Interest Group (EEIG)

or any legal entity established in a Member State or Associated State according to its

national law and which is made up of independent legal entities managing publicly

funded national or regional programmes from at least three different Member States

or Associated States, of which at least two shall be a Member State or Associated

candidate country, may be the sole participant in an ERA-NET.

It has to be emphasised that preference will be given to ERA-NET actions involving a

more substantial number of Member States or Associated States than the minimum

legally number required of three in order to obtain a significant structuring effect at

European level.

On top of the minimum number of participants legally required for an ERA-NET,

legal entities such as charities or other private organisations which also manage

research programmes that are strategically planned and executed at national or

regional level, may participate and receive Community funding.

For ERA-NETs specific support actions, the minimum number of participants is one

of the above mentioned participants.

The evaluation of proposals will involve a single stage submission procedure.

The criteria applicable to coordination actions and specific support actions, which are

the two instruments for the implementation of the ERA-NET scheme, are described in

annex.

To supplement the criteria applicable to coordination actions and provided for in

annex B of the workprogramme, three complementary items will be added for the

evaluation of ERA-NET proposals:

· Quality of coordination

§ the management should be supported by a suitable governance structure

involving the participating organisations at an appropriate level.

· Potential impact

§ the participants should be the key actors within their national or regional

research systems.

§ the ERA-NET activities should lay the foundations for a durable cooperation

between the partners involved.

The evaluation procedure will be described in the Commission’s evaluation manual.

ERA-NET (CAs and SSAs) 24

EUROCORES (grant) 20

Info system 5

(Call for Tender)

COST (grant) 12-16

EUREKA (membership) 0.5

Other 0.5

1) Specific programme : Integrating and strengthening the foundations of the

European Research Area.

2) Thematic priority/Domain: Support for coordination activities.

3) Call title : Supporting the cooperation and the coordination of research activities

carried out at national or regional level (ERA-NET Scheme).

4) Call identifier: ERA-NET/1/CA-SSA.

5) Date of publication3: 17 December 2002.

· 6) Closure date(s) 4 :03.06.2003, 02.03.2004, 05.10.2004, 02.03.2005 and 04.10.

2005, at 17:00 (Brussels local time).

7) Total indicative budget: 24 Million € in 2003. Indicative budgets for the closure

dates of 2004, 2005 and 2006 will be given in the relevant updates of the work

programme.

Instrument 5 € (millions)

CA and SSA 24

8) Area & instruments :

See sections

11.3.1.1, CA and SSA

11.3.1.4 and

11.5.1.1

3 The director-general responsible for the call may publish it up to one month prior or after the

4 Where the envisaged date of publication is either advanced or delayed , closure date(s) will be

5 STREP = Specific targeted research project; CA = Coordination action; SSA = Specific support

6 MS = Member States of the EU; AS (incl. ACC) = Associated States; ACC: Associated candidate

9) Minimum number of participants6:

CA 3 independent

legal entities

from 3 different

MS or AS, with

at least 2 MS or

ACC

SSA 1 legal entity

from 1 MS or AS

10) Restriction to participation: The minimum number of participants must include

only:

· public bodies responsible for financing or managing research activities carried out

at national or regional level;

· other national or regional organisations that finance or manage such research

activities;

· bodies operating at European level that include as part of their mission the pan-

European coordination of nationally-funded research.

Other legal entities such as charities or other private organisations, which also manage

research programmes that are strategically planned and executed at national or

regional level, may participate without restriction in addition to the minimum number

of participants.

11) Consortium agreement: Participants in RTD actions resulting from this call are

not required to conclude a consortium agreement.

12) Evaluation procedure :

· the evaluation will follow a single stage procedure.

· proposals will not be evaluated anonymously.

13) Evaluation criteria:

· see Annex B of the work programme for the applicable criteria (including their

individual weights and thresholds and the overall threshold) per instrument.

· in addition, for coordination actions, 3 complementary items will be added in 2 of

the 6 applicable criteria in accordance with section 11.5.3 of the work programme:

Quality of coordination

• the management should be supported by a suitable governance structure involving the participating organisations at an appropriate level.
• the participants should be the key actors within their national or regional research systems.

Coordination actions

Potential impact

• the ERA-NET activities should lay the foundations for a durable cooperation between the partners involved.

14) Indicative evaluation and selection delays :

· evaluation results: estimated to be available within 2 months after the closure date.

· contract signature : it is estimated that the first contracts related to this call will

come into force 6 months after the closure date.