The UK government published its response to a national public consultation and opinion survey on the shape of the next Framework Research Programme FP8, calling for it to work alongside the structural and cohesion funds to deliver greater returns.
FP8 should also be more closely aligned with other drivers of innovation, including market preparation, skills provision and the setting of technical standards.
Respondents to the public consultation, which included universities, industry and economic development bodies, said the UK should aim to increase its share of funding in FP8, which will run from 2014 – 2020, and increase the synergies between national research and EU research programmes. The UK has been awarded €2.28 billion in Framework Funding since 2004.
Universities want FP8 grants to include a larger contribution to their overheads, saying the current level of contribution is “unsustainable.” The government says it agrees and will push for this.
There is also a call for specific follow-on funding to support the commercialisation of research, and for moves to increase industry, and particularly, SME participation.
The UK government says it supports the coordination of “aspects” of national research programmes to underpin the European Research Area, but says the implementation of the single research area must respect areas of member state competence.
Several of the questions posed in the survey related to the extent to which FP8 should address so called grand challenges such as climate change and food security. Respondents identified a wide range of challenges that would particularly benefit from being tackled at an EU level, including energy; environmental challenges and climate change; health and diet; security; and food.
The UK government said it recognises there is a range of areas which could be addressed under a grand challenge model, but as yet, there is no pan-European definition of what constitutes a grand challenge, or definitive list of agreed challenges.
On 9 February On 9th February 2011, the European Commission published a Green Paper, “From Challenges to Opportunities: Towards a Common Strategic Framework for EU Research and Innovation funding,” to kick off its consultation on FP8. The UK government said it will be responding to this and will also submit a position paper on future EU funding for Research and Innovation.
The report is available at http://www.bis.gov.uk/publications
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