FP5 EXTERNAL ADVISORY GROUPS

WORK PROGRAMMES

Draft programmes were already being circulated for the Themes Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources (‘Life Sciences’ or ‘Living World’) and User-Friendly Information Society (‘Information Society’) by end-January 1999. The first call that was informally announced was for Information Society projects, although the details were published only in April.

GROWTH 1999

Projects involving development, manufacturing and testing of new biomaterials will fall into the Theme Competitive and Sustainable Growth, abbreviated by the Commission to 'GROWTH'. The call for proposals for indirect RTD actions under this programme theme was published in the EC Official Journal on 16 March 1999 (1999/C 72/17, pages C 72/31-35). The guide for proposers is obtainable from European Commission DGXII-C.0 - GROWTH 1999, Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 200, B-1049 Brussels, Email growth@dg12.cec.be, Fax +32 (0)2 2966757 or 2958072, or from the web-site http://www.cordis.lu/fp5.

There are several of these topics and TRAs that are relevant for biomaterials and healthcare, and these are starred.

There are some Key Actions in the GROWTH Programme that are not relevant, being mainly geared to different aspects of transportation. These include Sustainable Mobility and Intermodality, Land Transport & Marine Technologies and New Perspectives in Aeronautics, although some materials generated by the structures and materials application aspect of theme Improving aircraft efficiency could be applicable to orthopaeeic prostheses.

The GENERIC ACTIVITIES envisaged in the programme GROWTH have an indicative budget of 165m euro. Amongst these are the themes Materials and their technologies for production and transformation (Cross-cutting generic materials technologies, advanced functional materials) and Measurements and testing (Instrumentation and Methodologies for measurement and testing in support of quality).

Proposals in these areas have periodic calls; the deadline for the first call is 15 June 1999 at 17.00.

Other aspects are the subject of open calls, although proposals will be evaluated in batches. Marie Curie Fellowships (budget 12m euro) have a final deadline of 20 March 2002 at 17.00, with 7 evaluations, the first one planned for 2 June 1999. SME specific measures (budget 200m euro) have final deadlines of 18 April 2001 for exploratory award proposals and 17 April 2002 for cooperative research proposals, with 7 evaluations for exploratory awards and eight for research proposals. The first evaluations are planned for 14 March 1999 and 15 September 1999 respectively. Accompanying measures proposals have a final deadline of 15 March 2002 and will be evaluated in 7 batches starting 15 June 1999. These will clearly be of interest to some participants in the European Biomaterials Network.

There are also Calls for Expressions of Interest, which are open until 30 April 2001. These cover the Needs of Research (In support of European Standardisation, In support of the Fight against Fraud and Feasibility Studies for Central Reference Materials) and the Needs in Support of Research Infrastructures (Support activities to medium and large-scale facilities, Setting up of Virtual Institutes, Reference databases and Measurements and quality management Infrastructure). These may also be highly relevant to the work that is being carried out in biomaterials, and participants in current Network projects may wish to explore whether they can obtain support for further ‘SMT’-orientated work through these.

Full details on how to submit are obtainable from the Official Journal, the web-site and from the guidelines packages. The FP5 Evaluation Manual has been published on the Cordis site, see http://www.cordis.lu/FP5/home.html. It contains information relating to the criteria for evaluation of proposals and should be helpful for anyone intending to submit a proposal to any of the calls.

Framework Programme 5 helpdesks

Framework Programme 5 has set up some new helpdesks for enquiries. Quality of Life, Sustainable and Competitive Growth, Actions for SMEs, Fellowships for mobility of researchers are included. The contact details are as follows:

"Life" Infodesk:
Fax: +32-2-299-1860 E-mail: life@dg12.cec.be Web Service: http://www.cordis.lu/life/home.html

"Growth" Infodesk:
Tel: + 32-2-295 23 45 Fax: + 32-2-296 67 57 E-mail: growth@dg12.cec.be Web Service: http://www.cordis.lu/growth/home.html

"SME" Infodesk:
Tel: + 32-2-295 71 75 Fax: + 32-2-295 71 10 E-mail: sme@dg12.cec.be Web Service: http://www.cordis.lu/sme/home.html

Marie Curie Fellowships:
Tel: + 32-2-295 08 43 Fax: + 32-2-296 99 26 E-mail : improving@dg12.cec.be Web Service: http://www.cordis.lu/improving/home.html

INCO Fellowships:
E-mail : inco@dg12.cec.be Web Service: http://www.cordis.lu/inco/home.html

ADVICE ON HOW TO FIND PARTNERS

Advice on finding research partners for FP5 is provided in a recent issue of Research Europe (subscription details from Gaëlle Debauge at Subs@ResearchEurope.com). This ranges from trying your own contacts to using the services of professional consultants, and includes contacting non-research networks, using specialist E-mail discussion lists, scanning free on-line databases and putting your own details onto them, making use of Innovation Relay Centres, consult business and technical libraries with databases or directories in the industry or research areas of interest. Local Business Links and their equivalents, supported by national or regional development and industry ministries, are one avenue. Reading conference reports and noting the names and affiliations of speakers in relevant research areas and companies may also provide ideas. National contact points for FP5 and EC funding should also be consulted.

The EU’s general-purpose CORDIS web-site should certainly be visited at www.cordis.lu, since this is where the information packages and downloadable application forms will be found, for each of the key areas of FP5. Writing a good proposal is also the key to getting past the first selection stage. In FP4, 15% of all proposals to DG XII failed at this first hurdle because the proposal was not complete, lacked signatures of participants, did not have the necessary trans-national or industry-academic balance, or the costings were not consistent or coherent.

SOME CHANGE IN EMPHASIS

The general rules for projects appear to be more-or-less the same as in FP4 although there will be more emphasis on quality of project management, European added-value, social objectives and exploitation-dissemination. The entrance rule of minimum 2 partners in minimum 2 countries is the very basic but a balanced group of 5 or more participants in three or more countries, with industrial involvement even for research projects, is recommended. There have been suggestions that construction of the work programme on definable modular basis, where some aspects can be reduced or eliminated without destroying the potential of the whole programme, is very helpful in case of budget negotiations.

INNOVATION PROGRAMME

This will have two general calls, one with a deadline of 24 June 1999 and the other with a deadline in 2001. The first call is focusing on new mechanisms for technology transfer, assisting in the clustering of projects, co-ordinating project contributions, promoting the activities of clusters and generating a specific promotable profile for them, advising on benchmarking and setting up innovation excellence clubs.

BIOMATERIALS IN OTHER THEMES

There may be some opportunities for biomaterials and process RTD work in other Themes, such as the Life Sciences Key Action The Ageing Population. Relevant generic actions in this area may include management of chronic and degenerative diseases, bioethics, socio-economics and infrastructures such as clinical testing networks, outcomes databases and information networks. In the Key Action The Cell Factory, biologically-compatible materials may be relevant for new processes, products and processing technologies, to assist cell culture, bioreactors and use of cells to produce useful products. Materials and screening tests developed during materials projects may be relevant for alternatives to animal testing in the health processes and products sub-theme. New biomaterials RTD may also be appropriate for some aspects of diversification of agricultural activities in the Key Action Sustainable Agriculture, where novel biomaterials might be produced in plants. In the Information Society Theme, the following topics have first call deadlines of 16 June 1999: Personal Health Systems; Clinical, biological and imaging systems; Systems and services for independent living; Microsystems; Micorelectronics; Processes, equipment and materials; Advanced microelectronics. People working in biomaterials might have a rôle to play in interdisciplinary projects in these areas.

SMEs IN FP5

For SMEs, the CRAFT programme will still be available within the Horizontal programme Innovation and Participation of SMEs. Exploratory Awards, up to 22,500 euro support, and Co-operative Research projects, 300,000 to 1 million euro, will be available as well as full-scale CRAFT projects. The next round of evaluations is expected in April 1999. Each country has its own National Contact Point or technology consultancy that can offer advice and assistance. The funding of SME projects will come from the Theme budgets, rather than a specific horizontal budget, and SMEs will need to apply to the Themes, as appropriate for the overall topic and actions within the proposed project.

Association Agreements have been signed with Switzerland, Israel and Canada, allowing researchers in these countries to be part of a proposal. As before, the EC will not fund any of the costs of such participants. However, the Pre-Accession agreement with the former CIS countries, the Baltic States and other Eastern European countries will allow EC funding of participants from these countries.

QUALITY OF LIFE AND MANAGEMENT OF LIVING RESOURCES – seminars in UK

The Fifth Framework Programme was the subject of a number of seminars jointly presented by the UK’s to major life sciences research councils, BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences) and MRC (Medical), focusing on the FP5 Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources Programme. These seminars offered the opportunity for researchers, industry, SMEs and others to learn of the scientific and technical content of the programme, well in advance of the first calls for proposals. Seminars were held at the Universities of Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leeds and Bristol during December 1998 and the University of East Anglia and Imperial College, London during January 1999.

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