Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development explained

The Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development, also called Framework Programmes or abbreviated FP1 to FP9, are funding programmes created by the European Union/European Commission to support and foster research in the European Research Area (ERA). Starting in 2014, the funding programmes were named Horizon.

The funding programmes began in 1984 and continue to the present day. The most recent programme, Horizon Europe, has a budget of 95.5 billion Euros to be distributed over 7 years.

The specific objectives and actions vary between funding periods. In FP6 and FP7, focus was on technological research. In Horizon 2020, the focus was on innovation, delivering economic growth faster, and delivering solutions to end users that are often governmental agencies.

Background

Conducting European research policies and implementing European research programmes is an obligation under the Amsterdam Treaty, which includes a chapter on research and technological development. The programmes are defined by Commission civil servants that are aided by various official advisory group and lobby groups. E.g. to advise the European Commission on the overall strategy to be followed in carrying out the Information and Communication Technology thematic priority, the Information Society Technologies Advisory Group (ISTAG) was set up.[1]

The framework programmes

The framework programmes, up until Framework Programme 6 (FP6), covered five-year periods; but from Framework Programme 7 (FP7) onward, programmes run for seven years. The Framework Programmes, and their budgets in billions of Euros, are presented in the table below.[2] For FP1–FP5, program expenditures were made in European Currency Units; from FP6 onward budgets were in Euros. The values presented below are in Euros.

ID Framework Programme period Budget (billions of €)
FP1 First[3] 1984–1987 3.8
FP2 Second[4] 1987–1991 5.4
FP3 Third[5] 1990–1994 6.6
FP4 Fourth[6] 1994–1998 13.2
FP5 Fifth[7] 1998–2002 15.0
FP6 Sixth[8] 2002–2006 16.3
FP7 Seventh 2007–2013 50.5 over seven years
+ 2.7 for Euratom over five years[9]
FP8 Horizon 2020 (Eighth)[10] 2014–2020 77[11]
FP9Horizon Europe[12] 2021–2027 95.5[13] [14]

Funding instruments

FP6 and FP7

Framework Programme 6 and 7 (2002–2013) projects were generally funded through instruments, the most important of which included:

Note also the FP7 Joint Technology Initiatives (JTI) in partnership with industry.[20] A specific action was the FIRST project, to foster cooperation in the area of internet technologies through the European-Latin American Technology Platforms.[21]

Horizon 2020

Horizon 2020 was the eighth framework programme (FP8) funding research, technological development, and innovation. The programme's name has been modified to "Framework Programme for Research and Innovation".

The programme ran from 2014 to 2020 and provided an estimated €80 billion of funding,[22] [23] an increase of 23 per cent on the previous phase.[24] The ERC, as one component of H2020, funded 6,707 research projects worth a total of €13.3 billion.[25] From 2013 to 2020 the EU's European Research Council assigned to UK scientists €1.7bn in grants, more than any other country.[26]

Horizon 2020 provided grants to research and innovation projects through open and competitive calls for proposals. Legal entities from any country were eligible to submit project proposals to these calls. Participation from outside the European Union was explicitly encouraged.[27] Participants from European Union member states and countries associated to Horizon 2020 were automatically fundable.

Horizon 2020 supported open access to research results.[28] Projects such as the European Processor Initiative, or the Exscalate4Cov project, were beneficiaries of Horizon 2020.[29] [30] [31]

Horizon 2020 has been succeeded by Horizon Europe in 2021.

Objective and pillars

The framework programme's objective is to complete the European Research Area (ERA) by coordinating national research policies and pooling research funding in some areas to avoid duplication. Horizon 2020 itself is seen as a policy instrument to implement other high-level policy initiatives of the European Union, such as Europe 2020 and Innovation Union.

The programme consists of three main research areas that are called "pillars":

The structure follows the previous framework programme (FP7, 2007–2013) to the level of the sub-programmes under the pillars.

Horizon 2020 is also implementing the European environmental research and innovation policy, which is aimed at defining and turning into reality a transformative agenda for greening the economy and the society as a whole so as to achieve a truly sustainable development.

Agencies

The framework programme is implemented by the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union. More specifically, it is implemented by various agencies, including:

Associated countries

Associated countries have signed an association agreement for the purposes of this framework programme. To date, 14 countries are associated to Horizon 2020.[32] Participants from European Union member states and countries associated to Horizon 2020 are automatically funded.

Switzerland is considered as "partly associated" due to the 2014 referendums held by Switzerland, which free movement of workers between Switzerland and the EU was limited. Swiss organizations continue to be active participants in Horizon 2020, however, their participation is sometimes covered by national funding.

Israel is an associated country of Horizon 2020. A central point of negotiation was the funding of projects beyond the Green Line.[33] Israel published its views in an Appendix to the official documents.

Armenia gained the status of associated country and Armenian researchers and organizations can participate in all Horizon programs on equal footing with EU member states.[34]

Illustrative projects

IMPETUS

IMPETUS (Information Management Portal to Enable the inTegration of Unmanned Systems) is addressing the scientific analysis of information management requirements for a safe and efficient integration of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in very low level airspace. As a result, technologically and commercially feasible service solutions are elaborated and deployed in an experimental testing environment.

The expected growth of future UAS movements in rural as well as urban areas indicates the need for traffic management solutions, ensuring a normal course of trouble free operations of manned as well as unmanned aviation.[35] IMPETUS contributes by investigating potential microservices that serve the airspace user's needs in all phases of the operation life cycle, from strategical planning over pre-flight, in-flight and post-flight data provision. Since information management is an infrastructural prerequisite of future unmanned traffic systems, the results support the European goal to gain in prosperity by means of the job and business opportunities of an emerging drone service market.[36]

Ensuring a scalable, flexible and cost efficient system, IMPETUS proposes the application of the Function as a Service paradigm and Smart Concepts. Concurrently, data quality and integrity is taken into account to guarantee a safe conduct of all operations. To fulfil these purposes, the project started to characterize data processes and services of vital importance for drone operations. Following the requirements derived from this preliminary studies, a Smart UTM Design is drafted in alignment with the U-Space concept, which describes a framework for a progressive implementation of services to "enable complex drone operations with a high degree of automation to take place in all types of operational environments, including urban areas".[37] Subsequently, specific microservices will be prototyped and laboratory scale tested in a server-less cloud-based environment.[38]

On behalf of the SESAR Joint Undertaking, IMPETUS is carried out from 2017 to 2019 by a multinational consortium of key stakeholders in unmanned aviation:

Altitude Angel (UK), Boeing Research and Technology Europe (ES), C-Astral (SI), CRIDA (ES), INECO (ES), Jeppesen (DE) and the Technical University of Darmstadt (DE).

OpenAIRE

A network of Open Access repositories, archives and journals that support Open Access policies. The OpenAIRE Consortium is a Horizon 2020 (FP8) project, aimed to support the implementation of the EC and ERC Open Access policies.

The Zenodo research data repository is a product of OpenAIRE. The OpenAIRE portal is online.[39]

Criticism of the programmes

The programmes have been criticized on various grounds, such as actually diminishing Europe's industrial competitiveness[40] and failing to deliver fundamental excellence and global economic competitiveness.[41]

In 2010, the Austrian Research Promotion Agency launched a petition calling for a simplification of administrative procedures, which attracted over 13,000 signatories.[42] The numerous other criticisms of the petitioners were later distilled into a green paper.[43] In Horizon 2020, there are significant simplifications: e.g. fewer funding rates (increasing the funding rates of the large companies), less reporting, less auditing, shorter time from proposal to project kick-off. In a Nature article in December 2020, Horizon 2020 is praised for being less bureaucratic than past framework programmes.[44]

In 2021, the European Commission services introduced several simplifications in the new framework programme Horizon Europe, to facilitate the work of the beneficiaries especially in the reporting phase.[45]

See also

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: ISTAG website . Cordis.lu . 20 October 2011 . 29 November 2011 . 26 April 2006 . https://web.archive.org/web/20060426010836/http://www.cordis.lu/ist/istag.htm . dead .
  2. Artis, M. J. and F. Nixson, Eds. "The Economics of the European Union: Policy and Analysis" (4th ed.), Oxford University Press 2007
  3. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:31983Y0804(01) Council resolution of 25 July 1983 on framework programmes for Community research, development and demonstration activities and a first framework programme 1984 to 1987
  4. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:31987D0516 Council Decision of 28 September 1987 concerning the framework programme for Community activities in the field of research and technological development (1987 to 1991)
  5. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:31990D0221 Council Decision of 23 April 1990 concerning the framework Programme of Community activities in the field of research and technological development (1990 to 1994)
  6. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:31994D1110 Decision No 1110/94/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 April 1994 concerning the fourth framework programme of the European Community activities in the field of research and technological development and demonstration
  7. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:31999D0182 Decision No 182/1999/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 December 1998 concerning the fifth framework programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (1998 to 2002)
  8. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32002D1513 Decision No 1513/2002/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 June 2002 concerning the sixth framework programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities, contributing to the creation of the European Research Area and to innovation (2002 to 2006)
  9. Web site: How is FP 7 structured? from FP7 in Brief . European Commission . 31 July 2011 .
  10. Web site: Cordis. The EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. 19 July 2012.
  11. Web site: Research and innovation funding: making a real difference. 2016. European Commission. 30 January 2018.
  12. Web site: Cordis. The EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. 15 August 2019.
  13. Web site: Horizon Europe .
  14. Web site: What is the budget of Horizon Europe? . 6 May 2021 .
  15. Web site: CORDIS Archive : CORDIS FP6: What is FP6: Instruments: Integrated Projects . Cordis.europa.eu . 2016-12-27.
  16. Web site: Provisions for Implementing Integrated Projects. 29 November 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110521032723/http://cordis.europa.eu/documents/documentlibrary/66622311EN6.pdf. 21 May 2011. dead.
  17. Web site: What is FP6: Instruments: Network of Excellence. 22 June 2009. European Commission.
  18. http://cordis.europa.eu/documents/documentlibrary/66621951EN6.pdf "Provisions for Implementing Networks of Excellence"
  19. Web site: Guide for applicants (Collaborative projects - Small and Medium-scale focused Research Projects - STREP). 2 November 2012. European Commission.
  20. Book: OECD. 2: Main trends in Science, Technology and Innovation policy. OECD Science, Technology and Industry Outlook 2008. 24 October 2008. OECD Publishing. 2008. 76. 9789264049949. 2017-09-01. Joint Technology Initiatives (JTI) [...] are initiatives emerging from European technology platforms and are financed partly by FP7 funds and by industry..
  21. Web site: 2011-05-30 . FIRST: Platform technology between Europe and Latin America — OVTT . 2022-07-22 . en-GB.
  22. Grove. Jack. 'Triple miracle' sees huge rise in EU funds for frontier research. Times Higher Education. 16 March 2014. 2011.
  23. News: Amos. Jonathan. Horizon 2020: UK launch for EU's £67bn research budget. BBC News . 31 January 2014 . 16 March 2014.
  24. Web site: Rabesandratana. Tania. E.U. Leaders Agree on Science Budget. ScienceInsider. 19 March 2014.
  25. Web site: ERC reveals mapping of its funded research. 18 July 2022.
  26. Web site: The UK must stay in the EU's Horizon research programme. September 1, 2022. Physics World.
  27. Web site: Horizon 2020 . Ec.europa.eu . 2016-12-27. https://web.archive.org/web/20140124171958/http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/grants_manual/hi/3cpart/h2020-hi-3cpart_en.pdf. 2014-01-24. live.
  28. Web site: Fact sheet: Open Access in Horizon 2020. European Commission. 19 March 2014. 9 December 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20140421013333/https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/sites/horizon2020/files/FactSheet_Open_Access.pdf. 21 April 2014. live.
  29. Web site: Oliver. Peckham. 18 September 2020. European Commission Declares €8 Billion Investment in Supercomputing. HPC Wire.
  30. Web site: Virtual reality at the service of healthcare . EASME - European Commission . 30 March 2021 . en . 8 March 2017.
  31. Web site: EXaSCale smArt pLatform Against paThogEns for Corona Virus EXSCALATE4CoV Project Fact Sheet H2020 . 2024-07-11 . CORDIS European Commission . en . 10.3030/101003551.
  32. Web site: Associated Countries. 2016-12-27. Ec.europa.eu. https://web.archive.org/web/20140506015249/http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/grants_manual/hi/3cpart/h2020-hi-list-ac_en.pdf. 2014-05-06. live.
  33. News: Elis. Niv. 2014. Israel joins 77 billion euro Horizon 2020 R&D program. The Jerusalem Post. 16 March 2014.
  34. News: The EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation HORIZON 2020. 20 January 2022.
  35. Book: Union, Publications Office of the European. European drones outlook study : unlocking the value for Europe.. 2017-04-21. Publications Office. en. 10.2829/085259. 9789292160821 .
  36. Web site: Warsaw Declaration: "Drones as a leverage for jobs and new business opportunities". 2016-11-24. 2017-12-13. https://web.archive.org/web/20170129031517/https://ec.europa.eu/transport/sites/transport/files/drones-warsaw-declaration.pdf. 2017-01-29. dead.
  37. Book: 2017-11-21. SESAR Joint Undertaking. U-space : blueprint.. Publications Office. en. 10.2829/335092. 9789292160876 .
  38. Web site: IMPETUS - Information Management Portal to Enable the Integration of Unmanned Systems. 2017-11-20. 2017-12-13. 14 December 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171214014555/http://impetus-research.eu/impetusapproach/. dead.
  39. Web site: OpenAIRE . Openaire.eu . 2016-12-27.
  40. Financial Control and Fraud in the Community. House of Lords Select Committee on the European Communities, 12th Report. London: HMSO (1994).
  41. H. Matthews, The 7th EU research framework programme. Nanotechnol. Perceptions 1 (2005) 99–105.
  42. Web site: Cerexhe receives petition for the simplification of administrative procedures for researchers . 16 January 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140116183508/http://eupan.eu/en/news/show/%26tid%3D323 . 16 January 2014 . dead .
  43. Web site: Green Paper "From Challenges to Opportunities: Towards a Common Strategic Framework for EU Research and Innovation funding". Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), Vienna. May 2011. 19 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160401085103/http://rp7.ffg.at/upload/medialibrary/Austria_FFG_Position_GreenPaper_CSF_2011.pdf. 1 April 2016. dead.
  44. Abbott. Alison. 2020-12-16. Farewell to Europe's Horizon 2020. Nature. en. 588. 7838. 371. 10.1038/d41586-020-03516-6. 33328670. 2020Natur.588..371A. 229300023.
  45. Web site: EU Funds simply explained . EU Funds . 20 May 2021.

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