Annexes to COM(2005)118 - Building the ERA of knowledge for growth - Main contents
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dossier | COM(2005)118 - Building the ERA of knowledge for growth. |
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document | COM(2005)118 ![]() |
date | April 6, 2005 |
Optimising the management of the Framework Programme
A doubled budget will be managed by the same number of Commission staff supported by externalised management ensuring efficient management and maximum value of research money by keeping administrative expenditure below 6% of the research budget. | The start of a new and ambitious Framework Programme, which introduces new actions and reinforces existing ones, provides an opportunity to revisit the ways in which the Framework Programme is managed. The management of the Framework Programme has to be based on three principles: Efficiency in operation (value for money); Concentration of Commission services on core policy tasks; Clear lines and divisions of responsibility. The European Commission services have always been able to execute fully and efficiently substantial budget increases in preceding Framework Programmes. There are strong reasons to keep the Commission involved in the management of research programmes, including its unique experience and overall knowledge of the European research scene, the very useful feedback it provides for EU research policy-making as well as the trust Member States have in this formula which ensures absence of fair return considerations. However, changes can and should be made within the 7th Framework Programme. The Commission will manage a doubled R&D budget without an increase in its staff numbers. It proposes to have all logistical and administrative tasks, i.e. not related to policy, undertaken outside its services. As a consequence, part of the activities it currently carries out will be externalised under the Commission’s responsibility, in particular those tasks which generate a large number of small operations, without providing significant feedback for the definition of programmes and policies. With this approach, an important part of the budget of the 7th Framework Programme, representing a high number of administrative transactions, will be managed by an Executive Agency[8], in particular the Marie Curie Actions, the support to SMEs, as well as administrative tasks related to other RTD projects, including collaborative research projects. This approach will also be taken for implementing the activities of the European Research Council (ERC), working under the governance of an assembly of eminent scientists. In such a way, it will ensure a smooth launch and help the ERC establish the degree of autonomy and visibility, accountability and transparency that will determine its credibility. As soon as the ERC has proven its worth and in light of opportunities to strengthen its impact, for example by mobilising national funding, the Commission will consider spinning off the ERC into a legally independent structure, for example based on Article 171 of the Treaty. For large scale initiatives (based in particular on Articles 169 and 171 of the Treaty), as well as in the case of EU contributions to the coordination or opening up of national programmes, participants and stakeholders themselves will manage the allocated funds. These measures, taken together with simplification, will allow the Commission to keep administrative spending below the rate of 6 % of the research budget which was set for the Sixth Framework Programme. They also provide the best guarantee for ensuring efficient implementation of the Framework Programme, with due regard to transparency and accountability. In light of experience acquired during the first years of the 7th Framework Programme, this approach may be progressively expanded or revisited. |
A RESEARCH BUDGET THAT MEETS THE EU’S AMBITION
Doubling the EU research budget is not an option, it is a necessity: | Deciding on the budget of the 7th Framework Programme will be a credibility test that will show how serious the EU is about delivering on its Lisbon ambitions in line with the mid term review. Recalling its two Communications on the new financial perspectives of February and July 2004[9], the Commission proposes to double the EU research budget. It does so on the basis of the following carefully considered arguments: |
The widely supported enlarged scope of FP actions requires a doubling of funding
- to respond to the enormous science potential and demand in Europe; | Launching essential new initiatives while reinforcing existing actions of recognised impact and added value, requires a significant increase in EU research funding. This should not be considered as a cost but as the best possible investment in Europe’s future. For some time, Framework Programmes have been oversubscribed, and an unnecessarily large number of projects of highest quality have had to be turned away owing purely to a lack of resources. They require a new scale of funding if this important loss of research potential is to be stopped. At the same time, there are compelling arguments to widen the scope of the Framework Programme so as to better address areas of key or emerging importance. |
A boost in FP funding will leverage national and private investments
- to help realise the 3% objective; - to use its strong leverage effect on private investment; | In parallel with increased EU Member State efforts, doubling the funding under FP7 will play a double role in the achievement of the Barcelona objective to spend 3% of GDP on research and development. It will send a strong message regarding the importance of seriously increasing public and private R&D investment all over Europe in accordance with the Lisbon and Barcelona objectives. Doubling the Framework Programme budget will bring total public R&D spending in the EU25 to 0,96% of GDP, close to the 1% target, and will exert a strong push on Member States to reinvigorate their efforts. It will exert a powerful leverage effect on private investments in research and development. Each 1€ of public R&D leads to 93 eurocent of business R&D investment. This crowding-in effect is typically bigger for EU than for national funding because of higher economic multiplier effects stemming from the trans-national collaborative nature of EU supported projects, the reduction of commercial risk through involving key industrial players and by helping to ensure that results and solutions are applicable across the EU. The doubling will boost business confidence that Europe delivers on its commitments and offers an attractive future. |
Doubling the R&D investment will enable the EU to meet new science and technology challenges
- to meet global challenges; | The costs of research are rising, due in particular to the increased use of expensive instruments and infrastructures. Therefore, a higher level of support is necessary in order to achieve impacts of the same size as under previous framework programmes. New fields of science are emerging, and support should be provided to them under the FP. These are fields of science where long-term economic benefits are large, where there is a need for high-risk, high cost research and where it only makes sense to share such risks, and the rewards, at EU level. No Member State alone can realise the hydrogen economy or make nuclear fusion a reality. |
EU intervention plays a vital role in making the EU research system more efficient and effective
- to reduce fragmentation of research efforts and investments; | Due to the fact that EU level intervention has a strong added value and respects subsidiarity, it can often be a more efficient and effective way of spending public money on research. European research funding allows for building a critical mass of resources, sharing knowledge and facilities across many countries, stimulating the EU-wide dissemination of results, providing a more efficient mechanism for carrying out research relating to pan-European policy challenges (such as climate change, or food safety). More EU research means less fragmentation of efforts through stronger coordination, more dissemination and more excellence through competition. In the EU around 94% of public R&D funding is allocated at the national level, whereas in the US the bulk of government R&D support is decided upon at Federal level. |
A larger FP7 will reinvigorate the Lisbon strategy
- and to boost growth and jobs. | The impact of doubling EU research budgets on economic growth for the EU as a whole is decisively positive. Economic models used for assessing the impact of the proposed 7th Framework Programme[10] show that doubling the budget will generate additional growth each year, leading to an expected increase in the level of GDP of between 0,5% and 1% in 2030 (over and above the business-as-usual scenario of moderate growth in FP funding). According to these models, almost 1 million additional jobs would be created in the same period and the EU’s competitiveness would be raised: by the year 2030, extra-EU exports increase, by approximately 0.6%, while imports decrease, by up to 0.3% over and above a business-as-usual scenario for the Framework Programme. In terms of social impacts, a strengthened framework programme will further enhance progress in fields such as health, safety, the valorisation of human capital and the creation of a European labour market for knowledge workers. In terms of environmental impacts, it will help improving natural resources management, identifying win-win technologies and progressing in understanding and predicting the environment. |
LINING UP WITH THE “LISBON OBJECTIVES”
Achieving the Lisbon objective is difficult to envisage without a drastic increase of “investment/growth enhancing” spending at EU level. As such, it requires the development, within a fully deployed European Research Area, of a good European research, technology and innovation policy. The 7th Framework Programme is conceived to become the backbone in the construction of a European knowledge economy. It spans, for the first time, a period of seven years, which gives a new perspective and strength, in particular due to its synchronisation and close links with all growth-supportive actions in the new financial perspectives. Based on an external assessment, the Commission may at mid term propose amendments to the Framework Programme and review its management arrangements. The combination of a longer duration with the possibility of mid term review provides for continuity and flexibility at the same time. Given the appropriate level of resources, streamlined and made more researcher-friendly in its implementation, the 7th Framework Programme will be key to help build the ERA of knowledge for growth. |
7th Framework Programme of the European Community (EC) (Maximum overall amount[11] (EUR million), respective shares and indicative breakdown, 2007-2013) |
- |Themes |Health |Biotech, Food, Agriculture |Information Society |Nano, Materials, Production |Energy |Environment |Transport |Socio-economic Research |Security and Space | | | COOPERATION | Using all funding schemes, including international co-operation | 8 317 |2 455 |12 670 |4 832 |2 931 |2 535 |5 940 |792 |3 960 | 44 432 | | IDEAS | | | | European | Research |Council | | 11 862 | | PEOPLE | | | | Marie |Curie |Actions | | 7 129 | | | Research Infrastructures | | | | | | | | | | 3 961 | | | Research for the benefit of SMEs | | | | | | | | | | 1 901 | | | Regions of Knowledge | | | | | | | | | | 158 | | CAPACITIES | Research Potential | | | | | | | | | | 554 | | | Science in Society | | | | | | | | | | 554 | | | International Co-operation | | | | | | | | | | 358 | | JRC | | | | Joint | Research |Centre | | | | | 1 817 | | TOTAL EC | | | | | | | | | | Total |72 726 | | EURATOM (2007-2011)[12] | | | | | | | | | | | 3.092 | |
[1] “Facing the Challenge: The Lisbon strategy for Growth and Employment”, November 2004.
[2] P6_TA-PROV(2005)0077.
[3] COM(2004) 353, 16.6.2004
[4] Specific rules for implementation may be needed in these areas.
[5] “The Framework Programme shall be implemented through specific programmes developed within each activity. (…)”
[6] “In implementing the framework programme, the Community may make provision, in agreement with the Member States concerned, for participation in research and development programmes undertaken by several Member States, including participation in the structures created for the execution of those programmes.”
[7] “The Community may set up joint undertakings or any other structure necessary for the efficient execution of Community research, technological development and demonstration programmes.”
[8] Executive agencies are management structures to which the Commission, under its own responsibility, may entrust tasks relating to the management of Community programmes. The statute of executive agencies is defined by Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 of 19 December 2003.
[9] COM(2004) 101, 26.2.2004 and COM(2004) 487, 14.7. 2004.
[10] SEC(2005) 430: Impact Assessment and ex-ante evaluation for the proposal for the Council and European Parliament decisions on the 7th Framework Programme.
[11] All amounts at current prices calculated on the basis of fixed 2004 prices.
[12] The 7th framework programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) for nuclear research and training activities (2007 to 2011) comprising fusion energy research, nuclear fission and radiation protection and the Nuclear activities of the JRC. The total budget is EUR 3.092 million for the five years whereof the JRC EUR 539 million.