Brussels, 25/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - During its seven year existence, from 2007 to 2013, and despite its complexity and rigidity, the 7th EU framework programme for research and development (FP7) was effective in boosting scientific excellence (25,000 projects with over 134,000 participations) and jobs (130,000 jobs created per year over a period of ten years).
That was what was found in the ex-post evaluation of FP7 by an independent group of high-level experts, the results of which were presented by the European Commission on Monday 25 January. The purpose of the study was to determine the economic and societal impact of the framework programme, allowing the Commission to learn lessons, some of which already form part of the current framework programme, Horizon 2020, which has been simplified while having a greatly increased budget (close to €80 billion compared with €55 billion for the previous period).
As the evaluation states, FP7 was the greatest effort ever made in the history of research and innovation in the EU. It provided financial support for more than 25,000 projects and 170,000 scientific publications and resulted in 1,700 patents and 7,400 commercial products, while amounting to no more than 7% of all public research and development expenditure in the EU. Its effects will also be felt in the long term, contributing some €20 billion per annum to EU GDP over the next 25 years. About 72% were new to the programme; universities and research centres remained the majority participation (70%), with the private sector accounting for 25%, 50% of which was made up by SMEs.
In the Commission's view, FP7's record is more than positive in a wide range of areas (ITC, health, energy and the environment, security, and human and socio-economic sciences), including in terms of international cooperation (170 countries involved). Some indicators show, nonetheless, that a number of challenges, including political challenges, have to be met. In seeking scientific excellence, above all, the EU encouraged a degree of concentration to the detriment of diversity. Of the 29,000 which participated in FP7, the top 500 organisations took 60% of the financial support. Similarly, only 4% of funding was allocated in the 13 states which have joined the EU since 2004.
For Research, Science and Innovation Commissioner Carlos Moedas, the most important lesson to be drawn from the evaluation is the need for a cross-cutting approach in order to avoid the “silos” created in FP7 and encourage links between “physical” research and digital technology. With regard to geographical disparities in funding (Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain received more than half of the funding), Moedas stated, in a meeting on Monday with a group of journalists, that it was right to finance “the best of the best” and that it was not the role of framework programmes for research to promote convergence, that was for the structural funds, even though a link had been established between these two sources of funding to address in part this challenge. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)