Brussels, 11/04/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission's inter-service working group on the management procedures for the research framework-programme, created on the initiative of Commissioner Philippe Busquin with the agreement of Mrs. de Palacio and Mr. Liikanen, handed in a report that proposed diverse measures to simplify and that should also contribute to greater efficiency of the Community's support for research.
The report by the group, chaired by the Director General for Research, Ranier Gerold, underlined that "the administrative weight of the procedures is extremely significant." Therefore it is suitable to simplify the procedures and contracts in view of reducing the weight of administration and so liberate resources to strengthen the follow-up of the research projects and their results, without affecting the quality of the operations. However the report notes that the simplification of the forms lightens the user work, but may also lead to a loss of statistical information necessary to evaluate the socio-economic impact of the programmes or to answer requests for information by the European Parliament and the Member States. Furthermore, to favour the search of an optimal balance between these different requirements. This balance should be complemented with greater transparency and the strengthening of the dialogue with all the actors in European research. The report notes that a uniform procedure is too often applied to very diverse actions: R&D projects, grants, networks, SME actions, accompanying measures, etc. It underlined that it is not suitable to apply near identical procedures to a research project costing several million Euro and to a research premium for SME of EUR 22,500. Presently, it is noted that the decisions are often taken at a too high level and implicate an excessive number of vertical and horizontal instances. "The result is double jobs and a dilution of responsibility," continues the report which asserts that the simplification must guarantee a "motivated decision and be assumed by an identified decision-maker."
Moreover, the abandoning of the present contract preparation forms, which are over 66 pages long, the working group notably proposes: (1) simplify (from 14 to 2 pages) the expert selection form (in the long-term, it is proposed to completely suppress this system and to review the call for tenders by experts), (2) introduce by the start of 2002 a electronic evaluation system for research premiums, (3) systematically send a letter to all the bidders to inform them of the state of progress of the procedure, (4) transform the Group of Directors into a inter-service coordination group so as to remove a consultation phase, (5) remove the negotiation phase, which enables to gain around four months, (6) improve the conditions of the contracts (2001/2002).
The group's reports broaches neither the issues of organisation and the internal structure of the Directorate Generals, or the stakes of the Commission's reform on a financial, human resources and externalisation level. These proposals target the implementation of the 5th framework-programme. More radical changes, as the more decentralised implementation of the specific programmes better targeted to at the major strategic activities, of research activity support forms or still the resorting to other financial instruments such as the EIB, could be considered for the 6th framework-programme. Finally, the group believes that the simplification proposals should be implemented as quickly as possible, but that they will only really bear fruition if the simplification becomes a systematic, dynamic and continuous process