Brussels, 29/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - The Netherlands will be handing over the presidency of the European intergovernmental EUREKA research initiative to the Czech Republic on 1 July 2006. The new team will try and stimulate the participation of industry at a strategic level. It also plans to increase EUEKA's political profile. Working at the European Parliament, it will attempt to raise public awareness of EUREKA via its burgeoning relationship with the industry committee, explained a press release. The Czech presidency is seeking to guarantee greater coherency between EUREKA, the 7th Framework Research and Development Programme of the EU and other actors in the European research space. It plans to encourage EUREKA “clusters” to closely collaborate with the European technological platforms involved. Taking into account the Barcelona objective of 3% of GDP invested in research, the Czech presidency expects all EUREKA Member States to make a commitment on the number of new projects they undertake and better national funding. The goal is also to try and get their financial mechanisms for national R&D projects to be as transparent as possible by ensuring optimal coordination. In a year, Italy will take over from the Czech Republic.