Graz, 21/04/2006 (Agence Europe) - At the first day of the Graz Competitiveness Council, ministers discussed the draft revised budget for the EU's 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development (FP7) for the first time. It emerged that Member States generally support the line taken by the European Commission, although some delegations clearly want more EU research funding for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and greater funding for the European Research Council which will select basic research projects in the future to expand the borders of knowledge. Agreement on the FP7 budget now looks possible at the 29 and 30 May Competitiveness Council. The European Commission's unveiling of the revised proposal will now need to be followed by agreement at the 29-30 May Council and agreement on the FP7 and its funding at the European Parliament. The three institutions will try to work together to agree on the deal in first reading or, failing that, in a second reading very soon after the first, in order to allow the FP7 to start on 1 January 2007.
Elisabeth Gehrer, Austrian education, science and culture minister, said in Graz on 21 April that with EUR 54.7 bn pledged over 7 years, the budget earmarked for the FP7 for 2007-2013 is a 60% increase on FP6. She said the Commission's draft revised budget had been very warmly welcomed by the Member States, although some delegations had expressed various desiderata. She said the Member States clearly supported the European Research Council, which should get a budget of EUR 1 bn a year. This would increase each year, with a EUR 300 mil increase in 2007, to hit EUR 1.7 bn in 2013. Gehrer said there was, however, great concern about promoting SME research and cutting red tape. The changes desired by the ministers sometimes seem to cancel each other out - the debate revealed a similar number of requests to boost the Cooperation and Ideas programmes. There were several requests for funding to be taken from the budget of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), which has seen the lowest cut compared with the initial proposals), to marginally boost other headings. Gehrer said that Member States want agreement to be reached quite quickly to ensure the FP7 can be up and running on 1 January 2007. Janez Potocnik, EU Research Commissioner, made no attempt to hide the fact that the European Commission would have preferred a budget closer to its initial proposal of more than EUR 77 bn in constant prices over seven years. He said the question now was how to do the best with what is available. Various challenges had to be tackled, he said, and a compromise had to be struck between new actions (representing a quarter of the proposed budget) and continuing action funded under FP6. He said bottom-up initiatives were very important, involving companies, researchers and financial institutions.
Addressing the Competitiveness Council, Potocnik made several messages clear: 1) respecting the conclusions of the Spring European Council whereby the research budget should increase to ensure that % more funding was available in real terms by 2013 than in 2006; 2) the proposed budget is sufficient to maintain the balance and structure of the initial proposal; 3) the impact of the budget cuts will be greater at the start of the seven-year period than at the end (EUR 5.5 bn proposed for 2007 - more than the 2006 allocation - and more than 10 bn in 2013); 4) new activities like the European Research Council and new research infrastructure will also benefit from gradual funding; 2) the Cooperation programme will remain the focus of FP7 (up 30% on FP6); 6) the European Research Council is the new FP7 flagship (the Commission recommends reaching critical mass, with EUR 1 bn funding a year, rising to EUR 1.7 bn in 2013); and 7) there will be limited budget flexibility for actions covered by an institutional body or subject to international agreement (the Joint Research Centre and the EURATOM and ITER programmes).
Gunter Verheugen, EU Industry Commissioner, said there had been good progress recently, which had led to the research policy being fully integrated in the growth policy, where it had even taken pride of place. He warned that it was impossible to rest on one's laurels because the budget the EU allocates to research is no more than that spent by big European companies. The Commissioner added that the United States spends 130 billion more on research than the EU. If the EU does not meet the gap, there would be a big competitiveness problem, he warned, adding that he was delighted the ministers had confirmed the integrated approach to EU policies on education, research and SMEs. He said SMEs would get better access to EU research funding than in the past. Verheugen called on the EU and Member States to work together more to achieve tangible results, but this would only work if EU institutions and Member States actually do what they decide to do.
FP7's final budget expected to be set at EUR 54.3 bn - Commission suggests cutting all FP7 sub-headings
Following the agreement on the Financial Perspectives, the overall budget for R&D in 2007-2013 is around 30% less than suggested by the European Commission in April 2005. Including the FP7 (EUR 50.183 bn in current prices), the extra EUR 300 mil at 2004 prices (in other words, EUR 340 mil in current prices) agreed upon at the three-way meeting of 4 April which have not yet been broken down by the Commission, and the EUR 4.061 bn of the EURATOM programme for 2007-2013 (the EURATOM programme has a budget for EUR 2.751 bn for its five-year period; the funding for 2012-2013 is simply indicative), this gives an overall budget of EUR 54.584 bn rather than EUR 77 bn as initially suggested by the European Commission. This cut means the budget is set at around 60% more in annual terms at current prices, although the Commission had wanted to doubt the amount of funding going to R&D.
In its suggested new breakdown of funding submitted to ministers at the Graz meeting, the European Commission did not include the extra EUR 300 million, leaving the ministers with extra room for manoeuvre in their upcoming negotiations with the European Parliament. The Commission has made cuts by using threshold effects and other means, meaning that the cuts range from 28% for the Cooperation programme of thematic research programmes which account for the lion's share of funding (compared with initial suggestions, Cooperation has been given more funding even), and 44% for the Capacities programme covering infrastructure (-50%) and SMEs (-46%). Midway between the two, the Ideas programme, i.e. exploratory research piloted by the future European Research Council (ERC), the main innovation in FP7, has been cut by around 37%, with a more or less identical cut in funding for Personnel, which covers things like researcher mobility. There has been practically no change in the Nuclear sub-heading (-10%) and the budget of the Joint Research Centre (-5%).
In the memorandum accompanying its new breakdown, the European Commission highlights the positive aspects of the framework programme - it has a bigger budget than the previous framework programme, even though it is far less than had initially been planned. The document explains that the budget profile of the ERC, which will start with limited resources in 2007 but end with huge funding in 2013, will enable it to get successfully off the ground and then substantially expand its activity. It has a budget of only EUR 1 bn a year. At the start, the planners wanted it to have a budget of twice this for exploratory research, and the European Commission's initial suggestion was for EUR 1.7 bn a year.
The new breakdown of funding (in million of euros), with the amount recommended in the first draft given in brackets:
? EC Heading: 50 183 million (72 726) divided among (a) the Cooperation programme: 32 202 million (44 432), broken down as follows: - information society: 9 080 (12 670), or 18% of the research budget for 2007-2013; - health: 5 984 (8 317); - transport, including aeronautics and Galileo: 4 150 (5 940); - nanotechnology and materials: 3 467 (4 832); - space and security, including GMES: 2 858 (3 960); - energy: 2 235 (2 931); - agro-food and biotechnology (this is the only sub-heading to see an increase in terms of percentage of the specific heading, coming ahead of the environment): 1 935 (2 455); - environment: 1 886 (2 535); - socio-economic and life sciences: 602 (792); (b) Ideas programme (ERC): 7 480 (11 862); (c) Personnel programme: 4 577 (7 129); (d) Capacities Programme: 4 193 (7 486) broken down as follows: - research infrastructure: 2 008 (3 961); - research for SMEs: 1 228 (1 901); - science in society (communication): 329 (554); - research potential (regions and Structural Fund co-funding): 320 (554); - international cooperation: 182 (358); - knowledge-based regions (support for cross-border cooperation among universities, research centres, industry and regional authorities): 126 (158); (e) non-nuclear action of JRC: 1 751 (7 817);
? EURATOM Heading: 4 061 million in 2007-2013, starting with a five year programme (2007-2011) with a budget of EUR 2 751 million (3 092) divided into: - fusion research (ITER): 1 947 (2 159); - nuclear fission and radio-protection: 287 (394); - nuclear side of JRC's activities: 517 (539). Indicative figures suggest there will be a budget of EUR 2900 mil for nuclear fusion over the 2007-2011 period.