Brussels, 11/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission last week presented a proposal for a decision relating to Community participation in a metrology research programme conducted by several member states.
The EMRP (European Metrology Research Progreamme) will integrate national programmes of 22 participating states into a single joint research programme and support, in particular, the objectives of the European National Measurement Systems. The EMRP will accelerate the development, validation and exploitation of new measuring techniques, standards, processes, instruments, reference materials and knowledge aimed at driving innovative developments in industry and commerce, improving the quality of data for science, industry and policy-making and supporting the development and implementation of directives and regulations. In order to achieve these objectives, the EMRP will use the following methods: a) pooling excellence in metrology research - by creating competitive joint research projects marshalling capability for sufficient critical mass from the networks of National Metrology Institutes (NMI) and Designated Institutes (DI) from the participating States to tackle major metrology challenges faced at European level; - b) openness of the system to best science - by increasing participation from the wider European research community through researcher grants; and - c) capacity-building - by increasing the capability of the European metrology research community through researcher mobility grants targeting those EURAMET member countries with limited metrology research capability. EURAMET is the dedicated implementation structure of the EMRP. It was established in 2007 under German law as a non-profit association and is the European regional metrology organisation. The EMRP will complete ongoing national programmes and activities aimed at addressing purely national priorities. The text of the proposal may be consulted at: http: //eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM: 2008: 0814: FIN: EN: PDF (O.L./transl: jl)