Quality of life and management of living resources

Programmes objectives. International co-operation Participation by entities of third countries and international organisations will be possible in all Programmes in addition to opportunities for participating in the Horizontal Programme “Confirming the international role of Community research”. Conditions for participation, including possible financial arrangements, are specified in section III of this document. Box 1 describes the opportunities for bursaries for young researchers from developing countries. Innovation and participation of SMEs Measures encouraging SME participation in RTD activities will be carried out in all Thematic Programmes and the Innovation and SME programme. Details on SME stimulation measures will be found in a special information brochure devoted to them. In addition, each Thematic Programme will interface with the Horizontal Programme “Promotion of innovation and encouragement of SME participation” in order to develop awareness and help technology transfer and use of the results of the Thematic Programme. Socio-economic and training aspects Socio-economic research can be funded by both the Thematic Programmes and by the key action on “Improving the socio-economic knowledge base” of the Horizontal Programme “Improving the human research potential and the socio-economic knowledge base”. Socio-economic research is present in the Thematic Programmes as an integral part of the technological research activities. Training opportunities for researchers are assured through the Marie Curie system of fellowships that can be implemented by Thematic Programmes as well as by other specific training activities in the Human Potential Programme. The fellowships system is described schematically in Box 2. Ш By integration between Thematic Programmes. Complementary and synergistic interactions will be ensured in implementing the Programmes. I.3. Implementation I.3.1. Work Programme A Work Programme has been drawn up for each Specific Programme, describing the specific activities and the various research areas. The Work Programme will be revised regularly with the assistance of Advisory Groups of independent experts to ensure its continued relevance in the light of evolving needs and developments. Potential proposers should therefore ensure they are consulting the current version of the work programme when planning a proposal. The Work Programme appearing at the Specific Programme Web site is always the current version. The Work Programme includes an indicative timetable or “roadmap”, which indicates which parts of the Work Programme will be opened, by calls for proposals, and deadline(s) involved. This provides a means of focusing attention on areas or sub-areas, thereby optimising opportunities for launching collaborative projects and establishing thematic networks. The Commission will manage the Specific Programmes to ensure that links in thematic content between the programmes are exploited in a synergistic way. This may occasionally require joint or synchronised calls for proposals. Where necessary, co-ordination measures such as these will be indicated in the announcement of the calls for proposals, and in the Work Programme. I.3.2. Types of actions supported The Community will contribute financially to the RTD activities, carried out under the Specific Programmes implemented within the Fifth Framework Programme. The general rules are as follows: (a) Shared-cost actions · Research and technological development (R&D) projects projects obtaining new knowledge intended to develop or improve products, processes or services and/or to meet the needs of Community policies (financial participation: 50 % of total eligible costs4,). · Demonstration projects4 projects designed to prove the viability of new technologies offering potential economic advantage but which cannot be commercialised directly (financial participation: 35 % of total eligible costs5). · Combined R&D and demonstration projects4 projects combining the above elements (financial participation: 35 to 50 % of total eligible costs4,5). · Support for access to research infrastructures (only implemented under “Improving the human research potential and the socio-economic knowledge base” IHP Programme) actions enhancing access to research infrastructures for Community researchers. Support will cover maximum of 100 % of the eligible costs necessary for the action. · “SME Co-operative” research projects4 projects enabling at least three mutually independent SMEs from at least two Member States or one Member State and an Associated State to jointly commission research carried out by a third party (financial participation: 50 % of total eligible project costs4). · “SME Exploratory” awards support of 75 % of total eligible costs for an exploratory phase of a project of up to 12 months (e.g. feasibility studies, validation, partner search). (b) Training fellowships Marie Curie fellowships are either fellowships, where individual researchers apply directly to the Commission, or host fellowships, where institutions apply to host a number of researchers (financial participation: maximum of 100 % of the additional eligible costs necessary for the action). See Box 2. The decisions on the specific programmes may define specific sub types of actions for example: the programme “Confirming the international role of Community research” INCO 2 - defines bursaries for young researchers from developing countries and other bursaries for researchers from the EU Member States or Associated States as specific training fellowships. See Box 1. (c) Research training networks and thematic networks - Training networks for promoting training-through-research especially of researchers at pre-doctoral and at post-doctoral level (these are only implemented under the IHP Programme) - and thematic networks for bringing together e.g. manufacturers, users, universities, research centres around a given S&T objective. These include co-ordination networks between Community funded projects. Support will cover maximum 100% of eligible costs necessary for setting up and maintaining such networks. (d) Concerted actions Actions co-ordinating RTD projects already in receipt of national funding, for example to exchange experiences, to reach a critical mass, to disseminate results etc. (financial participation: maximum of 100 % of the eligible costs necessary for the action). (e) Accompanying measures Actions contributing to the implementation of a Specific Programme or the preparation of future activities of the programme. They will also seek to prepare for or to support other indirect RTD actions (financial participation: maximum of 100 % of total eligible costs). Each Specific Programme will not necessarily open all the above mentioned types of actions in all calls. Please refer to sections II and Part 2 of this Guide to see which actions are called for in the different programmes and calls.

I.3.3 Clusters