EUROPEAN RESEARCH AREA: EUROPEAN SCIENCE FOUNDATION OFFERS ANALYSIS.

• Position: Industry Trend or Event

The ESF (*) is a European association of 67 major national funding agencies devoted to basic scientific research in 24 countries.The ESF suggests that detailed descriptions of methodologies for the implementation of the programme are not sufficiently clear. It emphasises the need to adapt programme instruments and mechanisms according to the needs of various areas of science and according to problems identified in the proposal. The Foundation further argues that this would create a balance between large and small scale funding, between long and short term projects and between contracts and grants.Regarding one of the new instruments proposed, integrated projects, the Foundation notes that future aid will be focused on large scale funding. The repercussions of such a policy are of concern to the ESF, which argues that strict application of the principle of large-scale funding might exclude small countries by not permitting them to participate fully in the framework programme.Regarding the application of article 169, which would permit a group of Member States to steal a march with their own research and development programmes, the ESF recommends that care be taken to ensure a balance between EU and sectoral interests and between national and research priorities. The risk is that only a few Member States, always the same, would undertake action in the context of article 169, a further cause for concern. The ESF also argues that it is "unthinkable" that Member States should have recourse to co-decision procedure for each action undertaken in the context of article 169.The document calls for greater continuity between Framework Programmes, emphasising that the impossibility of financing projects for more than three years has been one of the principal failings of previous framework programmes. The opinion mentions a number of areas...