FP7 Background Information European Research Council

Website: erc.europa.eu/index_en.cfm




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Background Information



European Research Council

Download Brochure (715 Kb PDF) giving background information.

Download Draft work programme 2007 (434 Kb PDF)

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EU activities in frontier research are to be implemented by a European Research Council (ERC), composed of the Scientific Council and a dedicated implementation structure. Research areas covered will be independent of the thematic orientations of other parts of the Framework Programme, and will include engineering, social sciences and the humanities.

Previous RTD Framework Programmes have relied heavily on proscribed "work programmes" as the basis for the selection of proposals for funding. in FP7 it is proposed that part of the budget will be applied to basic "frontier" research within the "Ideas" programme.

The objective of the "Ideas" programme proposed for FP7 is to enhance the dynamism, creativity and excellence of European research at the frontier of knowledge. This is to be done by supporting "investigator-driven" research projects carried out across all fields or research by individual teams in competition at the European level. Projects will be funded on the basis of proposals presented by researchers on subjects of their choice and evaluated on the sole criterion of scientific excellence as judged by peer review.

The Ideas programme will thus become a trans-European mechanism to support creative scientific research designed to generate completely new knowledge opening up new venues for technological progress and new solutions for social and environmental problems.

This 'frontiers research', which will be at the heart of the Ideas programme, is a new approach to basic research that is, by virtue of its nature, risky and cuts across established disciplinary boundaries and national borders. By promoting 'frontier research', the Specific Programme will aim to put European research in a leading position, opening the way to creating new scientific and technological results and probably unexpected results.