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Environment under the 6th EU Research Framework Programme

Funding under this programme is not available any more. New funding possibilities are available under the 7th EU Research Framework Programme.

Some projects funded by the 6th EU Research Framework are still on-going, the rest has finished.

For information on these projects, see the catalogue of environment projects under FP6.

See below for more information on FP6 Environment activities.

Thematic Priority 6: "Sustainable development, global change and ecosystems"

Thematic priority 8: "Scientific Support to Policies" (budget around €360 million)

Other priorities also covering specific environmental aspects

Horizontal activities including environmental topics

Activities of the Joint Research Centre's (JRC)

 

Thematic Priority 6: "Sustainable development, global change and ecosystems"

This thematic priority contains most of the environmental topics. Its total budget is € 2, 329 million, with €769 million for the Global change and ecosystems, €890 million for sustainable energy systems and €670 million for sustainable surface transport.

Global Change and ecosystems (budget €769 million)

The main themes under the Global change and ecosystems area are:

• Impact and mechanisms of  greenhouse gases;
• Water cycle including soil related aspects;
• Biodiversity and ecosystems;
• Natural disasters;
• Land management;
• Forecasting and modelling (including global climate change observation systems), complementary and cross-cutting research (e.g. risk assessment and tools for integrated sustainability assessment.

Sustainable energy systems (budget €890 million)

Most of the actions serve the environmental policies objectives, such as:

• Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Kyoto Protocol;

• Support to the implementation of the EU Directive on renewable energy (target of 20% from renewable sources by 2020);
• Support to the energy performance of buildings;

• Establishing regulatory and fiscal measures for the promotion of liquid biofuels;

• Development of the conditions for the progressive introduction of alternative motor fuels in the market.

Sustainable surface transport (budget €670 million)

Many actions serve the environmental policies objectives:

• Environmentally friendly and competitive transport systems and means of transport;
• New technologies and concepts for all surface transport modes (road, rail, waterborne);
• Increasing road, rail and waterborne safety and avoiding traffic congestion.

 

Thematic priority 8: "Scientific Support to Policies" (budget around €360 million)

"Recognising the power of science to serve the decision-making process"

The Scientific Support to Policies initiative (SSP) has been launched by the European Commission under the 6th EU Research Framework Programme. Through focused research answering precise needs identified by policy-makers, SSP aims to improve the quality of policy decisions and speed up the decision-making process (for example speed the implementation of European directives, such as the Water Framework or the Noise Directives), to provide rapid responses mechanisms to urgent political needs and to promote the participation of researchers in the policy arena.

The domains of direct relevance to environmental policies are:

• Environmental assessment (soil, water, air, noise etc);

• Assessment of environmental technologies for support of policy decisions;

• Impact of environmental issues on health;

• Forecasting of innovative policies for sustainability.

For information on SSP projects, please see the SSP website. You can search the projects by theme or by acronym.

Other priorities also covering specific environmental aspects

• Global Monitoring for Environment and Security ( GMES);
• Risk management (within the Information Society Technologies programme);
• Environmental health risks.

 

Horizontal activities including environmental topics

Environmental topics are included in:

• The research infrastructures initiative;
• International co-operation;
• Co-ordination of national programmes (ERA-NET);
• SMEs;
• Mobility and training activities.

 

Activities of the Joint Research Centre (JRC)

Most of the JRC environmental research areas are managed by the JRC Institute for Environment and Sustainability:

• Emissions and air quality;
• Water quality, aquatic systems and health;
• Soil and waste management;
• Land resources and biodiversity;
• Integration of sustainability into other policy areas;
• Climate change: the Kyoto protocol and beyond;
• Monitoring and assessing ecosystem sustainability;
• The sustainable energy technologies reference & information system;
• Renewable energies and advanced energy conversion technologies;
• Sustainable and safe transport systems.

The JRC Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) also plays a significant role for the environmental research, in areas such as:

• Energy and industrial greenhouse gas emission scenarios;
• Energy technologies modelling and scenarios;
• Clean technologies: prospective techno-economic analyses and scenarios;
• Technology scenarios for transport sustainability;
• European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Bureau (its activities are linked to the IPPC Directive 96/61/EC).

The Institute for Energy provides support to the European policy-making process through research, knowledge and understanding in the scope of clean and sustainable energy in both nuclear and non-nuclear domains.