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Commission Proposals for FP7 (April 2005)

The European Commission’s proposals for the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) were set out in two documents in April 2005.

The two documents were:

Building the ERA of knowledge for growth, which set out FP7’s policy context and objectives;
Building the Europe of Knowledge: the Commission’s proposals for FP7.

They were followed in September 2005 by more detailed proposals for each of the four specific programmes within FP7 (see right).

Building the ERA of Knowledge for Growth

Europe must become better at producing knowledge through research, at diffusing it through education and at applying it through innovation.

'Building the ERA of knowledge for growth' first set out the ‘knowledge triangle’ - of research, education and innovation – that Europe must achieve to reach its renewed Lisbon goals.

FP7 is the Commission’s contribution to the research side of this triangle. The Communication, among other things:

outlined a four-part structure for FP7: Cooperation, Ideas, People and Capacities;
introduced ‘multi-financed’ large-scale initiatives such as Joint Technology Initiatives, the joint implementation of national programmes and New Infrastructures of European Interest;
called for other EU funding tools to be mobilised, including:
- Structural and Cohesion Funds - see Information Society & the Structural Funds;
- Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme;
- The new generation of Education and Training Programmes – see the Education & Training theme.
- Trans European Networks, to deploy on a pan-European scale advanced infrastructures and systems - see, for example, the eTEN Programme;
- The new European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.

Building the Europe of Knowledge

The Commission's detailed proposals for FP7 - Building the Europe of Knowledge - then organises FP7 into four specific programmes, with ICT research one of the nine ‘priority themes’ of the “Cooperation Programme” (below).

ICT research, however, will also be covered under the “Ideas” programme, where research projects are selected by an autonomous European Research Council, and under the “Capacities Programme”, which covers the development of research infrastructures, an area where Europe excels (see Research Infrastructures in FP6 - GEANT & Grids).

ICTs in the Cooperation Programme

Worth over half the total FP7 budget, the Cooperation Programme will encompass the whole range of activities carried out in previous Framework Programmes. One of its nine themes is Information & Communication Technologies, where activities will:

strengthen Europe’s scientific and technology base in ICTs;
help drive and stimulate innovation through ICT use;
ensure that progress in ICTs is rapidly transformed into benefits for Europe’s citizens, businesses, industry and governments.

Among other things, this means:

making ICTs simple to use by hiding the technology, which means only revealing what the technology can do when people and organisations want it, and by making ICTs adaptable to users’ context and preferences;
making ICTs more easily available, affordable, trusted and reliable;
staying at the forefront of the global race for:
- miniaturisation;
- mastering the convergence of computing, communications and media technologies;
- mastering convergence with other relevant sciences and disciplines;
- building systems that can learn and evolve.

ICT research activities will also draw on a broader range of scientific and technological disciplines including bio- and life sciences, psychology, pedagogy, cognitive and social sciences.

These themes were developed further in the Commission's Proposals for the "Cooperation" Programme of September 2005.