The SCAR committee adopted a structured approach to the prioritisation of research topics for further collaboration, through the establishment of a number of Member & Associated State Collaborative Working Groups (CWGs). The establishment of CWGs is a more flexible and less formal alternative mechanism to the ERA-NET scheme, but shares the same objective: to stimulate and ultimately increase research collaboration between funders and programme managers on key-research areas.

Since 2005, seventeen CWGs have been set up by European countries engaging voluntarily and on a variable-geometry basis in the definition, development and implementation of common research agendas based on a common vision of how to address major challenges in the field of agricultural research.

The dynamism and commitment of several CWGs paved the way for participation in the FP7 ERA-NET scheme. Five of them became ERA-NETs.

• 7th Framework Pogramme
• COST actions
• Technology platforms
• Joint Programming