Editorial

Bernard Mulligan

Europe has a very strong track record in basic research in the life sciences. In the “post-genomic era”, the character and needs of basic research in the life sciences are changing dramatically: it has become very multidisciplinary, the amount of data is increasing exponentially and huge investments in facilities are required.

The European life sciences community’s interest in policy developments in funding basic research has focused on a number of issues: firstly, the level of funding efforts required for basic research; secondly, the distribution of expenditure over infrastructures, single-lab research and collaborative research grants, both on a national and an international level; and thirdly, mechanisms to link up, where appropriate, national funding programmes between Member States.  

The fragmented nature of funding policies and the dispersal of resources create serious problems for the changing character and needs of basic research in the life sciences. A broad platform for discussion amongst all stakeholders involved in funding basic research in the life sciences in Europe is needed.

To contribute to this discussion the Commission will hold a conference on 13 December 2004[1]with aim of bringing together stakeholders from national and international funding organisations to explore new ways to co-operate in funding basic research in Europe. A number of high-level presenters will share their experiences with different approaches to funding of basic research in life sciences in Europe from both national and trans-national perspectives. The life sciences sector has been chosen as the focus for the conference because of the huge potential of the field for contributing significantly to the Lisbon objective for Europe to become the most competitive knowledge based economy.

Turning to the present, the Commission has just published the third call of FP6[2] which provides many opportunities for collaborative research in fundamental genomics. In the area Fundamental knowledge and basic tools for functional genomics in all organisms, which is the focus of this newsletter, a budget of  around  € 120 million  is available.  Topics open for proposals include  eleven tightly focussed topics open for proposals for integrated projects (IP) and networks of excellence (NoE). In contrast, for specific targeted research projects (STREP), proposals are invited for a range of more broadly defined scientific areas.  Where appropriate, the involvement of “small and medium-sized enterprises” (SMEs)  is highly encouraged in all topics in this fundamental genomics area.  

Proposals are particularly welcomed for two other types of projects, co-ordination actions (CA) and specific support actions (SSA).  These provide valuable opportunities for developing new strategies for European collaborative basic research. For example, one CA topic invites proposals to develop a strategy for the maintenance and sustainability of essential European database resources for all model organisms. A second example is an  SSA topic that asks for proposals to identify fundamental genomics areas of mutual benefit to Europe and certain “third country” regions (e.g. within Latin America; Indian peninsula; South-East Asia).  

Many other topics for genomics-related research can also be found in the other areas of Thematic Priority 1 Life sciences, genomics & biotechnology for health as well as Thematic Priority 5 Food quality and safety   and thematic Priority 6 Sustainable development, global change and ecosystems.

This edition of Genomics EU News includes news of some of the research projects selected in earlier calls. Work in different fields related to genomics, like molecular imaging techniques, zebrafish models, or membrane proteins is also highlighted. Longer-running projects are now beginning to generate important scientific results. So we are particularly grateful to Professor Sussman for sending us his views on his participation in one of our pilot Integrated Projects, SPINE.

Please get in touch with us if you want to send your opinions on this newsletter, results, suggestions or short articles related to FP6 or to fundamental genomics research in Europe. All contributions will be most welcome.

Bernard Mulligan is acting head of the unit Fundamental Genomics at the European Commission since 1 May 2004.

[2] Deadline for proposals: 16 November 2004. The workprogramme is available on CORDIS.