The current Framework Programme for Research, which regulates the funding of research, will now benefit from the simplification of rules that Parliament should approve in October and which were discussed today in Brussels.
The Portuguese Social Democrat MEP Maria da Graca Carvalho is the rapporteur for defining the rules for participation in programmes of science and innovation in Europe. She told the Lusa news agency today that she believed that many of the measures in the document "can be implemented immediately".
The session promoted today by the European People's Party (EPP), which includes the PSD, summarised the discussions organised by the MEP. The goals of these discussions had been to collect input for the report and to highlight the different needs and requirements of the stakeholderss.
Universities are calling for funding based on "greater confidence" and institutional risk tolerance, research centers place emphas on streamlined bureaucratic procedures and companies on the need need for greater "flexibility" and a shorter distance between the presentation of the idea and implementation of the project.
Encouraging invesment in science and innovation, particularly at the level of SMEs, is a particularl concern of the EPP, and Ms Angelika Niebler drew attention to the fact that SMEs have not been at the centre of attention in the previous and current frameworks (the sixth and the seventh).
Maria da Graca Carvalho stressed that the simplification of the rules proposed in the report will make a greater participation of European and Portuguese SMEs possible: "There is no reason, with simplification, that SMEs cannot compete."
The form of funding of research programmes based on results, costs or with fixed amounts, was one of the points that generated less consensus in the discussion today between MEPs and researchers..
In her report, the Portuguese MEP advocated funding "based on excellence" and "peer review" that takes into account the specificities of each project applicant and, she stressed, generates consensus among the various stakeholders.
More than 100 people attended during the three hours of the discussion.
The report will be discussed on Thursday the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, which must be approved before going to the European Parliament.
HM