The EU 6th Framework Programme (FP6) 2002-2006----A platform for EU-China research cooperation

 

The FP6 research support of the European Union is designed to stimulate collaboration between European countries. Through the EU-China Science & Technology agreement, Chinese research partners can participate in all FP6 projects. Chinese partners in FP6 projects should apply together with the European partners for funding from the EU. In addition to the research projects, the EU supports the Marie-Curie fellowship scheme to encourage long-term exchanges of scientists.

 

What is an FP6 project?

FP6 projects aim to encourage cross-border research collaboration. Project partners combine different roles, e.g. theoretical research, experiments, measurements, application tests, customer research, production methods, or regulation research. Good projects bring together partners from industry, universities, research institutions or public bodies. One partner coordinates the project - usually the partner who had the initial idea and wrote the project proposal.

Projects must be multinational and include at least three partners from different EU Member States (or AssociatedStates). A typical project has:

• 6-12 complementary partners from at least 4 countries, each one performing research

• a total budget of 2 - 20 million Euro, sometimes more

• a planned duration of 3-5 years

There are three types of project:

• Specific Targeted Research Projects (STREP): normal projects.

• Networks of Excellence (NE): network with up to 50 partners.

• Integrated Projects (IP): large and comprehensive projects.

Information on the different project types can be found at http://www.cordis.lu.

Research AreaBudget (Million Euro)

Life Sciences, Genomics and Biotechnology for Health2255

Information Society Technologies (IST)3625

Nanotechnologies, intelligent materials and new production processes1300

Aeronautics and Space1075

Food quality and safety685

Sustainable Development2120

(Energy 810, surface transport 610, global change and ecosystems 700)

Citizens and Governance225

Policy Support and Anticipating Scientific and Technical Needs555

International Cooperation (for developing countries inc. China)315

In addition to the International Cooperation programme, it is foreseen that 285 MEUR will be used to support international partners in the above thematic research areas.

 

Fellowships

Fellowships are available in the chapter “Marie Curie Actions -Human Resources and Mobility”. The following are of interest to China:

• Incoming International Fellowships of up to two years for top Chinese scientists to perform research at a European research institute.

• Outgoing International Fellowships of up to two years for European scientists to perform research in a Chinese institute.

• The applications for the individual fellowships must be submitted jointly by the applicant and the hosting institution.

• Host driven FP6 fellowships can invite for up to 30% scientists from third countries. Open fellowship positions are advertised at:http://mc-opportunities.cordis.lu/home_vac.cfm

• The European mobility portal has more fellowship opportunities supported by EU Member States and by European research institutions. Please check:http://europa.eu.int/eracareers

What calls for proposals are there?

The European Commission publishes regular calls for proposals in the above research areas and for the fellowships. The deadline for submitting proposals is normally about three months after publication of the call. The calls are published at www.cordis.lu

Independent experts select projects according to the evaluation criteria. The main selection criteria are scientific quality, relevance, and management.

 

How to apply for a project: a 3-step approach?

A proposal is written by the co-ordinator, who should ideally have some experience with EU projects already. We suggest that Chinese partners take a 3-step approach:

Step 1: Inform potential partners in Europe

It is useful to inform European researchers that you are interested in joining EU projects. This can be done in many ways, e.g. through www.cordis.lu, through scientific friends, business partners, conferences, etc.

You can try to follow a systematic approach to find project partners. We suggest to proceed as follows:

1. Check the open calls to see if there is a topic of interest to you. The open calls are published at www.cordis.lu ("find a call"). The EU Delegation prepares a summary of open calls to allow you a quick overview (you can get the list from the Open Calls for Proposals , or you can ask to be put on our emailing list).

2. Read the work programme to see the detailed specifications and intentions of the call. You can download the work programme from www.cordis.lu under the open calls.

3. Prepare a one-page description of your interest in the project. This one-page description should contain:

(1) Title (close to the headline used in the work programme)

(2) Call name

(3) Research interest (what you wish to do in the project)

(4) Collaboration interest (what the other partners should do in the project)

(5) Institute description (name and short description of your laboratory)

(6) Other partners in China (potential other partners are often welcome if they are from a different type of organisation, e.g. university - research centre - industry - authority).

(7) Your contact address (complete with phone numbers, email, etc.)

4. Send the one-page description of your interest to European contacts

• find contacts from www.cordis.lu partners search "find a pantner", from "expression of interest", or other sources

• publish your own information on the www.cordis.lu partners search database (you can also ask ceco@ceco.org.cn to publish the partners search for you).

• send it to CECO, National Contact Points in Europe (see "get support" in www.cordis.lu), Chinese embassies, etc.

5. If you cannot join a good consortium, you may decide to coordinate a proposal yourself. In this case you need to read very carefully all available instructions and find the other partners yourself.

 

Step 2: Join a project proposal

When preparing a proposal, the coordinator will ask the partners to provide text contribution regarding their part. Typically the information that each partner should send is:

1. research contribution

2. description of your institution

3. CVs of key researchers

4. importance of the project for China

5. economic impact of the project

6. how to exploit the results

7. list of references and related projects

8. illustrations, graphies, pictures

9. requested budget

 

Chinese partners should request their budget from the EU, also in the thematic programmes. The European Commission will decide about the allocation of international funds to the Chinese partner after the project has been selected.

A fast reply is essential for your success.

 

Step 3: Inform the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST):

We suggest you to inform the MOST about selected projects.

Information:

http://www.cordis.luComplete information on FP6

http://www.ceco.org.cn

The CECO promotion office provides constantly updated information for Chinese researchers.

http://www.delchn.cec.eu.intEU Delegation in China

• Subscriptions for these magazines can be made, free of charge, on the Cordis website:

RTD Info Magazine (bi-monthly)

• Information on EU research programmes with an overview of future calls for proposals.

• CORDIS Focus (bi-weekly) - news on all EU-related research.

• Innovation & Technology Transfer - innovations and analysis of successful projects.