Meeus - a self-help resource for the FP7 user community

Recently, a new service - Meeus - was created by the originators of the DESCA consortium agreement (www.desca-FP7.eu). It is intended as a self-help resource for the FP7 user community. It intends to give answers to difficult questions about FP7 from other FP7 users.

In general, answers are of high and will only improve with an increasing number of users.

Auditors question Commission's evaluation of research funding programmes

The EU Research and Technological Development (RTD) framework programmes have been evaluated by the European Court of Auditors.

'Poorly defined programme objectives and weak performance measurement undermined effective monitoring and evaluation,' said the Court of Auditors in a statement. 'The absence of a comprehensive evaluation strategy, agreed between the Research Directorates-General implementing the framework programmes, resulted in inconsistent approaches between the different Commission services,' states the report.

Source: Cordis

The full report can be found here:
http://eca.europa.eu/portal/pls/portal/docs/1/651520.PDF

Ethics for researchers

Protection of identity, privacy, obtaining informed consent and communicating benefits and risks ... the European Commission published a new brochure on Ethics for researchers which can be downloaded on the cordis site.

Several FP7 calls launched

The European Commission has published a number of calls for proposals under all four specific programmes of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) namely Cooperation, Ideas, People and Capacities.

To see the full details of the calls, please consult the cordis web site.

Eurostars programme for research -performing SMEs launched

On 2 Oct 2007 a new programme supporting research-performing SMEs was launched by EU and Eureka.

The Eurostars Programme is the first European funding and support programme to be specifically dedicated to SMEs. Eurostars is intended to stimulate them to lead international collaborative research and innovation projects by easing access to support and funding.

A Eurostars project is a European research and development project. It can address any technological area, but must have a civilian purpose and be aimed at the development of a new product, process or service. A Eurostars project is collaborative, meaning it must involve at least two SME participants (legal entities) from two different Eurostars participating countries.

First application cut-off date is Friday 8 February 2008 1700 CET.

For more information please refer to the eurostars web site.

NEF online communication tool for FP7 negotiations

NEF (Negotiation Forms) is the new FP7 communication tool between the coordinators and the EC project officers. It is the application supporting the negotiation process, used for collecting legal and financial data as well as other background information about the participants to a proposal.

With this new tool, data may be collected and submitted online. The use of a specific software offline as in FP6 ("CPF editor") is not anymore necessary - good news indeed!

45 minutes free e-training module on FP7 launched by HYPERION

Sean McCarthy and his colleagues from HYPERION prepared a 45minutes free eTraining Module entitled "The Fundamentals of Framework 7" which can be found on the HYPERION web site.

The module is designed to provide beginners with a quick overview of the following:

- Key sources of information on Framework 7
- The Structure and Terminology used in Framework 7
- Overview of the Research Priorities
- The different grants (Funding Schemes)
- Which countries can participate?
- How proposals are evaluated
- How to start and how to proceed.