The Commission launched the 'Practical Guide to EU funding opportunities for Research and Innovation' to help all stakeholders to find their way into the different existing EU funding. Central to the realisation of the goals of the Lisbon Agenda is the need to promote the knowledge economy, in particular through research, technological development and innovation (RTDI). EU support for RTDI is provided mainly through the 7^th Research Framework Programme, the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme and the Structural & Cohesion Funds. If their impact is to be maximised, it is essential that these sources of funding are used in a coherent way.

The "Practical Guide to EU funding for research, development and innovation", provides readers with user-friendly information on combining the different funding sources; it includes a description of each fund, advices for policy makers and an innovative Checklist and Scorecard. The Checklist and Scorecard allow potential beneficiaries to quickly identify exactly how they can access European funding at every stage of the development and implementation of a project.

The EU possesses three key funding instruments to support research and innovation: the 7^th Research Framework Programme; the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme and Cohesion policy which is funded through the Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund.

The guide is available in attachment or  from:  ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/fp7/docs/practical-guide-eufunding_en.pdf