The present document worked out by the Commission of the European Community sets up the background and measures aimed at simplification of the 7th Framework Programme (FP7).The roots of the simplification in question lay in the fact that over the past 20 years the European Community’s research Framework Programme has expanded significantly in terms of budget, scale, scope and ambition. In line with this expansion a range of different types of support have been developed to target an increasingly broad range of beneficiaries across an enlarging geographical area. This evolution has brought with it increased complexity as far as multiplication of types of instruments, forms of contribution, requirements for submission and reporting and rules of implementation are concerned. Important steps towards simplification of the current 6th Framework Programme (FP6) have already been taken. Despite some progress, participation in FP6 remains complex for non-administartors and smaller actors. Thus, the foregoing FP7 must be pursued not only through the modification of administrative and financial rules as well as by streamlining the ways in which the Programme and individual research projects are managed.In this connection the first bunch of concrete measures for simplification of implementation modalities based on three main principles, i.e. flexibility, rationalization and coherence, has been developed, offering:

• a simple set of funding schemes allowing continuity with the instruments of FP6 and providing a broad flexibility of use
• consistent high-quality communication
• rationalization of the requests for information addressed to the participants
• guarantee of protection of the Community’s financial interest without imposing an undue burden on participants by reducing a-priori controls to a bare minimum
• full operational autonomy entrusted to consortia
• streamlining the selection process
• most effective possible use of the budget dedicated to the research policy
• a more extended use of flat-rate financing within a simplified framework of forms taken by Community financial contributions
• removing the need for complex cost reporting models and clarifying definition of eligible costs
• simplified support rates per type of activity.