One of the objectives of WBC-INCO.NET is to screen and identify research cooperation and funding possibilities for the WBCs and to monitor the take-up of the identified research priorities by various research programmes. Therefore, specific information on possible funding opportunities for which WBC researchers and institutions may apply is consistently being screened and published on the WBC-INCO.NET website.

Through the periodic circulation of e-newsletters and the raised awareness of researchers and institutions in the WBCs the overall knowledge about the available science and technology funding opportunities has been increased. According to the final monitoring report prepared by TÜBiTAK, 77 specific calls accessible for participants from the WBCs have been published on the WBC-INCO.NET project website as of December 2009.

The published funding opportunities cover calls of the following programmes:
■ FP7 Cooperation, Capacities, People and Ideas Specific Programmes
■ EUREKA Network for Market Oriented Industrial R&D
■ European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST)
■ South East Europe (SEE) Transnational Cooperation Programme
■ Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) Cross-Border and Global Programmes
■ Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP)
■ FP7 Project Calls, ERA-NET Joint Calls, Network of Excellence Calls, ETP Joint Undertaking Calls, Bilateral Cooperation Calls, Research Funding Calls by universities

The monitoring of the take-up of scientific priorities determined for the WBCs in the fields of ICT, Agrofood, Health, Transport and Environment has revealed a certain correspondance to the topics called for. The following results have been derived from the analysis of the take-up of WBC S&T priorities in the FP7 2010 Cooperation Work Programme.
■ The FP7 KBBE (Knowlegde Based Bio-Economy) 2010 Work Programme is responsive to the priorities identified in the Agro-Food field, as both of two priorities identified in this field have been taken up by the KBBE 2010 Work Programme.
■ The FP7 ICT 2010 Work Programme is less responsive to the priorities identified by the WBC-INCO.NET project in this field, as only two of the seven identified priorities have been taken up in the 2009 – 2010 ICT Work Programme. This low level of responsiveness can be attributed to the merger of the ICT Work Programmes for 2009 and 2010, and the lack of a new ICT Work Programme for 2010.
■ The FP7 Health 2010 Work Programme has taken up four of the five priorities identified for the WBCs, which indicates a good rate of responsiveness.
■ The FP7 Transport 2010 Work Programme has taken up three of the five priorities, which reflects a fair rate of acceptance and responsiveness.
■ The FP7 Environment 2010 Work Programme has taken up four priorities out of the six identified priorities for the WBCs, which mirrors a fair rate of take-up and responsiveness.
■ Identified priorities for biodiversity in the field of Agro-Food have neither been taken up in the 2009 Work Programme nor in the 2010 Work Programme. This counts for both the theme of KBBE and the theme of Environment. The take-up of the two biodiversity priorities remains to be initiated and improved.
■ A particular take-up of the Agro-Food and ICT priorities has been manifested in the joint call launched in the framework of the SEE-ERA.NET PLUS project with the participation of six WBCs and eight EU Member States and Associated Countries.

Author: Filiz Hayirli.