The tasks of NCPs, who are nominated by the respective national authorities, include informing and raising the awareness of the opportunities given by FP7, advising, assisting and training potential FP7 participants in the respective country, and giving them feedback on the participation in FP7. An NCP co-ordinator should be nominated in each country, with the task of the overall coordination of all national NCP activities.

The existing NCP systems show a wide variety of architectures, from highly centralised to decentralised networks, and consist of a number of very different actors, from ministries to universities, research centres and special agencies to private consulting companies. This reflects the different national traditions, working methodologies, research landscapes and funding schemes. The unifying element of the different NCP systems is the capability of ensuring both competence in the different thematic and horizontal priorities of FP7 as well as the coherence of approaches and the high-level of service.