An Interim Evaluation Report of the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) has been released on 12 November 2010. Among others things, the report touches upon the issue of low success rates and low participation in FP7 of some countries compared to others. The countries that are parties to this Joint Position are quite affected from this situation due to various reasons including their imperfections about human capital, infrastructure capacities, limited financial resources, let alone their very recent involvement to the EU Framework Programmes as Associated Countries compared to the EU Member States.

In the first section of this Joint Position Paper, the discussions revolving around the future RTD Framework Programme is outlined with a view to building insight on the direction of the future RTD programming at the European level.

In the second section, an outline of problems and issues related to RTD and common to involved countries are identified.

In the third section, the Joint Position of the Enlargement Countries Associated to FP7 on the Future RTD Framework Programme is introduced.

The main axis of the Joint Position is based on eight arguments.

• The first is constituted by an argument for a balanced reinforcement of research excellence with capacity building activities.
• The second is an argument for prevalence of thematically oriented collaborative research.
• The third is a recommendation for special measures to foster innovation in the region.
• The forth is a call for a more coordinated commitment from the EU side to diverse policy domains such as cohesion, enlargement, research and innovation.
• The fifth is a call for simplification for easier and faster access to funds.
• The sixth is a case for creating better conditions and incentives for mobility of the researchers from the concerned countries to be integrated into the European research networks.
• The seventh is a call for administrative capacity development of the concerned countries for better involvement in the governance structures of the European Research Area (ERA).
• Finally, the eight is a case for a more balanced distribution of European research infrastructures as well as support in access to large European infrastructures.

(taken from the Executive Summary of the document)

The full document is attached to this news below.