65 million euro new funding for regional, national and international programmes in favour of experienced researchers

The thematic areas cover a broad variety of research topics from respiratory diseases in children and adults, or research on stars’ birth, science and humanities, particle research physics… since several programmes are opened to researchers from all scientific fields. Furthermore, several of the co-funded programmes pay a particular attention to women’s research career as well as bridges between academia and industry circles. Such a mechanism allows the EU to substantially reinforce the potential impact of regional, national and international programmes, which is particularly significant for the future of European research.

The essential condition for funding is that significant impact can be expected in the field or in the geographical area, no matter whether the management is public or private, and independently of the size of the programme. Community funding, representing 40% of transnational fellowship costs, may be used either for opening an existing programme to transnational fellows, or for increasing its scope, for creating a new transnational programme. Funds normally serve to increase the number of transnational fellowships offered, but may also be used to improve the training environment or working conditions of the beneficiaries.

Co-funded programmes finance stays in another Member state, Associated or Third Country, the hosting of researchers coming from another Member State, Associated or Third country, or the re-integration of researchers in a Member State or associated country after a longer stay outside Europe (at least 3 years).

45 proposals were received in the frame of the first call for proposals, launched on 30 November 2007 with a fixed deadline on 13 March 2008. 22 (48.8% success rate) were favourably assessed by the independent evaluators and will be funded. This means that over the next four years, the equivalent of 3,000 to 4,000 years’ fellowships for experienced researchers will be cofunded through this action.
Further information

http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/people/life-long-training_en.html