A New Focus for a New Age
In new economic times, a new mantra has emerged: “Innovation, innovation, innovation.”
In order to ensure competitiveness in the future global marketplace, Ireland is committed to excellence in Research & Development (R&D), aiming to be “at the forefront in generating and using new knowledge for economic and social progress, within an innovation-driven culture”.
Key to this goal is support provided by the European Union, ranging from broad strategic guidelines to EU-funded financial instruments supporting R&D. Chief among the latter are the framework programmes for research and technological development, a series of funding programmes for collaborative European research launched in 1984.
The current such programme - the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development or FP7. – aims to inject some €50bn into cutting-edge research in Europe between 2007 and 2013.
It offers valuable opportunities for Ireland's small and medium enterprises (SMEs), multinational corporations (MNCs), healthcare professionals and academic researchers to participate in transnational research partnerships, allowing Ireland’s innovators join forces with the best brains in Europe.
IBM Ireland is just one MNC to have participated in a framework-funded project – in their case a revolutionary project aimed at enabling desktop computers to ‘”think” more like human beings by structuring information in a similar manner to the human brain.
Working in collaboration with 15 European partners, IBM Ireland received funding of some €745,000 for the project. However as senior manager Marie Wallace explains, it’s more than about just money.
“There is the financial support, which is very attractive; the network connections to researchers across Europe, and the opportunity to carry out applied research, with a three-to-five year application.”
The FP7 “is the single biggest source of funding available locally to Irish researchers,” according to Dr Imelda Lambkin of Enterprise Ireland, the National Director of FP7.
Dr Lambkin heads the National Support Network, a collection of experts tasked with to enabling Irish researchers make full use of the opportunities afforded by FP7 - opportunities made even more relevant by current economic challenges.
“In times of downturn and pressure on public finances, national funding for research may suffer,” Dr Lambkin explains.
“That’s why FP7 – the funding of which is ‘locked-in’ for the duration of the programme, is a particularly important source of finance at the moment.”
As the European Commission’s main financial instrument for collaborative research, FP7 seeks to support research covering a variety of disciplines, from health, food, agriculture and fisheries to information and communications technology; from sustainable energy and environmental issues to socio-economic sciences and the humanities; from cutting-edge scientific innovation to transport and security concerns.
Key to proposals being granted funding under FP7 is their demonstration of a “European added value”, which can involve transnational research projects, or in the case of teams from individual countries, by raising the competition in “frontier” research from the national to the European level.
Researchers employed in third-level institutions or publicly-funded organisations can participate in FP7 as part of international cooperative project, as part of a single research group, or as an individual.
Meanwhile Ireland’s estimated 90,000 SMEs are encouraged to participate under programme strands designed explicitly develop the innovation capacity of the private sector.
It is the “transnational” element that makes the framework programmes so invaluable to Irish researchers.
“Our strategy of participating in the Framework Programme has helped showcase our abilities to large commercial and government clients, which would otherwise have been difficult for an Irish-based SME to access,” according to Paul Cunningham of IIMC, a Dublin-based company which co-ordinated the IST-Africa framework-funded project.
Aimed at tackling Africa’s digital divide, IST-Africa was a pan-European project which provided training for over 1,000 government officials and researchers in Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania in areas such as e-government, e-health and technology-enhanced learning.
Thanks to the opportunities afforded by the framework programme “IIMC now has an extensive worldwide network in government, industry and research, which is invaluable in developing consulting and research opportunities and informing internally-funded product development,” Cunningham adds.
First port of call for those seeking funding is the National Support Network, which includes some 34 designated National Contact Points (NCPs), experts in their field who have been assigned as liaisons for a particular FP7 sub-programme.
“In a programme that’s so big it’s very difficult to find ‘what’s in it for me’,” Dr Lambkin explains. “Your NCP can point you to the exact opportunity where the fit might be for you, and provide practical help from day one.
“Don’t randomly chase projects,” warns Dr John Murphy of Sensl, a Cork-based scientific equipment manufacturer taking part in an FP7-supported project to develop a diagnostic tool for early and conclusive detection of prostate and breast cancer.
“Go to some of the Enterprise Ireland sponsored events, get in touch with the relevant national contact point, and use the CORDIS website to identify partners.”
Dr Murphy has been involved in Framework projects extending back to FP5, and describes the initiative as “a great way to expose us to markets and other partners.”
“The people we are linking up with are possible future customers, and we are getting important know-how from a multi-disciplinary team.”
Calls for Proposals are published during the year by the European Commission on the FP7 section of CORDIS, the website dedicated to EU-supported research, which also includes a Guide for Applicants with step-by-step advice on how to submit a proposal, eligibility criteria, evaluations, Intellectual Property issues, etc.
Meanwhile the website of the Irish National Support Network – www.fp7ireland.com – will also feature a list of open Calls, as well as full details of all National Contact Points, in-depth case studies of successful projects carried out under the 6th Framework Programme, and much more.
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