Cash boost for Euro research
15 Jan 2000
The European Commission has adopted the outline of the Ecu16billion (£11billion) Fifth Framework research and technology programme, set to run from 1999 to 2002. The spending - which has yet to be approved by parliament and the council of the member states' research ministers - would represent a 22 per cent increase on the previous programme.
The fifth framework is organised around six broad topics - the resources of the living world; creating a `user-friendly' information society; sustainable development; international cooperation; innovation and smaller companies; and improving human potential.
This approach replaces the more segmented Fourth Framework, which has 18 separate grant-awarding programmes. The commission considers this structure too rigid; the Fifth Framework will allow it to respond much faster to unforeseen research needs, it claims.
