The complexity of the phenomena that determine the dynamics
of socio-economic development has acquired an ever-growing dimension,
caused, among other things, by the globalization of markets.
It has become evident that the acquisition of competitive positions
in the various economic systems is based mainly on the development
of sectors with a high knowledge intensity.
Research has thus become one of the fundamental driving forces
in economic and social progress, a key factor in competitiveness
of businesses, employment, and quality of life.
The need for Europe to increase investments in the ability
to produce and utilize knowledge stems from here. It is necessary
to valorize to the utmost the effects induced by the most innovative
and rapid growth sectors, in order to extend a steadier development
rate to the entire productive sector. Europe intends to become
“the most dynamic and competitive economy based on knowledge”
by the year 2010, fixing to that objective an investment in
Research and Development equal to 3% of the GNP, as established
in the European Councils of Lisbon and Barcelona.
This setting, where research assumes a more central role in
the support of European competitiveness and economic growth,
is where the Commission’s proposal relating to the seventh
Framework Program for Research and Technological Development
(2007- 2013) is placed. Although it presents evident elements
of continuity with the preceding Framework Programs - among
these we can number the continuing construction process of the
European Research Area (ERA) - it also introduces new factors
in terms of objectives, structure, and management patterns:
- A stronger orientation towards research activity that answers
to the needs of European industry, through the creation of
instruments such as the European Technological Platforms and
the Joint Technological Initiatives, instruments that propose
to obtain the intensification of dialogue between productive
sectors and applied research.
- The institution of the European Council for Research, which
will furnish new vigor to European scientific excellence in
the basic research sector by resorting to innovative organizational
and management criteria.
- A greater integration of the Program in the international
cooperation component which, once it is no longer identified
as an independent part of the Framework Program, will have
a transversal dimension by favoring a more effective exchange
of researchers and knowledge between the European Union and
industrialized and emergent countries.
- The introduction of simplification measures in the carrying
out phase of the Program, in order to make it less bureaucratic
and more accessible to potential participants, including those
that are less expert in participating in European programs.
The seventh Framework Program will last seven years, not the
traditional five. That way, it will be in synthesis with the
periodical process of adoption of the European Union budget,
and a consistent increase of financial supplies with which to
ensure a more incisive contribution to the pursuit of the Lisbon
and Barcelona objectives.
