Luigi
Frati
After
an elaboration phase lasting almost two years finally it has been issued on
the first days of March (expiring 90 days from publication) on the Official
Journal of the European Community the first notices of competition to allocate
resources for the 5th Research, Technological & Development- RTD Framework
of the European Unit, covering four years (1999-2002) by the means of a total
financing of 14.960 millions
| I bandi sono reperibili sul sito
web “Cordis” http://www.cordis.lu/ oppure sul sito web della Direzione
generale per la ricerca (DG XII) http://europa. eu.int/comm/dg12/ oppure
via electronic mail info@dg12.cec.be. Si può anche telefonare agli
Uffici per la comunicazione della DG XII, 200 rue de la Loi, B-1049 Bruxelles,
0032-2-2991865 fax 0032-2-2958220. |
Euro
(nearly 28.000 billions Lire). The notices of competition are available on the
web site “Cordis” http://www. cordis.lu/ or on the Investigation General Direction
Department web site (XII GD) http://europa. eu.int/comm/dg12/ or 
via
electronic mail at info@dg12. cec.be. It's too possible to call-up the Information
Offices of the DG XII, 200 rue de la Loi, B-1049 Bruxelles, 0032-2-2991865,
fax 0032-2-2958220. The Plan has been elaborated by the co-ordination of the
Investigation General Direction (XII GD) and the contribution of the national
delegations, the first version being approved and submitted by the European
Union Committee, delivered by the commissioner Edith Cresson to the European
Parliament for its advise and finally submitted to the so-called “arrangement”
so to reach an agreement between the Committee and the Parliament (about the
program structure and budget). A relevant role has been played by the Italian
Parliamentarians and among them mainly by Prof. Umberto Scapagnini, who chaired
the competent Committee of the European Parliament and who referred constantly
to the positions Italy expressed
(both by Ministers Berlinguer and Zecchino, and by the national representatives).
It has been achieved an allocation of consistent resources for some 'horizontal
programs' that are relevant both for Europe in general and particularly for
Italy, while operative level it has been introduced the “back scholarship“,
that is scholarships and financing for researchers that have gone abroad and
intend to reintegrate in a laboratory in the origin country. In the elaboration
phase the XII GD employed also experts' teams, acknowledged leading researchers
international level, to settle special targets of the 
program.
Program's
general features
The
main innovation involves the structure of the whole program: indeed while
the previous ones were essentially thematic (medicine, transports, biotechnologies,
etc.), the current program (Table 1) is featured by 5 great topics where are
inserted the 'horizontal programs' deemed as characteristic of Europe and
its development outlooks. Topics are: 1. Quality of life and management of
living resources; 2. Computerised society employ; 3. Bearable and competitive
growth; 4. Energy, environment and bearable development; 5. Euratom-nuclear
program, each of them divided into 4-6 actions-key. As pointed to there are
3 horizontal programs, involving all the great topics, being the value added
for the European Union with respect to the other great geographic areas of
research and development (North -America and 
Japan
-East Asia): a. to assert and develop the international role of the researching
community; b. to promote innovation and small and medium-sized enterprises
participation to research (small and medium-sized enterprises-SMEs); c. to
better the human researching potentiality and the basic social-economic acknowledges.
If these are targets that appear immediately evident in the whole 
program
and in the competition notices, nevertheless it is a good thing to learn how
“to read between lines “, mainly paying attention to the targets planted,
being them divided into specific targets, defined as “thematic “ (for example
in topic 1 “bettering the life resources “) regarding the object of the research,
and general targets, defined as “horizontal”, and regarding the purpose of
the program of the whole research or the methodology to face it (for example
to innovate or to make small and medium-sized enterprises participate, to
increase the human potentiality, to capacitate persons by the means of research,
to better the exploitation of the research infrastructures, to promote the
image of research, to awake public opinion, to promote the social economic
research, the evaluation of the scientific and technologic options, the setting-up
of an European system of science, technology and innovation indicators. Between
two seemingly equal quality projects - one admitted and the other one deemed
insufficient - the difference is often due to the presence /absence of linkages
between topic actions and horizontal programs. Indeed it must be reminded
that it is mainly this value added the 
European
Union stakes to have positive by-products both in competition and employment
terms: it is being followed the experience of other countries as for example
in North-America where the small sized enterprises, risen by the means of
venture capitals invested in high risk sectors, but featured also by great
innovation and by human resources valorization, were deemed and still are
deemed as the development “moving” factor. It's not a case that the innovative
aspects of the Fifth Framework program regard the internationalization of
research (the European Union must not become a protected area, a sort of cultural
autarchy) and the ability to promote a wider access by citizens of the community,
along with the individuation of the social economic parameters promoting development.
The researchers mobility
Thematic programme 1
Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources
The central topic of this programme is “quality of life”.
Quality of European life means the quality of our individual lives (especially
in terms of health), quality of the environment, and quality of communal
life, including enjoying the economic benefits of the expected developments
in life sciences and technologies. In concrete terms, the objective is
to support research aimed at development which is truly sustainable, both
for individuals, society, and the environment. Since the beginning of
the century, we have seen technical progress bring about an increase in
the quality of life in both developed and developing countries. But this
progress has a cost: there is an increasingly obvious difference between
the demands of human activities and the availability of natural resources.
Research and technological development is thus necessary to strengthen
the bonds between society, the living world, and the environment. This
programme will contribute towards the achievement of that goal by means
of three specific objectives: - To meet socio-economic needs The research
envisaged is specifically intended to improve health, reconcile economic
progress with environmental requirements, and improve the response to
consumer needs. Thre is also huge potential for economic growth and job-creation
in this field. - To increase European added value In all the fields covered
by this programme, Europe adds value, either because the subject is cross-border
by nature (e.g. environmental protection and management of living resources),
or because it is worth studying at the European level (e.g. epidemiology),
or because it has a direct link with Community policies (e.g. bio-ethics
and biosafety) - in short, because the research, owing to its breadth
or complexity, will be more effective if undertaken at a European level.
- To support European competitiveness Developing sectors covering health,
biotechnology, and the management of living resources, and creating the
conditions for environmentally friendly economic growth should contribute
to increased competitiveness and employment in Europe. For example, in
1997, the number of European biotechnology companies increased by 45%
leading to the creation of about 12,000 jobs. To achieve these objectives,
six key actions have been identified. Long-term research activities will
also be supported in the following generic fields: - chronic and degenerative
illnesses (in particular cancer and diabetes), cardiovascular diseases,
and rare diseases; - research on genomes, and diseases of genetic origin
- neurosciences - public health and health services (including the fight
against drug-related problems); - research relating to the disabled; -
studies in biomedical ethics and bio-ethics in the context of respect
for fundamental human values; - study of the socio-economic aspects of
life sciences and technologies within the perspective of sustainable development
(the impact on society, economy and employment). Support could also be
granted to the following research infrastructures, in particular with
regard to their transnational coordination and their networking: biological
databases and collections of biological material, clinical research facilities,
facilities for aquaculture and fisheries research, etc. |
is
encouraged by the Marie Curie Italian scholarships, the network laboratories
(EMBO Laboratories, among which the one for the transgenetic rats in Monterotondo-RM;
Joint Research Centres, among which the Ispra-VA one), back scholarships (this
one has been a successful point negotiated by the Italian party).
The
major interesting actions-keys for medicine
The
most interesting of the 5 topic programs for biomedicine is the first one.
In fact the thematic program 1 regards the quality of life and the management
of living resources, being allocated a global financing of 2.413 millions
ECU in four years (nearly 4.700 billions lire): nourishment, infections control,
cell as 'biotechnology production unit', environment and health, agricultural
resources including fishing and forest conservation and population aging are
the 6 identified key actions (Table 2), while the long-term attention by the
European Union concerns the degenerative diseases (including cancer and diabetes),
cardiovascular diseases and rare diseases, research over genome, neuroscience,
public health, research about disability, bioethics studies, social economic
aspects studies about biology and medicine. The key-actions, the long term
actions and horizontal programs crossing (employment development, small-middle
sized enterprises involvement) gives the excellence in admission to financing,
as long as two other basic requirement are fulfilled that is the program must
be “adequate” and must involve subjects belonging to more European nations
or associated to the European Union. It concerns health too the action-key
1 (systems and services for citizens) of the thematic program 2 (confidential
employment of a computerized company): the budget of 646 millions ECU is destined
- among others - to develop informatic technologies applied to the health
field, to support the medical profession, diagnostics and hospital organization
(till the 'virtual' hospital). Furthermore in the thematic program 3 (bearable
and competitive growth) there are action-keys regarding the development of
new materials (including those catering for the biomedical applications) and
in the thematic program 4 (energy, environment and bearable development) there
are action-keys regarding prevention and mitigation of 'risks and disasters'.
Who 
is an attentive
observer of the presence of the Italian biomedical research in the international
scientific literature will notice that all fields where we have a good competitiveness
are included: from neuroscience to aging, from oncology to endocrinology and
diabetology, from cardiovascular diseases to genetic diseases, the possibility
to access the biomedical sector is wide. It is worthy to remember the main
rules of participation, including all the evaluation criteria that will be
employed to evaluate applications.
Application
admission possibility
Rules
for participation are standardised : a good program, at least two member countries,
the involvement of the small-middle sized enterprises, employment induction.
Really the matter is far more complex. Mainly they are 
oriented
to finance important programs, including 10-20 operative units in 3-5 countries
of the European Union or associated to it (i.e. Israel) for an average allocation
of 2-10 millions Ecu for each great group. The group (called as cluster) can
be proposed as it is or whenever it is formed later by the XII GD merging
many less-sized proposals (3-5 proposers). An application delivered within
the established terms (10% applications arrives from Italy out of term) is
recorded by the XII GD and examined about its completeness: if it passes the
administrative check it goes to the evaluation phase by carried out by experts
(Table 3). It's also possible that they carry out a previous evaluation of
the draft of the proposal by the Offices of the XII GD (optional pre-proposal
check): it concerns a very useful procedure, mainly for who submits applications
for the first time. Proposers may use a software tool, which is available
by the DG XII via Internetor by electonic-mail; the final proposal may be
sent by electronic-mail obviously before the deadline. The
proposal is evaluated by a panel of European Union selected experts, who follows
the principles used by the international Agencies for research funding: a)
quality: high scientific, technical and managerial quality in the context
of the objectives of the Framework (key actions, horizontal programs); b)
degree of innovation and progress beyond the state of art, taking in account
the level of the risk associated with the project; c) adequacy of methodology
and work plan to reach the scientific and technological aims; d) transparency,
equality, impartiality: the proposal are evaluated according to the instructions,
irrespective of the countries of the partecipants or the identity of the proposer,
but only on their merit, following an independent peer review. The European
Union added value is analyzed about the dimension of the problem (contribution
to solve problems at European level, so that an “European project” should
be greater than the sum of the 
impacts
of national projects), the consortium of proposers (critical Europe-wide mass
in human and financial terms) and the contribution to Community social objectives
(to preserve and/or enhance the environment; to improve quality of life and
health, safety, employment prospects). The Economic development and strategic
& technological impact evaluation include the credibility of the partners
to carry out the project, the potentiality to improve the competitiveness
for the partners and the users of the results, the contribution to European
progress and the spreading strategies for the expected results. The last evaluation
is focused on Resources, partnership and management, regarding the quality,
appropriateness, consistency, efficiency and completeness of the proposed
tasks, the scheduling arrangements, the check point for monitoring project
progress, the quality of partnership (scientific competence and complementarity
of the partners), the appropriateness of the resources (manpower effort for
each partner, resources to be used, facilities to carry out the research,
etc.). A six point scale from 0 to 5 is used by the experts to evaluate the
project: the score is assigned for each criterion (1. Scientific-technological
quality; 2. EU added value; 3. Contribution to EU social objectives; 4. EU
economic development prospects; 5. Resources, partnership and management)
and for the overall project. The final score is discussed by the panel of
experts so that a priority list of proposal suitable for funding and a list
for rejection are sent to the Research Technology and Development Commission
for the final decision. Last but not least: do not wait the last week to present
the project (the optional pre-prosal check by the DG XII is very useful).
And good luck by the Italian delegates and experts!
Luigi
Frati
Delegato-esperto
Italia per l'elaborazione
del
5th RDT Framework
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