Time to pitch for share of European R & D funding

There will be money going abegging when MEPs and the Commission finally agree the Fifth Framework Programme, the European Union's next research budget. The five-year programme will involve spending of between £11 billion and £12.8 billion, with a compromise figure to be agreed before the end of December.

This money will be ploughed into a number of research "themes" including the information society, energy, quality of life and the environment. The budget is open to all comers including companies doing research and third level researchers but, as with previous Framework programmes, the shareout will be based on establishing collaborative teams that knit together groups from different member-states.

Participants here should be moving now to link up with other companies and researchers abroad. It will be "too late" if you wait until the budget is finally agreed in December according to Commission official, Mme Irja Vounakis.

Mme Vounakis is a member of the management team that operates Cordis, the Community Research and Development Information Service, which has a presence on the World Wide Web and is designed to help EU researchers find partners.

While the Commission and the Parliament continued to haggle over the total budget, there was already agreement over the main areas where the money would be spent, she said. This had allowed collaborative research groups to begin forming now, well in advance of the budget deadline.

"The first thing for Irish companies is to be involved now because people are looking for partners now," Mme Vounakis said.

The programme is for players at all research levels, not just but big guns such as Philips or Siemens. Assessment for funding includes the structure of the teams which must include the participation of smaller countries. This opens a vast array of opportunities for Irish firms with something to contribute.

The database behind the Cordis website currently holds details on 14,000 EU companies, including 60 Irish firms. Access to and participation in the database and website is free of charge. Individual entries can list capabilities or offer ideas in particular research or development areas. Companies can also tout for the kind of firms they want to collaborate with.

The service, begun during the 1996 Irish presidency, is now changing to make it even easier for companies to reach out to one another. Last week, Cordis launched a new "Member-States Service" which will provide separate web locations for each country. These are being introduced on a phased basis. The provisional content of the Irish site will be agreed by mid-July and a demonstration version will be on the Web by August 15th. The official launch of the Irish site will be September 15th.

Meanwhile, the existing database remains and can be searched by country, by research initiative, by service offered or by research subject, said Mr Declan Kirrane, of Cordis in Brussels. The national site was being prepared in co-operation with the Office of Science and Technology (OST), Mr Kirrane said. The service could help Irish companies to grow markets and increase employment according to Ms Anne-Marie O'Connor, an OST assistant principal officer with responsibility for European programmes.

"The universities are quite adept at plugging in and seeing what is available. The small companies have less experience in this area," she said. The service, however, provides a way for small Irish firms which might not have considered research collaborations before to "plug in and use this" as a way to form partnerships.

The Cordis website is: http://www.cordis.lu. The Irish national site to be opened later this summer is: http://www.cordis.lu/ire land/home.html.