FP7 is organised into four programmes, each covering a different aspect of research and support activities.

• Cooperation
• Ideas
• People
• Capacities

The Cooperation Programme has the biggest budget in FP7 and is used for funding research. The main outcome of a project funded in this area is the generation of new knowledge, a processes or technology. For example, investigating the impact of nutrition on health, a new water purification kit, or new methods for reducing fertilisers and chemicals in agriculture.

The Cooperation Programme is sub-divided into ten themes, each one covering a different aspect of science and technology. The ten thematic areas are:

	1. Health
	2. Food, Agriculture and Fisheries and Biotechnology
	3. Information and Communication Technologies
	4. Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and New Production Technologies
	5. Energy
	6. Environment (including climate change)
	7. Transport (including aeronautics)
	8. Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities
	9. Space
	10. Security

Beta is specifically nominated by Defra and the Food Standards Agency to support themes 2 and 6 which are described in detail by clicking below.

Food, Agriculture and Fisheries and Biotechnology
Environment (including climate change)

This programme aims to fund research projects that will push the frontier of knowledge in all science and technology fields. The Ideas programme is implemented by the European Research Council (ERC) which is made up of an independent scientific council and a dedicated implementation structure.

This form of funding is 'investigator-driven' which allows the researchers to identify the research project, which can be on any topic or field. The research can be undertaken by a single team of outstanding researchers and can be led by established researchers, or researchers establishing their first research team.

For more information relating to this area click here.

This programme focuses on individual researchers and their long term career development. The idea is to provide opportunities for researchers to work across Europe and world wide, working on research projects on any topic. The People programme also aims to encourage European researchers to stay in Europe and attract the best researchers from all over the world to take advantage of European research opportunities and infrastructures. The movement of researchers is not only key to individual career development, but also vital to sharing and transferring knowledge between countries and sectors.

For more information relating to this area click here.

This programme covers several different areas, including the development of research infrastructures and the participation of SMEs (Small to Medium sized Enterprises) in research projects. Capacities also funds research into science and society which aims to bridge the gap between the general public and the research community.

More can be found by clicking here.

Each area of FP7 has a National Contact Point (NCP)- a named person who you can contact for more information. To find the UK NCP for a specific area of FP7, please click here.