2011 Calls Now Open!

The 2011 Environment and KBBE calls are now open. Please click on the links below for the 2011 Work Programmes:

Environment

KBBE

Budget: €32 billion

The Cooperation programme contains the biggest budget for supporting research with one of its main aims to generate new knowledge, processes or technologies. FP7 is open to any legal entity and helps fund research projects between universities, industry, research centres and public authorities across the EU and beyond.

Being a European research programme, FP7 projects must ordinarily involve several different countries from within the EU or associated countries. Certain projects can also require the involvement of partners from outside the EU, for example from South America, Russia and Asia.

The Cooperation programme is sub-divided into ten themes, each one covering a different aspect of science and technology. All have been put in place to promote and progress science and research within the EU.

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
8. Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities
9. Space
10. Security

Beta is specifically nominated by Defra to support themes 2 and 6 which are described in detail below.

Beta is also the National Contact Point for theme 1 – Health, click here for further info.

More information about the rest of the Cooperation programme can be found by clicking here.

The Food, Agriculture and Fisheries and Biotechnology theme, or Bio for short, aims to fund research that builds towards a knowledge based bio-economy (KBBE). The idea behind the KBBE is to bring together all the relevant players to address social, environmental and economic challenges faced by uses of biological resources, for example agriculture, food and forestry.

This theme has several activity areas, with each funding research, networking and research support activities. The areas available for research funding are:

i. Sustainable production and management of biological resources from land, forest and aquatic environments
Research to look into key long term drivers for sustainable production and management of biological resources (micro-organisms, plants and animals), and the exploitation of biodiversity.

ii. Fork to farm: food (including seafood), health and well being
The focus here is to understand consumer behaviour and consumer preferences. This knowledge is key to understanding the competitiveness of the food industry, the impact of food on health and the well-being of the European citizen. Research will look more specifically at consumer attitude, cultural and societal trends, food choice and consumer access to food. It will also include development of food and nutritional research.

iii. Life sciences, biotechnology and biochemistry for sustainable non-food products and processes
This activity covers research into improving crops, forest products, feed-stocks, marine products and biomass for energy and high value-added products. Also covers research into environmental biotechnology, such as cleaner processing and bio-remediation is identified.

For more information relating to this theme click here.

The Environment (including climate change) theme, aims to fund research that promotes sustainable management of the environment and its resources by advancing our knowledge between the climate, biosphere, ecosystems and human activities. The idea is to bring the major players together to understand these areas and develop new technologies, tools and services. This theme is split into the following five activity areas:

i. Climate change, pollution and risks
This activity looks into preventing the effects of climate change, its current and future impacts. Analysis will focus on the pressures on the environment and climate from both natural and man-made emissions, which will help to improve our understanding of our climate system. Various observation, analysis and modelling techniques must be used to assess changes to atmospheric composition, greenhouse gases and the effects on the water cycle, soil, and ice environments. Impacts on ecosystems, feed-back mechanisms and abrupt changes as well as the occurrence of extreme events are also important.

Research will look into the interactions between environmental risks and human health. This will help to address public health concerns and disease characterisation related to both current and emerging environmental risks.

ii. Sustainable management of resources
Research in this area will help to improve the knowledge base and develop models and tools needed for the sustainable management of resources. For example, conservation of biodiversities and ecosystems, and creation of sustainable consumption patterns to reduce environmental impacts. Knowledge gained here will help to fight against the loss of biodiversity in water, soil and marine environments.

iii. Environmental technologies
Environmental technologies research is needed to reduce the environmental impact of human activities to:

• Protect the environment
• Manage resources more efficiently
• Develop new products, processes and services

The aim is to create new and improved technologies for the environment, with this area especially applicable to industry, including SMEs.

iv. Earth observation and assessment tools for sustainable development
Research in this area will focus on the development of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) for environment and sustainable development. The aim is to connect people to use observation systems, information management and data sharing. Also understanding, modelling and predicting environmental phenomena will be addressed.

v .Horizontal actions
This action will focus on identifying and sharing good practices and developing methodology and mapping for research dissemination.

For more information relating to this theme click here.

To download a brochure that provides an overview of EU environmental research and highlights some of the more successful research projects funded by the Framework Programme, please click here.

Budget: €7.4 billion

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 lead by established researchers, or researchers establishing their first research team.

For more information relating to this area click here.

Budget: €4.7 billion

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.

Budget: €4.2 billion

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.

DG Research

For a general overview of the European Commission and the main contacts for each Directorate, including Heads of Units, please click here to download a DG Research organisation chart. For an up to date list of these contacts please click here to take you to the Europa website.

Scientific Officers

If there is a particular call topic you are interested in, it is always advisable to contact the Scientific Officer (SO) at the European Commission responsible for that area of the work programme. The Scientific Officers are very approachable and can often provide guidance and advice.

For each KBBE and Environment call, a list of the topics in the work programme and a Scientific Officer responsible for each topic is provided. The lists of Scientific Officers below are from the previous call but their area of expertise remains the same. If there is a call topic similar to your area of interest, chances are that the Scientific Officer listed will be the correct contact. However, if you would like Beta to make contact with the EC on your behalf, or would like guidance on the best Scientific Officer to contact, please let us know.

KBBE Scientific Officer List - 2010 call

Environment Scientific Officer List - 2009 call

Who can take part?

Any legal entity including industry (large and Small to Medium sized Enterprises - SMEs), universities, research centres and public bodies.

What types of projects are funded?

There are three main types of projects or funding schemes as they are officially known.

Collaborative projects are research projects with the aim of generating new knowledge. This new knowledge can be used to develop a new technology, process or product. They can vary in size, scope and budget, depending upon the proposal topic and theme.

Networks of Excellence are best described as virtual institutes based around a common theme. The theme of the network should be a research topic where there is little integration among the research community. By having a network of researchers and their organisations, a common research strategy can be developed and therefore a more strategic approach and effective use of resources can be achieved.

Coordination and Support Actions are non research projects that support other research activities. They can be used to fund conferences, disseminate past research results and coordinate existing research.

Do I need partners?

The simple answer is yes. The number of partners depends upon the type of project you are taking part in but generally you need at least three partners from three different countries, for example the UK, France and Poland.

How much funding can I get?
The level of funding depends upon the type of activity and the type of organisation. The table below outlines the different levels of funding.

What documentation do I need?

For each 'call' you need the following documents:

A work programme which describes all the proposal topics that are open for proposals.

The guide for applicants is specific to each theme and funding scheme. It outlines what you need to include in the proposal text and the information required to complete the forms.

It is recommended that potential applicants should contact the relevant NCP. UK NCP LIST

Finances

• For answers to financial questions, the FP7 Financial Helpdesk website is a good source of information. They produce newsletters that you receive via email and have FAQs you can search through and factsheets you can download. To go to their website, please click here.
• Please be aware that the VAT rules have changed for FP7. Following clarification from the Commission, research bodies cannot deduct input VAT tax relating to purchases incurred during the course of the research project, if wholly funded under FP7. Under FP5 and 6, VAT incurred on goods and services purchased purely to support research is not input tax and therefore it should not have been recovered. However, because research bodies wrongly recovered this VAT following advice from HM Revenue & Customs, HMRC will not be taking any action to correct this. A review by HMRC is due to take place in 2009 to further clarify the situation, but please take into account the inability to reclaim VAT when costing any projects for future calls. A page on the HMRC website provides some information, as well as their guidance page for educational establishments: activities and supplies provided by HEIs and FECs. If we receive any further clarification on the subject, it will be posted on this website.

Reporting

• When project reporting for an FP6/FP7 project, a financial statement for each period of reporting has to be submitted through a 'Form C' (annex VI to the FP7 grant agreement). Until now, the Forms C were submitted through an excel sheet. Now, a new web based application called FORCE is available, allowing coordinators to access, complete and submit Forms C (in a later version individual beneficiaries will be able to view, edit and print their own Form C).For FP6 projects, it is still possible to submit Forms C through an excel sheet but the European Commission highly recommends that coordinators use FORCE. For FP7 projects, it is mandatory to use FORCE to submit 'Form C'. FORCE is now accessible via the web based application called 'SESAM', at the following address: http://webgate.ec.europa.eu/sesam. To access FORCE, coordinators have to create an account in SESAM and indicate the link to their project. The details are explained in slides accessible on Beta Europe downloads (link not available in this draft put on Beta Europe). FORCE is available for all FP7 projects managed by the Directorates-General Research (RTD) and Enterprise and Industry (ENTR). In Directorate-General Energy and Transport (TREN), it is not available but will be in the near future. For any technical question on the use of FORCE, please send your request to the IT Helpdesk at the following E-mail address: EC-FP7-IT-HELPDESK@ec.europa.eu.

Policy Information

If you need information on environmental policy for your proposal, DG Environment has 'Science for Environment Policy', a weekly service of news alerts on new scientific findings relevant to environmental policy issues. The news alerts are e-mailed to subscribers every week and are also available on the news alert website.

In addition to the weekly email alerts, a monthly service, ‘Thematic Issues’ is also avilable. The Thematic Issues' topics are chosen according to the environmental policy agenda and past issues have focused on biofuels, biodiversity and climate change adaptation. More information is available here.

Glossary

For an explaination of all FP7 terminology, please click here to access the EC's comprehensive glossary.

Beta's delivery of this contract offers free and confidential National Contact Point service for the FP7 themes 'Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnology' and 'Environment (including climate change). This service is available to organisations that would like to find out more information or participate in either of these two themes. The services available are:

Beta's National Contact Point services include:

• Helpline - Monday to Friday, 9.00 am to 5.00pm. tel: (+44 01302 322 633)
• Pre-screening of proposals for eligibility and fit
• Partner searching
• Regular information bulletins sent via e-mail
• Presentations at events and meeting
• Advice on administrative procedures and contractual issues