European Commission works for research promotion and for enlargment as well. The initiative for a single European Research Area including the Western Balkans region is an evidence.
A special call for proposals for the Western Balkans region
To encourage scientists from Serbia and the entire Western Balkan region, Janez Potočnik will announce a special call for proposals to be launched during the summer that will address the specific needs of the region with respect to research capacity.
Opportunities for Serbian's scientific community
During the day, representatives from the European Commission and from Serbian research programmes will present the European policies and funding opportunities under
FP7 and the Serbian matching programmes in various
areas of research such as health, energy,
information technologies and food, agriculture and biotechnology. The European programmes to support researcher's mobility and frontier research will also be highlighted.
Helping Serbia's pre-accession process
In view of Serbia's pre-accession process, a general session will explain how the EU-funded Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) can work for research. The Commissioner will underline as well the role of the JRC as key player in the EU's R&D cooperation with Serbia. The Joint Research Centre assists the country it its preparation to comply with EU's legislation in the framework of a special programme developed for enlargement candidates. In particular, this programme focuses on complex scientific and technical issues underpinning EU legislation in a wide range of policy
areas which are important for the citizen, such as: environment, health, food, energy, chemicals, agriculture and nuclear safety.
Beyond the funding possibilities, integrating into the European Research Area
Since 1 January 2007, Serbia has been associated to
FP7 and can participate in all calls for proposals. More than 90 applicants have already obtained EU funding to engage in research and networking with leading research entities in the EU and the Western Balkan Region. Cooperation under
FP7 also allows Serbia to participate in the wider European Research Area and contribute, together with the EU Member States, to the setting of research priorities. Launched by the Commission in 2000, the ERA concept combines: a European "internal market" for research, where researchers, technology and knowledge freely circulate; effective European-level coordination of national and regional research activities, programmes and policies; and initiatives implemented and funded at European level.
Background
The 7th European Framework Programme for Research (
FP7) supports scientific research in the EU with a budget of almost 54 billion Euros over 7 years (2007-2013). As an associated country, Serbia can compete in
FP7's calls for proposals on the same basis as EU Member States and is either observer or full Member in the European Research Area governance bodies.
European funds
