Under the call FP7-INCO-2010-6, ERAWIDE, EU research institutions can build or extend collaboration with research institutions based in European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) countries. This is a new opportunity for INCO NCPs, as we have again the opportunity to collaborate with the research institutions in our countries.

The objective of this new action is to reinforc e the cooperation capacities of research centres located in the ENP countries, which are not associated to FP7. The call gives these countries the possibility to improve the research activities of their highest quality and/or promising centres in the thematic priorities of FP7.

Proposed activities

The activities covered by the call are:

   Networking with research centres in Member States or Associated Countries in view of disseminating scientific information, identifying partners and setting up joint experiments;

   Developing training modules to build competency and facilitate the participation in FP7 of the centres located in the targeted third countries;

   Developing the research centres’ strategy in order to increase their scope in particular their regional coverage and to improve their responses to the socio-economic needs of their countries and of the region.

Funding

The funding scheme that applies is the Coordination and Support Action (supporting action). Community contribution for each project is expected to be about EUR 0.5 million. The typical duration of the project would be between 2 to 3 years.

Participants

This call is addressed to research centres of proven high level S&T capacities, which are located in an ENP country not associated to FP7. The research centre is defined here as an existing working unit, either independent or functioning within a locally established research organisation of one of the countries concerned, having preferably distinct organisational and administrative boundaries. The centre should not be a subsidiary or branch of an organisation established in another country. In order to be eligible, the proposal must target only one such centre, the consortium should however include additional participants, in particular from the Member States and/or Associated Countries so as to fulfil the objectives of the Activity.

Areas open to this call

The call will be open to the fields of science addressed by the thematic priorities of FP7 and

will target centres located in the following regions:

  Area INCO.2010-6.1: Eastern Europe and South Caucasus: Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine,

Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan,

  Area INCO.2010-6.2: Mediterranean Partner Countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya,

Egypt, Jordan, Palestinian-administered Areas, Lebanon, Syria

Important Information

  The consortium must include the research centre that is targeted in the proposal.

  The research centre targeted by the proposal should be the coordinator of the proposal.

  At least one project per country covered by the areas of the Activity 7.6 of the work programme will be funded, provided that it has passed thresholds of all evaluation criteria. Therefore, the highest ranked proposal for a given target country will be considered for FP7 Capacities Work Programme: Activities of International Cooperation 2010 funding, subject to the result of the evaluation and availability of the budget. After allocating a budget to the best projects in this way, all remaining projects in each Area will be ranked together in one list according to the marks obtained during evaluation. The remaining budget will be allocated to the projects according to their position in this overall ranking without further concern for country coverage. The panel of experts evaluating the proposals will apply this rule when recommending a priority order for the proposals, in particular for proposals with the same score.