Significant additional funding has also been allocated to the security aspects of other themes in the €51 billion EU FP7 programme (e.g. space, transport, energy, nanotechnology, etc). Improving security in air cargo transport will be a research topic included in the FP7 Security Theme “call” in the summer of 2011.

A 2010 EU Parliament Study – Review of security measures in the Research Framework Programme - is of interest to organisations considering responding to future research calls, as it provides an analysis of projects and participants in the 7th Framework Programme Security Theme (7FP-ST). The newsletter includes a set of tables describing the main benefactors (by Member State and Corporate entity/institution) of 7FP-ST funding to-date. The study states that:

• “Although the FP7 is open to institutions from all EU member states and associated third countries, organisations from five states (France, U.K., Italy, Sweden, Israel) have obtained the majority of allocated funds.
• Three types of institutions (transnational defence companies, applied research centres and governmental institutions) have obtained the majority of funds. They further account for the largest share of individual participation in, and coordination of, projects. This takes place at the expense of universities and NGOs, which remain largely under-represented…...”

The full EU Parliament Study can be viewed at: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/activities/committees/studies/download.do?language=en&file=32851

A study on the impact on the UK of the EU Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development (RTD) prepared for the International Science and Innovation Unit within the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)

This study found that “….the areas of greatest dissatisfaction were with reporting procedures and mechanisms for payment of EC contributions, while the timeliness of various processes (particularly the application and contract negotiation procedures) were also sources of dissatisfaction for a significant minority of participants”

The full UK Impact Report can be viewed at: http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/science/docs/i/10-1158-impact-eu-rtd-framework

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