| EU/EEC PROGRAMMES |
THE FIFTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME OF COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND DEMONSTRATION FOR THE PERIOD 1998 TO 2002 AND SMEs
The harmonious and sustainable development of the European Union is one of the crucial objectives of Community policies. In order to promote member States activities which attempt to implement these policies, the European Commission has prepared special instruments which aim at supporting the definition of specific programmes about key fields able to carry out an active and lasting role. One of these key fields is that of small and medium enterprises.
The European Commission has destined significant funds to promote programmes and activities for SMEs both to guarantee their steady growth and to increase their competitiveness on international markets because SMEs system occupies a relevant part in the member States social life and economy.
PROMOTION OF INNOVATION AND ENCOURAGEMENT OF PARTICIPATION OF SMEs
We will only summarise here one of the last actions the European Commission has taken for SMEs. These actions are included in the Fifth Framework Programme in the field of Research, Technological Development and Demonstration for the period 1998 to 2002. It aims at strengthening the scientific and technological ground of European Union industry and at spreading its competitiveness at an international level.
"Promotion of innovation and encouragement of participation of SMEs" is the action of the Fifth Framework Programme which will enable the programme to support and finance activities for SMEs. The choice of the title itself makes clear that the European Commission wanted to emphasise the interest of innovation and participation to the FP5 programmes as key factors to encourage SMEs competitiveness and of the economical and social development of the member States, which should be achieved through new jobs creation.
It's very important to highlight that the aim of this action is to promote innovative activities, including also innovative companies, and to help spread and exploit the results of researches and support the technological transfer as well. Consequently, it's quite clear that the Commission has to make the necessary and suitable tools available in order to assist SMEs to have access to those advanced technologies they need and to all the possibilities offered by RTD Community research programmes.
In order to be able to implement these two general goals, the Fifth Framework Programme will support the following actions:
a) To promote innovation:
- To carry out innovative policies in the European Union. In particular, the creation of an innovative-oriented environment should be created;
- To promote innovation advantages;
- To improve the economical and social effects of research activities promoted by FP5, guaranteeing better diffusion and better use of results;
- Make SMEs access to innovation instruments easier, providing information and advice.
b) To encourage SMEs participation in Community research activities and technological transfer:
- To stimulate the real participation in Community RTD of both SMEs which already work in research fields or of updated technologies and of those companies which cannot have their own research activity, even if they have to meet relevant technological demands and they're able to take up new technologies;
- To help SMEs create international nets and partnerships in order to adopt and spread new technologies;
- To encourage international links developments among SMEs, research centres and Universities.
These activities will be implemented both through general and specific actions which are related to the main goals mentioned above. The projects selected by the European Commission will be funded on the basis of these actions. Special calls for proposals were published in 1999 and others will be published in this year and until the end of 2001. They allow the presentation of projects and establish the evaluation criteria. The projects will be chosen if they introduce innovative solutions.
As example of the support provided by the action "Encouragement of participation of SMEs" of the FP5, we'd like to describe very shortly two activities which were already included in the FP4 and were proposed again because of their success.
The first research activity "Co-operation research " (CRAFT) allows at least three SMEs of at least two member States to try to join their efforts to find a solution for common technological problems related to the improving of process or/and products. They should join their research skills or if they lack them, they should entrust this task to other institutions such as research centres or Universities.
The second research activity aims at encouraging the participation of SMEs in research projects. SMEs should co-operate proposing one research project and the Community undertakes to support this co-operation through an "exploratory award" which should evaluate its validity and factuality. If the research project proposed is convincing, the Community undertakes to co-finance it.
For all those who would like to have more information about the Fifth Framework Programme, the web site of the European Commission is as follows:
- www.cordis.lu/fp5/home.html
The web pages on the specific actions for SMEs is as follows:
- www.cordis.lu/sme/home.html
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