ERA.Net RUS – FP7-226164 19/07/2010
ERA.Net RUS Workshop report
Oslo, 15-16 June 2010
“Development of a concept for joint activities of S&T and innovation Funding Organisations (Programme Owners/Managers) in EU member states, countries associated to the EU RTD Framework Programme and Russia”
The workshop “Development of concept for joint activities of S&T and innovation Funding Organisations (Programme Owners/Managers) in EU member states, countries associated to the EU RTD Framework Programme and Russia” was held in Oslo (Norway) at the Hotel Radisson Blu Scandinavia on 15-16 June 2010.
This was the third workshop within the ERA.Net RUS project addressing programme owners from Russia, EU Member States (MS), and Associated Countries (AC) to the 7th EU Framework Programme for Research and Development. The first workshop focussed on the exchange of lessons learned and perspectives of bilateral Science and Technology (S&T) cooperation programmes between EU MS/AC and Russia, and the second on the identification of the specific needs for introducing advanced cooperation schemes of governmental and non-governmental programme owners in EU MS/AC and Russia as well as of interest for the participation in a pilot joint call among S&T programme owners from EU MS/AC and Russia. The aims of the third workshop were
· to identify a common ground of Programme Owners to implement joint activities
· to discuss the Advanced Concept Note on joint activities/funding instruments
· to refine and define the joint funding instruments
· to create a ground for further elaboration of Terms of Reference for joint activities.
The workshop was attended by participants from:
· EU MS/AC and Russian governmental and non-governmental programme owners involved in S&T cooperation programmes in basic, applied and innovation-oriented research;
· Members of the ERA.Net RUS Consortium;
· Members of the European Commission, DG Research;
· Member of the EC Delegation to Russia
At the beginning of the workshop the participants were addressed by Jesper W. Simonsen, Director, Department Global Issues, the Research Council of Norway, who outlined that Norway is planning to deepen its cooperation with Russia. Jörn Sonnenburg, Executive Director of the International Bureau of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and ERA.Net RUS Project Coordinator mentioned that the workshop served the purpose of defining which funding tools should be implemented within ERA.Net RUS, which Programme Owners would be part of the Group of Funding Parties for a certain funding instrument and for designing the instruments in further detail. Richard Burger, Science counsellor of the Delegation of the European Commission in Russia underlined the openness of Russia for international cooperation in R&D and innovation. The recent modernisation partnership, concluded with the EU, would offer such an opportunity for cooperation and the ERA.Net RUS could be a valuable tool to fill it with funding activities. Finally Yves Maisonny, Project Officer of the European Commission, DG Research also opened the meeting, by referring to the relevance of R&D and innovation in the upcoming EU 2020 strategy.
The first half of the first day was chaired by Mr. Jörn Sonnenburg. The second half of the first day was chaired Mr. Mikko Ylikangas from the Academy of Finland.
The first session was begun by Mr. Mikko Ylikangas’ introduction to the Concept Note. The presentation outlined the background, the funding instruments, as well as the roles of the various participants of the planned joint call. Next, the participants of the workshop heard Mr. Jörn Sonnenburg’s presentation on horizontal issues of the implementation of joint activities. He introduced a list of questions which should be discussed during the workshop. Out of these questions those concerning the setting of thematic priorities, arranging a joint evaluation process and the framework for the implementation of a joint call turned out to be particularly acute. Another relevant question concerned the transfer of funds across borders, which is normally not foreseen in this pilot exercise.
After this, the organisations responsible for drafting Concept Note chapters on respective joint activities presented the planned activity. The first activity “Scientific exchange” was presented by Ms. Virginie Robin from CNRS. This activity is designed to support mobility and networking between European and Russian research teams during the implementation of collaborative projects. Funding was foreseen to be available for mobility actions such as short research visits and networking actions such as scientific workshops.
Ms. Floora Ruokonen from AKA presented the second activity, “Collaborative S&T projects”. The ensuing discussion concerned mostly the strategy for finding a common theme(s) for the activity as well as the possibility of a joint evaluation process. Regarding themes, it was mentioned that the thematic focus of the call will be defined by the Group of Funding Parties by a matching of priorities of Programme Owners. The definition of the thematic focus will probably necessitate several steps to narrow down the focus of the call, and possibly this could be done in a written procedure. Questions that still remained unanswered were whether there should be one call for all Russian PO’s or separate calls for PO’s with different funding profiles and different scientific emphasis. It was also noted that the evaluation process should be carried out in two phases so that in addition to the evaluation carried out by the Central Administration, the Russian funding agencies would have an opportunity to subject the applications to their own evaluation process. Other points in the discussion concerned the planned Scientific Advisory Council and the project contracts, where it is planned to have one joint contract per project.
The third activity “Innovation projects” was presented by Ms. Franziska Müller from DLR. Here the correct interpretation of the share of 40-50% which private companies should cover of the project cost was discussed. It was also asked whether it should be possible to transfer funds from one funding instrument to another. It was also noted that the status of SME’s is in this Concept Note defined differently to some other ERA.Nets. The formulation of the instrument so that it will be attractive to SME’s was seen as a crucial issue.
Mr. Ilter Haliloglu from TUBITAK presented the fourth activity “Accompanying measures”. Under this activity are foreseen activities such as promotion of the call and brokerage events, workshops and summer schools, all intended to support the effective implementation of joint funding activities described above. There was a discussion concerning the most effective timing of these events. Some clarification was wanted on the question of who will finance the summer schools. It was concluded that the financing will come from the Group of Funding Parties (GFP) but that the exact division of the costs is still an open question.
After the above presentations and comments the individual workshop on the third joint funding activity, that is, on “Innovation projects” was gathered. In the workshop, chaired by DLR, it was decided that (for a more detailed account, see Notes on Innovation discussion, Oslo):
· Multilateral consortia (as opposed to bilateral ones) remain the main target of the activity.
· In order to ensure a sufficient number of applications the following additional measures would be needed:
§ the collection of expressions of interest through relevant national and European networks;
§ for this purpose, the development of a questionnaire to collect the necessary information;
§ for the dissemination of the questionnaire, the identification of relevant networks and clients;
§ the collection of expressions of interest of all replying institutions and making it available to other interested institutions;
§ a brokerage event will be needed before the launch of the call
The second day of the workshop began with individual workshops on Collaborative S&T projects, and on Innovation projects.
The workshop on Collaborative S&T projects was chaired by AKA. The most crucial topics discussed at the workshop were the evaluation process of applications and the number of calls needed for the collaborative S&T projects. It was concluded that
· the Russian partners (especially RFBR, RAS) must investigate and decide among themselves whether a common call including all POs is possible or should there be two (?) separate calls acknowledging the different policies of the Russian funding organisations;
· if there are separate calls, it must be decided whether the calls will be on a completely or partly shared theme, or will there be at least two different calls on two different themes;
· if there will be separate calls, it should be investigated whether cooperation in evaluation of the applications is possible.
In the workshop on Innovation projects, the discussions of the previous day were continued. The details of the instrument were discussed, especially target group of call, cost categories, thematic focus of the call, evaluation procedure, budget, application procedure, etc.
After the plenum of the workshop resumed, the Accompanying measures were discussed, whereby this session was chaired by TUBITAK. Some modifications on the suggested timetable for accompanying measures were agreed on. For example, it was agreed that one brokerage event should be organized before the Innovation call, in December 2010. For a more detailed list of events and dates, see the ERA.Net RUS Timetable.
The second day of the workshop was ended by wrap-ups of the individual workshops as well as a summary of the whole Oslo-workshop which was presented by Ms. Martine Bonin, Deputy Director for Russia and EECA from CRNS. It was concluded that in the following a revised Advanced Concept Note as well as a Roadmap for defining the number/type and content of the Pilot joint calls to be launched is needed and will be drafted by the CRNS.
Mr. Yves Maisonny, European Commission, DG Research noted in his concluding remarks that the Oslo workshop had been especially successful in developing a working culture for the ERA.Net RUS project. Ms. Franziska Müller then closed the workshop.
Drafted by Floora Ruokonen (Academy of Finland) and Manfred Spiesberger (Centre for Social Innovation, Austria)
Work Package 2 – Oslo workshop Page 4 of 4