Seventh EU Framework Programme Ireland

Security

The goal of the European Security Research Programme (ESRP) is to make Europe more secure for its citizens while increasing its industrial competitiveness.

A vast array of technologies and social issues fall under the Security umbrella. On the pure technology side there are opportunities in software, communications, electronics, medical, transport, etc.

Other examples or relevant disciplines are finance, human factors, ethics, role of the media, risk management, etc. There is huge scope for both industry and academic participation.

Strategy & Work Programme

The European Commission are expected to a Work Programme in early 2008 which will highlight the Topic headlines under which it will fund proposals. You might like to have a look at the old Work Programme for 2007 to get a sense of the format and scope. You can download the work programme from the document index on the right hand side of this page. For easier digestion a suggestion is that you first scan the topic headlines in bold typeface from page 11 et seq.

The European Commissions ESRAB strategy document is also a useful resource.

Funding

The proposition for Irish SMEs is to perform development work that you want to do anyway with the EC paying 75% of costs all as part of a multinational consortium (leading to profile, networking and market-reach benefits) which includes end-users (potential customers) to develop customer oriented close-to-market solutions.

For Irish based multinational companies the proposition is similar to that for SMEs but the grant aid is at 50%.