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On 21 September 2005 the European Commission approved its proposals for a Council decision concerning the implementation procedures of the Seventh Framework Programme (2007-2013) of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities. After a period of consultation, the Programme in its final form will go to the European Parliament and Council for approval and adoption via the co-decision process. It will then form the main instrument for funding European R&D for the period 2007-2013. It is vital that FP7 is properly funded and implemented if we are to achieve the innovation goals necessary to fulfill the aspirations of the Lisbon agenda.

The proposal for FP7 groups research under 9 themed sub-programmes.
Of these 9 sub-programmes, the first theme will be Health.

The European Commission is undertaking a process to identify thematic domains for future European support under the 7th Framework Programme. It is essential to identify those domains where support at European level is most needed and will have the greatest impact, as set out in the Communication Science and Technology, the key to Europe’s future — Guidelines for future European Union policy to support research. This concerns support where thematic domains will be predetermined at the start of the Framework Programmes. This is particularly important for future support to transnational collaborative research.

The European Platform on Innovative Medicines prepares as strategic research agenda:

The overall objective of the platform is to remove bottlenecks hampering the efficiency of the development of new medicines, and where research is the key to resolve current obstacles for the European pharma/biotechnology industry to become world leaders.
Industry is currently, together with relevant stakeholders (such as EMEA, national regulatory agencies, patient organisations, health care providers, SMEs, academia and member states), developing a strategic research agenda identifying critical scientific gaps in which more pre-competitive research is urgently required. Such a platform at EU level will ensure the maximum utilization of resources and is expected to provide socio-economic benefits for the European citizens (e.g. improved access to better medicines), as well as contributing to the increased competitiveness of European pharma/biotech industry at large.

Further info:  http://www.cordis.lu/fp7/ and