News & Articles

A special effort to stimulate the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises1, SMEs, in Thematic Priority 1 in the 4th call for proposals is done by introducing the Specific Targeted Research Projects (STREPs) dedicated to SMEs,“SME-STREPs”. A specific call is envisaged for the “SME-STREPs” with an indicative budget of 171 million €.

These “SME-STREPs” are specifically designed to encourage SME efforts towards research and innovation.

Such STREPs should be centred on the reinforcement of SME’s scientific and technological knowledge and on the validation of innovative solutions.

Research-intensive SMEs are expected to play leading roles in
the project with the possible participation of universities, research centres, other industries and industrial associations. Expected project results should clearly be of interest and potential benefit to
SME(s).

The requested EC contribution to participating SMEs must in all cases be substantial.All consortia should aim at having 30-50 % of the requested EC contribution budget going to SMEs.
EC contribution can be requested for costs in connection with clinical trials in areas/topics specifically indicated in the work programme.

Approval for the clinical trial from the relevant ethical committee will
be demanded.

The project consortium for an SME-STREP must include at least 3 independent legal entities from 3 different Member States or Associated States, with at least 2 Member States or Associated Candidate Countries.

It is envisaged that he results of the proposal evaluation will be available some 4 months after the closure date of the call.

General aspects of the evaluation procedure are described in the FP6
“Guidelines on Proposal Evaluation Procedures” available at http://www.cordis.lu/fp6/eval-guidelines

Several SME-STREP projects can be funded in each topic.

It is foreseen that the first contracts related to this call will come into force by the end of 2006.

In addition to the specific call for “SME-STREPs”, SMEs have additional opportunities to participate in the “Thematic call” for the Priority1.
Proposals submitted to the “Thematic call” are recommended to have at
least 15 % of the budget reserved for SMEs.

This call is envisaged to have the same opening and closing
dates as the specific call for “SME-STREPs”.

The draft of the complete Work Programme 2005 for thematic priority 1, Life Sciences, genomics and biotechnology for health, is available for information at
ftp://ftp.cordis.lu/pub/lifescihealth/docs/wp_draft1_2005.pdf