ERA NET projects and calls in biomedical research

ERA NET projects and calls in biomedical
research
National Authority for Scientific Research
Ministry of Education, Research Youth and Sports
21-25 Mendeleev str., 010362 Bucuresti, Romania
SUMMARY
 What are ERA-NET projects
 Preparation steps
 State of play
 Joint open calls in ERA-NETs
 Funding of transnational research (virtual common pot)
 Health ERA-NETs Romania
 HIVERA ERA-NET
What are ERA-NET projects (1)
The ERA-NET scheme was launched in 2002 as part of the
Sixth Framework Programme (FP6)., aiming at at developing
and strengthening the coordination of national and regional
research programmes.
ERA-NET actions - providing
a mid-term framework for actors
implementing public research
programmes to coordinate their
activities
(developing
joint
activities)
ERA-NET Plus actions providing (for limited cases with
high European added value)
additional EU financial support
to facilitate single joint calls for
proposals between national
and/or regional programmes
What are ERA-NET projects (2)
Objectives
• strengthening the
coordination of public
research programmes
conducted at national or
regional level
• provision of a framework for
the networking of programme
managers and a systematic
progressive approach to
mutually open national or
regional research programmes
in a long-term perspective
• reduction of ERA
fragmentation by improving
the coherence and
coordination of national and
regional research programmes
• complementarity and synergy
with Community level
activities (including the
Research Framework
Programme)
Specific Activities for
Networking
• Systematic exchange of
information and good
practices on existing
programmes via programme
managers´ fora, short-term
staff exchanges and/or
common electronic tools
• Analysis, definition and
preparation of common
strategic activities and action
plans for concrete
implementation of joint
activities
• Implementation of joint
activities between national or
regional programmes
(multinational evaluation, joint
training schemes, mutual
opening of infrastructures,
framework agreements for
future co-operation)
• Funding of joint transnational research actions or
programmes
Participants
• National and regional
authorities who wish to
coordinate or open up
mutually their research
programmes
• “Institutional couples” e.g.
ministries (real programme
owners) and management
agencies (mandated to
implement the respective
programme). Some funding
agencies are also programme
owners
• Programme 'owners', typically
ministries or regional
authorities defining research
programmes, or programme
'managers' such as research
councils or other research
funding agencies managing
research programmes
What are ERA-NET projects (3)
Precondition
for
participation
End-users
• firm scientific, financial and
political commitment of
programme owners
• existing (or at least envisaged)
research programmes
• Beneficiaries of ERA-NET
projects are all types of
research entities (industry,
academia, etc.)
PREPARATION STEPS
Criteria for new initiatives
Research
initiatives
Programme
owners
With respect to the criteria
ERA-NET
schemes
Relevance to Community
objectives
Existing or envisaged research
programmes
Critical mass (size and number of
programmes)
European Added Value
STATE OF PLAY (INDIVIDUAL INITIATIVES)
FP6 & FP7
until 2010
650 different programme
owners and managers
122 ERA-NET
actions
> 1.800
participations
9 ERA-NET Plus Actions:
SEE-ERA.NET PLUS – Integration of research institutions from Southeast
Europe into the ERA
BONUS+ - Joint Baltic Sea Research Programme
EraSysBio+ - Systems biology approaches in biomedicine, biotechnology,
and agri-food
iMERA-Plus – Metrology in the ERA
MATERA+ - Materials Research
NanoSci-E+ - Basic nanosciences
NORFACE Plus – Migration Research (Social sciences)
PINAO+ - Photonics-based internet access networks
 HERAJP (Humanities in the European Research Area)
STATE OF PLAY (ROMANIA)
Short Name
 No. of ERA-NETs with RO participation – 47
 No. of ERA-NETs with RO coordination – 1
 No. of Joint Calls involved in – 23
 No. of National R&D programmes
nominated as potential funding
source – 14
 No. of national organisations currently
involved in ERA-NETs –
26
AAL
FENCO
ASPERA-2
HIVERA
AirTN
ICT-AGRI
BS-ERA.NET
MANUNET II
CIRCLE-2
MARTEC II
CROSSTEXNET
NEURON
EMRP
NuPNET
ERA-AGE 2
SEAS-ERA
ERNEST
SEE-ERA.NET
Plus
EUPHRESCO II
SEERA-EI
EUROCOURSE
SIINN (under
negotiation)
EuroNanoMed
Eurostars
SNOWMAN
TRANSCAN
iMERA-Plus
ERA-NET actions
(review)
– Systematic exchange of information & best
practices
– Definition and preparation of joint activities
– Implementation of joint activities
– Funding of transnational research
Joint Open Calls in ERA-NETs (1)
• Joint calls are managed by the ERA-NET consortium. One partner
usually takes responsibility for receiving applications and
coordinating the peer review process on behalf of the consortium,
but the consortium will agree on the scope of the call and the
evaluation and assessment process to be followed.
• The European Union provides funds to support the administration
of the ERA-NETs. Research funding for successful projects is
provided by the agencies participating in the ERA-NET.
• Researchers whose national agency is participating in the ERA-NET
may submit research proposals to the joint call and a network of
National Contact Points (NCPs) will usually be established to provide
advice and support to organisations preparing proposals.
Joint Open Calls in ERA-NETs (2)
 Choosing the funding models:
 common pot: countries pool funds and all researchers are funded only based on
their success in the proposal evaluation;
 virtual common pot: enables countries and regions to pay for their own
participants;
 mixed-mode pot: allows countries to pay for their own researchers and, on
occasion, to pay for other countries’ researchers.
 Agreeing on Call documents (e.g. Call text, Guidelines for applicants, Guidelines for
evaluators);
 Disseminating the information regarding the joint call;
 Signing the MoU or another document reffering to the national funding involved by each
country from the consortium participating in the joint call;
 Setting up the network of NCPs for the call;
 Evaluating, contracting, monitoring and taking actions on the duration of the call.
ERA-NET actions
(review)
– Systematic exchange of information & best
practices
– Definition and preparation of joint activities
– Implementation of joint activities
– Funding of transnational research
Funding of transnational research (virtual
common pot)/ national rules
 Administrative eligibility criteria check – national level; IF ELIGIBLE:
 Scientific evaluation with external expert evaluators; IF ELIGIBLE:
 Negotiation for contracting, contracting and monitoring;
 Phases of R&D being funded (basic research, pre-competitive,
application, serial production, market entry), funding rates:
 pre-competitive, application, serial production, market entry;
funding rate 50% - 100% depending on type of research and type
of institution (State Aid Sheme)
 Eligible for funding:
 public and private Universities, Research Institutes, Research
organisations, SMEs, Industry R&D activity is the main activity,
NGOs, public administration.
HEALTH ERA-NETs – ROMANIA
FP Thematic
Priority
Title
Start Date
End Date
Open calls
2009/04/01
2012/04/01
The second
stage
Not for the
moment
HORIZONTAL
ERA-AGE Extension (ERA-AGE 2)
HEALTH
Europe against Cancer: Optimisation of
the Use of Registries for Scientific
Excellence in research (EUROCOURSE)
2009/04/01
2012/03/31
EUROpean network of trans-national
collaborative RTD projects in the field of
NANOMEDicine (EuroNanoMed)
2009/01/01
2012/01/01
Not for the
moment
Harmonizing, Integrating and Vitalizing
European Research on
Aids/HIV (HIVERA)
2010/05/01
2014/04/30
Soon, in
2012
Network of European Funding for
Neuroscience Research (NEURON)
2007/01/01
2011/12/31
Not for the
moment
NMP
HEALTH
LIFE
SCIENCES
HIVERA ERA-NET
 Field of interest: HIV/AIDS
 Coordinated by the French national agency for research on AIDS and on viral
hepatitis (ANRS). It involves ministries, research organisations, and governmental
bodies, funding agencies from Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Romania,
and Turkey
 Establishment of European-wide joint funding programmes on AIDS/HIV research.
 Main objectives:
 To compile information about existing national or regional AIDS/HIV
programmes in Europe & their management to identify the most promising
areas for joint initiatives;
 To achieve a relevant value for Europe in the field of AIDS/HIV by developing
indicators for the impact of joint activities in HIVERA;
 To make foresight studies on future challenges & long term strategies (senior
scientists and expert programme managers will be involved);
HIVERA - Joint Transnational Call 2011 (1)
 Opening date: 6 June 2011
 Closing date (submission deadline): 30 September 2011
 Funding parties participating in the call are: Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany,
Portugal, Romania and Turkey
 Funding model: virtual common pot
 Romania’s budget for the call: 300.000 EUR (for 2-3 projects for a duration of max 3
years).
 Project consortia comprised research teams from at least 3 different HIVERA
countries. Research teams from other countries not involved in HIVERA were able to
participate in a project consortium only if they secured their own budget for the
project.
 The consortia must not exceed a maximum of 6 different countries.
 Transnational partnering for joint application – the possibility to publish and to access
e-profiles of researchers across Europe for partner search.
HIVERA - Joint Transnational Call 2011 (2)
 Topics covered in the first call:
 Prevention in youth and high risk groups
 HIV and ageing
 Recommendations:
 The focus of HIVERA call was on translational research, applied research and
clinical studies - excluding clinical trials
 Basic research may be funded if targetting innovative methods and tools
 Problems/ weakness: A network of NCPs was establish for each country participating
in the Joint Call.
 A dissemination process was started for informing interested actors about this call for
proposals.
 Finally a number of proposals were submitted, 6 of them being eligible and, thus,
entering the next stage: the scientific evaluation.
 Romania is involved in two of those proposals through the R&D Institute for Infectious
Diseases Matei Bals and the Infectious Diseases Hospital Colentina
HIVERA – Other transnational activities
 Training sessions for participants in HIVERA projects – in 2012, 2013 and 2014;
 Evaluation of the first call for proposals;
 Foresight study on future challanges;
 Enlarge of the network (already a new partner from Hungary will become partner
next year);
 Workshops and partnering events;
 Establishment of management tools for transnational activities;
 Elaboration of long term strategies in the field.
Thank you
for your attention!