A call for proposals for a European Commission funding scheme providing full funding for research projects involving partnerships between public and private research organisations has been published recently: the Marie Curie Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways (IAPP) scheme.
This scheme funds partnerships between public and private research organisations based on a common research project. They aim to foster co-operation between the public and private sectors, to stimulate long-term collaboration between the sectors and to address the perceived or real barriers which inhibit movement of researchers between the public and private research domains.
Each IAPP project involves at least one research active private sector company and at least one research active public sector organisation. The private partners may range in size from the smallest micro-companies with a research capability to very large multinational enterprises. Public sector organisations can include universities, NGOs, government research institutes. Funding is typically for 4 years and is up to 100% of the costs of the project; no matching financing is required.
Support is provided for:
- Exchange of know-how and experience through inter-sectoral secondments of research Staff of the participants;
- Research and Networking activities;
And optionally:
- Recruitment of experienced researchers from outside the partnership, for involvement in transfer of knowledge and/or training of researchers;
- Organisation of workshops and conferences, involving the participants' own research staff and external researchers
- For SMEs: research equipment (up to 10% of the EC contribution for each SME participant) on a duly justified basis
A new call for proposals has been published with a deadline of March 25th 2008. The total budget for this call is €45m. Further information including a guide for applicants is available at: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/people/industry-academia_en.html
To help interested participants achieve the most from an Industry-Academia collaborations and to prepare a proposal for the scheme a conference will be held in Brussels on January 14th 2008. Anyone wishing to participate in the conference may find the agenda and registration form at http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions.
Participation is free but numbers are limited to 250, therefore early registration is advised.
By Jordi Mestres, IMIM, Barcelona
