6cp - october 2003

Specific Activities Covering a Wider Field of Research New and Emerging Science and Technology

6CP - October 2003

New and EmergingScience and Technology

…..possible implications for excellence and convergence

www.cordis.lu/nest


Outline

• ERA and FP6 – brief review

• NEST – what is it and how does it fit into FP6?

• Excellence and convergence - the NEST implementation perspective


ERA – Policy objectives

• Organisation of research facilities

• Coherent public policies

• Private investment

• Scientific reference

• Human capital and mobility

• Europe and regions attractive to investment

• Shared values


FP6 as a means to promote the ERA

• Structuring:

•resources (human, infrastructure)

• large instruments (“social capital”)

• Focused EU funding

• Self-organisation (ERA-net)

• Flexibility


FP6: context and organisation

• ERA/FP6 – distinction between policy and programme

• Overall architecture which allows:

•More specific objectives for individual activities within the programme

•Less need for intra-programme co-ordination

• Stronger “scientific” content


Outline





NEST objectives

• Stimulate visionary long term research at the frontiers of knowledge and at the interface between disciplines

• Give researchers freedom to develop and prove their ideas within the broadest possible limits

• Respond rapidly to new problems and opportunities


What NEST may achieve

• New science, new principles in emerging fields, new techniques and basic technologies

• Enhanced creative potential in European science and technology

• New communities of knowledge in emerging areas

• An increased responsiveness to possible problems arising from new discoveries

• Strategic inputs for the development of future European research initiatives


Focusing and Integrating Community research

Strengthening the foundations of the ERA

Structuring the ERA

Gen

omic

s

IST

Cit

izen

s

Nan

otec

hnol

ogie

s.

Aer

onau

tics

Foo

d

Sus

tain

able

dev

.

Thematic priorities

FP6Where does NEST fit in?

“Wider field of Research”

SMEs

International co-operation

JRCc

NESTSupport to

policies


Two modes

Open domain:

Focused actions:

215 M €

Overall

Budget,(to be

topped up)

• ADVENTURE

• INSIGHT

• NEST SUPPORT

PATHFINDER


Implementation

Through standard FP6 instruments

• STREP: Specific Targeted Research Project. To provides funding for research activity.

• CA: Co-ordination Activity. To provides funding for networking and co-ordination.

• SSA: Specific Support Action. To provide funding for activities in direct support of NEST


Evaluation

Peer review, following EC Guidelines on quality and fairness

• 1-stage or 2-stage submission scheme

• A panel of high-level scientists with a broad perspective and a good appreciation of multi-disciplinary issues

• With inputs from specialised remote referees

• Open and transparent feedback to proposers


Key characteristics of NEST projects

• May fall in “any” area of research

• Research not falling within the Thematic Priorities

• Novel, possibly multi-disciplinary, possibly unconventional

• Well focused objectives, which are ambitious but clear, possibly risky, and consistent with the scale of the project


Look ahead Second Call

• Call reference: FP6-2003-NEST-B

• Call date: expected December 2003

• Budget 30M€ (ADVENTURE, INSIGHT, NEST SUPPORT)

• No major changes w.r.t. 2003, (except enable CA for ADVENTURE)

• Closure dates: 14 April, mid-September

OPEN DOMAIN


Look ahead Second Call

• Call reference: FP6-2003-NEST-B

• Call date: expected December 2003

• Budget 35M€

• Actions: “Synthetic biology”; “Tackling complexity in science”; “What it means to be human”

• Closure date: 14 April 2004

PATHFINDER


INSIGHT: The mandate

“research to assess rapidly new discoveries or newly-observed phenomena, which may indicate emerging risks or problems of high importance to European society, and identify appropriate responses to them.”


NEST Support: The specific areas

1 Promotion of interaction with the research community and the identification of opportunities for research under NEST

2 Analysing the conduct of highly advanced science and technology in the European context, and on a comparative basis, and the specific socio-cultural and economic factors affecting its performance

3 Analysing the dynamics of scientific and technological change, and management issues specific to high risk and interdisciplinary research

4 Improving the methodological basis for addressing systemic and societal vulnerabilities to science-based hazards


PATHFINDER: The mandate

• Build and consolidate European capabilities in promising emerging (interdisciplinary) areas, for the long term.

• Actions of up to EUR 10m or more; several STREPS, one or more CAs

• Annual calls for proposals; several topics per call

• First call autumn 2003, closure April 2004


• Build and consolidate European capabilities in promising emerging (interdisciplinary) areas, for the long term.

• Actions of up to EUR 10m or more; research projects (STREPs) + co-ordination action

• NEST should provide “early stage funding” - as ideas mature they should be translated into more conventional funding modes

• Approach must be inter-disciplinary and ambitious, even if initial funding is limited

PATHFINDER initiatives


Identifying PATHFINDER topics

• Ideas must come “bottom-up” from the science base

• “Structured dialogue” with the research community:– information from research literature, foresight and

other strategic analysis, plus open invitations for ideas – definition of strategic orientations: areas where radical

opportunities arise from cross-disciplinary application of new methods and techniques.

– Progressive rounds of consultation with external experts and internally (thematic priorities) to explore candidate areas and to refine and focus in areas selected


PATHFINDER TOPICS FOR 2004

• Tackling complexity in science: focus on complex problems and “generalisable” methods for simplifying and solving them.

• Synthetic biology: engineering new proteins, genes and (ultimately) organisms from scratch, to improve understanding of biological processes and to develop the knowledge and skill base for a true engineering discipline in biology

• What it means to be human : interdisciplinary research with focus on the unique characteristics of human cognitive capacities, their origins and differences from other organisms


Outline





NEST - impacts on convergence?

Divergence? • Instabilities due to positive feedback from competitive

funding

• Uneven starting points

Convergence?• Transnational collaborative research

• Few pre-conditions, limited “inertia”


Uneven starting points

Life Sciences Publications

25%

75%

11 Mem ber States

4 Mem ber States

(Source : Benchmarking Study)

GDP

28%

72%4 Member States

11 Member States


Suggestions for management

• Don’t consider activities like NEST as zero-sum games

• Don’t dilute or confuse specific objectives

• Don’t ask researchers to carry policy responsibilities

• Do improve “equality of opportunity”

• Do establish the right “policy mix” including complementary measures (eg “capacity building”)

• Do ensure “joint ownership” between Community and member states


Improving equality of opportunity

• Access

• Awareness of NEST

• Transparency of resources/ expertise (partner search, advice…)

• Peer review

• Avoidance of implicit bias


Peer review: avoiding bias due to conservatism

Potential problems for NEST:• Avoiding conservatism in assessing ambition/novelty

• Avoiding gender bias

• Avoiding “reputation” bias

• Possible solutions:

• Multi-disciplinary approach

• Two stage proposals - anonymous first stage


Country distribution

of participants(all proposals)Country participation (all participants)

37

14

178

35

60

98

9

131

1

40

28

1019

38

116

38

16

0 0

17

6 3

18

2

22

4 2 0

53

1116

92 1 1

9 126

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

BE DE ES IE LU AT FIUK IL LI BG CZ

HU LV PL SITR

CNUSA

Countries

Nu

mb

er o

f p

arti

cip

ants


Country distribution of

participants (retained proposals)Country distribution of participants (retained proposals)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

BE DK DE EL ES FR IT NL AT PT FI SV UK CH IL NO CZ EE HU LT LV PL RO SI RU USA

Countries

Nu

mb

ers

of

pa

rtic

ipa

nts


Changing context

• Enlargement + Developing reality of the ERA

• Institutional diversity: new players, new forms of competition

• Greater emphasis on basic research

• new dynamics for negotiation/decision in the EU


Final observations

• Excellence and inclusiveness must be pursued together

• ERA provides a broader and more flexible basis to create appropriate policies and programmes

• Diversity and experimentation are needed to create “self-organised coherence”

• Programme objectives, implementation modalities and management, matter as well as the policy mix

• Joint effort is required at Community and national level (policy, NCPs, others…)

6cp - october 2003

Documents