The study “EU framework programmes for research and innovation: Evolution and key data from FP1 to Horizon 2020 in view of FP9” aims to provide an overview of the evolution of the EU framework programme for research and innovation. The paper focuses on the evolution of the legal basis to adopt the programme, its structure and its budget. It then highlights key issues that will have to be addressed in the coming years in the discussion leading to the adoption of the ninth framework programme.
The involvement of the European Union in research activities (outside the coal and nuclear fields) began in the 1970s with the adoption by the Council of the first Community research programmes. As the FP evolved, the instruments used for its implementation diversified. The initial
grants for transnational cooperative research projects were complemented, inter alia, by the development of public-public and public-private partnerships, the establishment of new structures such as the European Research Council (ERC) and the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT), specific instruments for SME support, and individual mobility grants. With Horizon 2020, the FP became a programme of
programmes covering all aspects of the innovation process and implementing various EU policies.
While discussions on the structure and priorities of FP9 are expected to begin in autumn 2017, the paper points out key issues that will be debated in the coming years.
