23 February 2006

The long-awaited so-called "top-up" call for proposals of the European Union's Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) has now been published. This call offers many valuable opportunities to South African researchers to (i) secure participation in the FP6 through simplified modalities and (ii) lay a solid foundation for future Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) participation.

The "top-up" call seeks to address the poor participation of "third countries" in the FP6. Third countries include those from Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific, Asia, Latin America, the Mediterranean, the Russian Federation and the New Independent States, as well as the Western Balkans. The call provides an opportunity for researchers from these countries to join existing FP6 projects (i.e. projects which had already been approved for funding by the European Commission, and have more than 18 months of implementation remaining.)

The call covers all FP6 priority areas, except the Priority 2 Information Society Technologies. A total budget of 20 million euro has been allocated to the call, divided as follows:

• Priority 1 - Life sciences, genomics and biotechnology for health: 3 million euro;
• Priority 3 - Nanotechnologies and nanosciences: 3.6 million euro;
• Priority 4 - Aeronautics: 1.9 million euro;
• Priority 5 - Food quality and safety: 2.5 million euro;
• Priority 6.1 - Sustainable development - sustainable energy systems: 3.2 million euro;
• Priority 6.2 - Sustainable development - sustainable surface transport: 1.1 million euro;
• Priority 6.3 - Sustainable development - global change and ecosystems: 3.7 million euro; and
• Priority 7 - Citizens and governance in a knowledge-based society: 1 million euro

The application to join an existing project in any of the above areas must be submitted by the European Coordinator of the project. For South African researchers interested in exploiting the opportunities offered by the call, the recommended strategy is therefore to review the lists of the existing FP6 projects eligible for the call and identify the ones it could be appropriate for them to join (both in terms of alignment with their own research objectives as well as the potential contribution they could offer to the European consortium.) Contact should subsequently be made with the European Coordinator (contact details are provided in the project lists) to propose inclusion. Should the European Coordinator be in agreement, an application for the new partner's inclusion in the project should be submitted to the European Commission (the deadline is 16 May 2006.) All such applications will then be reviewed on a competitive basis.

Under the European South African Science and Technology Advancement Programme (ESASTAP) comprehensive assistance will be offered to South African researchers, who wish to participate in the call. This will include strategic advice with regard to identifying possible project opportunities as well as facilitation of the negotiation with European Coordinators - it would also be possible to apply to the Department of Science and Technology for seed funding to travel to Europe to meet with relevant European Coordinators.

The ESASTAP initiatives for the "top-up" call were launched at an ESASTAP FP6 Top-Up Call Information Seminar to be held on Thursday 2 March 2006 at 10:00 at the Innovation Hub in Pretoria. Further seminars in other cities could also be conducted should there be a sufficient demand from interested researchers. The ESASTAP team is also willing to conduct organisation-specific events, where demand requires. Furthermore, researchers who have already identified specific opportunities and require assistance to advance their participation are encouraged to seek individual interviews with members of the ESASTAP team. View the ESASTAP presentation made at the Information Seminar.

It is vital for interested participants to act as soon as possible, since there will be strong competition from other "third countries" in convincing the European project coordinators of the merits of inclusion in their projects. We therefore urge all interested South African researchers to start preparation for participation as soon as possible.

Further details on the FP6 top-up call are available at: http://fp6.cordis.europa.eu.int/index.cfm?fuseaction=UserSite.FP6CallsPage.

Please do not hesitate to contact the ESASTAP team should you have any requests for information or clarification. We look forward to be of assistance.