FP7 Health presentation Jan. 07

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International cooperation in the EU Framework
ProgrammesHealth research
Dr. Indridi Benediktsson Coordination Unit,
Directorate Health DG Research European
Commission
January 2008
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EU research budget of the FPs (yearly
amounts in M)
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Collaborative Research changing priorities (rel.
weight)
from FP6 split intoHealth Food/Agri/Biotechh
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Cooperation Collaborative research

• Thematic Priorities Billion Euros
• Health
• Food, agriculture biotechnology
• Information communication technologies
• Nanotechnologies materials
• Energy
• Environment
• Transport
• Socio-economic sciences
• Security 10. Space

6,01,9 9,1 3,5 2,2 1,9 4,1 0,6 2,9 S 32,3
The EC currently manages only about 6 of total
public RD investment in the EU EU countries
invest about 2 of GDP in research
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FP7 Health

• Main policy drivers
• Improving health of European citizens
• Increasing competitiveness of European
  health-related industries and businesses
• Addressing global health issues, including
  emerging epidemics

• Budget
• 6.1 billion over 7 years (2007-2013)

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Health research in FP7
Pillar 1 Biotechnology, generic tools and
medical technologies for human health
Pillar 2 Translating research for human health
Pillar 3 Optimising the delivery of health
care to European citizens
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
Child Health
Health of the Ageing population
International Cooperation
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Collaborative researchin Health

• 1 Biotechnology, generic tools and technologies
• High-throughput research (enhancing data
  generation, standardisation, acquisition
  analysis).
• Detection, diagnosis and monitoring (with
  emphasis on non-invasive or minimally invasive
  approaches).
• Innovative therapeutic approaches and
  interventions(with potential application in many
  diseases and disorders).
• Predicting suitability, safety and efficacy of
  therapies

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Collaborative researchin Health

• 2 Translating research for human health
• Integrating biological data and processes
  (large-scale data gathering, systems biology)
• Research on the brain and related diseases, human
  development and ageing
• Infectious diseases (antimicrobial drug
  resistance, HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB, emerging
  epidemics)
• Other major diseases (cancer, cardiovascular
  disease, diabetes/obesity rare diseases and
  other chronic diseases)

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Collaborative researchin Health

• 3 Optimising the delivery of health care
• Enhanced health promotion and disease prevention
• Translating clinical research into clinical
  practice
• Quality, solidarity and sustainability of health
  systems

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International Cooperation in FP7

• Strategic objectives
• Support European competitiveness through
  partnerships with 3rd countries in selected
  fields
• Address specific problems that third countries
  face or that have a global character, on the
  basis of mutual interest and mutual benefit
• ST cooperations to reinforce the Communitys
  external relations and other relevant policies

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International Collaboration -issues at stake

• Assistance for development
• policy objectives, e.g. Millennium Development
  Goals
• targets low income countries, e.g. ACP
• Strengthening EU competitiveness
• competing with industrialised countries (e.g.
  attracting excellence)
• collaboration for mutual gainstargets more
  developed countries (e.g. BRIC)
• Science diplomacy
• collaborating w. industrialised countries
• ice breaking when collaborating w. new partner
  countries
• putting flesh on the bones of ST agreements
• a sign of maturity of the FPs (openness)
• targets OECD, all 3rd countries
• All in the context of Excellence

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International Cooperation in FP7 Health

• Strategic objectives
• Support European competitiveness through
  partnerships with 3rd countries in selected
  fields
• Address specific problems that third countries
  face or that have a global character, on the
  basis of mutual interest and mutual benefit
• ST cooperations to reinforce the Communitys
  external relations and other relevant policies

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International Cooperation in FP7 Health
2 different avenues

• 1. All activities are open for Intl. Cooperation
• International Cooperation Partner Countries
  (ICPCs) can participate in projects and receive
  EC funding
• Other countries may be funded if their
  participation is seen as essential for the
  project
• Minimum number of participants 3 from MS/AS

• 2. Specific International Cooperation Actions
• Address specific issues of partner countries or
  with a global character on the basis of mutual
  interest and benefit
• Minimum number of participants 22 (2 from MS/AS
  2 from ICPCs)

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International Cooperation in FP7 Health
A third avenue

• 3. Targeted activities with certain countries
• Based on mutually agreed research topics
• Both the EC and the partner country provide
  funding
• Modalities can vary depending on the specifics of
  the partner country
• Example joint calls, integrated into the normal
  FP7 Health calls and simultaneously advertised in
  the partner country

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International Cooperation in FP7 Health

• Joint actions between the European Commission and
  Russia suggested topics
• Comparative population genetic studies on common
  diseases in EU and Russia
• Mechanisms of diabetic and weight related
  co-morbidity in heart failure

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International Cooperation in FP7 Health

• Joint actions between the European Commission and
  China suggested topics
• Host Interaction with antivirals and vaccines
  directed against coronaviruses and selected
  flaviviruses
• Gene-lifestyle interaction in obesity, diabetes
  and related metabolic disorders
• Screening of drug leads from TCM with special
  focus on antimicrobials
• Investigation of post-translational modifications
  of proteins

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International Cooperation in FP7 Health
Programme level cooperation

• In large scale projects where tasks can be
  divided
• Funding agencies and scientists design the
  Meta-project
• Each agency issues calls according to own rules
• Projects are funded and required to work together
• Otherwise no contractual link
• e.g. Mouse functional genomics Metagenomics
  Proteomics

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International Collaboration in FP7 - Health
The context HEALTH is a political priority for
most countries in the world industrialised,
emerging economies and low income countries
Infectious diseases do not respect borders and
can spread worldwide Rich world diseases
(cancer, diabetes) also affect the developing
countries and vice versa (AIDS, TB) Treatments
and cures are universal
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3rd Country participationin FP6 Health
Number of 3rd country participants in FP6 Health
projects
Number of participants (if 5 or more)
In total 214 participants from 51 third
countriescommitted budget 30 million Euro
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3rd Country participationin FP7 Health 1st call
2007
Number of 3rd country participants in FP7 Health
proposals
Number of participants (if 5 or more)
In total 263 participants from 54 third countries
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3rd Country participationin FP7 Health 1st call
2007
Number of 3rd country participants in successful
FP7 Health proposals
Number of successful participants (if more than 1)
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3rd Country participationin FP7 Health 2nd call
2007
Number of 3rd country participants in FP7 Health
proposals
Number of participants (if 15 or more)
In total 864 participants from 101 third
countries
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Information

• EU research http//ec.europa.eu/research
• Seventh Framework Programme http//ec.europa.eu/r
  esearch/fp7
• Information on research programmes and projects
• http//cordis.europa.eu/
• http//ec.europa.eu/research/research-eu/
• Information requests http//ec.europa.eu/researc
  h/enquiries/

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Why research at European level?

• Pooling and leveraging resources
• to achieve critical mass
• Leverage on private investments
• Interoperability and complementarity
• Fostering capacity and excellence in ST
• Stimulate training, mobility and career
  development of researchers
• Improve ST capabilities
• Stimulate competition in research
• Better integration of European RD
• scientific base for pan-European policy
• coordination of national policies
• comparative research at EU-level
• dissemination of research results

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The role of the EC in research

• Funding agency
• Supporting research done by multi-national,
  multi-disciplinary teams in pre-defined areas
  through the framework programmes
• Objective to strengthen the scientific and
  technological basis to increase the
  competitiveness of industry and raise
  international standing of Europe

• Preparing implementing policies
• European Research Area, 3 of GDP spent on RD,
• European Patent, EMEA etc.

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The role of the EC in research

• Linking scientific and policy interests
• The policy level needs to know what issues can
  and should be tackled through science
• The scientists must formulate their future vision
  to fit the needs of society, if they want a
  greater share of the taxpayers money
• EC acts as translator between the two worlds
• Decision power lies with the EP and Council (MS)
• Local policy makers need input from local
  scientific teams in order to support (or not)
  suggestions from the EC

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The role of the EC in research

• European Commission programmes bring barriers
  down
• between countries
• multinational consortia
• researchers from (almost) any country in the
  world can participate
• coordination among national funding programmes
• between different types of organizations
  universities, research centres, SMEs, large
  companies, etc.
• between disciplines increased focus on
  translational research
• and encourage mobility Marie Curie fellowships
  available for researchers and for host
  institutes, including ingoing outgoing grants