Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) Approved and First Call Open
22 December 2006

The Seventh Framework Programme for research and technological development (FP7) cleared its final hurdle on 18 December when it was adopted by the Council. The programme will start on 1 January 2007.

The Council also adopted a regulation setting out the rules for participation in FP7 by companies, research institutes and universities, and on the dissemination of research results.

The total budget for FP7 is €50.521 billion, and the programme will run for seven years.

FP7 will be implemented through four specific programmes:

• Cooperation - collaborative research;
• Ideas - the establishment of a European Research Council (ERC) to support frontier research;
• People - human resources;
• Capacities - research infrastructure and potential research capacity.

The first calls for proposals opened on 22 December.

The programme is large and complex with many calls. To assist in identification of areas related to the use of renewable biomaterials the relevant areas have been summarized as a BioMatNet ITEM:

View Summary on BioMatNet

For full details of the calls see the FP7 page on the Cordis Website:

cordis.europa.eu/fp7/