Press release: Two new executive agencies bolster European research

Today sees the creation of two agencies to manage research projects funded by the European Union budget. The 'European Research Council Executive Agency' will support the implementation of the Ideas Programme of the 7th Research Framework Programme (FP7), which supports frontier research. It will manage about €7 billion. The 'Research Executive Agency' will administer the Marie Curie fellowships schemes, research for the benefit of SMEs and parts of the Space and Security research themes. It will manage research funding of €6.5b and provide evaluation and support services to all other parts of FP7. The creation of these two agencies was put forward in the legal document setting up FP7 and the plans have recently been approved by the Member States and the European Parliament. These agencies are just one strand of wide-ranging actions within FP7 to improve the efficiency of research management, thereby supporting the aims of the European Research Area and providing the best possible service to scientists.