Press Release: Countering the fragmentation of European research

The European Commission announced on 11 December 2003 the first results of the new EU-funded €148 million ERA-NET scheme, aimed at networking national research programmes. In the first wave, 32 promising cross-border initiatives have been selected for funding, including projects to co-ordinate medical emergency response across Europe, research on the ageing population, and marine sciences in the Baltic sea. ERA-NET fosters co-operation and co-ordination of national R&D funding schemes inter alia to enable them to address issues they could not solve alone. The scheme also provides an incentive to national administrations to launch joint research projects, with the EU co-financing a part of the initiative. This aims to help Member States overcome the scattering and duplication of their research efforts a major obstacle in the creation of the European Research Area, a true internal market for science and knowledge.

http://www.cordis.lu/coordination/era-net.htm http://www.cordis.lu/coordination/era-net.htm

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