At the heart of the Lisbon Strategy, research is a component of a knowledge triangle (the other two being education and innovation) meant to boost growth and employment in the European Union (EU) in the context of a global economy. The 7th Framework Programme for Research, covering the period 2007 to 2013, is an opportunity for the EU to match its research policy to its ambitions in terms of economic and social policy by consolidating the European Research Area (ERA). In order to achieve this objective, the Commission hopes to increase the EU’s annual spending on research, thereby generating more national and private investment in this field. When it is implemented, the 7th Framework Programme will also have to respond to the research and knowledge needs of industry and more generally of EU policies. The Framework Programme is organised around four main programmes and has been greatly simplified so as to be more effective and more accessible to researchers.
