Small country participation in the EU research programmes : opportunities, constraints and success stories

Abstract

Knowledge lies at the heart of the European Union's Lisbon Strategy which aims to make Europe the 'most dynamic competitive knowledge-based economy in the world'. Research, innovation and education constitute the Knowledge Triangle and are the three central and strongly interdependent drivers of the knowledge economy (European Commission, ERA, 2012). The EU's Framework Programme is the main instrument for funding research and for implementing the EU's research and innovation policy agenda. The programme plays a crucial role in achieving the goals of growth, competitiveness and employment. This dissertation examines Malta's participation in the EU's 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development and compares the performance with other small Member States - Cyprus, Estonia, Luxembourg and Slovenia. This was carried out within the context of previous Framework Programmes. The performance of Small States has also been benchmarked with the performance of larger Member States to identify success factors and any barriers which hinder successful participation of Small States. Small countries are often challenged by resource and space constraints and their inability to achieve sufficient scale and critical mass. The dissertation looks at the Research and Innovation (R&I) systems in place in five small EU Member States and the evolving rationales and missions of Framework Programmes over the years in response to the changing ambitions of the European research and innovation policy. These changes have had implications on the Member States in terms of the design of their own R&I policies and related funding programmes as well as their level of participation in the framework programme. The history of the framework programme is 10 also examined since their initial launch in the 1980s up until the current FP7 and the perspectives for the future programme Horizon 2020. A factual analysis of each Member State's participation in funded FP7 proposals, funding received and success rates is provided, and complemented by a questionnaire-based survey in order to obtain a more in-depth view from the perspective of FP7 project coordinators from small countries of particular difficulties encountered in preparing and running an FP7 project.