Cope urges Irish organisations to apply for EU research funding
Published on: 09 July 2012
Pat the Cope Gallagher MEP has welcomed the announcement that has been made today by the EU Commissioner, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn to allocate 8.1 billion Euro in research grants.
Mr. Gallagher said today “It is open to organisations from the educational, research, public and private sectors to draw down funding under this latest call for proposals under the 7th EU Research and Technological Framework Programme (FP7) 2007 – 2013.”
“Funding can be secured for research activities in the agriculture, food, health, transport, energy, maritime, ICT, bio-tech, nano-tech, environmental services, industrial activities, security and space sectors.”
“In an Irish context, already 384 million euro has been drawn down by Irish organisations under the FP7 programme since 2007.
67 per cent of funding has been secured by the university sector, 25 per cent by the private sector and 8 per cent by state agencies.”
“We have to support research, innovation and science. This is necessary if the European Union is to stay competitive and if the EU is going to reach it’s Europe 2020 targets. This is vitally important to invest in these sectors if we are going to maintain and create jobs, improve the quality of living and build a better society.”
“I would urge Irish organisations from both the public and private sectors to look very carefully at this latest call for proposals under the EU FP7 programme. Enterprise Ireland is the national contact point for the FP7 programme and interested companies and organisations should contact them.”