Overview of Framework Programme 7

European research activities are structured around consecutive multi-annual programmes, or so-called Framework Programmes. FP7 set out the priorities - including the ICT Priority - for the period 2007 - 2013.

The new ICT Priority of FP7 covers the period 2007-2013, and is fully open to international co-operation. The goal is to join forces in addressing major challenges where significant added value is expected to be gained from worldwide R&D cooperation. All African organisations can freely participate in consortium proposals for European research funding under FP7.

FP7 is organised in four complementary programmes.

- Cooperation (Collaborative Research in nine thematic areas: including ICT)

- Ideas (Frontier Research, supporting "investigator driven" research projects)

- People (Human Potential, supporting a coherent set of Marie Curie actions)

- Capacities (Research Capacity, supporting existing and new research infrastructure, Research for and by SMEs, Regions of knowledge, Research Potential, Science in Society, Specific activities of International Co-operation)

The Cooperation Programme funds collaborative research in nine thematic areas: (1) Health, (2) Food, Agriculture and Biotechnology, (3) Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), (4) Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and new Production Technologies, (5) Energy, (6) Environment (including Climate Change), (7) Transport (including Aeronautics), (8) Socio-Economic Sciences and the Humanities, and (9) Security and Space.

Each thematic area has its own Work Programme. All open calls can be accessed via the Participants Portal.

The Cooperation ICT WorkProgramme for 2013 which incorporates ICT Calls 10 and 11 was published on 10 July 2012. Call 10 closed on 15 January 2013. Call 11 was published on 18 September 2012 with a closing date of 16 April 2013. Download the summary of objectives open under FP7-ICT-2013 Call 10 and Call 11

Each area within the Work Programme outlines the types of projects of interest (some calls are only open to proposals targeting specific goals), the target countries (some calls are targeted at specific countries or regions), instruments that can be applied (some calls are only to specific types of proposals, e.g. STREP, IP, NoE, CSA - each with their own requirements in terms of project focus and consortium participation) and deadline for submission of full proposals (most calls except some FET calls request one stage proposals).

Organisations interested in participating in FP7 should review the Work Programme carefully and identify thematic areas that are relevant to your organisational strategic objectives and available resources. Sometimes a Specific International Cooperation Action (SICA) targeting international cooperation with Europe is announced (e.g. SICA for ICT for Environmental Disaster Reduction and Management, Objective ICT-2007.6.3 - Call 2).

IST-Africa has organised training workshops in partner countries to raise awareness of opportunities under Open Calls for Proposals. HelpDesk assistance is also provided.

Great progress has been made in relation to participations in FP7 from the IST-Africa partner countries over the past number of years. The table below provides an overview of the number of FP7 projects with organisational participation from these countries as at January 2013:

To learn more about the projects and partners involved, please visit Country Overview and click on the country of interest.