The Commission’s proposals for the FP7 Capacities programme aim to enhance research and innovation capacities throughout Europe and ensure their optimal use.

The Capacities programme is provided with a budget of EUR 4 097 million to operate in seven broad areas:

• Research infrastructures
• Research for the benefit of SMEs
• Regions of knowledge and support for regional research-driven clusters
• Research potential of Convergence Regions
• Science in society
• Support to the coherent development of research policies
• International cooperation

This specific programme also aims to:

• support the coherent development of policies;
• complement the Cooperation programme;
• contribute to EU policies and initiatives to improve the coherence and impact of Member States policies;
• find synergies with regional and cohesion policies, the Structural Funds, education and training programmes and the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP).

Research for the benefit of SMEs:

The aim is to strengthen the 'innovation capacity' of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe and their contribution to the development of new technology based products and markets. The programme will help them outsource research, increase their research efforts, extend their networks, better exploit research results and acquire technological know how, bridging the gap between research and innovation.

Representing 99% of all enterprises in Europe, SMEs contribute more than two thirds of European GDP and provide 75 million jobs in the private sector. They are therefore key to implementation of the renewed Lisbon strategy for economic growth and employment.

Supporting SMEs outsourcing research activities: This support aims at SMEs or SME associations in need of outsourcing research to providers of research services ('RTD performers') such as universities, research centres or other, more specialised SMEs.

It will be implemented through two distinct schemes:

• Research for SMEs - targeting mainly low to medium technology SMEs with little or no research capability, but also high-tech SMEs who need to outsource research to complement their core research capability. Projects aim at creating new knowledge or producing results with clear potential to improve or develop new products, processes or services for the participating SMEs. The brochure " Research for SMEs at a glance" is now available for download [PDF].

Research for SME associations - targeting associations which act on behalf of their SME members to identify and address common technical problems and to promote the effective dissemination and take-up of results. Projects in this activity may address topics such as pre-normative research issues, technological problems related to the development and implementation of legislation, and technological problems of whole industrial sectors. The brochure " Research for SME associations at a glance" is now available for download.

See Booklet Download below: