FP7 Review

The EU's FP7 in Bavaria
BayFOR's support services

The EU's 7th research framework programme (FP7) ran from 2007 to 2013. It had a budget of around EUR 53.5 billion and was the world's largest research funding programme for that period, before it was succeeded in 2014 by Horizon 2020, the new European framework programme for research and innovation. Horizon 2020 now has the largest budget of any public programme to promote research and innovation in the world: approximately EUR 80 billion.

The EU's FP7 in Bavaria

Bavaria is among the most successful participants and therefore a winner of FP7 – which is a great success for BayFOR, too. Over the whole period, science and industry in Bavaria received around EUR 1.3 billion through FP7. Bavaria was ranked the second-most successful German state by total grants from this European research fund, after Baden-Wuerttemberg. In Bavaria, around EUR 480 million were poured into companies (of which EUR 194 million went to small and medium-sized  enterprises), closely followed by the Bavarian universities which were able to claim approximately EUR 454 million. The remainder of the funds were divided between non-university research organisations, public and other stakeholders.

Between 2007 and 2013, Bavaria took part in 2347 of 23,808* EU-funded projects. Thematically, the most successful FP7 projects in Bavaria were in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector: they received the most money, around EUR 317 million for 533* of the EU-funded projects, followed by the fields of health and nanoscience, nanotechnology, new materials and production (NMP). Funding from the European Research Council (ERC) made up a large percentage of the total: grants from the ERC, which was only set up in 2007, quickly gained an excellent reputation and are also among the most acclaimed grants for scientists in the current framework programme. Bavarian researchers received around EUR 255 million in this way under the FP7.  

FP7 grants – EU-wide distribution in each subject area

The field of ICT also saw the most grants throughout Europe. The resources poured into it totalled around EUR 7.4* billion for 2198* projects. The European Research Council's contributions came in second, with around EUR 7* billion for 4155* projects receiving grants. Other significant proportions of the total FP7 budget went to the fields of health, with around EUR 4.7* billion for 971* funded projects, and nanoscience, nanotechnology ,new materials and production (NMP), with approx. EUR 3.5* billion for 851* projects. Furthermore, around EUR 4.5* billion went into 9885* projects under the specific "People" programme as part of the FP7.

BayFOR's support services

From 2007 to 2013, the Bavarian Research Alliance (BayFOR) worked intensively to support Bavarian stakeholders in acquiring FP7 funding. Furthermore, BayFOR's liaison office in Brussels actively positioned Bavarian research interests within the EU (towards various Directorates-General, Members of the European Parliament and other stakeholders based in Brussels). Throughout every process, it was very important that our scientific officers had the specialist knowledge needed to grasp the content of the projects we supported, to enable us to provide the most efficient assistance. The advisory services and supported proposals therefore resulted in many EU-funded projects. You can find more information and precise figures on this topic in the BayFOR annual reports at www.bayfor.org/jahresbericht (in German language).

BayFOR is continuing its success story under Horizon 2020.

Source: "7th EU research framework programme, status of German participation by federal state" report produced by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research in February 2014

* Figure obtained from own analysis and not limited to EU 28 countries like the report by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research.