FP8: Under Starter's Orders...

The formal process to develop the next Framework Programme (FP8) is expected to start in early 2011, reports UKRO. Prior to this the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) will hold a UK stakeholder consultation to gather input for the formal UK position on FP8. This is expected to be carried out in the third quarter of 2010.

BIS recently participated in an event hosted by the Royal Academy of Engineering which brought together UK business stakeholders to share their views on the current and future Framework Programmes. The slides from this event are now available via the link above, and would be of interest to subscribers wishing to find out more about the FP8 development timetable and the challenges faced by business when participating in FP7.

You Wait Ages for One Framework...

Hot on the heels of the RCUK's Framework comes news of a new (sigh) government framework for higher education. Due to be published in the next few weeks, the framework will include concrete incentives to encourage universities and business to work together in long term partnerships. Quoted in ResearchResearch the businesses secretary Peter Mandelson said that the framework would also “create a system more capable of responding quickly with funding to fill niche gaps in the skills base in critical industries such as the civil nuclear supply chain or low carbon technologies.”
Talking at the Royal Academy of Engineering on 19 October, the minister warned that, for these measures to work, businesses would have to play their part by being “much more clear and prescriptive about what they need." All too often, he claimed, investors are “less able or unwilling” to identify long term rather than short-term investment opportunities.