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[integer@www.god-emil.dk]

ost.europa \ simply.superior-



[LINKOPING, SWEDEN] Proposed changes to the structure of the research programme run by the European Union (EU) could torpedo the efforts
of central and eastern European countries to increase their participation, scientists and policy-makers warned last week.

Most of the EU's research activities are organized into five-year 'Framework' programmes. Until now, these have supported large numbers of
relatively small projects, creating networks that link scientists from several EU member states ? and nations that have 'association' agreements
with Brussels.

But the European Commission plans to shake up the 17.5-billion-euro (US$15 billion) sixth Framework, scheduled to start in 2003. Research
commissioner Philippe Busquin wants to focus on larger, integrated projects (see Nature 410, 4; 2001). And he intends to delegate the
management of each project to one of the research centres involved.

Researchers from the 11 'candidate' nations waiting to join the EU believe these changes
will favour countries that already have a strong science base. Their complaints spilled over
last week in Link?ping, Sweden, at a meeting held to discuss the role of the candidate
countries in EU research.

Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland,
Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia are all scheduled to join the EU in the next few years ?
and scientists from these countries are already eligible for funding under the fifth
Framework. Each candidate country pays an entrance fee calculated according to its gross
domestic product and spending on research.

Even under the existing system, researchers from candidate countries have found it difficult
to compete for funding. Poland estimates that its scientists have recouped only 60 million
euros of its entrance fee of 160 million euros.

"We expected a mountain of gold in Brussels just waiting for us to go and fetch it," says
Andrzej Siemaszko, who heads the government office in Warsaw that helps Polish
scientists write EU project proposals. But given low success rates, "it is getting
increasingly difficult to convince people to spend three months on preparing an
application", he says.

The new Framework proposals are expected to widen the gap between the candidate
countries' investment and their returns. If this happens, some observers fear that these
countries may withdraw from their association agreements ? dealing a serious blow to
prospects for greater European cooperation in research.

"It took us more than two years to acquire the skills needed to write a good proposal," Uros Stanic, an electronics engineer at the Josef Stefan
Institute in Ljubljana, told last week's meeting. "The switch to a completely new terminology and new funding instruments will force us to start
from scratch."

Last month, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary called on the European Commission to involve more representatives
of candidate countries in preparing the sixth Framework, and to reconsider the balance between small and large-scale projects.

EU officials deny that the integrated projects will exclude scientists from the candidate countries. "They do not necessarily require lots of
expensive infrastructures and equipment," says Hendrik Tent, deputy director of the commission's research directorate. "They can also be
clusters of smaller projects designed to meet one coherent objective."

But the commission is trying to address the candidate countries' concerns. It plans to spend 40 million euros on moves to encourage contacts
between their scientists and those in EU member states, and is also planning a series of 'information days' to explain funding procedures.











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