Mapping
20th March 2009
This consists of a descriptive analysis based on factual information and provides a static picture of what is happening at a given moment.
1. General Overview
This section describes the general landscape of the ERA-NET through an analysis of aggregated data.
1.1. ERA-NET Landscape
With an average of 11 participating countries, the ERA-NETs in FP6 involved between 6 and 19 countries each (see next figure) .
Size of ERA-NETs (Number of countries participating) |
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The ERA-NETs covered a wide range of research areas (see figure below), with life sciences (23%), industrial technologies and SMEs (23%) and environment (21%) being the fields with the largest numbers of ERA-NETs.
ERA-NETS by thematic areas (%) |
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The ERA-NET scheme has attracted participation from all countries involved in the FP, in particular from:
- 27 EU Member States.
- 5 Associated States: Switzerland, Iceland, Israel, Lichtenstein and Norway.
- 6 Third countries: Bosnia Herzegovina, FYROM (Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia), Montenegro, Serbia, Canada and Russia.
From these countries, more than one thousand organisations participated, of which 38% were ministries, 23% Research Councils, 28% agencies, and 11% other types of institutions.
The most active countries were Germany and France, which participate in more than 80% of all ERA-NETs.
The next group of countries with a high level of participation (between 79% and 54%) includes The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Spain, Austria, and Belgium, followed by Italy (51%).
The Nordic countries (including Norway as an Associated Country) are well represented.
All new MS participate in the scheme. In particular, Poland has a rate of participation of nearly 38%.
Frequency of country participation in FP6 ERA-NETs |
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The distribution of the coordinators among the ERA-NET countries follows a pattern similar to the overall country participation. The coordinators of all of the ERA-NETs originate from only 12 countries (see next figure):
- France and Germany are the most active countries, hosting the coordinating institutions of approximately 22% of all ERA-NETs.
- Given the small size of their countries (together they make up less than 4,5 % of the population of the EU), the cases of funding agencies from The Netherlands (coordinating 13% of the ERA-NETs) and Finland (coordinating 10%) are particularly significant.
- New Member States are not present as coordinators.
FP6 ERA-NET coordinators by countries |
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1.2. Joint Calls
In total almost 600 M€ of research funding were coordinated through ERA-NETs, mostly through joint calls.
Almost 70% of the joint calls were below the size of 10 M€: approximately 34% were below 2 M€ and roughly 36% between 2 and 10 M€.
Size of joint calls (in M€) |
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Joint calls were launched in all areas, with the majority of the funds being invested in life sciences, industrial technologies, and environment and by programmes focusing on fundamental research (see figure below).
Most of the ERA-NET joint calls and funding happened within the fields Industrial Technologies and Life Sciences, and Environment. International cooperation and Energy were of low significance in the ERA-NET landscape in terms of funds committed.
Total funding of joint calls by thematic area (€) |
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Relating countries' participation in ERA-NETs with their budget contribution to joint calls (see figure below), it is possible to identify four clusters of countries with different behaviours:
- A group of four large countries (Germany, United Kingdom, France and Spain) which participates extensively (many joint calls and large contributions), with Germany clearly the leading participant.
- A group of “selective” countries, where Italy and Switzerland are especially significant because they participate in fewer joint calls, but with large contributions.
- A group of smaller countries (Nordic countries, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands) which participate in a large number of joint calls.
- The new MS. Almost all of them participate in joint calls, with Slovenia
and Poland particularly active.
Country participation vs. contribution to joint calls |
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1.3. Funding Models
In terms of funding these joint activities, participants developed different funding models. Eventually these funding models can be grouped into the main categories 'virtual common pot', 'mixed mode pot' and 'common pot'.
- In the common pot model, countries pool funds and there are trans-national flows of funds as all researchers are funded only based on their success in the proposal evaluation.
- The virtual common pot enables countries and regions to pay for their own participants and there are no trans-national flows of national funding.
- To answer occasional challenges arising from the use of the virtual common pot model, the mixed-mode was created to allow countries to pay for their own researchers and, on occasion, to pay for other countries’ researchers.
Among the funding models applied in 56 joint calls, the majority of the joint calls was implemented with a virtual pot model (64%), almost 27% followed a common pot and only 9% implemented a mixed mode funding model.
Funding Models |
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2. Dimensions
ERA-NETs can be characterised along the following dimensions:
a) Thematic dimension
b) Spatial or geographical dimension
c) Participant dimension
d) Other
2.1. Thematic Dimension
This dimension analyses the range of areas covered by the ERA-NETs.
Among the FP6 ERA-NETs, 5 were attributed to the theme of energy. They are shown in the next table:
Description of FP6 ERA-NETs in the field of energy |
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ERA-NETs involved between 6 and 19 countries each, the average roughly being 11. The size of the ERA-NETS in the field of energy is completely in line with the average size of the ERA-NETs in general
The ERA-NETs in the field of energy follow the same pattern as the rest of the ERA-NETs, where on average the time from the start of the contract to the first call was about 2 years (when 8 out of 11 joint calls were launched). The budget committed by these five ERA-NETs to the 11 joint calls has been 23,3 Million € (see next figure).
Launch of joint calls in the field of energy: time line |
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2.2. Spatial or Geographical Dimension
This dimension analyses the country participation in ERA-NETs
In the field of energy, 22 countries were involved: 19 EU Member States and 3 associated countries (see figures below).
EU Member States participating in FP6 ERA-NETs in the field of energy |
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Associated countries participating in FP6 ERA-NETs in the field of energy |
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Different patterns can be found regarding frequency of country participation:
- Germany and The Netherlands were participating in all of the ERA-NETs in the field of energy.
- Austria, Spain, France and United Kingdom each had only one ERA-NET that they did not participate in.
- The Nordic countries (including Norway as an associated country) are very well represented, where Denmark and Sweden are particularly active.
- Most new Member States participate in one energy-related ERA-NET each in this field, however Poland is particularly active with 4 full participations and 1 participation as an observer).
2.3. Participant dimension
This dimension studies the different groups of actors participating in ERA-NETs
The number of institutions involved in each of the 5 energy-related ERA-NETs is shown in the next table. The average number of participating institutions is 16.
Institutions involved in the ERA-NETs in the field of energy |
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A total number of 48 institutions from 22 different countries were involved, 3 of whom participated in ERA-NET as observers. The great majority of them were organisations at national level while 5 organisations were regional and 1 international (see next figure). Interesting enough, 2 of the regional organisations were from Belgium and 3 from Germany; both countries with a strong federal dimension.
Types of institutions participating in FP6 ERA-NETs in the field of energy |
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Most of the institutions involved in energy-related ERA-NETs are R&D funding agencies who manage programmes or ministries who own and fund the respective national R&D programmes.
The analysis of the institution participation in relation to the country participation can lead to different country behaviour patterns. It is possible to find paradigmatic examples of countries whose level of participation is very high as a country, but quite low in terms of the number of institutions involved.
This is for instance the case for The Netherlands, which as a country participates in all ERA-NETs in the energy field through only one institution.
Other countries, such as Germany and Poland, present the opposite behaviour: their participation is higher in terms of the number of institutions involved than as a country. For most of the countries, however, their country participation matches their institutional participation.
Institution participation and country participation in ERA-NETs in energy |
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