Long Description:
The activities covered by the Fourth Framework Programme must contribute to the attainment of three fundamental objectives: support to the competitiveness
of European industry; contribution of science and technology to the satisfaction of society's needs; and, support to the Community's common policies. In
keeping with the Community's industrial policy and in order to meet society's growing needs, research activities must contribute to a series of other objectives,
such as:
- Efficient and safe infrastructures;
- To ensure technological and industrial integration within the internal market (in particular by strengthening coordination between RTD policy and standardization
policy);
- To anticipate technological and industrial changes so as to that greater account is taken of market and society's needs;
- To increase the synergies between international cooperation in science and technology and the Community's external activities;
- To ensure efficient dissemination, throughout the whole economic and social system, in particular to small and medium-sized undertakings, of the scientific
and technological advances made;
- To produce efficiently, cleanly, safely and in a way which is environmentally friendly on the basis of modern organization of production taking into account
human factors;
- To promote environmental protection as an opportunity for industry to increase its competitiveness;
- To promote quality of life, with emphasis on health care and hygiene;
- To encourage the mastering of new technologies.
In pursuing these objectives, the Community undertakes four main activities, as described in Article 130(g) of the Maastricht Treaty:
- First activity:
Implementation of RTD and demonstration programmes, by promoting cooperation with and between undertakings, research centres - including the JRC - and
universities. This first activity consists of 13 specific programmes covering information and communications technologies, industrial technologies,
the environment, life sciences and technologies, agriculture and fisheries, non-nuclear energy, transport and targeted socio-economic research;
- Second activity:
Promotion of cooperation in the field of Community RTD and demonstration with third countries and international organizations. This activity covers various
related forms of Community intervention, including international scientific and technical cooperation activities hitherto undertaken outside the framework
programme. Cooperation is based on the principle of mutual benefit and aims to reinforce the Community's capacities in the field of science and technology
and to support the implementation of Community policies as regards third countries;
- Third Activity:
Dissemination and optimization of the results of activities in Community RTD and demonstration. This covers all RTD themes and aims to ensure the widest
dissemination of research results, to facilitate their optimal exploitation, to support technology transfer (particularly to SMEs), and to support initiatives
at national or regional level in order to give them a Community dimension;
- Fourth Activity:
Stimulation of the training and mobility of researchers in the Community. The objective of this activity is to promote the training and mobility of Community
researchers in fields, including those of fundamental research, not eligible for support under the first activity.
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