Poul Andersen * Cooperation with Central and Eastern Europe in Language Engineering

4. Fifth Framework Programme

The 5^th Framework Programme is now being prepared, in order for it to become operational when 4^th FWP ends in 1998. Without prejudice to the final structure and content of 5^th FWP, the Commission has identified three priorities for future research:

• Unlocking the resources of the living world and the ecosystem: this will cover the acquisition and use of knowledge about fundamental mechanisms affecting human life, especially in the fields of health and food. In addition it will cover the development of advanced technologies to safeguard the environment;
  
  
• Creating a user-friendly Information Society: research should aim at developing technology, infrastructure, services and applications that are interoperable at world level, in order to give people easier access to information and education throughout their lives, help share cultural heritage and preserve linguistic diversity;
  
  
• Promoting competitive and sustainable growth: this will cover manufacturing and design of new products and materials. Sectors to be targeted include energy, transport of people and goods, agriculture and fisheries.

A number of horizontal activities have also been identified which are designed, firstly, to meet common needs and provide general coordination, and, secondly, to support the three priorities mentioned above. These horizontal activities concern:

• Improving human potential: the emphasis is on training and mobility of scientists, including those in industry;
  
  
• Innovation and participation of SMEs: easier access for SMEs to all research activities and their results, by introducing a single, simplified framework and developing technology transfer mechanisms;
  
  
• Confirming the international role of European research: this is to be achieved by improving the involvement of certain outside participants in research programmes, in particular the Central and Eastern European countries, as part of their preparation for accession to the EU; by introducing schemes to improve cooperation at European level; and by defining specific international scientific cooperation projects.

As can be seen, Language Engineering is likely to be included under the second priority area in the draft text above, which mentions linguistic diversity as an important issue under the Information Society.

Likewise, the priority given to Central and Eastern Europe is maintained in the third horizontal activity above.

5. Procedures

The normal procedure for allocating funds is through Open Calls for Proposals, which are published in the EC Official Journal. In order to participate in a Call for Proposals, it is necessary not only to read the text of the call in the Official Journal, but also to obtain the information package for the call, which contains detailed and specific information about what kind of proposals are eligible, as well as application forms to fill in with scientific, financial and other administrative information.

Information packages can be requested from the European Commission, or from national contact points (see at the end of this article), or they can be down-loaded over the INTERNET from http://WWW.cordis.lu/, which contains an Electronic Document Delivery Service for documents and other texts related to the Framework Programmes.

Most of the funds under 4^th FWP are spent on 3 types of activities:

• Concerted Actions
• Joint Research Projects
• Accompanying measures

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