The European Commission has published several calls for proposals in various thematic areas of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) and has approved on July 30 the financing of 106 new projects, an official press statement of the agency has revealed. The projects within the Cooperation Specific Programme include a total of 679, which had been reviewed and evaluated by international experts, the report says. Once they have been seeded out and approved, they enter the "final phase of approval".

The authorised projects will encompass a wide spectrum of research activity, from healing therapy and innovative medicine, through different brain ailments, infectious diseases, rare viruses, patient safety and others. The project will encompass all EU member states as well as research institutions from 53 other countries like the US, Norway, Russia, Turkey, Ghana, Uganda, Gabon and others.

Furthermore, the European Research Council is intended to support up-and-coming research leaders who are about to establish or consolidate a proper research team and start conducting independent research in Europe.

The programme will also for the first time provide support for the best in European investigator-driven research. "Focus will be on excellence throughout the programme, a requirement if it is to play its role in developing Europe's global competitiveness. Another priority will be to make participation in the programme simpler and easier, through measures addressing the procedures, plus a rationalisation of instruments In spite of this new approach, there are many elements of continuity: in practice, for the majority of participants, the programme itself will not change, but participation will become simpler" the statement says.