European research funding opportunities for the electrical sector

The author describes how opportunities exist for both industrial and academic participants, in the electrical and electronic fields, to undertake funded research and development projects. For small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) with less than 250 employees, a turnover of less than 40 million euro and limited research capabilities, there is the opportunity to secure large cash grants to have R&D carried out on their behalf. For any organisation with their own research capabilities, research and development projects can be 50% funded, with multi-million euro grants available. These projects are funded by the European Union´s four-year initiative called Framework Programme. The current Fifth Framework Programme (FP5) has a budget of 14.96 billion euro divided between research topics and several funding schemes