Table of Contents

1.    Foreword.. 5

2.    Introduction.. 9

3.    Effectiveness in national research systems. 9

Public research funding.. 10

Project and performance based research funding.. 13

national research and innovation strategies. 14

Use of peer review criteria/Ex-ante evaluation.. 14

Smart specialisation.. 15

4.    Transnational co-operation and competition.. 16

Transnational co-operation. 16

Compatible rules for transnational co-operation. 17

Research infrastructures. 18

Roadmaps and funding. 18

Access to RI 19

5.    Open labour market for researchers. 21

Open, merit based and transparent recruitment. 21

Attractive careers. 22

Mobility.. 22

Accessibility and portability of grants. 23

Social security and visa procedures for mobile researchers. 23

EURAXESS. 24

Academia-industry mobility. 24

Innovative doctoral training. 24

6.    Gender.. 26

7.    Knowledge circulation.. 28

Open access to publications and data.. 28

Knowledge transfer.. 29

Digital ERA.. 32

8.    Conclusions. 34

9.    List of Acronyms. 35

10.     Glossary.. 37

Graph 1: Total GBAORD as a share of Gross Domestic Product in the EU and maximum and minimum share in the EU Member States. 10

Graph 2: Share of total general government expenditures allocated to GBAORD in the EU and maximum and minimum share in the EU Member States. 11

Graph 3: Evolution of share of total general government expenditures allocated to GBAORD in those MS and AC whose share is equal or higher than the EU share in 2011  11

Graph 4: Evolution of share of total general government expenditures allocated to GBAORD in those MS whose share is lower than the EU share in 2011. 12

Graph 5: Slope of linear regression for the evolution of share of total general government expenditures allocated to GBAORD in two periods: 2002-2011 and 2007-2011. 12

Graph 6: Slope of linear regressions for the evolution of total general government expenditures and GBAORD between 2007-2011 (base 2007, in Euros) 13

Graph 7: Project-based public funding of research and development activities  14

Graph 8: Systematic use of appropriateness and excellence as evaluation criteria when funding organisations which responded to the ERA survey use peer review (in percentage of organisations) 15

Graph 9: National public funding to transnationally coordinated research by category, 2010(1) (as a % of total national GBAORD) 16

Graph 10: Share of funding organisations implementing co-operation activities without EU framework programme, including those implementing research agreements. 17

Graph 11: Barriers preventing funding or participation in the construction, development and/or operation of a Reseach Infrastructure included in the 2010 ESFRI Roadmap or to the European Strategy for Parical Physics of CERN (percentage of funding organisations) 19

Graph 12: Type of difficulties identified by research performing organisations which have problems when trying to access research infrastructures of pan-European interest (percentage of organisations) 20

Graph 13: Share of university-based researchers having completed their PhD with experience of working as a researcher outside academia for a period of at least three months. 24

Graph 14: Activities implemented in connexion with gender issues by research performing organisations (percentage of organisations) 27

Graph 15: Support to open access by funding organisations and implementation by research performing organisations (percentage of organisations) 29

Graph 16: Support to different knowledge transfer activities by funding organisations (percentage of organisations) 31

Graph 17: Barriers to the development and implementation of knowledge transfer activities experienced by research performing organisations (percentage of organisations) 32

Graph 18: Provision of digital research services by research performers (percentage of organisations) 33

1. Foreword

Europe has a long tradition of excellence in the fields of research and development as well as in innovation. However, to achieve lasting economic recovery and to tackle grand challenges, Europe needs the very best research with the highest impact. This requires more transnational cooperation and more competition within the EU research systems, because of the scale of efforts needed, and because it provides higher added value, creates more jobs and improves Europe's competitiveness at global level.

This is the rationale behind the proposal for a European Research Area (ERA) which was reiterated in a Commission Communication of 17 July 2012 on ‘A reinforced European research area partnership for excellence and growth’. The European Commission wants to see researchers, research institutions and businesses move, compete and co-operate across borders more intensively.

Since 2000, Member States (MS) and other involved Associated Countries (AC) have made substantial progress in achieving the ERA. However, more can be done, as acknowledged by the Council on 11 December 2012, which stressed the importance of stepping up the progress across the Union. The Council welcomed the Commission’s proposal for a reinforced partnership between Member States, stakeholder organisations (SHO) and the European Commission to make progress on the priorities identified in the ERA Communication. As conditions for success, the Council invited Member States to identify their national reforms and actions needed to achieve the ERA, according to their national specificities, and to present them in their National Reform Programmes starting from the 2013 European Semester. The Council also considered that achieving the ERA requires monitoring of ERA progress in close connection with the European Semester, and invited the Commission to establish a robust ERA monitoring mechanism.

This ERA Progress Report is the first outcome of the ERA monitoring mechanism. It presents the degree of advancement in each of the five priorities identified in the ERA Communication. The overview of advancement was obtained through the identification and analysis of different national policy measures fostering ERA – in place or well advanced in their development – as well as of the implementation of ERA by Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) and Research Funding Organisations (RFOs). The state of advancement also considers the support provided to ERA by the representative stakeholder organisations which signed a joint statement with the Commission as well as through actions by the Commission.

The report is accompanied by Country fiches which present the state of play for each ERA priority as identified so far in Member States and selected Associated Countries. The fiches also indicate new measures when they were mentioned in the 2013 National Reform Programmes and/or identified during the country visits. A list of the most important policies and initiatives identified so far is presented in Country fiches annexes. This first attempt to identify the state of play should not be considered as a static document but constitutes a first presentation of the state of play in ERA. It is expected to be completed and harmonized in future editions of the ERA Progress Report with the help of Member States and Associated Countries.

The ERA Facts and Figures 2013 is based on different sources of information:

· First of all, contributions and comments by national authorities - provided in very short deadlines - on the policy context and different measures identified by the Commission: they were extremely valuable to present the best possible overview of the situation in the ERA.

· The 2013 National Reform Programmes submitted by the Member States in the context of the European Semester were essential sources of information: ERA related structural reforms contribute to create the conditions to reaching the 3% target of Gross Domestic Product dedicated to Research and Development by 2020.

· Country missions undertaken by the Commission’s services to analyse EU Member States' programmes of economic and structural reforms: they helped for identification, discussion and awareness raising of ERA priorities with national authorities.

· Eurostat: official statistics were used where relevant.

· Specific analysis of the implementation at national level of the ERA Communication priorities[1], carried out by the Joint Research Centre[2] with the support of independent national experts: they were a primary source of information.

· Research Funding Organisations' (RFOs) and Research Performing Organisations' (RPOs) responses to the “2012 Survey of State of Play of the implementation of ERA”[3]: RFOs and RPOs made a strong effort to respond to the ERA survey 2012 carried out by DG RTD. The results provide a detailed (even if partial) perspective on how ERA is being implemented at operational level.

· Contributions by Stakeholder Organisations which participate in the ERA Platform (the European Association of Research and Technology Organisations (EARTO), European Universities Association (EUA), the League of European Research Universities (LERU), NordForsk and Science Europe (SE)): they were useful to identify their on-going efforts in support of ERA.

· Consolidated contribution to the ERA survey by seven EIROforum members (EIROs)[4] (CERN, Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire; EFDA-JET: European Fusion Development Agreement: Joint European Torus; EMBL: European Molecular Biology Laboratory; ESO: European Southern Observatory; ESRF: The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility; EU.XFEL: European XFEL and ILL: The Institute Laue-Langevin): it highlighted the state of play in these intergovernmental initiatives.

· Researchers' report 2012[5]: it constitutes a valuable source of information on the situation in each Member State affecting researchers.

· The MORE2 Survey[6]: It provided insights on mobility and careers of more than 10,000 individual researchers in European Higher Education Institutes surveyed by the study.

· She Figures 2012[7]: it presents data with respect to gender in research.

· ERAWATCH Country Analytical Reports (2012)[8]: it provided elements for identifying the state of play.

· Preliminary inputs from an Expert Group launched to support the implementation of the ERA Communication by Member States and the European Commission and from the Study on the “Analysis of the ERA state-of-play in Member States and Associated Countries: focus on priority areas”: they help clarify the scope and potential of some actions.

· Finally, Commission services' contributions: this ERA Progress Report mobilised all services implementing specific components of the ERA policy.

One final word on the quantitative identification of the State of Play. Whenever possible, results from quantitative official sources were used in this report. However, they are not fully adequate to provide a precise indication of the state of advancement in the implementation of the different ERA actions. This motivated the Commission to launch an ERA survey 2012 in order to identify evidence.

Most national authorities provided the full list of public research funding and/or performing organisations, which in some cases was completed with public organisations participating in the 7th Framework Programme as well as other sources. Authorities in these organisations were invited to respond to the ERA survey 2012. Of the 10,500 institutions that were addressed, 3,450 responded and many more contacted the Commission to justify their lack of answer to the survey (i.e. private institutions, non-autonomous organisations, merged with another institution, etc.) This response rate can be considered as quite high, given the voluntary nature of the exercise, the short delay to provide responses and the amount of information required.

The results presented in this report should be considered with caution, as they only reflect a partial situation, the one in those institutions which responded to the ERA survey[9]. In the case of RFOs, they reflect the situation in 108 RFOs managing 14% of total EU GBAORD[10] (Government budget appropriations or outlays for research and development). In the case of research performing organisations, the results reflect the situation in 1,319 public organisations, mobilising around 1.2 million[11] research staff in Europe. In the case of Associated Countries, the results concern, in the case of RFOs, nine organisations in five countries, and in the case of RPOs, 77 organisations in eight countries[12].

2. Introduction

The 2012 European Research Area Communication[13] defines ERA as a unified research area open to the world based on the Internal Market, in which researchers, scientific knowledge and technology circulate freely and through which the Union and its Member States strengthen their scientific and technological bases, their competitiveness and their capacity to collectively address grand challenges. Based on analysis of the strengths and weakness of Europe's research systems and the overall objective of inducing lasting step-changes in Europe's research performance and effectiveness by 2014, the Communication defined five priorities:

•           More effective national research systems – including increased competition within national borders and sustained or greater investment in research

•           Optimal transnational co-operation and competition - defining and implementing common research agendas on grand-challenges, raising quality through Europe-wide open competition, and constructing and running effectively key research infrastructures on a pan-European basis

•           An open labour market for researchers - to ensure the removal of barriers to researcher mobility, training and attractive careers

•           Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research – to end the waste of talent which we cannot afford and to diversify views and approaches in research and foster excellence

•           Optimal circulation, access to, and transfer of, scientific knowledge including via digital ERA - to guarantee access to, and uptake of, knowledge by all.

Completing ERA will bring efficiency, quality and impact gains as well as new opportunities for all Member States and Associated Countries. It is an opportunity for less well-performing countries to take responsibility for reforming their research systems, driving a process of smart specialisation, and helping to close the innovation divide.

For each priority, the Communication identified actions to be taken at all levels: national, institutional and Commission’s. The report presents the state of play in the five ERA priorities.

3. Effectiveness in national research systems

Open national-level competition is crucial to deriving maximum value from public money invested in research. It involves allocating funding through open calls for proposals, evaluated by panels of leading independent domestic and non-domestic experts (peer review), which incites researchers to reach internationally-competitive levels of performance. It also implies assessing the quality of research-performing organisations and teams and their outputs as a basis for institutional funding decisions (peer review can form a part of such assessment) and in the long-term lead to organisational change. While the balance between these two approaches may vary, they should be at the core of research funding decisions at national and regional level in order to overcome divergences in performance across the EU. Careful planning of smart specialisation is also an important component of effectiveness, as it allows to make the most out of public investments.

Public research funding

Total Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D (GBAORD) in the EU have declined in relative terms since 2009[14], to reach 0.72% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2011 (Graph 1). However, in nine MS and Croatia the share was above the EU total, whilst in five others the shares were below half (0.36%) of the EU share.

Graph 1: Total GBAORD as a share of Gross Domestic Product in the EU and maximum and minimum share in the EU Member States

Source: Eurostat

Public effort in the European Union on research (measured as the share of total general government expenditures allocated to GBAORD) has also been declining in relative terms since 2009 to reach 1.47% in 2011 (Graph 2).

Graph 2: Share of total general government expenditures allocated to GBAORD in the EU and maximum and minimum share in the EU Member States

Source: Eurostat

The situation varies among MS. Graph 3 shows the evolution since 2002 in those countries which were above or equal to the effort at EU level in 2011. Some MS continously increased their efforts whilst in other MS they were stable or declining.

Graph 3: Evolution of share of total general government expenditures allocated to GBAORD in those MS and AC whose share is equal or higher than the EU share in 2011

Source: Eurostat

Half of MS are in the group of countries whose share was below the EU effort in 2011 and in most cases the share is declining (Graph 4)

Graph 4: Evolution of share of total general government expenditures allocated to GBAORD in those MS whose share is lower than the EU share in 2011

Source: Eurostat

The slope of linear regressions[15] of the efforts on R&D for the periods 2002-2011 (2002=1) and 2007-2011 (2007=1) shows that in several cases the slopes are decreasing, implying that less budgetary efforts are given to R&D (Graph 5). This may probably reflect difficult budgetary contexts in some of the MS. However, these results should be considered with care, as they do not take into consideration the indirect support to R&D through tax incentives, which in 2009 were estimated to represent up to 0.14% of GDP[16] in the best case.

Graph 5: Slope of linear regression for the evolution of share of total general government expenditures allocated to GBAORD in two periods: 2002-2011 and 2007-2011

Source: DG RTD on the basis of Eurostat data. The analysis reflect the slopes between 2002-2011 with the exception of Malta (2004-2011); Sweden (2003-2011); Cyprus (2004-2011); Lithuania (2004-2011); Greece (2002-2008); Poland (2004-2009); France (2002-2005); Netherlands (2002-2005); Italy (2005-2011) and Hungary (2005-2011) and for the period 2007-2011 with the exception of Greece (2007-2008); Poland (2007-2009)and Croatia (2008-2011)

The comparison of the slopes of the linear regressions of the changes in total government expenditures and GBAORD for the period 2007-2011 (2007=1) shows that in some cases, the effort on R&D is increasing more rapidly than total government expenditures whilst in other cases it decreases even when total expenditures are growing.

Graph 6: Slope of linear regressions for the evolution of total general government expenditures and GBAORD between 2007-2011 (base 2007, in Euros)

Source: DG RTD on the basis of Eurostat data. The analysis reflects in the case of GBAORD the period 2007-2011 with the exception of Greece (2007-2008); Poland (2007-2009)and Croatia (2008-2011).

Budget cuts are mostly affecting research performing organisations with either short-term consequence, e.g. reductions in researchers' salary as well as temporary interruptions of R&D support measures, or, in very few countries, long-term implications, e.g. cuts in institutional funding[17]. Fiscal consolidation at the expense of R&D will probably endanger future growth and job creation.

Project and performance based research funding

All countries allocate research funding through competitive calls for projects. However the exact proportion is not available through official sources (Graph 7). Institutional funding is increasingly linked with the assessment of research performance. Based on current assessment and information provided by MS, at least 21 MS have provisions to link part, or all, institutional funding with performance. New and/or improved provisions have been proposed in 2013 in at least five MS.

Graph 7: Project-based public funding of research and development activities

Source: OECD Nesti. Observations reflect the situation in 2008, with the exception of Austria and Denmark (2009) and Finland (2010).

national research and innovation strategies

Based on current assessment and information provided by MS, in 21 MS a strategy for research and development as well as innovation has been adopted. In many cases they highlight the importance given to competition for funding and the importance of bridging knowledge generation with innovation. In some cases they are very comprehensive, including several measures which address the objectives of the ERA priorities, in some other cases they focus more specifically on the links between research and innovation. Based on current assessment and information provided by MS, at least twelve national strategies have been proposed and/or adopted in 2013. Some strategies are being aligned with the strategic priorities identified in Horizon 2020.

Use of peer review criteria/Ex-ante evaluation

The use of peer review raises the transparency and quality of the allocation of research funding in the ERA. The situation varies among MS on the type of evaluation criteria used for the peer review and on the inclusion of international experts in the review panels. In all MS (with two exceptions) there are provisions for using the core principles for international peer review, (nine of them explicitly adopted these criteria since 2012). Survey results show that a share of responding funding organisations throughout the EU apply both “Appropriateness” (relevance) and “Excellence” as evaluation criteria. EIROs always utilise international peer-review in the assessment of proposals and/or experiments and the selection is based on excellence.

Graph 8: Systematic use of appropriateness and excellence as evaluation criteria when funding organisations which responded to the ERA survey use peer review (in percentage of organisations)

Source: ERA survey 2012.

Ethical and integrity criteria are used systematically in the evaluation of proposals by 43% of the funding institutions which responded to the ERA survey 2012 in current EU MS, whilst they were 55% in AC.

There are little or no “formal” provisions for mobilising international experts systematically in MS.

Smart specialisation

Smart Specialisation Strategies (RIS3) in Research and Innovation (R&I) will be essential elements of effectiveness in the coming years. This new innovation policy concept has been designed to promote the efficient and effective use of public investment in research, essential in the ERA, notably in times of economic crisis. Its goal is to boost regional innovation in order to achieve economic growth and prosperity, by enabling regions to focus on their strengths. Smart specialisation Strategies will drive Structural Fund investments in R&I as part of the future Cohesion Policy's contribution to the Europe 2020 jobs and growth agenda.

Two out of three SHO partners in the ERA platform are developing actions to help their constituency in the design of smart specialisation strategies. EUA is producing guidelines for developing region-universities strategies for research and innovation, with the objective of informing future implementation of EU structural/regional funds. LERU has participated in the development of the white paper “Teaming for excellence” providing considerations on how to demonstrate the benefits of, and success factors in, teaming efforts. The Commission has produced a revised version of the “Annex III: a practical approach to RIS3 and its (self-) assessment” of the “Guide to research and innovation strategies for smart specialisation”. The approach is intended to provide practical tools to policy-makers, experts and practitioners working at both national and regional level on how to approach the process of establishing research and innovation strategies for smart specialisation and to assess them.

4. Transnational co-operation and competition

Transnational co-operation and notably joint programming, has a large range of benefits. Joint activities mobilise cross-border complementarities and allow carrying out large scale research, which cannot be addressed by a single country. Joint activities also potentially contribute to enhance efficiency and attractiveness of the European Research Area. The EU needs to act coherently to achieve the scale of effort and impact needed to address grand challenges with the limited public research funds available. MS and AC also need to facilitate co-operation between funding organisations by adopting compatible funding rules and selection processes for the implementation of joint activities.

Transnational co-operation

According to experimental - or pilot – statistics gathered by Eurostat, the 2010 R&D budget directed towards transnational coordinated research was 3.79% on average (based on data provided by 21 MS), with variations among the different countries (Graph 9).

Graph 9: National public funding to transnationally coordinated research by category, 2010(1) (as a % of total national GBAORD)

Source: Eurostat

Notes: (1) Experimental data; (2) BE: data of some regional authorities in Belgium are probably not included; (3) AT: federal or central government only; (4) CH: data for 2009; uses 2008 GBAORD as denominator.

Transnational cooperation is supported by the EU Framework Programme: the 28 MS have received approximately 29.4 billions Euros and AC 2.9 billions Euros of EC contribution during the period of 2007-2012. FP funding represents on average 60 Euros per head of population.

The Commission is co-funding with national authorities five Article 185 Initiatives and continues facilitating the preparation of Strategic Research Agendas by Joint Programming Initiatives. All ten joint programming initiatives have developed joint activities, five JPIs have adopted Strategic Research Agendas and seven will have launched joint calls by the end of 2013.

Based on current assessment and information provided by MS and SHO, cross border research cooperation is carried out directly by at least 26 MS, either through bilateral or multilateral agreements or other specific types of transnational cooperation model (Open research area in Europe for the Social Sciences, large-scale programmes funded jointly by the Nordic countries and NordForsk, through real common pots; Lead agency such as D-A-CH, etc.). However, it is not possible yet to assess the importance of each of these actions. The ERA survey 2012 results point out that around 60% of responding funding organisations participate in one or more types of cooperation modality, without the involvement of the EU Framework Programme. A larger share is observed in AC (Graph 10).

Graph 10: Share of funding organisations implementing co-operation activities without EU framework programme, including those implementing research agreements[18]

Source: ERA survey 2012

Transnational co-operation is implemented by all EIROs.

Compatible rules for transnational co-operation

Compatible national funding rules to make transnational cooperation more effective are implemented by at least nine MS (based on current assessment and information provided by MS). They have set up provisions to promote and facilitate cross-border interoperability of national programmes. Based on current assessment and information provided by MS, at least 11 MS allow mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to the core principles of international peer-review (notably those evaluations which were carried out by the European Research Council) as basis for national funding decisions. The ERA survey 2012 results indicate that more than 80% of responding funding organisations share eligibility criteria, that around 30% of them implement common priorities and common selection decisions, whilst around 20% face problems when trying to implement common priorities, common eligibility criteria and common funding rates.

SHO partners in the ERA platform are taking action to foster transnational co-operation and competition. Science Europe is producing a “tool-kit” with a guidance document to support the implementation of cross-border collaboration. Science Europe is also investigating the potential to expand an “International Co-investigators’ initiative. NordForsk has identified four priority areas for Nordic cooperation and for realising ERA, among which the development of joint research initiatives and international cooperation. Since 2005 it has used the common pot funding mechanism for transnational initiatives, creating added value by high quality processes, identifying jointly agreeable topics, which Nordic research financiers are willing to commit to. In 2012, they included topics such as for example education for tomorrow, eScience, etc. EUA and EARTO have been providing evidence and advice to ERAC on the enhancement of cross border cooperation. EUA and its European Platform of Universities in Energy are working with EIT KIC Inno-Energy to develop a new partnership entitled UNI-SET to tackle the “energy” grand challenge.

Research infrastructures Roadmaps and funding

Excellent research depends upon world-class facilities and research infrastructures (RIs), including ICT-based e-infrastructures (eRIs). Such RIs attract talent and stimulate innovation and business opportunities. eRIs in particular enable increasingly data-intensive collaborative research by geographically dispersed teams. The challenges are to ensure national commitments to the implementation of the ESFRI Roadmap, achieve maximum value-for-money from investment at all levels, overcome obstacles to the construction and operation of RIs and ensure access for researchers to RIs across Europe.

Based on current assessment and information provided by MS, all MS participate in the development of at least one of the RI identified by ESFRI. 18 MS contributed to fund one or more infrastructure projects listed in ESFRI and cofunded by FP7. MS and AC also fund the development and operations of EIRO. Based on current assessment and information provided by MS, national roadmaps for the development of national research infrastructures have been identified and/or are being implemented by a majority of MS (in at least 24 MS) of which at least 16 link them explicitly with ESFRI. At least 13 MS mention in their national roadmaps their contribution to funding of ESFRI. Other MS contribute to the funding of ESFRI, but it is not always possible to identify their contribution. At least seven MS have specific provisions for the development of e-infrastructures. Among funding organisations which answered the ERA survey 2012, around 20% fund the development of ESFRI. They indicate that they do not contribute more because of lack of funding and/or other reasons (Graph 11).

Graph 11: Barriers preventing funding or participation in the construction, development and/or operation of a Reseach Infrastructure included in the 2010 ESFRI Roadmap or to the European Strategy for Parical Physics of CERN (percentage of funding organisations)

Source: ERA survey 2012.

Access to RI

The conditions for accessing RIs depend on the characteristics and specificities of each infrastructure. Based on current assessment and information provided by MS, at least 11 MS have provisions to facilitate access to RI. EIROs provide access (in some cases free of charge) to research infrastructures through different modalities: participation to research experiments, bilateral and multilateral agreements, visitors programmes and/or peer review calls for proposals.

Almost 60% of research performers which answered the ERA survey 2012 indicate that their researchers require access to research infrastructures of pan-European interest. Survey results indicate that around 37% of research performers requiring access to RI experience problems. The reasons are mainly complex access rules, high costs and/or insufficient information available on the RI (Graph 12).

Graph 12: Type of difficulties[19] identified by research performing organisations which have problems when trying to access research infrastructures of pan-European interest (percentage of organisations)

Source: ERA survey 2012.

The Commission has developed a first draft of the Charter of Access within the framework of the ESFRI Implementation Group which will be presented to the ESFRI Executive Board in October 2013. The Commission will also launch in Horizon 2020 training and awareness activities on RIs as well as calls to promote access to RIs of pan-European interest. It will continue facilitating and supporting the preparation, implementation, long-term sustainability and efficient operation of the research infrastructures identified by ESFRI and other world-class research infrastructures. Moreover, the Commission launched in 2012 the process of assessing the ESFRI projects by a high level assessment expert group in terms of (managerial and financial) maturity and possible implementation by 2015. The report of this high level group, expected in September 2013, will identify areas per project where support would be needed in order to facilitate implementation. ESFRI will complement the assessment with a scientific evaluation aiming at a prioritisation of the ESFRI Roadmap. Using this basis, the Commission will discuss with MS on possible follow up actions to facilitate implementation of the ESFRI Projects. Two SHO partners in the ERA platform are also active in the field of RI. Science Europe has launched a working group on Research Infrastructures. NordForsk has identified among its four priority areas for Nordic cooperation the development of research infrastructures, linking funding instruments with the joint use of, and access to, RIs.

5. Open labour market for researchers

A genuinely open and attractive European labour market for researchers is an essential factor for the successful completion of the European Research Area. The barriers to the free circulation of researchers across borders and sectors are well-known: a lack of open, transparent, merit-based recruitment, reduced access to and the portability of national grants, social security and pension issues, visa problems, skills mismatch between academic training and private requirements, and uncertain career paths and development. Significant progress has been made in recent years. MS have introduced a range of measures, programmes, strategies and legislative acts to address the barriers and train researchers to create the conditions to meet their national R&D target. A series of EU policy initiatives such as the development of the EURAXESS network, the “Scientific Visa Directive”, a Human Resources Strategy for Researchers based on the Charter and Code, and Principles of Innovative Doctoral Training have also contributed to this progress. However, a number of challenges remain and a coordinated effort by the Commission, MS and institutions is needed to remove remaining obstacles, in particular practices, to researcher mobility, training and attractive careers.

Open, merit based and transparent recruitment

Open, merit based and transparent recruitment ensures that research performers are able to select the best researchers from the widest possible pool of talents, thereby fostering mobility opportunities for innovation and more generally contribute to the advancement of ERA.

The implementation modalities of open recruitment vary among the countries. So far, EURAXESS data shows an increase from 7,500 job advertisements in 2010 up to 36,500 in 2012. This excellent progress, which is helping to match demand and supply across borders, is due to concerted efforts by the Commission, several MS and institutions to ensure that a much larger proportion of research vacancies are posted on the portal, e.g. the inclusion of vacancies from major job providers such as Naturejobs and Galaxie.

A comprehensive review of more than 100 universities or research institutes who have gained the “HR Excellence in Research” logo reveals that more than 90% had reviewed, or were in the process of reviewing, recruitment processes[20]. Institutions were typically encouraging staff to involve at least three people in selection panels, including a representative from HR, having a gender balance on panels and creating a policy/guideline for recruitment panels to adhere to, including external experts as well as training all staff involved in the process. EIROs open their vacancies to any nationality.

The MORE2 Survey[21] shows that around 40% of researchers associated to European Higher Education Institutes were 'dissatisfied' with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution. This average masks significant differences between countries (the range goes from 22% to 69%). The Commission is carrying out a study in 2013 to determine the current situation with regard to recruitment policies and practices in each MS and to consider the feasibility and appropriateness of possible further measures to boost the level of open recruitment.

2012 saw a growth in divergence in innovation performance among MS. In this environment, coupled with cuts to research budgets in the countries most affected by the financial crisis, open recruitment and career progression become all the more important to create the conditions for more balanced growth across Europe extending the spread of excellence.

Attractive careers

MS and AC continue to support the implementation of the Code and Charter (C&C) which aim to improve researchers’ working conditions. As of June 2013, more than 480 organisations from 35 countries in Europe and beyond have explicitly endorsed the principles underlying the C&C, many of them are membership or umbrella organisations. Level of institutional endorsements of the C&C principles continues to grow.

The Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R) focuses on the practical implementation of the C&C principles. Award of the ‘HR Excellence in Research’ logo[22] recognises institutional progress in implementing C&C principles. Currently, some 230 organisations are members of the Strategy Group. So far 148 organisations have received the logo, half of them within one country, reflecting the enabling framework provided by national authorities. EIROforum members have Human Resources strategies well aligned with the C&C.

With the HRS4R now reaching a critical mass of involvement, the Commission has decided to build upon this work through a feasibility study into a quality certification of Human Resources in public research institutes. SHO partners in the ERA platform encourage their members to engage in the HRS4R process by organising working groups, high level discussions and workshops, launching surveys, and improving guidelines.

Mobility

The researcher population is highly mobile internationally. Around 31% of EU post-PhD researchers have worked abroad (EU or worldwide) as researchers for more than three months at least once during the last ten years[23]. In some MS, the proportion is higher. Furthermore, the mobility experience is largely positive. At EU level, 80% of internationally mobile researchers believe mobility had (strongly) increased the advancement of their research skills and 62% the quality of their research publications.

MS have put in place various measures to remove obstacles to researchers’ mobility. These include reforms in the higher education sectors linked to the Bologna process. In 2010 the average EU-27 shares of non-national doctoral candidates coming from another Member State or from outside the EU[24] was 8% and 20% respectively. A comprehensive overview including examples of good practice can be found in the Commission’s Researchers Report 2013.

A ‘Task Force on Highly Mobile Workers’, composed of representatives from different Commission services, was set up at the end of 2012. Its task is to define elements as to who should be regarded as a ‘highly mobile worker’ and to identify legal, administrative and practical barriers for such workers. This work will provide a prioritised list of barriers. Three categories of ‘highly mobile workers’ will be addressed: artists and culture professionals, international researchers and international transport workers. The document will serve as a basis for discussion and reflection on the problems and challenges faced by such workers with regard to their social protection, working conditions and in dealing with national, regional or local administrations.

Accessibility and portability of grants

The modalities in support of the implementation of accessibility to and portability of national grants vary among MS and AC. Several regional initiatives such as the 'Money follows Researcher' and the 'Money follows Cooperation Line' schemes have been adopted.

Social security and visa procedures for mobile researchers

Mobile researchers face obstacles related to social security, including pensions systems, as well as visa granting procedures. The Commission continues to support stakeholders in setting up pan-European supplementary pension fund(s) for researchers. It has helped to create a Task Force, made up of representatives of various employer organisations, whose role is to investigate the feasibility of setting up a multi-country Retirement Savings Vehicle (RSV) that can be used to provide retirement benefits to professionals employed by research organisations throughout the EEA. The Task Force will make a proposal based on its findings by the end of 2013.

Fast-track immigration is an important consideration for internationally mobile researchers and is thus an important factor in helping attract the best global talent to Europe. In March 2013, the Commission proposed a recast of the Scientific Visa Directive[25] that will set clearer time limits for national authorities to decide on applications; provide researchers with greater opportunities to access the labour market during and after their stay, and facilitate mobility within the EU. The proposed Directive is under negotiation by the European Parliament and Council.

SHO partners in the ERA platform have launched a set of activities to address mobility: studies to investigate mobility patterns, surveys, working groups and participation in Commission’s activities.

EURAXESS

EURAXESS continues to play a key role for researchers wishing to pursue their careers in Europe. More than 200 EURAXESS Service Centres in 40 European countries are responding to the increasing demand for information and assistance (150,000 queries in 2012). The Commission will explore the possibility of rolling out an Industry User Interface for business users tailored to the needs of business users across Europe.

EURAXESS Links continue to support European researchers in the US, Japan, China, India, ASEAN region and, as of 2013, Brazil and Canada. Its mandate has recently been extended to include promoting Europe as an attractive place for international researchers. For example, EURAXESS Links Information Officers act as intermediates between the non-EU country and a EURAXESS Service Centre, thus speeding up the provision of information.

Academia-industry mobility

MS have put in place various measures to boost partnerships between universities, research institutions and private companies and to better align the skills acquired with the skills needed. These include the implementation of joint projects, commercialisation programmes, research traineeships in companies, inter-sectoral mobility programmes and industrial PhD programmes.

The MORE2 survey shows that EU-wide, relatively few researchers have experience of working in private industry. While 23% of PhD researchers had work experience as researchers outside academia during their PhD, only 4% of researchers were active in industry. During the post-doctoral career stages, 12% of university-based researchers had worked for at least three months in industry (Graph 13).

Graph 13: Share of university-based researchers having completed their PhD with experience of working as a researcher outside academia for a period of at least three months

Source: MORE2 Survey 2012

Innovative doctoral training

Europe has relatively few researchers employed in industry, making up only 45% of total researchers compared with 78% in the US, 74% in Japan and 62% in China. At the same time Europe continues to train an increasing number of PhDs (115,000 graduated in 2010[26]). Although the nature of PhD training is diversifying and the majority of PhD graduates embark on careers outside of academia, early stage researchers are often inadequately informed about career paths outside of academia and have insufficient experience in industry and other relevant employment sectors. Only one in ten early-stage researchers reported receiving training in entrepreneurship or intellectual property rights during their PhD. As a response, the Commission worked with experts from industry, academia, and national research ministries to prepare seven Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training[27] , to foster excellence and a critical mindset and provide young researchers with transferable skills and exposure to industry and other employment sectors. The Council of Ministers has endorsed these principles and has called on MS and universities to provide financial support.

This year, experts designated by the Commission are visiting a number of doctoral schools in order to learn how to further spread the use of these principles. The EUA Council for Doctoral Education plays a key role by bringing together vice-rectors, deans and heads of doctoral schools from all over Europe to develop and improve doctoral education within European universities through the dissemination of best practices, advocacy and research. SHO partners in the ERA platform are also tackling innovative doctoral training through the development of position papers, summer school training, conferences, and funding instruments.

6. Gender

European research still suffers from a substantial loss and inefficient use of highly skilled women, and from a lack of gender dimension in research content. Furthermore too few women are in leadership positions or involved in decision-making. In 2010, women represented 46% of EU PhD graduates, 32.4% of researchers, 19.8% of senior academic staff. Gender unbalance is more striking in decision-making, where only 15.5 % of women are heads of institutions and 10% are rectors in the higher education sector[28].

Concerning the labour market, the MS must apply the provisions of the Directives on gender equality established at EU level. Specifically in the field of research, MS use different mechanisms to promote gender equality. Based on current information provided by MS[29], measures, incentives and/or strategies for gender equality are in place in at least 18 MS to various degrees. Among them, targets are set in at least 10 MS, specific legislation for gender equality in research is in place in at least five MS and four MS require action plans for gender equality at the level of research performing organisations. Some MS (at least 4) report the inclusion of a gender dimension in research programmes. Several MS (at least 13) have legal provisions requesting a minimum share of females in evaluation and recruitment panels.

Awareness programmes to attract girls to science and women to research are enforced by more than one third of MS (by at least 10, based on current assessment and information provided by MS). Four out of the five SHO partners in the ERA platform have implemented actions addressing gender issues: adoption of internal policy and position papers, round tables, guidelines, working groups and dedicated sections in surveys. EIROs also implement a variety of actions to improve gender balance.

Among the universities and research performing organisations which responded to the ERA survey 2012 ("responding organisations" for short), the "median" share of women in recruitment panels is 40% while in research evaluation committees it is slightly above 30%. The ERA survey 2012 results also show that among the activities implemented in connection to gender issues, half of the responding organisations in the EU are implementing work-life balance measures and more than 30% allow for flexible career trajectories. Less than 20% apply recruitment and promotion policies and provide support leadership development for female researchers. Slightly over one tenth have guidelines of best practices and networking opportunities for female scientists. The share is somewhat higher in AC than in MS, mainly because of the strong initiatives of the Nordic countries (Graph 14). About 23% of the responding organisations have drawn up a gender equality plan or strategy. More than half of the responding organisations in the EU have targets for achieving gender equality and around one third support / request audits of existing procedures in order to identify gender bias. Around 20% of the responding organisations include a gender dimension in research and innovation content of programmes, projects and studies.

Graph 14: Activities implemented in connexion with gender issues[30] by research performing organisations (percentage of organisations)

Source: ERA survey 2012.

The FP7 Science in Society work programme provides support to universities and research organisations to set up and implement gender equality (GE) plans. Up to now, 11 projects are funded involving around seventy research organisations and universities. The incoming ERA-NET project GENDER-NET has been designed as a key initiative helping Members States and AC to join forces to address common challenges for gender equality in research and innovation.

In the Commission Proposal for Horizon 2020, the EC is committed to promote effectively gender equality and the gender dimension in research content, including them in its programmes.

7. Knowledge circulation

To complete ERA, knowledge needs to circulate freely and effectively, in order to improve the efficiency and impact of research and innovation. Three aspects must be considered to facilitate the circulation of knowledge. First, scientists, research institutions, businesses and citizens should be able to easily access, share and use existing scientific knowledge. Second, Open Innovation should be promoted by more and better links between research, business and education, and in particular by knowledge transfer between public research institutions and the private sector. Third, effective collaborative research processes should be facilitated by implementing a digital ERA which allows researchers to profit from seamless online access to e-infrastructure and digital research services for collaboration, computing and accessing scientific information (e-Science).

Open access to publications and data

Open Access to publicly funded scientific content is increasing in Europe and is expected to have strong economic and social benefits. The process among MS is gradually yet visibly gaining importance, while it has gained significant ground among the research community and research administrators throughout Europe and the rest of the world. Almost all MS (at least 25, based on current assessment and information provided by MS) have set up the legal and administrative context in support to Open Access. At least eight have measures in place which foster Open Access to both publications (including the development of repositories) and data. The rest (at least 17 MS) concentrate their support on Open Access to publications, of which nine support the development of repositories.

The ERA survey 2012 results show that half of responding funding organisations are supporting Open Access to publications and data, as well as the use of compatible technical standards for publications, while almost 40% fund the development of repositories for publications (Graph 15). Green Open Access seems to be the preferred modality supported by responding funding organisations. Among responding research performing organisations, around 50% indicated that their publications are in Open Access, and almost 50% of research performing organisations have compatible data repositories. A similar situation is observed in the case of AC.

Graph 15: Support to open access by funding organisations and implementation by research performing organisations[31] (percentage of organisations)

Source: ERA survey 2012.

The Commission has launched actions to support MS’s networking on Open Access and to train researchers in the use of Open Access. Besides, a group of national reference points on Open Access has been identified to facilitate dialogue with MS. Open Access to publications will also be supported by Horizon 2020 and a pilot action on Open Access to data will be launched in the same context. SHO partners in the ERA platform - following Science Europe’s initiative - are in close dialogue among themselves, learned societies and publishers. EIROs endorse open access to research results obtained utilising public funding.

Knowledge transfer

In the area of knowledge transfer all MS have taken action to bridge the gap between academia and industry. A recent Commission funded Knowledge Transfer study[32] shows that Knowledge Transfer policy is generally accepted as an important issue in Europe. The vast majority of countries (90%) said that national and regional governments promote policies and procedures for the management of Intellectual Property resulting from public funding. The study indicated that throughout the EU a strong emphasis is put on the development of capacities and skills in research performing organisations, whereas the development of Knowledge Transfer strategies has not yet received the same support (although this was advised in the 2008 ‘Commission IP Recommendation[33]’). Whilst a larger share of countries (41%) reported that “universities and other PROs are legally required to define KT as a strategic mission”, only one fifth (21%) said that “universities and other PROs are legally required to formulate a KT strategy”. A quarter (26%) stated that “funding of universities and other PROs depends partly on having a KT strategy”. Finally, high KT policy intensity was found[34] to go together with high national innovativeness (as measured by the European Innovation Scoreboard) and competitiveness (as measured by the Global Competitive Index).

The three SHO partners in the ERA platform with commitments in this field are encouraging open innovation and knowledge transfer and supporting /funding public-private mobility programmes. EIROs regularly jointly develop many research projects with industry. The Commission is, with the support of a high level Expert Group, developing a comprehensive policy approach on Open Innovation and Knowledge Transfer, for which it will consult stakeholders in 2014.

More than 60% of the responding funding organisations to the ERA survey 2012 support knowledge transfer, notably by encouraging or requiring the setting up of collaboration agreements with the private sector and the commercialisation of research results and by providing guidance and tools to accompany the implementation of knowledge transfer. A lower share of organisations is supporting knowledge transfer in AC (Graph 16).

Graph 16: Support to different knowledge transfer activities by funding organisations[35] (percentage of organisations)

Source: ERA survey 2012

Around 28% of research performing organisations declare facing problems with implementing knowledge transfer, mainly due, for more than 60% of them, to regulations or policies preventing or not supporting it. The results for AC show a more difficult situation (Graph 17).

Graph 17: Barriers to the development and implementation of knowledge transfer activities experienced by research performing organisations[36] (percentage of organisations)

Source: ERA survey 2012

Digital ERA

Based on current assessment and information provided by MS, in the area of Digital ERA at least seven countries support a wide range of actions (provision of digital research services, development of e-infrastructures and seamless electronic access), while at least 14 other MS are partly promoting some of the necessary measures (for example, some MS tackle digital services and e-infrastructure while some others are concentrating on e-infrastructure and electronic access). Fifteen MS are members of EDUGain[37] and four other MS are in the process of joining it. At least 11 MS have some specific provisions for the implementation of electronic identities for researchers, on top of their participation in EDUGain. The Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden), which are members of NordForsk (the only SHO ERA partner committed to promote e-science activities), have signed a 10-year agreement on joint development of advanced IT-services for research. In the first part of 2013 the Commission has implemented a public consultation on Open data infrastructures. EIROs have been actively contributing to and supported the Digital ERA for many years.

Survey results indicate that around 20% of responding funding organisations are funding the development and uptake of digital research services. Among responding research performers, more than 50% of the organisations are already implementing several types of services (repositories, software provision, computing services). The situation is similar among the respondents from AC (Graph 18).

Graph 18: Provision of digital research services by research performers[38] (percentage of organisations)

Source: ERA survey 2012.

Over 40 % of responding research performing organisations in the EU are participating in electronic identity federation schemes for researchers[39]. The share (48%) is higher among respondents in AC.

8. Conclusions

Several conclusions can be drawn from this ERA Facts and Figures report.

First, overall European budgetary efforts to implement national research seem to be decreasing as a consequence of public budget constraints affecting many EU MS, with notable national exceptions. Both more effective national systems - in which excellence is improved - and sufficient public resources dedicated to research, development and innovation, are now more urgent than ever to create the conditions for future growth and job creation.

Second, different degree of completion of ERA at national level - reflecting national priorities - is observed (presented in the Country fiches). Even if this diversity is one of the strengths of the European research system, there are areas in which more co-ordinated efforts between MS could contribute to improving both European excellence and national effectiveness.

Third, the partnership approach is generating a new momentum for ERA, in which all concerned stakeholders participating in the SHO Platform are moving together for the completion of ERA.

Four, factual monitoring mechanism delivers information for policy making. This first data collection exercise, even if still partial, proves that it is feasible to collect relevant information for ERA policy. It is expected that MS and AC continue to further  motivate their stakeholders to provide the necessary information in the future in order to improve the representativeness of results.

9. List of Acronyms

AC: Associated countries to the 7th Framework Programme for Research. These include Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia (until 30 June 2012), Faroe Islands, Iceland, Israel, Liechtenstein, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey

EARTO: European Association of Research and Technology Organisations

EIROs: seven EIROforum members[40] CERN, Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire; EFDA-JET: European Fusion Development Agreement: Joint European Torus; EMBL: European Molecular Biology Laboratory; ESO: European Southern Observatory; ESRF: The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility; EU.XFEL: European XFEL and ILL: The Institute Laue-Langevin

ERA:   European Research Area

ERA Platform: in the ERA platform interact the European Commission, the European Association of Research and Technology Organisations (EARTO), European Universities Association (EUA), the League of European Research Universities (LERU), NordForsk and Science Europe (SE)

EUA: European Universities Association

GBAORD: Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D

GDP:  Gross Domestic Product

HRS4R Human Resources Strategy for Researchers

KT: Knowledge Transfer

LERU: League of European Research Universities

MS: Member States of the European Union

NordForsk: The organisation under the Nordic Council of Ministers

PRO: Public Research Organisation

RFO: Research Funding Organisation

RI: Research infrastructures

RSV: Retirement Savings Vehicle

RPO: Research Performing Organisation (Universities, research centres, hospitals, etc.) public or under private law with public mission

SE: Science Europe

SHO: Stakeholders’ organisations

10. Glossary

2010 European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructure (ESFRI) Roadmap[41]: the ESFRI Roadmap identifies new Research Infrastructures of pan-European interest corresponding to the long term needs of the European research communities, covering all scientific areas, regardless of possible location.

Applied research: applied research is also original investigation undertaken in order to acquire new knowledge. It is, however, directed primarily towards a specific practical aim or objective (Source: OECD, 2002).

Article 185 (Art. 185): research programmes undertaken jointly by several Member States in which the EU participates, including those undertakings created for the execution of national programmes.

Assessment (within the context of funding allocation): evaluation procedure which analyses the entire institution in terms of input, throughput (processes) and output factors. Among the latter, the assessment may include research performance and may be linked to funding decisions.

Associate country to the EU Framework Programme (AC): Several countries are associated to the implementation of the EU 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. These include Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia (until 30 June 2013), Faroe Islands, Iceland, Israel, Liechtenstein, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey.

Basic research: basic research is experimental or theoretical work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundations of phenomena and observable facts, without any particular application or use in view (Source: OECD, 2002).

Call with pre-defined common priorities: a call based on a commonly designed research agenda of a joint programme that limits the proposals to predefined topics).

Cloud services: services to remotely deliver computing and storage capacity to end-users.

Computing services: services enabling researchers to use local or remote computing resources, offered e.g. by High Performance Computers, or distributed grid-or cloud-based computing infrastructures. For example, PRACE and EGI support the development and provision of these services in the EU.

Core principles of peer review[42]: the principles relate to Excellence, Impartiality, Transparency, Appropriateness for purpose, Efficiency and speed, Confidentiality and Ethical and integrity considerations.

COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology): one of the longest-running European frameworks supporting cooperation among scientists and researchers across Europe.

Digital services: examples of digital services include scientific repositories, computing services, cloud services (from external provider), scientific software, research collaboration platform, etc.

ERA-NET: action supported by the EU Framework Programme in which national and regional research programmes coordinate research activities in a specific research field through networking of research funding.

European Union (EU): economic and political union of 28 Member States. EU countries are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom.

EU countries: countries which are part of the EU. These include Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom.

EU Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development: EU's main instrument for funding research in Europe. The 7th EU Framework Programme with a total budget of over 50 billion Euros over the period 2007-2013 provides grants to research actors all over Europe and beyond, in order to co-finance research, technological development and demonstration projects. Grants are determined on the basis of calls for proposals and a peer review process.

EURAXESS portal[43]: portal is a service which provides information and services to mobile researchers, including job vacancies.

European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for the recruitment of researchers[44]: the charter aims at ensuring that the nature of the relationship between researchers and employers or funders is conducive to successful performance in generating, transferring, sharing and disseminating knowledge and technological development, and to the career development of researchers. It outlines a set of general principles and requirements which specifies the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of researchers as well as of employers and/or funders of researchers. The Code of Conduct for the recruitment of researchers consists of a set of general principles and requirements that should be followed by employers and/or funders when appointing or recruiting researchers. The principles are complementary to those in the European Charter for Researchers.

European Research Council (ERC)[45]: The mission of the ERC is to encourage the highest quality research in Europe through competitive funding and to support investigator-initiated frontier research across all fields of research, on the basis of scientific excellence.

Established researcher: researcher who has reached a degree of seniority in the research field.

Evaluation: process of evaluating, after completion, the outcomes, results and impacts of projects, programmes and/or research agendas.

Federated electronic identity: federated electronic identity allows researchers to use their own organisation user account when accessing other organisations' digital services.

Federation (community): group of institutions and organisations that sign up to an agreed set of policies for exchanging information about users and resources to enable access via authentication. Federation can for example be on national level (e.g. Haka in Finland), and these national federations can then join into European-wide community (e.g. EduGAIN)

First stage researcher: researcher who is at the beginning of his career (i.e. junior researchers, PhD candidates, Post-Docs)

Gender dimension in research content: making gender a dimension of research by integrating it as part of research design and process. This entails sex and gender analysis being integrated into basic and applied research.

Gender equality (also known as sex equality or sexual equality) is the goal of equality of genders. Gender equality entails making women's rights equal to men's, and making men's rights equal to women's.

Gold open access: payment of publication costs is shifted from subscribers to the author of an article. Often these costs are supported by the university or the research institute to which the researcher is affiliated or by the funding agency supporting the research.

Grant: research specific grant, with funding associated with setting up a medium- and/or long-term research programme. The term 'grant' used in this survey does not include grants to doctorate candidates for short-term mobility.

Green open access (also known as Green or ‘Green’ open access model - self-archiving): a version of the article (the final published article or final peer-reviewed manuscript) is archived by the researcher in an online repository before, after or alongside its publication in a journal. Access to the deposited article is often delayed (‘embargo period’) at the request of the publisher so that subscribers retain an added benefit.

Innovation: technological product and process (TPP) innovations comprise implemented technologically new products and processes and significant technological improvements in products and processes. A TPP innovation has been implemented if it has been introduced on the market (product innovation) or used within a production process (process innovation). TPP innovations involve a series of scientific, technological, organisational, financial and commercial activities (Source: OECD, 2005)

Institutional funding: general funding of institutions with no direct selection of R&D project or programmes (Source: OECD, 2011). There are various formulae for the allocation of institutional funding that consider to a lower or higher extent the research performance. In some cases, institutional funding includes a quota related to number of staff, students etc.

International peer review: the evaluation of research proposals is carried out by at least one international independent external expert, from countries whose funding agency(ies) and researchers do not take part in the joint call.

Invention disclosure: this occurs when a research organisation first discloses its idea to a firm subject to a confidentiality agreement. This takes place before any patent or licencing activity and thus represents an early indicator of future transfer.

Joint call: (single) call for transnational research proposals launched by the common consortium, including all necessary aspects for the implementation and management of the joint call.

Joint Programming Initiative (JPIs): a common initiative aimed at addressing major societal challenges, in order to strengthen Europe's capacity to transform the results of its research into tangible benefits for society and for the overall competitiveness of its economy. Participation of Member States and FP Associated Countries in such an initiative is carried out on a voluntary basis and according to the principle of variable geometry and open access. To date, 10 JPIs have been selected by the High-level Group on Joint Programming (Groupe de programmation conjointe, GPC)

Joint research agendas are multiannual research agendas for a joint programme between EU Member States.

Joint Technology Initiatives (JTIs) address strategic areas where research and innovation are essential to European competitiveness. These public/private partnerships, involving industry, research communities and public authorities, pursue ambitious common research objectives.

Knowledge transfer is the process of transferring the rights to use and exploit knowledge from the sources to those in a position to best exploit it in placing new products and services on the market.

Lead Agency: This procedure foresees that research councils accept the results of the evaluation of international projects done by the ‘lead agency’ and fund the parts of the project that are being performed in their respective countries (e.g. D-A-CH)

Leading researcher: internationally recognised researcher (e.g. team leaders, management positions, etc.)

Money-Follows-Cooperation Line: this scheme allows small parts of a project funded by one of the participating research councils to be carried out in a different country (overhead costs are, however, excluded)

Money-Follows-Researcher: this scheme enables researchers moving to a research institution in a different country to transfer on-going grant funding to the new institution and continue research activities according to original terms and objectives.

Non-national: person who does not hold the citizenship of a given country.

Non-resident: person who is not residing in a given country.

Open access: refers to the practice of granting free access to research outputs over the Internet, most notably peer-reviewed publications and research data.

Open call: a call which is entirely open and not restricted to a given research field or a call in a given research field (e.g. materials research or chemistry) without limiting the submission of proposals to any predefined topics within this research field)

Peer review: the evaluation of research proposals is carried out by independent external experts based on transparent and evaluation criteria communicated in advance. Peer review can be based on a group of principles: excellence, impartiality and transparency, appropriateness of purpose, efficiency and speed.

Portability of grants: situation in which a researcher who moves to a research institution in a different country may transfer on-going grant funding to the new institution and continue research activities according to original terms and objectives.

Principles for innovative doctoral training[46]: the principles for innovative doctoral training include research excellence, attractive institutional environment, interdisciplinary research options, exposure to industry and other relevant employment sectors, international networking, transferable skills training and quality assurance.

Project-based funding: funding attributed on the basis of a project submission by a group or individuals for an R&D activity that is limited in scope, budget and time (Source: OECD, 2011)

Public-private linkages: within the framework of R&D activities, public-private linkages aim at connecting organisations from the public sector with those in the private sector. Examples of linkages include networking and communication activities with the private sector, implementation of research training agreements, structured programmes for placements in the private sector or bilateral agreements.

Public sector: it includes the government and higher education sectors but excludes public-sector corporations which are part of the business enterprise sector, as defined in the Frascati Manual. The higher education sector may include private and public corporations, as well as private not-for-profit organisations as defined in the System of National Accounts (Source: OECD, 2011)

Recognised researcher: researcher who has already engaged in a research career.

Repository: electronic archive for the storage of academic publications, such as peer reviewed scientific articles.

Research and experimental development (R&D): research and experimental development comprise creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications (Source: OECD, 2002)

Research collaboration platform: collaboration platform which gathers together scientific resources, tools, data and work management facilities to enable remote collaboration and exchanges between researchers on a specific research topic or working as a research team.

Research evaluation committees are responsible for the evaluation of research projects and programmes. The outcome of the evaluation may be linked to the allocation of research funding and/or other resources.

Research infrastructures: facilities, resources and related services used by the scientific community to conduct top-level research in their respective fields, ranging from social sciences to astronomy, genomics to nanotechnologies. Examples include singular large-scale research installations, collections, special habitats, libraries, databases, biological archives, clean rooms, integrated arrays of small research installations, high-capacity/high speed communication networks, highly distributed capacity and capability computing facilities, data infrastructure, research vessels, satellite and aircraft observation facilities, coastal observatories, telescopes, synchrotrons and accelerators, networks of computing facilities, as well as infrastructural centres of competence which provide a service for the wider research community based on an assembly of techniques and know-how. Cutting-edge research infrastructure makes reference to most advanced, state of the art research infrastructures, requiring important levels of investment for their development and operation.

Researcher: professional engaged in the conception or creation of new knowledge, products, processes, methods and systems and also in the management of the projects. Postgraduate students at the PhD level engaged in R&D should be considered as researchers concerned (Source: OECD, 2002).

Scientific software: software for specific scientific tasks, such as modelling and visualisation of data, or operating specific virtual laboratory experiments. This kind of software can be installed in one institution and also accessed remotely by researchers from other institutions.

Structured innovative doctoral training programmes: these programmes apply the principles for innovative doctoral training (see principles for innovative doctoral training)

Synchronised call: national calls for proposals may be subject to a pan-European selection process of research proposals, where the results of peer review are shared amongst the funding agencies.

SOURCES

OECD (2011): OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2011: Innovation and Growth in Knowledge Economies[47]

OECD (2005): Oslo Manual: Guidelines for Collecting and Interpreting Innovation Data, 3rd Edition[48]

OECD (2002): Proposed Standard Practice for Surveys on Research and Experimental Development, Frascati Manual 2002[49]

[1]               http://erawatch.jrc.ec.europa.eu/erawatch/opencms/information/reports/era_reports/, detailed in JRC-IPTS (2013) ERA Communication Synthesis Report.

[2]               European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies

[3]               A thorough presentation of the ERA State of Play survey can be found in Euroepean Commission (2013). ERA SURVEY 2012 - State of Play concerning the ERA priorities in Research Funding and Research Performing Organisations - Overview of main results - http://ec.europa.eu/research/era/pdf/2012surveyresults_en.pdf

[4]               The European Space Agency (ESA) is a large organisation, spanning a wide range of activities, only a subset of which can be counted as science. Thus, it was concluded that it would be extremely challenging to provide an ESA input to the fundamentally science-oriented ERA survey in a coherent, meaningful, and accurate way, particularly given the very limited timescale available.

[5]               http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/pdf/research_policies/121003_The_Researchers_Report_2012_FINAL_REPORT.pdf

[6]               http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/services/researchPolicies

[7]               http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/she-figures-2012_en.pdf

[8]               http://erawatch.jrc.ec.europa.eu/

[9]               Moreover, the ERA survey reflects only partially the situation in Germany as German authorities presented a separate document on ERA progress.

[10]             Government budget appropriations or outlays for research and development abbreviated as GBAORD, are a way of measuring government support for research and development activities. GBAORD include all appropriations (government spending) given to R & D in central (or federal) government budgets. Provincial (or State) government posts are only included if the contribution is significant. Local government funds are excluded. The share of GBAORD managed by RFOs in the European Union is not known.

[11]             According to Eurostat, the total number of research staff (headcount) in the government and higher education system in 2010 was 2.1 million.

[12]             As mentioned above, the presentation of the methodology and results can be found in European Commission (2013) ERA SURVEY 2012.

[13]             COM(2012)392 final

[14]             In absolute terms, GBAORD started to decline in 2010.

[15]             Estimated using Least squares method.

[16]             Source DG Research and Innovation - Economic Analysis Unit based on OECD data. The estimates are available for only six Member States.

[17]             Forthcoming IPTS ERA Communication Synthesis report

[18]             Respondents were asked: Does your organisation participate in research agreements other than those mentioned above (i.e. LEAD agency, Money follows co-operation and Money follows researchers)?

[19]             Respondents having answered “yes” to the question Research may sometimes involve the use of cutting edge research infrastructures, which require means beyond the capacities of a single organisation. Does your organisation require access to such infrastructure(s) in your field(s) of research? And “yes” to Do researchers from your organisation face difficulties in accessing research infrastructures (including infrastructures of pan-European interest)? were asked to identify the barriers: 1. Insufficient information available on the activities of other research infrastructures; 2. Complex and/or burdensome access rules and procedures for accessing research infrastructures in person; 3. High costs linked to on-site access to research infrastructures; 4. Complex access rules and protocols for remote access; 5. Intellectual property rights issues; 6. The rules for accessing confidential data vary among the research infrastructures, thus preventing access to some of them; and 7. Other.

[20]             http://www.vitae.ac.uk/CMS/files/upload/Vitae-HR-Strategies-for-researchers-Report-2013.pdf

[21]             http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/services/researchPolicies [forthcoming]

[22]             http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/rights/strategy4Researcher

[23]             MORE2 Survey 2012

[24]             Source: Eurostat education statistics. More detailed information on the EU and on the different Member States can be found in the Researchers’ Report 2013 [http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/services/researchPolicies].

[25]             In 2005, the Council adopted the Scientific Visa Directive to reduce obstacles to the entry and residence in the EU of third-country nationals.

[26]             Eurostat education statistics

[27]             http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/pdf/research_policies/Report_of_Mapping_Exercise_on_Doctoral_Training_FINAL.pdf

[28]             2010 data from She Figures 2012 - except for researchers: Eurostat data showing a decrease of 0.5 % points from 2009 - http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/science_technology_innovation/data/main_tables

[29]             In many countries universities have a high degree of autonomy, notably when implementing gender-related policies at the institutional level. This implies that identifying and monitoring the measures may be difficult.

[30]             Respondents were asked: There is an array of activities which may be implemented in connection with gender issues. Which of the following activities were implemented by your organisation in 2011? 1. Recruitment and promotion policies for female researchers; 2. Measures, including quotas, to ensure a balanced composition of females and males in your organisation’s committees (involved in recruitment, career progression, or in evaluation of research programmes or projects); 3. Flexible career trajectory (e.g. provisions to allow interruptions of career, returning schemes after career breaks, gender aware mobility conditions); 4. Work-life-balance measures (e.g. parental leave, flexible working arrangements for researchers); 5. Support for leadership development (e.g. mentoring for female researchers); 6. Networking opportunities for female researchers; 7. Guidelines of best practices disseminated within your organisation; 8.Other.

[31]             Funding organisations were asked: Does your organisation support open access to publications (i.e. online and free access to publications) as part of its institutional and/or project-based funding? while research performers were asked: Does your data repository follow technical standards that make it compatible with other repositories (ISO standards, OPENAire)? and Does your organisation archive the open access publications in a repository?

[32]             Knowledge Transfer Study 2010-2012. This Commission funded study monitored the status of implementation of the European Commission’s “Recommendation on the management of intellectual property in knowledge transfer activities and Code of Practice for universities and other public research organisations” from 2008

[33]             The Commission Recommendation on the management of intellectual property in knowledge transfer activities and Code of Practice for universities and other public research organisations (2008) recommends that Knowledge transfer is a strategic mission of public research organisations.

[34]             The regression analyses correlated KT policy activity with selected national characteristics

[35]             Funding organisations having answered “yes” to: Does your organisation support knowledge transfer as part of its institutional and/or project-based funding? (Knowledge transfer is the process of transferring the rights to use and exploit knowledge from the sources to those in a position to best exploit it when placing new products and services on the market) were asked to specify the type of activity(ies) supported by the organisation: 1. Our organisation provides guidance and/or tools to accompany the implementation of knowledge transfer; 2. Our organisation encourages or requires the setting up of collaboration agreements/contract research with the private sector; 3. Our organisation encourages or requires the setting up of mobility schemes with the private sector; 4. Our organisation encourages or requires the commercialisation of research results; and 5. Our organisation monitors knowledge transfer performance of institutional recipients of research funding

[36]             Respondents who answered yes to: Has your organisation experienced barriers to the development and implementation of knowledge transfer activities? were asked: If yes, how important are the following barriers? 1. Regulations or policies at national or regional level do not allow to take relevant action; 2. Regulations or policies at national or regional level are not specifically supportive of such development; 3. Insufficient information about potential industry partners; 4. Knowledge transfer is not part of the organisation's mandate; 5. Knowledge transfer is not an important activity within our organisation; 6. Lack of financial resources; 7. Lack of expertise in knowledge transfer; and 8. Other.

[37]             The eduGAIN service is intended to enable the trustworthy exchange of information related to identity, authentication and authorisation between the GÉANT (GN3plus) Partners' federations.

[38]             Respondents were asked: Does your organisation provide the following digital research services for researchers? 1. Scientific publications repository; 2. Scientific software (e.g. for simulation, visualisation, data analysis, virtual laboratories); 3. Research data repository; 4. Research collaboration platform, 5. Computing services; 6. Cloud services (from external provider), and 7. Other digital research service.

[39]             Respondents were asked: Can researchers from your organisation access digital research services in other organisations by using their own user account (i.e. federated electronic identify)?

[40]             The European Space Agency (ESA) is a large organisation, spanning a wide range of activities, only a subset of which can be counted as science. Thus, it was concluded that it would be extremely challenging to provide an ESA input to the fundamentally science-oriented ERA survey in a coherent, meaningful, and accurate way, particularly given the very limited timescale available.

[41]             http://ec.europa.eu/research/infrastructures/pdf/esfri-strategy_report_and_roadmap.pdf#view=fit&pagemode=none

[42]             http://www.vr.se/download/18.2ab49299132224ae10680001647/1315408483304/European+Peer+Review+Guide.pdf

[43]             http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/

[44]             http://www.upr.si/fileadmin/user_upload/RK_RS/RK_RS_angleska/am509774CEE_EN_E4.pdf

[45]             http://erc.europa.eu/

[46]             http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/pdf/research_policies/Principles_for_Innovative_Doctoral_Training.pdf

[47] http://www.oecd.org/sti/oecdsciencetechnologyandindustryscoreboard2011innovationandgrowthinknowledgeeconomies.htm

[48] http://www.oecd.org/innovation/innovationinsciencetechnologyandindustry/oslomanualguidelinesforcollectingandinterpretinginnovationdata3rdedition.htm

[49]             http://www.uis.unesco.org/Library/Documents/OECDFrascatiManual02_en.pdf

Effectiveness

The Government budget appropriations or outlays for research and development (GBAORD) as a share of Gross Domestic Product was 0.78 % in 2011, increasing constantly from 2006. The 2020 target is very ambitious: 3.76% of GDP. The share of GBAORD allocated as project based was 29,51 in 2009.

In Austria the main funds are distributed at federal level and regional strategies and regional funding agencies complement research, technological development and innovation (RTDI) policies and activities on national and EU levels. Formal coordination between the federal and regional level is done under on the RTDI platform Austria (“Plattform FTI-Österreich”) in the form of a semi-annual conference. The main funders in the public R&D domains are: Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth (BMWFJ), Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT) and the Ministry of Science and Research (BMWF), while the main funding agencies are the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) and the Austria Business Service (AWS). While FWF mainly covers basic research and funds academia, the FFG is responsible for cooperative R&D funding and provides funds dedicated mainly to applied research and thematic oriented R&D programmes. The FFG partners with regions to allow complementing their funding via Structural Funds. AWS allocates funds mainly to innovation measures.

The Austrian Research, Technological Development and Innovation Strategy “Becoming an Innovation Leader: Realising Potentials, Increasing Dynamics, Creating the Future" was published in March 2011. It introduces a coordinated vision and strategy across all ministries in charge of RTDI and identifies new challenges. Also in 2011 a Task Force of senior officials was put in place to coordinate activities from the strategic perspective and monitor the implementation of this strategy. Nine inter-ministerial working groups were established, among those one on European dimension of research agendas, one on research infrastructure and one on knowledge transfer. This strategy builds on the exchanges of ideas among the most relevant stakeholders and an analysis of the innovation system as a whole: The Austrian ”Research Dialogue” (2008), the “System Evaluation” of the R&D support and funding system (2009), and the Strategic Recommendations of the Austrian Research and Technological Development Council (“Rat für Forschung und Technologieentwicklung”) (2010). In addition, the Austrian Council for RTD as an independent scientific and technological advisory body has the main task to monitor progress of the strategy’s implementation and reports to the Parliament (National Council) on an annual basis.

In 2009 there was a revision of the Austrian Universities Act (revision of/amendment to the original 2002 law, Bundesgesetz BGBl. I Nr. 81/2009). The University Structural Funds Ordinance in force since January 2013 provides for an indicator- and project-base allocation of research funds in the period 2013-2015 and states efficiency criteria. The Austrian Higher Education Plan launched in December 2011 aims at ensuring the highest possible quality in research. The performance agreements concluded with the universities for the 2013–2015 period include capacity-oriented funding as well as explicit statements on cooperation in research, internationalisation and mobility, HR strategies and large-scale infrastructure planning (NRP 2013).

Public funds in Austria are more often distributed via institutional than project-based modes, roughly accounting for 2/3 and 1/3, respectively, of total funding. National public funding for the higher education sector is mostly institutional and is based on performance agreements at university level and less so for public research institutes. A revision of the universities financing legislation in 2013 further strengthened the trend towards institutional funding by allocating additional money to it for 2013-2015. Institutional funds are a combination of three categories: funds for teaching, for research and for infrastructure. The part allocated for research is based on number of students, a competitively oriented research indicator and a strategic budget depending on the societal objectives of the universities. Full implementation of the institutional funding model is foreseen for the performance contract period 2019-2021, for period 2016-2018 up to 60% of university funding will be based upon this model. Higher Education institutions (HEI) have to undergo external quality assurance every seven years. In March 2012, under the "Quality Assurance Framework Law" the Agency for Quality Assurance and Accreditation Austria was established. This agency is responsible for external quality assurance for all types of universities. Later in 2012, the Platform Research & Technology Policy Evaluation (FTEVAL) published its new standards for evaluations in the field of research, technology and innovation, with impact on future institutional assessments and general evaluation practice in Austria in medium- and long-term.

The FWF’s total grant portfolio has been €195.2m for each 2011 and 2012. In 2013 it will refinance and stabilise the budget with own financial savings. More than 60% of competitive funds research public funds are performed by Austrian businesses. In 2011 major steps were taken to simplify the implementation of programme management by Austrian public funding administrations (Ministries, agencies etc.): calls for proposals were integrated into annual schedules; common guidelines for similar type of projects have been issued and agreement has been reached to treat similar projects the same way (by BMVIT, BMWFJ and FFG).

The majority of public funds aiming at scientific excellence and basic research and lately also knowledge transfer are based on international peer-review and internationally recognised standards for peer-review.

Transnational cooperation

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the Framework Programme. The share of participation of Austria in total participation is 2.52% so far, and Austria has received 2.62 % of total EC contributions. FP funding represents 105 Euros per head of population.

Joint research agendas are envisaged by Austria’s participation in a large number of ERA-nets, INCO-nets, European Science Foundation programmes, JTIs (including funding of ARTEMIS and ENIAC), five Article 185 initiatives while leading one of them, and seven Joint Programming Initiatives while also leading the JPI Urban Europe. It is also interested in improving the general standards for cross-border research coordination. Within the NRP 2013 there is commitment to consistently increase participation in the JPIs.

As far as the mutual recognition of evaluations are concerned, within the D-A-CH agreement between Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) have agreed to follow a lead agency principle for research projects with participants of at least two of the three countries. Negotiations are on-going to include similar funding agencies from other Member States from the Netherlands or the UK.

Cross-border inter-operability of national programmes is promoted by intergovernmental bilateral S&T agreements with China, FYR of Macedonia, India, Korea (mainly in the EU project KORANET), Croatia and Ukraine. Programmes serve to fund bilateral collaborations in cases where the two national subprojects are so closely connected that they may only be performed in conjunction with one another. New or reinforced bilateral cooperation was established in 2012 with, among other: Slovenia, Slovakia, France, China, Saudi Arabia, Albania, Singapore, Montenegro and Indonesia. This not only includes bilateral agreements at federal government level, but also cooperation at university or public research organisations levels. Additionally, a multilateral (and “macro-regional”) strategic communique was signed in 2012 by eleven countries in the Danube region, addressing potential R&D synergies for Horizon 2020 and Structural Funds.

Austria participates in international large-scale research programmes and infrastructures, ten of which are ESFRI initiatives, such as the European Laboratory for Particle Physics of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), International Centre for Mechanical Sciences, Energy and Environment, Fluid Mechanics (CISM), Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), Synchrotron Light Laboratory (ELETTRA), without hosting any such infrastructure.

One important policy priority outlined in the national RTDI strategy is the improvement of national research infrastructures as well as Austria’s integration and commitments to international infrastructures (e.g. ESFRI). Thus this is the focus of one of the inter-ministerial working groups of the Task Force established for its implementation. A strategy on Austria’s involvement in pan-European interest infrastructures and a national roadmap for the building of new infrastructures are currently being developed after a public consultation. The Austrian Council for RTD has published specific recommendations regarding the further improvement of national infrastructures, among other measures, the establishment of a national infrastructure contact point and a national repository for Austria Ris. A national repository of RI was established and measures were taken to allow its continuous improvement.

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010 the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 8.5 per 1,000 and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 2.3. The shares of non-national doctoral candidates were 18.2% from another EU-27 Member State and 8.8% from non-EU countries.

Open, transparent and merit-based recruitment is facilitated by the Austrian Universities Act which requires public research institutions to advertise for research positions internationally, including through EURAXESS, not giving prescriptive implementation rules. However, transparent procedures and advertisement standards have been put in place to assure a fair and international recruitment. In 2012, 55% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

The faster recognition ("Nostrifizierung") of foreign diploma or training qualifications has been implemented. The equivalence of foreign academic degrees with national ones is done on case-by-case basis. German is the teaching language for all courses and Master programmes. The amendment of the law on occupation of foreigners in 2011, the introduction of the "Rot-Weiß-Rot”(RWR) visa card and work permit for the general labour force and the implementation of the provision of the Scientific Visa Directive 2005/71/EC and recommendations 2005/762/EC and 2005/761/EC for the research domain, allow foreign researchers at all levels to pursue a career in Austria.

At the federal level, a variety of grants and scholarships supports incoming as well as outgoing PhD students as well as post-doc researchers. Although these measures are implemented by different organisations, information is accessible through a single web-based platform: http://www.grants.at. Programmes exist to attract expatriates and foreign researchers to pursue research in Austria.

In general, Austrian researchers are allowed to move their grant to another ERA country and this is decided mostly on case-by-case basis. Research fellowships and programmes administered by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) may be used either domestically or abroad, i.e. APART, DOC and DOC-fFORTE Programmes and the D-A-CH agreement (with the “money follows researcher” principle) and EUROHORCS allows also for grant portability.

Austria participates in the EURAXESS initiative with a national portal. More than 250 Austrian research institutions have registered by the end of 2011 (Deloitte 2012, Austria country report), and the Austrian Bridgehead Organisation, all EURAXESS Services Centres and 14 out of 32 Austrian Local Contact Points have signed the Declaration of Commitment by mid-2010.

Principles of innovative doctoral training are followed by several programmes. The FWF structural doctoral programmes are well established and allow for international mobility. A new, small-scale grant scheme for excellent post-docs (“sub auspiciis Praesidentis”) and the Marietta Blau grant have been introduced to generate internationally competitive PhD grants.

The principles of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers have been integrated in the performance agreements with HEIs for 2010-2012 and 2013-2015. 31 Austrian research institutions have already signed and adopted the Charter & Code, including universities, public research organisations as well as funding agencies. Five Austrian organisations are actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers of which four have received the "HR Excellence in Research" logo for their progress in implementing the Charter & Code.

More detailed information can be found in the country profile for Austria in the Researchers’ Report 2013 http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/services/researchPolicies

Gender

Tackling discrimination is high on the government agenda. In the course of the new reform of budget laws, gender budgeting and gender equality were laid down in the Federal Constitutional Act (BV-G) and Federal Budget Act (BHG). The latter provides for a balanced representation in academic leadership positions and boards. On the basis of these laws a gender equality objective was developed by all ministries.

Several acts are in place to ensure gender equality: the Charter on the Compatibility of Family and Career, the National Action Plan (NAP) for Gender Equality in the Labour Market, the Care Allowance Reform Act 2012 and the Care Allowance Act. Laws require equal treatment for women and several provisions are included to ensure that: maternity leave is not a discriminating factor; pregnancy automatically freezes temporary contracts; women have the right to return to an equal position to the one held before their maternity leave; women are entitled to have a part-time position when they end their maternity leave. The NRP 2013 lists further measures to reduce the income gap between women and men and improve the work-life-balance.

Since 2009 objectives to attain gender balance in leadership positions and decision-making bodies in public research organisations and higher education institutions were gradually put in place by the University Act. These are: 1) introduction of quota in university committees and boards of up to 40% or according to overall distribution in academic staff, 2) implementation of gender monitoring with respect to recruitment as well as in governance entities, and 3) targeted recruitment.

Since 2002 several support schemes have been put in place to support recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers and to strengthen the gender dimension in research programmes: under the umbrella of the inter-ministerial action programme “Women in Research and Technology”, fForte: the Excellentia Programme launched in 2005 to support women full professors; the fForte Coaching Programme supports women in writing successful grant proposals; the ‘Laura Bassi Centres of Excellence’ encourage women to apply for top positions; the FEMtech programme seeks to increase female participation in industry innovation and applied sciences at PROs. The FWF structural doctoral programmes support women at the start of their careers and to apply for full professors. All FWF programmes provide for a quota of 30% women scientists/scholars and this target has been achieved and FWF and ÖAW fellowship programmes allow for interruptions and extensions in case of maternity leave.

The Working Group on Gender and Diversity Management & Diversity within the BMWF aims to implement diversity measures as cultural and institutional change initiatives and will grant a diversity award that honours research organisations that already implemented diversity measures.

The 2009 amendment of the Universities Act stipulates a women quota in university committees of 40%. Gender specific measures are included in the performance agreements with universities (for example the 40% mandatory representation of women). Austrian Universities provide statements and figures on gender (and budget) and how do they progress on gender equality. BMWF evaluates progress on an annual basis using performance indicators, including gender indicators.

Knowledge circulation

Austria supports open access in the frame of the performance agreements with universities. Activities concerning open access policies are up to individual RPOs and research funding institutions. FWF has a mandatory policy on open access, including to data where legally possible with green and gold open access as equivalent options. In January 2010 Universities Austria (the Austrian Rector's Conference) published its recommendations for the enhancement of Open Access Policies in Austria and in 2012 stakeholders have organised themselves into the “Open Access Network Austria" to coordinate open access activities and make nation-wide recommendations in the field. Additionally, since 2007 research and funding institutions from Austria, Switzerland and Germany co-operate in a joint project/online platform to improve information, knowledge and discuss on open access.

Research funders and public research organisations are obliged by law to play a full role in supporting national innovation and competitiveness by fostering knowledge transfer. Knowledge transfer remains high on the political agenda, with the establishment in 2011 of an inter-ministerial working group “knowledge transfer and start-ups” and introduction of improved tax measures in 2012. In the on-going performance agreements assurances were given that reliable and sustainable intellectual property and utilisation strategies would be developed that enable partners from the economy to formulate long-term research targets.

In addition, specific programmes for transferring knowledge, creation and support of spin-offs, support for IPRs at level of universities and research organisations, and specific placement schemes for young researchers in industry exist.

There are specific programmes for transferring knowledge, creation and support of spin-offs, support for IPRs at level of universities and research organisations, and specific placement schemes for young researchers in industry. The General Programme of the FFG has remained Austria’s most important source of public funding for R&D carried out by industry in terms of funding budget, efforts to promote R&D in all economic sectors and industries, areas of technology, and sizes of companies. Some examples of FFG programmes fostering academia-industry cooperation are COMET, COIN, BRIDGE, AplusB or uni:invent and most recently the Laura Bassi Centres of Expertise and the thematic programme “Leuchttürme eMobilität” (Lighthouses of E-mobility). The Christian Doppler Research Association provides also for academia-business cooperation within its programmes. All measures are considered effective as they have led to a high level of transfer activities and Austria ranks 3rd among OECD countries in this respect. In 2010, a national contact point (NCP) has been designated at the BMWF. The NCP's tasks include the coordination of measures regarding knowledge transfer between public research organisations and the private sector, including tackling trans-national issues, in liaison with similar contact points in other Member States.

With regard to access and usage of e-infrastructures and digital research services, most Austrian academic institutions (more than 80%) are part of Austrian Academic Computer Network (ACOnet -“Österreichisches akademisches Computernetz”) which is the National Research and Education Network (NREN) run by the Universitaet Wien. ACOnet offers its members high-performance access and support services via the GÉANT pan-European data network to international academic networks and is in the process of accessing eduGAIN.

Effectiveness

Research and innovation policy in Belgium is designed and implemented in a multi-level governance framework involving the Federal Government and autonomous regional/community governments.

The Federal Government has competence for the federal scientific institutes, intellectual property (IP) law, standardisation, fundamental metrology, nuclear research, corporate taxation, employment legislation and social security. The communities are competent for matters related to individuals including scientific research and (higher) education, and the Community Scientific Institutes. The regions are competent for territorial matters such as energy, environment, and economic support, thus including innovation, applied and industrial research, science parks, and technology transfer: the three Belgian regions (Brussels-Capital, Flanders and Wallonia) design policies that suit the specific needs of their business sectors for innovation and that are tailored to optimise the potential of their higher education research capacities. The Belgian German community does not have a research policy.

The share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D (GBAORD) was 0.65% in 2011. Total GBAORD per capita rose until 2010, when it started to decline. The national public effort on Research and development, measure as the share of total GBAORD in national expenditures in Belgium was of 1.21% in 2011.

The Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) coordinates federal science policy as well as specific aspects of international co-operation on behalf of the Belgian authorities. Another actor is the Federal Public Services (FPS) Economy, SME’s, Self-employed and Energy which deals with intellectual property, standardisation, fundamental metrology, nuclear research and research regarding the continental shelf.

As regards the policy priorities, in Wallonia and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, the Research Strategy 2011-2015 gives follow-up to their willingness for closer cooperation between the different policy levels (cfr. Marshall Plan2.Green). This document sets out eight strategic objectives (including reiterating the 3% objective), identifies five priority thematic areas and includes a detailed plan of action for meeting the objectives. Competitive funding is implemented through calls for proposals connected to the Research strategy priorities (i.e.GREENTIC, Competitiveness Poles, RELIABLE programme, etc). The Wallonia Marshall Plan2.Green allocates funds to competitiveness clusters with support to public-private partnerships and projects related to the Research Strategy priorities (ICT, sustainable development, ageing and health).

Additional competitive funds are available from the Strategic Fundamental Research fund, hosting the virtual research institutes for life sciences and sustainable development.

In Flanders, the regional R&D strategy is based on the plan Flanders in Action (FiA), which aims at making Flanders one of the top five EU regions by 2020. The amended Flemish Parliament Act on Innovation from 2012 sets out the legal basis for subsidies for special research funds, and legal anchoring of young researchers support programme.

On a federal level, the Belgian Research Action through interdisciplinary Networks (BRAIN_be) 2012 – 2017, sets out the recurrent framework programme for research. Project funding is based on scientific excellence and European and international anchorage.

Overall across all the Belgian public authorities funding R&D, more than 50% of the GBAORD is allocated through calls for proposals.

As regards the distribution of institutional funding, in Wallonia - Brussels Federation, allocation is made on the basis of the number of students and full-time equivalent researchers and not performance based. Nonetheless some additional public funding tools for the HEIs, such as the ARC (Actions de recherche concertées) and the FSR (Fonds spéciaux de la recherche) are based on competitive peer reviewing procedures and take the excellence of the research production into account.

In the Flemish Community, direct funding for universities is distributed based on an allocation key, which is partially based on scientific output indicators. The Special Research Fund (BOF) is solely meant for fundamental research in universities in the shape of either projects or mandates and does not have any thematic focuses.

In terms of monitoring and quality control of research performance, in Flanders, a Dutch-Flemish accreditation body carries out systematic review, still primarily focused on education. The Flemish Expertise Centre for R&D Monitoring (ECOOM) monitors the scientific progress of the Flemish region / Community as a whole. Within the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, the independent public sector agency for the evaluation of the quality in the HEI (AEQES) is the responsible unit in charge of the policies and guidelines concerning the external evaluation of programmes. In a position paper adopted in June 2012 the Steering Committee of the AEQES asked for further improving the QA system of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, and to extend it to doctoral training.

The allocation of research funds applies the peer review principles. BELSPO and the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) calls on international experts for the evaluation of all applications, both fellowships and projects. Specific regulations on External Peer Review are in place to make sure that there is no conflict of interest between the applicant and the referee. The National Scientific Research Fund (F.R.S-FNRS), an essential actor in Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles, supports bottom-up research activities on the sole criteria of scientific excellence.

Transnational cooperation

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the Framework Programme. The share of participation of Belgium in total participation is 4.3 % so far, and Belgium has received 4.2 % of total EC contributions. FP funding represents 120 Euros per head of population. The country also participates in 8 Joint Programming, is observer in 2 and also participates in 4 Article 185 initiatives. The Belgian governments are committed to support participation of R&D performers in international networks, namely JPIs, ERA-NETs and EUROSTAR initiatives. The share of public funding which is transnationally coordinated is in Belgium the highest among the MS for which the information is available.

Transnational cooperation is also supported by structural or ad-hoc policy initiatives with (priority) partners, funding of cooperation exchange projects, public support to access of STI actors in international initiatives or programmes, lead agency initiatives etc. Thanks to the strong involvement of Belgian researchers in many international collaboration networks, the international scientific co-publications per million population of Belgium is more than double the EU average and the Science-Metrix "Collaboration Index" of Belgium (which is based on the number of co-publications while taking into account the size of national scientific output) is 1.33.

As regards mutual recognition of evaluations, in Flanders, the FWO has concluded Lead Agency agreements with Luxembourg and Slovenia. In the past, a Lead Agency pilot project with the Netherlands was concluded successfully and at the moment Austria is prospected as a new partner.

In view of financial commitment for the construction and operation of ESFRI, the ministers in charge of research are debating a national approach regarding the participation in the ESFRI roadmap with a clear division of responsibilities and guiding rules. The current priorities are based on the 2011 Inter-ministerial Conference for Scientific Policy which has encouraged participation in 31 international research infrastructures. It has also decided Belgium’s fast-track accession to PRACE, SHARE-ERIC, ESS-ERIC, LIFEWATCH-ERIC and ICOS-ERIC in 2012. The Belgium federal project MYRRHA is in its preparation phase with 60% paid by the Federal Government. The creation of an international consortium is actively pursued and the ERIC legal status will be used as reference framework.

At regional level, there are specific measures that finance research infrastructure investments (such as, for instance, the Hercules Foundation and the FWO’s Big Science programme in Flanders and the Athena Budgets managed jointly by Wallonia and Wallonia-Brussels Federation since 2011).

According to the European portal on Research Infrastructures (RI), the Belgian RI provides essential resources, at a high cost. They are open to external researchers and have a clear European dimension and added value. Improved coordination at national level could lead to more critical mass at this level. Bundling of initiatives for example in computing could lead to a stronger Belgian position, thus leading to win-win situations for all regions involved.

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010 the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 7.8 per 1,000 and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 1.5. The shares of non-national doctoral candidates were 13.6% from another EU-27 Member State and 8.8% from non-EU countries.

In Belgium, the implementation of human resources strategies falls within the jurisdiction of the Communities (Flemish community and FWB). At federal level, the State provides the legal framework for ensuring access to labour market, equal opportunities and gender equality.

Recruitment policies belong to the academic community but the Federal state encourages institutions to recruit as openly as possible.

The level of salaries of academic staff in research organisations are established by law for the federal scientific institutes (FOD Justice 2008), for the F.R.S-FNRS and for the Flemish research institutions. The F.R.S-FNRS reformed its recruitment system in 2012 to provide better transparency and accommodate the principle of open recruitment. The Wallonia-Brussels Partnership for Researchers promotes open and merit-based recruitments and research careers. In 2012, 65% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

Information on job opportunities, social security and pension contributions, accommodation and administrative assistance is available at EURAXESS portals. The Flemish Community does not have a regional-wide job portal. It uses the EURAXESS Jobs portal to advertise researchers’ positions. The Walloon Government aims to publish all publicly-funded research jobs online on the EURAXESS portal and at www.doctorat.be.

Both inward and outward mobility is supported in the three Belgium regions through various schemes. Several measures exist to attract Belgian researchers who settled abroad such as return mandates form the federal level, scientific impulse mandates - ULYSSE from the French Community (F.R.S-FNRS) and the FWO’s Odysseus and Pegasus programmes of the Flemish Community as well as measures in the Brussels-Capital region (‘Brains Back to Brussels’, ‘Research in Brussels’).

The Flemish Community allows the portability of grants for short to medium-long stays in other countries during the mandate. The grants cannot be completely transferred abroad.. For the FWB, national grants or fellowships are open to non-residents. They only have either to live in Belgium or promote collaboration between Belgium and their home country.

With regards to training and business academia link, in Flanders, doctoral training has risen on the agenda in the past couple of years. This training is moreover no longer solely focused on academic skills. Flemish Minister of Innovation Ms. Ingrid Lieten, has attributed a financial incentive to the Flemish universities to assist young researchers with career management. This incentive has recently been upgraded and comes in the form of structural funding from now on. The principles for innovative doctoral training are explicitly mentioned in the legislation. Under the Plan Creative Wallonia, a focus is put on the implementation of multidisciplinary research initiatives and creative and innovative training. The Brussels Capital DOCTRIS programme specifically funds PhD projects carried out in collaboration with a private company. In Flanders the Baekeland mandates support inter-sectoral mobility by offering support to projects at the interface of companies and knowledge institutes. The “innovation mandates” provide support to postdoctoral researchers who wish to transfer, exploit and utilise their research findings, either through a collaboration with an existing company, or a new spin-off company to be established.

Belgium has recognised the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers as a good basis for improving researchers’ career prospects, 13 Belgian organisations are actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers of which 9 have received the "HR Excellence in Research" logo for their progress in implementing the Charter & Code.

Gender

General provisions are provided by the Labour law and the Government Agreement of 1 December 2011 which require the extension of anonymous curriculum vitae for applications in the public sector (first round). A specific law is expected to be established concerning equal pay.

In addition to social security provisions (including maternity leave provisions), the Walloon Government ensures that all researchers enjoy the same rights to grant extension and alternative incomes during maternity leave. The provisions are applicable to researchers with fixed-term contracts as well as grant beneficiaries.

The F.R.S.-FNRS allows for an extension of a mandate or a grant when a fixed-term mandate or a grant is suspended due to maternity, paternal or adoption leave, for a period equal to that of the suspension. A replacement income is then provided by the health care mutual (as is also the case for open-ended mandates) and a complement is provided by the F.R.S.-FNRS to compensate for the loss of income.

The Wallonia-Brussels Partnership for researchers promotes gender equality and provides for the insertion of a “genre” approach in scientific careers and the perpetuation of 10 researchers in the FRS-FNRS. The Wallonia-Brussels Federation has established a ‘Women and Science’ standing working group aimed at enforcing equality between men and women to implement the Partnership on gender equality as well as the Walloon Government’s Roadmap on equal opportunities.

To ensure that gender policy at universities is developed bottom-up, the Flemish Interuniversity Council (Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad/VLIR) set up the Gender at Universities high- level action group. The group aims to improve the gender balance among professors, researchers and students by a gender action plan at the level of the universities. By early 2014, this action plan will be translated in an interuniversity charter on gender equality.

Also, the regulation for support to the universities in the framework of the BOF (Special Research Fund) has been modified whereby universities must become more gender-friendly. The new legislation (valid from 1 January 2013) pays attention to the gender balance in the universities since performance based indicators include number of female researchers at postdoctoral and permanent level. It also stipulates that administrative boards, research councils and selection juries must be gender balanced and it gives priority to the underrepresented sex in a recruitment procedure with equal candidates. Also In relation to gender balanced participation, in Flanders FWO ensures that in its scientific evaluation panels no more than two thirds of the experts are of same gender.

Knowledge circulation

The implementation of Open Access (OA) is well under way in Belgium. In October 2012, the three responsible ministers (federal government, Flemish and French Community) signed the “Brussels Declaration on Open Access” which promotes OA as the default infrastructure for the dissemination of Belgian scientific research results.

All universities of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation as well as the F.R.S.-FNRS have adopted an Open Access Scheme. OA Green Repositories are generally used in the evaluation process of the researchers and follow the “Liège Model” (Immediate Deposit / Optional Access). In Flanders, the University of Ghent adopted an Open Access scheme and represents the Belgian partner in the DRIVER projects.

In view of fastening knowledge circulation and open innovation, the ‘Innovation Centres Flanders’ concept note sets the Innovation policy context in Flanders by connecting it to the key economic and social challenges. A call for social innovation has been launched and a new innovation platform, “Sociale Innovatiefabriek” is being supported. Since 2012 a new structure has been adopted to integrate the Flanders Excellence centres into six thematic innovation hubs to allow raising sufficient levels of funding from industry by way of innovation platforms.

Belgium is member of EDUgain through Belnet Federation. Belnet is the Belgian National Research and Education Network (NREN), a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within the country.

In terms of valorisation of research results in industry, the Walloon government supports the reinforcement of the university-industry interfaces with specialised personnel in charge of fostering those. Since 2012, Flanders has setup the SOFI fund to support spin-off companies setup from research from the 4 Flemish strategic research centres. Funding has increased in 2013 to support spin-off companies setup from research conducted at universities and university colleges of the Flemish Community. The Flemish government has also traditions supporting the IOF (Industrial Research fund) and the Interfacediensten (Technology transfer offices) to manage and facilitate technology transfer. Finally, the Brussels-Capital Region also supports launch of spin-offs (Spin-Off in Brussels programme) and the interface technology transfer offices of three universities as well as the Indutec interface gathering the four university colleges of the region.

Effectiveness

The Bulgarian Government has adopted a series of measures aimed at modernising the national R&D structures. The Bulgarian National Reform Programme (NRP) 2013 identifies the need to improve the efficiency of public spending for R&D by leveraging funds to attract more private capital as key for achieving its national target of 1.5% of GDP in 2020.

The share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D (GBAORD) was 0.25% in 2011. Total GBAORD per capita rose until 2009, when it started to decline. The national public effort on Research and development, measure as the share of total GBAORD in national expenditures in Bulgaria was of 0.7% in 2011.

The National Strategy for Scientific Research to 2020, as of 2011, is the key policy document, which sets five priority areas for the development of research in Bulgaria. Public competitive R&D project grants, support for R&D infrastructures, structural reform of public research institute sector are becoming important characteristic of the national policy. However, some necessary strategic documents and measures are still under preparation such as the Innovation Law.

The research governance of the country is formed by public research organisations, along with the higher education institutions which perform research activities, business and NGO sector. The core portion of Bulgarian scientists is employed in public R&D organisations and higher education establishments, while the percentage of scientists in business organisations is 14% of the total. The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) is the largest national scientific research centre with the largest Ph.D. school in the country.

The main actors and institutions for allocating competitive funds for research and innovation are the Ministry for Education, Youth and Science (MEYS) which defines and implements national research policy and the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism (MEET), responsible for the national innovation policy.

The main competitive national public R&D funding instruments are the National Innovation Fund (NIF) and the National Science Fund (NSF). However, NIF has not distributed any funds since 2008 and a positive feature is the opening in 2012 of a new call for R&D projects with a total budget of BGN 5 million (€2.55 million). The inflow of EU Cohesion and Structural Funds in 2010 and 2011 has increased the share of competitive public funding for R&D considerably. The latest development in the R&I policy in Bulgaria is connected with Government decision of 9th of January 2013 for a separate operational programme (OP) during the next programming period, 2014-2020, called “Science and Education for Smart Growth 2014-2020”. Smart National and/or Regional specialisation strategy has not been introduced in the country yet but it is expected to be presented by the team of the World Bank in fall 2013.

Funding instruments should respect peer review principles, however the submission of proposals only in Bulgarian, in some cases, may in fact hamper the foreign review if needed.

One international evaluation and consultation of research organisation has been undertaken so far by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), performed jointly by the European Science Foundation and ALLEA. The evaluation had significant impact on the reform, taking place in the BAS during the period 2010-2012 in the direction of programme oriented organisation of research activities.

Institutional funding is distributed per capita students and practically, there is no institutional assessment of the RPOs in Bulgaria. A new ranking system for Universities was introduced in 2011 to provide the Government with a tool for performance-based allocation of funding, however the Commission Staff Working Document on the 2013 NRP indicates that this tool is not sufficiently used so far.

Transnational cooperation

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the Framework Programme (FP). The share of participation of Bulgaria in total participation is 0.56 % so far, and Bulgaria has received 0.25 % of total EC contributions. The country participates in two Article 185 initiative(s) and leads 1 of them. Bulgaria participates also in the ESF, COST and ERA NET initiatives. Still, according to ERAWATCH report Bulgaria needs to set more precise guidelines to elaborate and implement effectively support measures in order to define and implement common research agenda on grand challenges. The existing set of priorities of the research agenda are not yet sufficiently connected to meeting grand challenges. In terms of Framework Programme, the funding represents 10 Euros per head of population in Bulgaria.

The country has undertaken some measures to remove legal and other barriers to Europe-wide competition. Non-nationals are eligible to participate in the Bulgarian competitions for research grants.

The National Roadmap for Research Infrastructure, adopted in 2010, has allowed Bulgaria to be included in several European research infrastructure projects. There are no specific commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional Ris of pan-European interest

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010 the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 3.2 per 1,000 and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 0.5. The shares of non-national doctoral candidates were 3.3% from another EU-27 Member State and 4.1% from non-EU countries.

As regards research career and recruitment; the Law on the Development of Academic Staff grants universities autonomy in defining policies for their staff. There are no common promotion procedures for researchers that could ensure career stability. Salaries at public research institutions are fixed or depend on the academic title and the provided budget subsidy. The situation is similar in the universities, although with the new rating system they can slightly increase their public funding through academic and research achievements. In 2012, 46% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

Job vacancies are published on university websites (however mostly in Bulgarian), as well as on the EURAXESS jobs portal. In addition, job vacancies are published on other platforms (e.g. the labour agency). It is not a statutory requirement, however, to advertise job vacancies on the EURAXESS jobs portal.

As a general rule, national grants and fellowships are not open to non-residents.

The Operational programme “Human resource development”(OP HRD) supports the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training. In addition to (new) policies aimed at improving the research profession in Bulgaria, bilateral programmes such as the “Sciex” Programme with Switzerland, are considered not only as measures for importing researchers’ funding opportunities, but also as instruments for increasing the quality of doctoral training in Bulgaria.

In 2007, the Bulgarian Rectors’ Conference, as a collective body of the largest national university network, has signed the European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for the recruitment of researchers. One researcher organisation has received the "HR Excellence in Research" logo for its progress in implementing the Charter & Code.

Gender

In Bulgaria, researchers are not recognised as a specific workforce and hence do not enjoy a special status. There is no specific legislation on gender introducing mandatory quotas. However the transposition of the European directive on gender equality (Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000) provides for equal treatment of women and men in research. The Labour Code grants women researchers the right to interrupt and extend their contract during maternity leave. However, other contracts (stipends, fellowships, or equivalent) do not guarantee the right to maternity leave. The right depends on the contractual conditions and on the researcher’s level of income in the previous 18 months.

Knowledge circulation

The Bulgarian government supports the principles of access to and dissemination of scientific information, however no national policy on scientific information has been adopted.

Harmonised access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services are developed through participation in the Open access infrastructure for research in Europe (OPEN AIRE). The initiative includes setting up of data repository of Open Access to research outputs, journal articles, conference papers and datasets of various kinds; setting up links of the national repositories to European repositories.

BREN is the Bulgarian National Research and Education Network (NREN), a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within the country.

Some policy initiatives such as internal BAS regulations, setting joint innovation centre, university technology transfers etc. are in place to increase knowledge transfer activities and to facilitate a structural change towards more advanced and knowledge-intensive research sectors. This is also at the heart of the draft national Innovation Strategy. As an important step in that direction is the establishment of the first science and technology park in Sofia, co-financed by the ERDF for around EUR 50 million, which should grow into a core R&I hub for the whole country and attract leading local and international scientists. The 2013 Country Specific Recommendation stressed the need to “pursue the reform of higher education, in particular (...) through strengthening cooperation between education, research and business” and “improve the access to finance for SMEs and start-ups”.

Effectiveness

The share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D (GBAORD) in 2011 amounts to 0.75% of which almost half comes from public sector.

The research system is mainly governed by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports (MSES) which has overall responsibility for the science and education system in Croatia and the Ministry of Economy and Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Crafts which are responsible for innovation. The increased role of the Ministry of Regional Development and European Funds is expected upon the availability of the Structural Funds, in particular the ERDF, following Croatian accession to EU on 1 July 2013.

Policy formulation and implementation include the National Council for Science (NCS) and the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) which are the highest advisory bodies in their respective fields.

The main funding bodies, in addition to the MSES, are the Croatian Science Foundation (CSF), fostering science excellence, the Business Innovation Agency of Croatia (BICRO), supporting various innovation policy programmes like RAZUM, TECHRO, IRCRO, PoC, etc., the Unity through Knowledge Fund (UKF), supporting cooperation between local researchers and Croatian researchers living abroad and the Science and Innovation Investment Fund (SIIF), fostering technology transfer and commercialisation of universities’ research results.

The efforts to strengthen competitive funding and improving the ratio between institutional and project funding has gained increasing importance. IN 2012, institutional funding was the most important source of funding for research organisations (33% of MSES budget) and research grants represent 9 percent of MSES budget. The importance of competitive – based research funding has increased lately. The amended Law on Science and Higher Education (to be adopted in 2013) provides legal basis for reforming the national R&D system, including, among others, a new model of intuitional funding through “programme contracts” between the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports (MSES) and Research Performing organisations (RPOs). The allocation of the competition based research project grants will be transferred to the Croatian Science Foundation (CSF) which will establish new scheme of competitive projects and programs based on the model of EU collaborative research.

In the area of institutional assessment, the Agency for Science and Higher Education (ASHE), member of the ENQA – European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education and EQAR – European Quality Assurance Register) is carrying out the evaluation procedures (initial accreditation, re-accreditation and thematic evaluations).

The international peer review processes for allocating research grants have gained increasing importance with the establishment of independent research funding agencies in Croatia. The two principle funding agencies for scientific research –CSF and UKF have developed their own processes and guidelines for assessing quality of research proposals that include an international peer-review process. The MSES is also using external expertise for the evaluation of research projects proposal.

Transnational cooperation

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the EU Framework Programmes (FP). In the Seventh EU Research Framework Programme (FP7) Croatia has more than 300 participations mobilising almost 60 million Euros of EC contribution. Croatia is cooperating internationally through bilateral, multilateral and transnational projects and research programmes. It participates in the transnational research programmes like EUREKA and COST that includes coordination of research priorities, plans and goals, but does not include cross-border flow of funds. Croatia also participates in five ERA-NET initiatives. Croatia is also actively participating in the design of a Regional Strategy aiming at strengthening R&I cooperation at regional level with its Balkan neighbours.

Croatia is a member of ESFRI and participates in four related projects: CLARIN, DARIAH, ESS and SERSCIDA. A Committee for Scientific Infrastructure has been set-up to prepare the national roadmap on research infrastructures and to provide a strategic approach and policy objectives in accessing intergovernmental European infrastructures. Access to the national research infrastructure within the scientific institutions is organized by the Agency for Mobility and European Programmes.

Croatia is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the Conference and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts as well as engaged in the program of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research. Croatia participates also in a number of intergovernmental organisations such as CERN, EMBL (European Molecular Biology Laboratory and EUMSTAT (EU meteorological satellites)

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010 the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 3.6 per 1,000 and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 1.4. The shares of non-national doctoral candidates were 2.2 % from another EU-27 Member State and 2.2% from non-EU countries.

Recently, Croatia has adopted two policy measures for (1) removing the obstacles to inward and outward mobility of researchers and (2) increasing the international and inter-sectorial mobility. Removing the legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers is directly addressed within the Action Plan for Mobility of Researchers 2011-2012, which does not require anymore a Croatian citizenship for entry into the Registry of Researchers. Procedures on recruitment must be made public, preferably on the respective organisations’ websites, in both the Croatian and English languages. In 2012, 43 % of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

The transparency of employment of foreign researchers has been improved through advertising job positions at the EURAXESS portal of the European Commission

In Croatia, publicly funded grants or fellowships are not portable to other EU countries. However, the majority of programmes of the Croatian Science Foundation are open to researchers from all around the world and no nationality restrictions are included.

The “Higher education reform” renewed the doctoral studies in Croatia within the implementation of the Bologna process, especially in the period 2004-2008. However, no specific mentions of structured innovative doctoral training are found.

By March 2013, 37 research and higher education institutions have signed the Declaration of Commitment to the Principles of the Researchers Charter and the Code. 18 Croatian organisations are actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers of which 13 institutions were granted with the European Commission logo for the "HR Excellence in Research".

Gender

Croatia has made a considerable progress in the area of setting a policy framework for women’s rights and gender equality, enshrined in both legal and strategic policy documents such as the National Policy for Gender Equality 2011-2015. Croatia is one of the few EU countries which have a special Gender Equality Ombudswoman. Croatia has also set an Office for Gender Equality as the main institutional mechanism for gender equality.

The main reference document is the Action plan Science and Society from adopted in December 2012 by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports. It proposes the equalization of gender ratio of researchers in the system, especially in management structures (minimum 1/3 of women in national councils, regional councils, main committees, scientific and political bodies, etc.)and stresses the need for gender equality awareness increase.

Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) play a significant role in promoting and implementing gender equality policy and the advancement of current position of women in Croatia.

Knowledge circulation

The Croatian Government encourages open accessibility to the results of publicly funded research. A Croatian stakeholder declaration of Open Access was initiated in October 2012 and has been signed by more than 500 researchers.

The Ministry of Science, Education and Sports supported the Croatian scientific portal, which provides open access to all scientific information resulting from public funding research, as follows: the Croatian scientific bibliography - CROSBI, the Croatian scientific journals portal – HAMSTER and the Who's who in Croatian science.

The Croatian Information and Documentation Society (HID) plays an important role in raising awareness on Open Access (OA), encouraging individuals and institutions to sign BOAI and Berlin Declaration and to accept technical standards for achieving OA. The open access is enabled by the University Computing Centre (SRCE) which provides communication and information infrastructure (e-infrastructure).

According to the Directory of Open Access Repositories – OpenDOAR, 6 data repositories exist in Croatia.

As regards knowledge transfer between public and private sectors, it is at the heart of the Croatian Innovation policy. Croatia’s system of programmes and institutions for knowledge transfer is featured by many technology transfer centres (in the university cities of Zagreb, Split, Rijeka, Osijek and Dubrovnik), out of which three technology transfer offices (TTO) (University of Split, University of Zagreb and University of Rijeka which has grown into the Science and Technology Park (STeP) of the University of Rijeka).

The National Strategy for the Croatian innovation development 2013-2020, carried out by the OECD, provides a list of five strategic pillars for the future development of the innovation system, focusing, among others on increasing knowledge flows and interactions between industry and academia and securing a strong science and technology base and strengthen the capacities of research institutions for technology transfer. To date there is no clear legal or regulatory framework covering the field of IPRs and technology commercialization in universities but efforts are on-going to create a national policy for IPR creation and management at research institutions.

The pilar institution of the innovation system is the Agency for Business Innovation (formerly called BRICO) which manages several programmes to support innovation in firms and new firm creations (such as RAZUM providing loans for research and development; IRCO programme, a collaborative programme targeting SMEs that are linking up with research institutes and POC, a programme supporting Proof of Concept).

Croatia participates in the MERIL project (Mapping of the European Research Infrastructure Landscape) which provides through the MERIL portal an inventory of the most excellent research infrastructures (Ris) in Europe. The five infrastructures from Croatia are included: Cloud Infrastructure Services (IaaS): Virtual Computing Lab/ Virtual Private Servers, Croatian National Grid Infrastructure, Data Infrastructure Services, and Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries.

At the national level, Croatia has founded in 1971 the University Computing Centre (SRCE) which is one of the key subjects in planning, designing and maintenance of the e-infrastructures in Croatia. Today SRCE actively participates in the EU projects: GÉANT3 - Multi-gigabit Pan-European Research and Education Network and EGI-InSPIRE - European Grid Initiative: Integrated Sustainable Pan-European Infrastructure for Researchers in Europe. Besides, the SRCE experts participate in the work of international institutions and bodies, such as: TERENA, DANTE, ECAM, GeGC, and many others. Croatia is member of EDUgain through AAI@EDUHR. CARNet is the Croatian National Research and Education Network (NREN), a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within the country.

The Croatian government established in 1995 the Croatian Academic and Research Network (CARNet), a network of Croatian academic, scientific and research community, as well as of institutions of elementary and high school educational system. It provides more than 60 different services to academic community such as e-library, electronic identity, e-mail, e-learning, etc.

Effectiveness

The share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D (GBAORD) was 0.45% in 2011. Total GBAORD per capita rose until 2009, when it started to decline. The national public effort on Research and development, measure as the share of total GBAORD in national expenditures in Cyprus was of 0.97% in 2011.

The national research system in Cyprus is young and evolving. At the operational level the Planning Bureau is an independent government agency engaged in the formulation of strategy, the identification of objectives and the introduction of policy measures aiming at the promotion of research activities in Cyprus. At the implementation level, research and innovation activities are integrated under the Research Promotion Foundation (RPF), which is an autonomous agency under the supervision of the Planning Bureau.

RTDI is among the key priorities of the National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) 2007-2013, the main strategy document reflecting guidelines for R&D and innovation policy in the country and forming a basis for the preparation of the programming documents.

Competitive research funding is distributed mainly through the multi-annual and multi-thematic National Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (DESMI), designed and managed by the Research Promotion Foundation (RPF). Additional competitive funding for innovation, entrepreneurship and investments is distributed by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism. These two programmes introduced the competition for both individual and collaborative projects, against the backdrop of historical institutional block funding. However, due to financial constraints and government changes, competitive funding has diminished rather than increased since 2011.

Institutional evaluations are foreseen but not systematically pursued and are not linked to the distribution of block funding. Block funding follows historic and size criteria and is not associated to performance indicators. Public HEIs, which benefit from block-funding, have introduced internal research support mechanisms: faculty members apply for a (small) research budget and selection is based on a review process by an internal HEI Committee.

While there is not an explicit, mandatory legal provision for peer review, funds allocated under DESMI programme apply the principles for international peer review, using Greek reviewers.

Transnational cooperation

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the Framework Programme (FP). The share of participation of Cyprus in total participation is 0.34 % so far, and Cyprus has received 0.19 % of total EC contributions. The country also participates in four Joint Programming initiatives and in two Article 185 initiatives. FP funding represents 88 Euros per head of population

The size of the research system in Cyprus and its peripheral geographical location may be barriers to transnational cooperation. There are no joint research agendas addressing Grand Challenges, except in the context of ERAnets, JTIs and Territorial Development Programmes of the Structural Funds. Participation of Cyprus is marked under the MED ERA-NET programme for cooperation in the Mediterranean network and JPI in cooperation with other participating countries in the areas of Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change, Urban Europe, Water Challenges and Cultural Heritage. Funds will also be earmarked to Joint European Programmes (EUROSTARS, Ambient Assistant Living)..

RPF participates in the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA), where 13 Joint programmes have been announced in the fields of Photovoltaic, Wind Energy, Smart Grids, Geothermal, Carbon Capture and Storage, Materials for Nuclear, Bioenergy, Concentrated Solar Power, Ocean Energy, Smart Cities, Advanced Materials and Processes for Energy Applications, Energy Storage, and Fuel Cells and Hydrogen.

Currently, RPF started devising a national ESFRI roadmap and define explicit policy on participation in ESFRI.

Research Infrastructures projects under ESFRI of interest for Cyprus are DARECLIMED, LinkSCEEM 1st and 2nd phase and STACHEM. Cyprus also participates in the European portal of Research infrastructure services with the following three research infrasctructures: CyGrid in the area of Grid computing facilities, Nanomanufacture in the area of micro and nanotechnology facilities and Agricultural Research Institute in the area of environmental management.

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010 the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 2.2 per 1,000 and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 0.2. The shares of non-national doctoral candidates were 7.8% from another EU-27 Member State and 1.6% from non-EU countries.

The labour market is open due to a long term tradition of cooperation with the UK and Greece, established since the time the country did not have its own HEIs. Cyprus was among the first member states to adopt portability of grants policies.

Researchers in Cyprus are civil servants, where by definition recruitment is open, however their career progression is highly inflexible. Academic promotion is regulated and higher education laws specify the composition of promotion committees. In 2012, 54% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

Information on entry conditions, transfer of social security, pension contributions, accommodation and administrative assistance is available through the Cypriot EURAXESS National Portal (www.euraxess.org.cy).

Cyprus participates since 2000 in the Programme for the Support of Young Researchers, which promotes also participation in private sector research projects. There is no explicit policy regarding the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training at the national level or at the institutional level, although some interest is expressed individually.

Out of the 13 Universities in Cyprus which have expressed interest to the European HR Strategy for Researchers, five Cypriot organisations are actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers of which two have been awarded with the HR Excellence in Research logo (University of Cyprus and Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics).

Gender

Gender issues in Cyprus are currently subject to a specific evaluation contracted by the Planning Bureau concerning all ERDF funding in view of formulating clear gender policy.

RPF will participate at the first Gender ERA-NET programme as of 2013.

Knowledge circulation

In 2013 the Planning Bureau and the RPF, considered as primary organisations carrying responsibility for Open Access, have appointed official open access contact points at national level. Three open access repositories exists in Cyprus, all in Universities (Cyprus University of Technology, Open University of Cyprus, Cyprus University) out of which two provide access to digital collections and one repository (Cyprus University of Technology) provides access to research data.

CYNET is the Cypriot National Research and Education Network (NREN), a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within the country.

According to the NRP 2013 there is an on-going process on the development and operation of Enterprise liaison offices at the Universities in Cyprus. Similarly, the development of the Business Support Centre is expected to provide intermediary services for the transfer of knowledge and technology.

Finally in 2012, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism launched a technology platform “Manufuture-CY”, an initiative for future industrial technologies which activities include information exchange, thematic training workshops, production of position papers and other contributions of industrial policy, as well as new initiatives for the enhancement of cooperation between its members. Except for industries, members of the platform may also be companies which influence and are influenced by the industry, associations of companies, IT companies and research centres with direct interest, as well as other Public Organisations, academic institutions and financial companies, cooperatives, and consumers associations which have an indirect industrial interest.

Effectiveness

The Government budget appropriations or outlays for research and development (GBAORD) as a share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 0.67 % in 2011. The share of GBAORD allocated as project-based funding was 46,13 % in 2008.

In 2008 a comprehensive reform of the research and innovation system was launched (Act No. 211/2009 Coll, amending Act No.130/2002 Coll.), the characteristics of which are described in the National Research, Development and Innovation Policy of the Czech Republic 2009-2015. The reform defined long-term national priorities for R&D&I (up to 2030); established a single advisory body for innovation policy (in a boarder sense) and for the coordination of public support to RDI; increased the share of public funding allocated on a competitive basis; reorganised R&D funding bodies by creating the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TACR) in charge, together with the already existing Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (GACR), to administer competitive funding instead of the ministries; introduced a new national methodology for research evaluation based on quantitative indicators to allocate institutional funding on the basis of performance; promoted better research links between academia and industry; and ensured open access to the Research and Development Information System of the Czech Republic.

As a result of the reform the Council for Research, Development and Innovation (CRDI) has been set in place as an advisory body of the government, thereby improving the governance of the system. CRDI defines research priorities (through different committees), proposes the research budget and is ultimately responsible for the annual evaluation of research institutions. It also targets funding towards potentially strong and globally competitive research fields and fields with strong potential for applications. While CRDI has become the main governing body of the system, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (MEYS) and the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic (MIT) continue to set priorities in the context of the National Innovation Strategy and to administer the Structural Funds through their respective Operational Programmes dealing with R&D and innovation.

The bulk of competitive project-based funding is administered by GACR - which allocates grants for basic research based on international peer review - and by TACR – which allocates grants for applied research and development. GACR also awards postdoc grants with limited funding on open, merit, competitive basis. GACR has a budget of CZK 3.3b (€132m) in 2013. On the side of applied research, there is currently a transition period where TACR is taking over the administration of competitive funding from MEYS and MIT. The budget of TACR has grown significantly in recent years from CZK 0.9b (€34m) in 2011, to CZK 2.8b (€113m) in 2013. In addition, five other ministries administer their own (small) competitive research funds in their respective domains (Agriculture, Health, Defence, Interior, and Culture) with a focus on short-term policy needs.

Since the 2008 reform there has been a constant increase of project-based funding and a decrease in institutional funding from 56% in 2009 to 51% in 2012. In its outlook for 2014, the CRDI envisages a further decrease to 47% in 2014 and 2015. The largest recipients of institutional funding are on the one hand the academy of Science of the Czech Republic (ASCR) and on the other, public research centres and higher education institutions (via the MEYS which distributes the funds). ASCR uses its own internal evaluation methodology for internally redistributing the funds received. Over the period 2010-2013 the performance of research institutions was systematically evaluated on an annual basis using the current methodology (‘methodika’) and used by the CRDI as a starting base for the allocation of funding. However, ‘methodika’ has been criticised by some stakeholders and by the independent international audit of the Czech research system (Arnold, E. 2011) due to the fact that it is based strictly on quantitative indicators which do not sufficiently reflect the quality of the S&T outputs nor the specificities of different scientific fields. A revised methodology for the period 2013-2015 has been prepared based upon a combination of new evaluation criteria and international peer review to better take into account the quality and relevance of the research performed. It is a first step in response to the Council Recommendation No 6 'Increase the share of performance-based funding of research institutions.' (from the specific Council Recommendation for the Czech Republic dated 10 July 2012) asking for an effective system for evaluation and funding of R&D projects.

Transnational cooperation

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the Framework Programme. The share of participation of Czech Republic in total participation is 1.04% so far, and Czech Republic has received 0.61 % of total EC contributions. FP funding represents 20 Euros per head of population. The country also participates in Joint Programming. Czech Republic participates as a member in 4 initiatives and coordinates The Demographic change (More Years, Better Life). The country also participates in 2 Article 185 initiative(s). There are programmes at national level which support research on topics relevant to the Strategic Research Agendas (SRAs). Funding of common actions and alignment of national programmes to the SRAs are under development. The Czech Republic also participates in in EUREKA and COST. The NRP 2013 states that the Czech Republic is interested in participating in the Cross-Thematic Contractual Public Private Partnerships and/or Joint Technology Initiatives (JTI), with research infrastructures, energy security and space research as well as the private sectors’ needs stated among the priorities.

As part of the revision in 2012 of the National R&D&I policy 2009-2015, the set of national priorities for R&D&I was revised in view of better targeting the six major grand challenges identified (competitive knowledge economy, sustainable energy and material resources, environment for quality life, social and cultural challenges, healthy people and secure societies). Those priorities are largely in line with the grand challenges of the H2020 proposal.

The Czech Republic has bilateral agreements, either at inter-governmental or inter-institutional level, with India, Israel, South Korea, Russia, Argentina, China, and the United States. In the frame of these agreements, GACR and TACR (for the future DELTA programme with non-EU countries) recognise evaluations made by partner agencies as basis for national funding. Regular funding is attributed through the GACR bilateral grants and comprises about 2% of GACR budget (based on agreements with the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, National Science Foundation of Korea and National Science Council of Taiwan). Cross-border interoperability is implemented by the MEYS KONTAKT scheme for non-EU intergovernmental agreements and GESHER/MOST with Israel. The Visegrad fund (between the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Republic of Poland, and the Slovak Republic) provides also research grants from a common pot contribution of all countries involved.

The Czech Republic is a member of most intergovernmental organisations in ERA as well as of projects of large European infrastructures (ESFRI). The Czech Republic participates in the European Space Agency, European Southern Observatory, European Molecular Biology Conference, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA) and others.

Following the national strategy for research infrastructures, the Roadmap for Large Research, Development and Innovation Infrastructures in the Czech Republic has been approved and it has been updated in 2011. A draft amendment (March 2013) of the principal law governing research and development (Act No.130/2002 Coll.) is proposed which should allow to provide institutional funding for support of international cooperation in research on the basis of international evaluation (in order to conform to the Council Regulation 2009/723/EC from 25th June 2009 on ERIC). All the six large RI projects financed so far for a total amount of €835m (85% funded by the ERDF) had to have a partnership with ESFRI. Among those there are several e-infrastructures: Czech Education and Scientific NETwork (CESNET); IT4Innovations - building a national Centre of Excellence in the field of information technologies; CERIT Scientific Cloud. Their future financing was secured by launching the National program sustainability I and II financed from Structural Funds via MEYS, allowing also funding from private sources to contribute to their operation.

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010 the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 5.6 per 1,000 and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 1.3. The shares of non-national doctoral candidates were 8.4% from another EU-27 Member State and 4.0% from non-EU countries.

General procedures regarding recruitment and employment conditions are given at the national level by the Labour Code (Act no. 262/2006 Coll.) and the Act on Employment (Act. No. 435/2004 Coll.).

Higher education establishments and public research institutes are allowed to pursue fairly autonomous approach to recruitment of academic staff, which are decentralised even to faculty and department level. In 2012, 52% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012). Most public research institutions conduct their activities in accordance with the Act on Public Research Institutions (Act no. 341/2005 Coll.). For higher education institutions the main human resources issues are defined by the Higher (Tertiary) Education Act (Act No. 111/1998 Coll.) with consecutive amendments. A draft amendment of the Higher Education Act was recently sent to universities, in line with the White Paper on Tertiary Education adopted by the Government in 2009. The draft amendment is not expected to alter the current system of recruitment but to simplify the recognition of university diplomas acquired abroad.

The adopted Scientific Visa Package simplifies recruitment of researchers from the non-EU countries. According to the Czech Republic’s legislation rules, foreign researchers, especially EU citizens, can be employed in academic positions.

Under the MEYS and ASCR there are programmes (for ex. NÁVRAT) funding reintegration of top-researchers (Czech who live abroad and foreign) as well as foreign doctoral students (Fellowship J. E. Purkyně). The MOBILITY programme supports short-term outward internships and bilateral agreements allow for exchange or university teachers and students (financed from Structural Funds).

Legislation allows foreign researchers to participate in research and development calls. Funding is reserved for residents except for special programmes based on international agreements. All research projects funded by national research programmes must be performed in the Czech Republic. In general applications have to be made in Czech. The main exception represent the grant programmes of GACR that require applications exclusively in English, with background documentation (i.e. Programme Operators’ Manual, etc.) being in Czech.

Project „EURAXESS Czech Republic 2012 - 2015“ finances the EURAXESS Centre and website. While the Czech EURAXESS supports foreign researchers by the usual means, it is not formally required to advertise new positions nationally and internationally via the media, on EURAXESS or other international portals.

Currently the standardisation of PhD programmes has started.

Two institutions, namely the ASCR and Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC), have endorsed the Charter & Code and one Czech organisation is actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers.

Gender

General legislation on non-discrimination and equal opportunities applies also to the research field and to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers (the Act No. 262/2006, Coll. on labour code, the Act No. 435/2004 Coll. on employment and the Act No. 198/2009, Coll. on antidiscrimination). Labour law guarantees a maternity leave of six months with return to the same position (not for fixed contracts) and parental leave up to three years. The government proceedings (or law), the so-called "Jednací řád vlády", require that gender impact is assessed for every government resolution. Recently the government has set a national target for increasing the employment rate for women to 65% and decided to increase the availability and affordability of quality pre-school facilities for children after six months of age, in line with the Council Recommendation No 4 'Increase significantly the availability of inclusive childcare facilities with a focus on children up to three years old, and the participation of Roma children, notably by adopting and implementing the law on provision of childcare services and strengthening the capacities of both public and private childcare services.’ (from the specific Council Recommendation for the Czech Republic dated 19 June 2013). The Governmental Resolution No. 1033 of 2001 establishes measures on equal opportunities and (among others) the Council for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men as an advisory body of the government. In May 2010, the Council of the Government for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men drafted a recommendation to the government concerning the need to address the issue of gender equality in the field of research, development and innovation in the Czech Republic at the level of expert and advisory bodies of the government. This recommendation was elaborated by its Working Committee for the Institutional Mechanism in cooperation with the National Contact Centre for Women and Science and concerns the CRDI. The recommendation was acknowledged by the government and was not acted upon.

Ministerial gender focal points and working groups are established as well.

GACR grants restrictively allow female researchers to interrupt or postpone research due to maternity.

The main agent promoting cultural change in women in science is the National Contact Centre for Women and Science (en.zenyaveda.cz), which carries out analysis and raises awareness about gender issues. The award Milada Paulová is organised jointly by MEYS and National Contact Centre for Women and Science for lifelong achievement of female researchers in Czech science and the L’ORÉAL Scholarship Czech Republic for Women in Science is also in place.

Knowledge circulation

CRDI administers the Research and Development and Innovation Information System of the Czech Republic which provides open access to information about publicly funded research activities, projects and their outputs. It allows the collection, processing, publication and utilisation of data. The Czech Statistical Offices (CZSO) – pursuant to the Section 17 “Provision of confidential statistical data” of the Act No. 89/1995, on the State Statistical Service - provides confidential statistical data for scientific research purposes. Several open access repositories including for data are run by different stakeholders.

Improving the links between industry and academia and fostering knowledge transfer are main points within the National Reform Programme 2013 and at the top priorities of the on-going reform of the research, development and innovation system. Several measures contribute to knowledge transfer. The National Innovation Strategy of the Czech Republic (NIS) published in October 2011 (coproduced by MIT and MEYS) lists “Cooperation and knowledge transfer between academia and industry” as one of the four priority areas. Additionally, beginning with 2012 the set-up of Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) at universities or intermediary organisations is supported via the Structural Funds. Newly implemented R&D programmes, mostly funded by TACR but also by MEYS and MIT, support public-private R&D co-operation (ALFA, Centres of competence, DELTA, respectively EF-TRANS and TIP). Also, state-of-the-art IPR legislation is in place. In December 2012 the government approved an action plan to promote growth, entrepreneurship and employment, of which one of the proposed measures is to extend the existing R&D tax credits to purchase of external R&D services from research organisations.

As far as policies for e-infrastructure and services access are concerned, CESNET (see point 2) has been established in 1996 initially as a joint venture of universities and the ASCR and has been approved by the government in 2010. CESNET acts as the National Research and Education Network (NREN), it is the coordinator of the National Grid Infrastructure (NGI) and national partner of GÉANT and EGI.eu. CESNET also provides via different projects means for inter-organisational identity management and interconnectivity of networks. Among those projects, the EDUROAM infrastructure and eduroam.cz project support and spread IP mobility and roaming in order to enable users of interconnected networks easy and transparent usage of any network connected to the roaming space; The Czech Academic Identity Federation eduID.cz project provides means for inter-organisational identity management and access control to network services through the eduGAIN initiative, while respecting the privacy of the users.

Effectiveness

Science, technology and Innovation in Denmark are supported by a strong culture for innovation that reflects the country’s open and dynamic society. The share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D (GBAORD) was 1.02% in 2011. Total GBAORD per capita steadily rose until 2012. The national public effort on Research and Development, measured as the share of total GBAORD in national expenditures in Denmark was  1.77% in 2011. R&D funding is provided by the Danish National Research Foundation, the Council for Independent Research, the Council for Strategic Research, the Council for Technology and Innovation, the Danish Advanced Technology Foundation, and several sectorial R&D programmes. Another key funding source is the University Basic Research Funding, i.e. the earmarked basic university grants provided to the universities from the annual national budget.

Policy and actions have taken place, aiming to increase the efficiency of public support to R&D. The Finance Act Agreement from 2013 strengthens funding from basic research and introduces three years budget security. The reform of the university system in Denmark has led to a high level of autonomy regarding management of research budgets and hiring of research personnel. Institutional funding is distributed on the basis of development contracts with the Ministry for Science, Innovation and Higher Education, lasting for 3 years, based on performance indicators.

The share of competitive funding has been over several years at a level of 40% of the total public research funding. Following a political agreement in June 2009, a new distribution model for core funding applies including bibliometric indicators. The distribution for 2012 was: 45% based on education appropriations, 20% based on external funding of R&D activities, 25% based on bibliometric indicators and 10% based on PhD graduates.

Research funds are allocated based on the principles of international peer review. The Council for Strategic Research, for example, has established a peer review panel that is intended to strengthen the quality of the project reviews. Assessments made by the peer review panel are complemented with assessments provided by other, internationally recognized academics.

Transnational cooperation

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the EU Framework Programme (FP). The share of participation of Denmark in total participation is 2.01% so far, and Denmark has received 2.35% of total EC contributions. FP funding equals to EUR 144 per capita. Denmark is active in a number of ERA related cooperative initiatives, such as European Technology Platforms (ETP), ERA-NETs, and ERA-NET Plus, where it participates as a member in 9 Joint programming initiatives and is an observer in one. The country also takes part in the five Article 185 initiatives.

The Ministry of Science, Innovation and Higher Education initiated several cooperation agreements and different policy measures to ensure an improved exchange between knowledge communities in Denmark and outside Europe.

Denmark has developed specific strategies for the BRIC-countries to improve trade and investment, in fields such as climate and energy, welfare, architecture, research, education and food. According to its 2013 National Reform Programme, Denmark has established innovation centres in hotspots around the world and as part of its national Innovation Strategy, Denmark should open three new innovation centres in Bangalore, Seoul and Sao Paulo this year.

Denmark is actively cooperating with other Nordic countries in joint programmes and institutions within the Nordic Council of Ministers. Nordic cooperation involves Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden as well as the three autonomous areas, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and the Åland Islands. The organisation of the Nordic collaboration in research and innovation rests on two main pillars: NordForsk (research ) and Nordic Innovation (formerly The Nordic Innovation Centre, NICE). In 2008 the Nordic Prime Ministers initiated the Top-level Research Initiative (TRI), which is until now the largest joint Nordic research and innovation initiative that has a research focus within climate, environment and energy.

As regards cross border access to funding, Danish schemes are open to researchers based abroad, regardless of their nationality, provided that their research is judged to be of benefit to Danish research. The Research Council law allows the national research councils to allocate up to 20% of their funds to international initiatives. These initiatives are allowed to administer the funds on behalf of the Danish research councils on a real common pot model as long as it benefits Danish research and fulfills the other general principles. Furthermore, the council funds are generally available to international researchers.

The Danish Councils for Independent Research participate in the EUROHORCS initiative and in Science Europe. Taking into account that the Council for Strategic Research has not signed the letter of intent ‘Money follows researchers’, it allows researchers to move to other countries and take the remainder of any awarded grant with them.

Denmark is actively involved in ESFRI research infrastructures projects. In terms of financial commitment to research infrastructures, the Globalisation Fund includes funds allocated to a comprehensive modernisation of research infrastructure, including a green stimulus package and other measures. The national roadmap for Research Infrastructure 2011 presents a complete and prioritised catalogue of the national needs for research infrastructures in the short term and charts a strategic direction for national initiatives in the field.

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010, the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 12.9 per 1,000, and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 2.1. The shares of non-national doctoral candidates were 12.4% from other EU-27 Member State and 15.4% from non-EU countries.

Providing attractive employment and working conditions have been priority areas in Denmark, since the employment system for public researchers generally displays a high level of flexibility. The national Innovation Strategy provides for a better framework for the development of a culture of talent. In 2012, 65% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

All Danish universities have joined the ‘Charter for Researchers’ and the ‘Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers’. Three Danish organisations are actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers of which one, Copenhagen Business School (CBS), has been added to the list of “HRS4R Acknowledged Institutions” (in 2012).

Research job vacancies are published on the EURES Portal, the EURAXESS portal or at the job portals of the different organisations. The Ministerial order on the Appointment of Academic Staff at universities stipulates that positions at professor and associate professor levels have to be posted internationally, while this is not mandatory for assistant professor, post-doc or PhD levels positions.

Doctoral training in Denmark features both the “traditional” model of PhD education oriented towards internationally competitive education standards and a path referred to as the Industrial PhD Programme. Since 2002, the latter has been part of the Danish Council for Technology and Innovation’s umbrella of innovation promotion initiatives, and has been run by the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation. The programme has been evaluated several times and in 2011 the impact assessment considered the programme contributing to an increased absorptive capacity in the private sector that can be expected to facilitate knowledge and technology transfer from academia to industry and hence to foster innovation in firms.

Most publicly funded innovation grants or fellowships are portable to other EU countries as long as this is also to the benefit of the Danish enterprises. Grants from the Danish Council for Independent Research (DFF) and the Danish Council for Strategic Research (DCSR) are open to Danish, EU and third-country candidates, provided they fulfil the application criteria. One of the application criteria is the actual and potential significance of the research subject for the growth, development and welfare of Denmark in the short and long term.

Gender

Gender equality is regulated exclusively at the level of general labour market.

The Danish Gender Equality Act (GEA), as revised in 2013, stipulates that boards, assemblies of representatives or similar collective management bodies within the public administration should have an equal gender balance. In order to achieve such gender balance the collective management body in question is obliged to formulate gender equality targets. The legislative goal is to achieve a gender composition of 60/40 of the underrepresented gender in such collective management bodies.

In addition to gender equality targets, institutions and companies in the public administration are obliged to formulate gender equality policies concerning the underrepresented gender on a managerial level. This is only a requirement for institutions and companies with 50 employees or more.

The revised GEA is a direct result of the 2008 “Charter for More Women in public and Private sector Management”. The new provisions apply to all Danish universities.

In March 2013, the Council of Independent Research held a conference on the role of gender in research and excellence. The objective of the conference was to stimulate the debate about the role of gender and how to achieve equality between the genders in all research contexts. In this context, the Minister of science, innovation and higher education and the Minister of gender equality discussed the introduction of special initiatives to enhance the chances of female researchers to access leading positions in research institutions.

Moreover, in 2013, the Council of Independent Research commissioned a study on the role of gender in research and excellence (Det Frie Forskningsråd, 2013), mapping gender aspects and differences in the Danish R&I system.

Knowledge circulation

The implementation of Open Access is well under way among Danish universities, public research councils and foundations. In June 2012, public research councils and foundations implemented a joint Open Access-policy and five of the eight universities in Denmark have introduced Open Access policies.

Regulatory policies exist to support knowledge transfer between public research institutions and industry, the establishment of research-based enterprises and cooperation between public research institutions, associations and foundations. Most of the universities also have their own technology transfer office (TTO), but the number of staff varies from more than ten full-time employees, to less than one full-time post. The creation of academic spin-off companies is assessed as being a good mechanism for circulating new, educated R&D personnel from the universities into industry. The statistics reveal a modest increase in this type of activities since 2004. The National Network for Technology Transfer organises the TTOs from the universities, research institutes, hospitals and regional TTOs and it supports the sharing of competences, knowledge and methods involved in technology transfer.

There are several funding instruments targeted at increasing R&D co-operation between the business sector and public research organisations. Inter-sectoral mobility of researchers is high in Denmark in comparison to other EU-27 countries. Approximately 80% of the industrial PhD programme contributes to improved mobility between universities and companies while only around 20% of traditional PhDs gets positions in the private sector. Moreover, public-private knowledge transfer is ensured by the involvement of representatives from the private sector in the governance of higher education institutions. At several universities the majority of board members are external members and some of them come from the private sector.

Access to e-infrastructures is supported by the creation in 2012 of the Danish e-Infrastructures Cooperation providing a platform for initiatives such as research data platform, which will be established in cooperation with the Denmark’s Electronic Research Library. Denmark is member of EDUgain through WAYF.

Effectiveness

The research and development and innovation (RDI) system in Estonia was mainly set up in the beginning of 1990’s when the whole public functional system was created. The share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D (GBAORD) was 0.79% in 2011. Total GBAORD per capita steadily rose until 2012. The national public effort on Research and development, measure as the share of total GBAORD in national expenditures in Estonia was of 2.06% in 2011. Policy design and evaluation is mainly carried out by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications (MEAC) and the Ministry of Education and Research (MER). MER is responsible for research and education policies, the financing and evaluation of research institutes and coordination of international cooperation in research. During the 1990s the majority of former research institutes of the Estonian Academy of Science were incorporated into universities. 80% of research is now performed by universities.

MEAC governs two funding agencies Enterprise Estonia Foundation and Foundation KredEx, while MER governed 3 agencies the Archimedes Foundation, the Estonian Science Foundation and the Innove Foundation. The creation of the Estonian Research Council (substituting the Estonian Science Foundation) in March 2012 aimed to concentrate all R&D and research financing instruments under the same umbrella in order to improve synergies and avoid duplication.

To increase the effectiveness of the national research system, the Research and Innovation Policy Monitoring Programme for 2011-2015 (TIPS Programme) was launched in 2011. The aim of the programme is to analyse the impact of current policy measures, to give policy recommendations for the implementation of the current Estonian RDI Strategy for 2007-2013 “Knowledge-based Estonia 2007-2013” (2007-2013) and for designing both the new Estonian RDI strategy (2014-2020) and policy measures.

In the new RDI strategy for 2014-2020 (planned to be launched in 2013), there will be more focus on increasing the impact of R&D on economy and society (selection of key R&D areas, Smart Specialisation, enhanced collaboration between government institutions, business and academia, and increasing investments into tertiary education).

The share of competitive versus institutional funding in the R&D national budget of the MER was 69% and 31% respectively in 2001. Most of the funding from the budget of the MEAC is competitive.

Annual baseline funding was introduced in law in 2005 and is allocated on the basis of R&D performance indicators of R&D institutions. Criteria for allocating block funds for R&D institutions are set in the Organisation of Research and Development Act (introduced in 1997, last update in 2012). The evaluation of the research performance of Higher Education Institutions and Public Research Organisations follows international standards and is regulated by Conditions and Procedure for Evaluation of Research and Development Institutions (introduced in 2009, last update in 2012).

Transnational cooperation

The Estonia’s European Union Policy 2011-2015 launched in 2011 states that Estonia places importance on scientific mobility within sectors and Member States, open and harmonised recruitment conditions, integrated and simple financing rules and procedures and open access to the R&D results and scientific infrastructures of Member States by the research community of the EU.

In particular the Implementation Plan for achieving the objectives of the Estonian Research and Development and Innovation Strategy 2007-2013 “Knowledge-based Estonia” in 2012-2013 states that participation of Estonian researchers, R&D institutions and enterprises in international cooperation networks, in the EU Framework Programmes, in EUREKA, in the Eurostars programme and Article 185 initiatives, will be supported. The participation of Estonia in the EU FP is 0.39%. Estonia received 0.21% of total EC contributions. FP funding represents 51 Euros per head of population. The country is involved in 3 JPIs and 3 Article 185.

Furthermore the Implementation Plan states that as a good practice, international peer-review of large-scale state financed research and development projects will be introduced in all research fields in Estonia, while evaluations will be carried out with worldwide comparison in the corresponding fields. Field-specific quality criteria will also be taken into account in evaluations.

Joint financing is welcome and project partners are selected by excellence, not by country of origin. Universities and other R&D institutions are independent and can choose their partners from any country in the world.

Estonia launched           the programme for internationalisation of science in 2011 with the aim to support joint activities such as sharing information, joint research agenda, joint calls, joint programming and also developing ex-post evaluation procedures. Most of joint financing actions are regulated by the 2007-2013 Structural Assistance Act and by the Organisation of Research and Development Act.

The Estonian Research Infrastructures Roadmap 2010 is a long-term (10-20 years) planning instrument, which lists research infrastructure of national importance which are either new or need to be upgraded. The Estonian Roadmap 2010 was updated in 2012 and will further update in 2013. It itemises national interest in specific ESFRI projects, but does not deal with rules on access to facilities.

The allocation of funds for developing infrastructure is described in the Implementation Plan for achieving the objectives of Estonian Research and Development and Innovation Strategy 2007-2013 “Knowledge-based Estonia” in 2012-2013.

Open Labour market for researchers

The number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 5.9 per 1,000 in 2010. The number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 0.9 and the percentage of doctoral candidates with citizenship of another EU-27 Member State was 5.2% in 2010. The percentage of non-EU doctoral candidates as a percentage of all doctoral candidates was 1.5%.

The main obstacles identified to inward mobility are the low level of remuneration, difficulties to obtain Estonian visa/residence permit from countries where Estonia does not have a representation, and limited social guarantees. The Estonia 2020 Competitiveness Strategy 2011 include provisions aiming among others at attracting highly qualified researchers to come and work in Estonia. In 2012, 63% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

The Estonian Research Council founded in 2012 provides institutional and personal research funding. Grant competitions are open to all permanent residents of the Republic of Estonia and citizens of a foreign country. Grants should be applied through an Estonian institution.

Through the researcher mobility programme Mobilitas (2008-2015) implemented by the Estonian Science Foundation, postdoctoral researchers (incoming or outcoming for Estonian) and top researchers (incoming) have a possibility to apply for a grant to carry out research in Estonia or abroad. The ERMOS Programme (2007-2013) implemented also by the Estonian Science Foundation aims to develop and diversify research potential through the mobility of researchers and the development of young researchers ’careers.

The predecessor of the Estonian Research Council (Estonian Science Foundation) adhered to the EUROHORCs Money Follows Researcher Letter of Intent and agreed to finance research carried out in foreign institutes provided it would be initiated in an Estonian R&D institution. Grant holders can apply to transfer their research grants only if the institution of the host country has also signed up to the Letter of Intent.

As regards Human Resources policies, universities and other R&D institutions are relatively independent. In September 2011, the Rectors’ Conference, representing all public universities in Estonia and one private university signed a “Quality Agreement” of which Point 10 refers to the implementation of the ‘Charter & Code’. 6 Estonian organisations are actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers.

The system for open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers has been in place since the beginning of 2000. Basic rules are set in the Organisation of Research and Development Act and detailed conditions and procedures are established by the Ministry or the body governing the institution.

Public Universities have signed the “Agreement on Good Practice” which supports the internationalisation of Estonia’s Higher Education Institutions. The Agreement encourages the employment of foreign research staff and the enrolment of international students. All Universities hosting EURAXESS services have signed the Agreement.

Universities and R&D institutions are fully autonomous in their recruitment policies. Some universities are obliged to publish their vacancies in English, but not by Law.

The related regulations “The conditions of and procedure for the election of academy research professors” (introduced in 2002) and “The conditions of and procedure for organising a competition for research staff in a research and development institution under the area of government of the Ministry of Research and Education” (introduced in 2001, latest amendments in 2012) provides for some rules. The posts for professorship are published in (European) on-line platforms and open internationally. The use of EURAXESS is recommended. Selection panels are not systematically established and the composition of the panels are not published. These Regulations do not specify the need to include external members (national nor international) to the selection panel. The selection criteria are not always published together with the job advert, but are published in the employment regulation rules of the universities. The applicants can received feedback, but they are not offered the right to appeal.

EURAXESS Estonia has Service Centres in 7 large Estonian R&D institutions. In 2011, the number of researcher posts advertised through the EURAXESS Jobs was 15 portal per thousand researchers in the public sector.

As regards doctoral education the government focuses on the enhancement and quality of doctoral studies through doctoral schools, which were set up in 2005. In 2009, thirteen doctoral schools were selected for the period 2009-2015. Their aim is to improve the quality of tutoring and to increase interdisciplinarity, international and national cooperation. They also include training in transferable and social skills to enhance cooperation between universities and the private sector (based on the Standard of Higher Education 2008, last amendments in 2012). This is in conformity with the 2013 EU country-specific-recommendation “to enhance cooperation between businesses, higher education and research institutions”.

Furthermore the “Quality Agreement of Estonian Universities” specifies quality standards for doctoral studies, encourages interdisciplinary studies and research and transferable skills’ training. Last, the programme DoRa assists innovative companies to create doctoral student positions.

Gender

The Gender Equality Act (adopted in 2004, last amendments in July 2012) promotes policies addressing gender balance and encourages the State, local governments, agencies, educational and research institutions, and private companies to support gender equality. Gender equality is explicitly referred to in the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia (Chapter II Fundamental Rights, Freedoms and Duties, § 12).

The Estonian Government has not introduced specific policies to promote equal opportunities for men and women in research area. Excellence is the main criterion for researchers to receive funding and to participate in decision-making bodies. Though the overall situation in Estonia is better than in EU-27 in average, the proportion of women in scientific and management boards was lower in Estonia (26%) than in EU-27 (36%).

There are two main non-governmental organisations, focusing on gender issues. The Estonian Women's Studies and Resource Centre (ENUT established in 1997) is a non-profit non-governmental organisation with the aim to advance gender equality in all spheres of life and is located at the Tallinn University. The Estonian Women’s Associations Roundtable (established in 2007) initiates projects, supports actions aimed at securing women’s rights, protecting minority women’s rights and advancing equality between women and men.

Knowledge circulation

The free access for the results of publicly funded research is stated by amendments of the Organisation of Research and Development Act (in 2012) and measures have been taken to develop R&D e-infrastructures.

The Estonian Information Society Strategy 2013 launched in 2006, planned to be updated in 2013, is a sector development plan, setting out the general framework, objectives and respective action fields for the broad employment of ICT in the development of knowledge-based economy and society in Estonia in 2007-2013.

The Implementation Plan for achieving the objectives of Estonian Research and Development and Innovation Strategy 2007-2013 “Knowledge-based Estonia” ensures that research libraries with be provided with all major databases of all research fields (including the support for joint and individual purchases of journals and databases for research and archive libraries). The Programme of Electronic Scientific Information launched in 2009 aims to supply Estonian R&D institutions with scientific information and to acquire access to scientific information and electronic publications for Estonian research libraries and organisations (Programme period 2010-2014). The Consortium of Estonian Libraries Network (established in 1996 with its statute renewed in 2011) and the research libraries have created conditions and access to scientific journals and electronic databases for national researchers.

The Estonian Research Information System established in 2006 is developed in a way that would allow it to be used as an open repository, so that the results of research that receive public funding are easily identifiable by appropriate technical means, including through meta-data attached to electronic versions of the research output.

As regards public-private cooperation the RDI Strategy 2007-2013 “Knowledge-Based Estonia” and Estonian Strategy for Competitiveness “Estonia 2020” give the framework for enhancing co-operation between private and public sector. The Entrepreneurial Growth Strategy 2020 targeting some related issues is planned to be launched in 2013.

R&D institutions can use services of private companies whenever they need their expertise. Research contracts are set up between HEIs and the industry, usually short-term (less than six months). Procurement of services is regulated by the Public Procurement Act introduced in 2007.

A number of measures to facilitate the partnerships between research institutions and the private sector are implemented since 2008-2009. The following measures are funded by MEAC and implemented by Enterprise Estonia Foundation: Business Incubation Programme, Competence Centre programme, Cluster Development, R&D grants, development grants to Manufacturing Companies, Knowledge and technology transfer baseline funding (SPINNO Programme), Innovation Voucher grant, Investments into test- and semi-industrial laboratories, Involvement of innovation staff, Prototyping Centre grants, Programme ”Start-up Estonia” for new innovative enterprises. A science park was set up at the Tallinn University of Technology.

The Estonian higher education information and communications technology and research and development activities state program 2011-2015 launched in 2011 is a cooperation program between the universities, ICT sector and the state with the aim to raise the quality of ICT and develop cooperation between different partners. The STACC is a joint initiative between universities and several leading IT companies, which conducts industrial research in software technology by working on data mining and software engineering project.

The mission of the Estonian Information Technology Foundation for Education is to provide a high-quality national network infrastructure for Estonia’s research, educational and cultural communities. Its services include a permanent Internet connection as well as webhosting, e-mail and consultations in the event of security problems.

Access to digital research services in other organisations (within the same country and in another country) is possible via “E-teadusinfo” launched in 2009 and access to publications is possible in all public libraries by using user name and password provided by a library. EENet is the Estonian National Research and Education Network (NREN), a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within the country. The Estonian Academic Authentication and Authorization Infrastructure (TAAT) enables electronic identities (user accounts) issued by education or research institutions to be used to access several web based services. TAAT functions via EENet and is in the process of joyning eduGAIN.

           

Effectiveness

The Finnish research and innovation system is made up of four levels. The national government is supported by a high-level advisory body, the Research and Innovation Council. Ministries make up the second level with the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) and the Ministry of Employment and the Economy (MEE) who play the key role in R&D policy. MEC is responsible for higher education and science policy related matters. These two ministries account for over 80% of government research and innovation funding (with MEC totalling approximately 45% of funding and MEE around 36% in 2011). It should be noted that the share of MEC funding has increased in the last years mainly due to additional funding to universities and the Academy of Finland. The Academy of Finland and Tekes are the two key public funders, with the former funding basic research through competitive grants and the latter funding R&D projects carried out by businesses. Tekes is also a significant financier of research at universities and public research institutes. At the level of performers, the Finnish public research system includes universities and public research organisations.

The ‘Research and Innovation Policy Guidelines for 2011–2015’ (Research and Innovation Council) and the ‘Growth through expertise, Action plan for research and innovation policy’ (Ministry of Education and Culture and Ministry of Employment and the Economy, 2012) are two key policy documents which set out at national level the policy guidelines on the required measures and funding and detail out the actions required for the implementation of the government’s research and innovation policy.

The share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D (GBAORD) was 1.09% in 2011. Total GBAORD per capita rose until 2011, when it started to decline. The national public effort on Research and development, measure as the share of total GBAORD in national expenditures in Finland was of 2% in 2011. The share of GBAORD allocated as project based was 51.% in 2010.

The issue of project-based versus institutional funding and the effectiveness of research funding were at the core of the recent international evaluations of the Academy of Finland and TEKES. These two evaluations took place in a context where reforms of the funding system for university and public research institutes are being implemented.

Project-based funding by the Academy of Finland is allocated on a competitive basis and in line with the principles of peer review. Funding for R&D is also provided through calls for proposals by TEKES.

With regard to institutional funding, the on-going reform of the funding formula for universities and polytechnics aims at increasing the performance of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and addressing the fragmentation problem. The reform will introduce more competition in the way institutional funding is allocated, since the research performance of the university is a component in the funding formula. Another on-going structural reform targets public research institutions. It is deemed that public research institutions’ funding could be more competitive. A decision on the reform of research institutions is expected before the summer break.

Peer review practices have been fully integrated into research evaluations over a decade ago and are routinely used by the Academy of Finland for its project-based funding. Moreover, the ‘independence’ and ‘international’ components of peer review evaluation have been strengthened under the Research and Innovation Policy Guidelines. The peer review mechanism is not used for TEKES project-based funding.

Transnational cooperation

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the Framework Programme. The share of participation of Finland in total participation is 1.9% so far, and Finland has received 2.2% of total EC contributions. FP funding represents 128 Euros per head of population. The country also participates in Joint Programming. Finland participates as a member in 9 initiatives. The country also participates in 5 Article 185 initiative(s) and leads 1 of them. Finland is also a key player in the Nordic cooperation (NordFosk).

There is no overarching legislation governing Finland’s participation in joint initiatives. However, the Research and Innovation Policy Guidelines for 2011-2015 support the opening up of programmes for voluntary joint pilot projects of Member States. Given that Finland is a relatively small country, participating in cross-border joint initiatives has typically ranked high on the R&I agenda. In order to boost research related to grand challenges, the Finnish government has recently proposed the setting up of a 'Strategic Research Council' that would act as a 'third funder' (proposed budget €200 million).

Regarding the mutual recognition of evaluations based on international peer review, these are routinely performed as part of joint calls. According to the Research and Innovation Policy Guidelines for 2011-2015, the ‘independence’ of evaluations and their ‘international’ component are strengthened.

With regard to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes, the Research and Innovation Policy Guidelines for 2011-2015 support the implementation of effective principles, procedures and criteria and the harmonisation of legislation.

Finland has recently adopted a number of measures to strengthen its research infrastructure policy. The Finnish Research Infrastructure Committee (FIRI) Committee, set up by the Academy of Finland, is due to update the 2009 national roadmap for infrastructures in 2013. The current 2009 roadmap includes 20 projects, 13 of which are linked to the ESFRI roadmap. The updated roadmap will be published in early 2014. ‘With the Growth through expertise’ Action Plan, the Finnish government has allocated an additional funding of €18.5 million per year for research infrastructures, whilst structural funds will be directed to research infrastructures which are either national or located in Finland. Given that Finland is a relatively small country, the scope for developing regional or local research infrastructures remains limited. This accounts for Finland’s active participation in several European or international research infrastructure initiatives (e.g. EMBL, CERN, ESA, ESO).

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010 the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 15.5 per 1,000 and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 2.6. The shares of non-national doctoral candidates were 5.8% from another EU-27 Member State and 5.9% from non-EU countries.

The Strategy for the Internationalisation of Higher Education Institutions in Finland (2009-2015) implements the principles of open, transparent and merit-based recruitment as laid down in the Charter and Code. Moreover, soft law measures (e.g. Research and Innovation Policy Guidelines for 2011-2015 and the FiDIPro Programme) further contribute to the opening up of the recruitment system with a view to attracting foreign researchers. In 2012, 56% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

Regarding the Charter and Code, it should be noted that the Rectors’ Council of the Finnish universities and the academy of Finland have signed up to it. Moreover, the steering of HEIs process and the 2012 agreement between national authorities and HEIs support the latter to prioritise and focus on improving research careers. Twelve Finnish organisations are actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers of which three have received the "HR Excellence in Research" logo for their progress in implementing the Charter & Code.

Grants are by and large open to non-domestic/foreign researchers and portable to other EU countries (e.g. Academy of Finland grants and fellowships), and the Academy of Finland has signed up to the Money Follows Researcher agreement.

The Euraxess Finland portal provides administrative assistance and information on entry conditions, social security and pension contributions and accommodation.

The reform of the doctoral training system and the National Guidelines for the Development of Doctoral Training support the implementation of the principles of innovative doctoral training.

Finally, the Strategy for the Internationalisation of Higher Education Institutions in Finland (2009-2015) facilitates the entry of foreign researchers and their access to research positions in Finland.

More detailed information can be found in the country profile for Finland in the Researchers’ Report 2013 http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/services/researchPolicies

Gender

In addition to the Equality Act which supports gender equality in HEIs and PROs, Finland has also adopted measures to support gender equality when decisions on research positions and research funding are made (Government Action Plan for Gender Equality (2012-2015) and Academy of Finland 'Criteria for research funding decisions). As part of the steering of HEIs process and the 2012 agreement between national authorities and HEIs, the latter are required to report on the implementation of their gender equality strategies.

Knowledge circulation

The Strategic Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation (SHOKs) have constituted one of the key instruments supporting cooperation between academia, research institutes and the private sector. The recent international evaluation of the Strategic Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation indicates that progress could have been faster.

Although open access-related measures have been adopted as early as 2005, there is no overall legislative provision supporting open access to publications and data. Open access is not a mandatory funding criterion within the Academy of Finland funding programmes. A national policy for the long term storage and reservation of data is not available yet, however recent measures such as the Open Data Programme and the Working group on open access to publications and research data as part of the National Research Data Project (TTA) specifically aim at addressing this issue.

Finland is member of EDUgain through HAKA. FUNET is the Finnish National Research and Education Network (NREN), a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within the country.

Finland has recently adopted two overarching policy measures supporting the development of digital research services (i.e. 'Putting data into use', ‘Roadmap for the utilisation of electronic data in research’) and infrastructures for storing and managing research data (i.e. ‘Growth through expertise: Action plan for research and innovation policy’). No overarching policy on electronic identity for researchers has been identified, although electronic identity is implemented.

Effectiveness

Two main government ministries share the overall responsibility for research and innovation policy in France. The Ministry of Higher Education and Research (MESR) designs and co-ordinates research policy. The Ministry for Industrial Renewal is responsible for industrial and energy research and plays a specific role in relation to private sector research. All funding devoted to research and innovation is channelled through the general budget of the Research and Higher Education Inter-ministerial Mission (MIRES). The GBOARD as share of GDP was 0.84% in 2011.

Few agencies are responsible for implementing research and innovation policy in France:

- The National Agency for Research (ANR) was created in 2005. It covers basic research, applied research, innovation and technology transfer, supported through public/public and public/private partnerships. ANR funds research projects on a competitive basis and applies international peer review process.

- OSEO provides support for R&D and innovation projects to businesses, in particular SMEs, as well as public-private partnership. OSEO and a number of other entities (CDC Entreprises, FSI and FSI Régions) were grouped in 2012 into the Banque publique d’investissement, in order to improve support for SMEs, medium-sized and innovative companies.

- The Agency for Environment and Energy Management (ADEME) was created in 1991 to support and fund partnership-based environment and energy research activities.

Public research organisations are also involved in policy implementation.

Public research activities are primarily carried out by universities, which are now the largest public research performers. The implementation of the law on the autonomy of universities (LRU) in 2008 significantly modified the university governance.

The share of project-based funding has been rising continuously with the creation of the ANR until 2013. In addition an increasing part of the institutional R&D funding is based on the performance of the public research institutions. The latter are evaluated by the Evaluation Agency for Research and Higher Education (AERES).

AERES was established in 2007 as an independent administrative authority to evaluate, among others, Research and Higher Education Institutions, Research Organisations and research units. AERES has been replaced by a new independent administrative authority “Haut Conseil de l’évaluation de la Recherche et de l’Enseignement supérieur » in 2013. It will guarantee an homogeneous evaluation according to international standards for research organisations and look after the quality of evaluations.

The general trend in research innovation governance over the last years has been to bring research and innovation stakeholders closer in order to coordinate better their activities, namely through the creation of Research and Higher Education Clusters (PRES), the research programming coordination institutions in 5 fields called “Alliances” and the Competitiveness clusters ("pôles de compétitivité"). The system has also been significantly strengthened through a new dedicated investment plan (“Programme d'investissements d'avenir”), which was launched at the end of 2009.

The new Law on Higher Education Research adopted in July 2013 has 4 main objectives: better ensure the employability of students; simplify the organisation of research and its assessment; facilitate the decompartmentalization between schools, universities and research organizations and reconcile efficiency and collegiality in academic forums.

In particular, it will regroup existing Higher Education and Research institutions into new structures with simplified rules (replacing PRES) and under contract with the Government (including policy coordination, training, research strategy and transfer), include knowledge transfer as an additional mission of Higher Education institutions, develop a new national research strategy consistent with the European research strategy, and ensure coordination between national and European research programmes (through the ANR).

The strategy on research is enshrined in Law for the first time. The first National Research and Innovation Strategy was launched in January 2009. It guides policy decisions in the field of research and innovation and run for five years. The new national strategy is under preparation.

The government acknowledges that the efficiency of the national strategy requires a stronger articulation between funds allocated at European, national and regional level. On the basis of orientations which will be proposed by the Strategic Research Council chaired by the Prime Minister, the new national strategy for research will be developed in line with the European Union research strategy. The programming of the ANR will be designed in a coordinated manner with European programmes. Besides, the regions will define a regional scheme for higher education, research and innovation identifying principles and priorities in their intervention.

The streamlining attribution of appropriations on calls for projects (EU Framework Programme, ANR, ‘Investissements d’avenir’) will rebalance these appropriations at national level to the benefit of institutional funding.

Transnational cooperation

While some major cooperative programmes are overseen by the National Agency for Research (ANR), cross-border cooperation is still largely monitored at the institutional level.

Non-nationals and non-residents may participate in applied research projects supported by ANR, the exact rules being set out in the individual competitions and calls for proposals. Any international partner must pay its own costs.

15% of projects funded by ANR are performed within European collaboration. They are either joint projects through ERA-nets or Art. 185 or national programmes, thematic or not, open to transnational cooperation. France is member of the 10 JPIs and coordinates two of them. France intends to create mirror groups of each JPI at national level. The “Programme Blanc International” has become the Agency’s main funding instrument for transnational projects. The share of participation of France in the FP is 9.14%. France has received 10.85% of total EC contributions. FP funding represents 60 Euros per head of population.

France is involved in many bilateral programmes. Bi- or multi-national partnerships were set up between ANR and BMF/DFG (Germany), ESRC (UK), NWO (Netherlands), FWF (Austria), MICINN (Spain) and ANC (Romania). In 2011 the ANR acted as Lead agency for the first time with FWF.

Policy coordination with Germany is addressed through the French-German Agenda 2020. A Roadmap for research has been adopted by the French German Minister Council in 2012.

The new strategic agenda foreseen under the new law on Higher Education and Research will define strategies at national level to respond to the challenges identified in Horizon 2020. The strategy aims to improve efficiency and visibility of the national system in the context of European partnership, competition and worldwide changes. The strategy will mainly be implemented by the multiannual contracts between the State and Higher Education Institutes and Public Research Institutes and the programming of the ANR. The evaluation of the strategy will be made by the Parliamentary Office of evaluation of scientific and technological choices (OPECST).

The first national Roadmap on research infrastructures “Investments for the Future” programme was published in December 2008. The Roadmap includes 92 Research Infrastructures into three categories "Existing" (46 running infrastructures at the date of the publication of the roadmap);"Decided" (19 infrastructures not yet operational, but with expected financing) and "At the planning stage" (27 infrastructures of which the design is at an advanced stage, but financing is not assured yet). Existing research infrastructures account for 600 M€ for the 2007 budget.

In addition to the adoption of a new strategic roadmap for research infrastructures, a new governance and a new steering of very large research infrastructures (TGIR) were put in place at the end of the year 2012. The TGIR Steering Committee shall decide on the national strategy of research infrastructures, its multiannual programming (2012-2021) as well as on decisions for the structuring of TGIR and participation in international organisations. It may seek scientific advice of the High Council for TGIR.

Open Labour market for researchers

The number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 8.4 per 1,000 in 2010. The number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 1.6 and the percentage of doctoral candidates with citizenship of another EU-27 Member State was 8.0% in 2010. The percentage of non-EU doctoral candidates as a percentage of all doctoral candidates was 35.4%.

Institutions establish selection panels for statutory and long-term contracts. Public Research organisations are obliged to safeguard gender balance in the selection panels and to have one external expert, or to justify non-compliance. Institutions publish the composition of the selection panels but not the selection criteria. Institutions do not offer applicants the right to receive adequate feedback, while appeal against a decision is possible.

In 2006, France passed a Programme Law for Research to ensure that researchers are equipped with the necessary skills to contribute fully to a knowledge-based economy and society throughout their career, ensure better links between academia and industry during their training and promoting industry financing PhDs and involvement in curriculum development.

There are two key aspects to the reform of the training agenda for researchers with regard to the doctoral training cooperation with industry and other relevant employment sectors: refocusing the doctoral programmes on preparing doctoral students for entering the market and linking doctoral training and R&D better with the socio-economic sectors.

The French Ministry of Higher Education and Research launched the first national Careers Plan in 2009 in order to strengthen the management of human resources in higher education in general and to promote careers in higher education and research in particular. Prior to the university reforms of 2009, the national higher education system had been very centralised with most appointments and promotions managed by the Ministry. The University Freedoms and Responsibilities Act of 2007 provides that by 1st January 2013 all universities will have budgetary autonomy and will be responsible for their own resources management.

The Plan applies to all higher education and research staff employed by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. It is a wide-ranging reform agenda that is intended to modernise key aspects of the traditional university and research career advancement system (appraisal systems, mentoring, training courses, small bonuses to reward scientific excellence and encourage mobility). The Plan requires universities to support and reward individual members of staff based on their personal performance. The system remains centralised, however based on collegial, independent and transparent evaluation process.

A national-level staff appraisal system was established as a safeguard to institutional autonomy. The National Universities Council was in charge of the evaluation process which occurred every four year for every teacher and researcher.

A national platform GALAXIE has been developed to make recruitment more transparent. The universities have a statutory requirement to post all universities public jobs vacancies for researchers with a teaching position on this platform. All ‘Galaxie’ job vacancies are published in EURAXESS since March 2010. Some public research organisations also post their job vacancies on EURAXESS. France rates in the EU-27 average as regards the number of researchers’ posts published through EURAXESS (25 per 1,000 in 2011). In 2012, 57% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

Since 2008, 26 public research organisations have committed to implement the principles of the ‘Charter& Code’, which have been promoted since then through the EURAXESS Network. The implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers is being promoted through a dedicated HR network “GTN RH”. 12 French organisations are actively engaged in the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers of which 1 has received the "HR Excellence in Research" logo for its progress in implementing the Charter & Code.

The Career Plan contributes to attract French researchers working abroad. The dedicated programme “Retour post-doctorants” run by ANR supports the continuation of their research projects in France and future employment in a research performing organisation or in the private sector (112 projects between 2009 and 2012).

ANR fellowships are not portable. The agency may not pay researchers to carry out research in other EU countries. Researchers living in another EU country may answer an ANR call for proposal, but must lead the project in France.

The CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research) and INSERM (French National Institute of Health and Medical Research), as part of a strategy to increase the mobility of researchers within the European Research Area, have joined the EUROHORC Money Follows Researcher (MFR) scheme, allowing researchers moving to other scheme countries to take the rest of their current grant with them. Fellowships are open to non-residents, as are those of all French research organisations.

France supports the EU’s Scientific Visa package. The extended-stay scientific visa is reserved for individuals holding a master's degree or higher and who wish to come to France to conduct research or teach at the university level. Public and private research organisations and institutions of higher education use this visa category to host doctoral candidates, postdoctoral scholars, research scientists, and professors visiting France to teach or conduct research (4600 visas for non Europeans delivered in 2011).

The programme “Chaires d’excellence” welcomes high-level researchers from abroad (38 projects in the last 3 years).

The new Law on Higher Education and Research promotes student mobility and researchers’ mobility by supporting stays.

Gender

The number of women at management positions in universities decreased between 2008 and 2012 from 16% to 8%. However, parity is now embedded in Law. According to the Law of 12 March 2012, there should be as of 1st January 2015 at least 40% persons of the same sex in the recruiting and promoting juries in the public sector. Likewise at least 40% of persons of the same sex should be designed as qualified for elections in the Councils of research organisations as of the second mandate renewal of those organisations.

Furthermore the new Law on Higher Education and Research requires parity in all governing bodies of Universities and other Higher Education Organisations as well as in the National Council for Higher Education and Research, in the Board of the new High Council for Evaluation and the new Strategic Research Council.

The measures are part of a more global Action Plan lead by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research in close link with the Ministry for Women Rights. The Plan is declined in 40 measures aiming at implementing parity between men and women in Universities.

The Ministry supports the Conference of Rectors for the implementation of the Charter for gender equality in Higher Education and Research Organisations signed in 2009. The Charter contributes to enhance equality and requires among others a contact point to be nominated in each organisation.

Knowledge circulation

An Action Plan on open access has been announced at the beginning of 2013. It will contribute to the development of open access to publications and open archives. It supports the development of green open access, gold open access, Platinium Road, a national contract model for publication, as well as the optimisation HAL Platform (Online Hyper Articles Platform) with institutional archives. ANR funded projects have to be integrated in the HAL open archive Platform.

A Partnership via a Memorandum of Understanding has been created between Research Institutions, Universities and ‘Grandes Ecoles’ for the joint development and management of a shared Platform to store scientific outputs (use of HAL).

The project “Bibliothèque scientifique numérique” was set in place in 2011 for staff in research and higher education to access to scientific resources. A Steering Group representing all actors in the field of scientific and technical information has been established to ensure coordination and issue recommendations.

As regards knowledge transfer the French national Law on Innovation and Research of 1999 permits all public research institutions to seek to commercialise the results of publicly funded research and to pursue innovations. The law also foresees the possibility that individual civil servants (employees of these public research organisations) may take on a personal role in this commercialisation process, as a founder, partner or officer of a new or existing company that has been contracted by the public institution to pursue a given innovation. The law encourages researchers to play a personal and active role in the commercialisation of the institution’s intellectual property. The new Law on Higher Education and Research underlines European Community preference for the industrial exploitation of intellectual property rights.

Furthermore several initiatives have been launched in the recent years, or are planned to be launched, to enhance transfer of technology.

Through the programme “Investissements d’avenir’, 11 technology transfer acceleration entities (SATT) have been financed or have been subject of a financing decision. The system is supplemented by the creation of six thematic valorisation consortia (CVT), which will be equipped EUR 10 million each for the next decade and will be responsible for the exploitation of thematic research alliances and commercialisation of research.

As a complement to SATT and CVT, the programme ‘Investissements d’Avenir’ reinforces the innovation ecosystems and public-private linkages by the creation of 8 “Instituts de recherche technologique » (IRT) and 9 « Instituts d’excellence sur les énergies décarbonées ».

The Instituts Carnot launched in 2006 aimed to increase research partnership between Research Performing Organisations and firms (network of 34 Institutes) and thus contribute to developing knowledge transfer.

Under the new National Pact for Growth, Competitiveness and Employment, the government decided to pursue the Competitiveness clusters policy and to launch their third phase. The new phase will refocus the activities of the clusters towards markets and dissemination of innovative products and services. This goes into the direction of the June 2013 Council Recommendation No 3 “enhancing technology transfer and the commercial exploitation of research, including through a reorientation of the competitiveness poles.”

Most importantly, the new law on Higher Education and Research adds the transfer, in the same way as dissemination and valorisation, in the mission of Higher Education and Research Institutions. This reinforces the Transfer Plan launched at the end of 2012, comprising 15 specific measures to enhance transfer. Some measures are already planned to be implemented by end of 2013.

With regards to PhD education doctoral schools are established under an agreement between the State and Universities. They provide training and development, and preparation to enter the labour market. The Research program Law of 2006 on doctoral training includes actions to better link doctoral training with socio-economic sectors.

The scheme supporting PhD contracts in industry will be continued (CIFRE). It has likely contributed to doubling the number of PhDs in industry in the last 10 years. Seminars (‘doctoriales’) are taking place to initiate the PhDs to the private sector. It is accompanied by specific trainings to enhance employability.

RENATER, the French Research and Education Network, was launched in 1993 in order to federate telecommunication infrastructures for Research and Education. It functions as the National Research and Education Network (NREN) and provides dedicated specialised internet service for the needs of the research and education communities within the country. It is the French partner of GEANT and eduGAIN.

           

Effectiveness

Germany is a leader in science, research and innovation. Approximately 574,700 people (full-time equivalent) were employed in research and development (R&D) in 2011. This is roughly one fifth (22%) of R&D personnel in the EU27. Germany increased its government expenditure on R&D despite the economic and financial crisis. In absolute figures, Germany spent more than any other European country on R&D in 2011 (€75.5 billion) and accounted for 29% of EU27 expenditure. Total GBAORD as a % of total general government expenditure, as a measure of the effort by national authorities to research in their country, has initially increased from 1.64% in 2004 to 1.9% in 2009, further increased to 1.93 % in 2010, and 2% in 2011.

Germany has made good progress towards achieving the 3% target with R&D expenditure. The Government budget appropriations or outlays for research and development (GBAORD) as a share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 2.80% in 2011 and 2.91% of Gross National Product( GNP) in 2011. Federal and regional governments set themself the target to spent altogether ten percent of GDP on education and research (7% and 3%, respectively "Qualification Initiative"). With the Higher Education Pact 2020, the Federal Government and the Länder are investing additional funds in the expansion of study opportunities, thereby providing appropriate solutions to the increasing demand for higher education.

A large variety of stakeholders are performing specific tasks in a highly differentiated German research landscape.

Firstly, the research performing organisations and institutions include primarily higher education institutions and non-university research institutions, both of which are of similar importance to the German research system in terms of their research resources. The institutions of higher education, that is, government-funded and private universities, universities of applied sciences and other academic institutions, combine both academic teaching and research. All other public or publicly funded research institutions are "non-university research institutions", which carry out research in specific fields but are not directly involved in academic teaching. The non-university research sector includes the large research organisations, namely Max Planck Society (MPG), Fraunhofer (FhG), Helmholtz Association (HGF) and Leibniz Association (WGL), the academies of science, the departmental research institutions of the Federal Government and the Länder, the publicly funded scientific libraries, archives, specialised information centres and museums with R&D tasks as well as other research institutions which receive their basic funding largely from the public sector (Federal Government, Länder, local authorities).

The German Bundestag has adopted the Academic Freedom Act ("Law to increase the flexibility of budgetary provisions governing non-university academic institutions") on 12 December 2012. As a result, non-university research institutions will have more freedom in matters of finance and staffing decisions, the acquisition of shares in companies and in construction projects. Bureaucracy will be minimized, competences will be pooled and authorization procedures will be accelerated.

Secondly, research-funding organisations: As in many other countries, central responsibility for research, technology and innovation policy lies with two ministries in Germany. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is mainly responsible for public research, while the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) focuses on funding innovation and research in the business sector. In addition, other Federal Ministries provide funding for research in their respective spheres of competence, particularly the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV), the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG), the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development (BMVBS) and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).

The 16 Länder also provide funding for research and innovation under their own programmes. Regional research and innovation policy is to some extent based on the Federal Government's research funding priorities but also follows regional funding agendas. The Länder are responsible for higher education legislation and for financing institutions of higher education. The Federal Government steers activities mainly by providing additional funding under individual programmes and initiatives (see Initiative for Excellence, Higher Education Pact). The Federal Government and the Länder jointly support the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The central task of this self-governing organisation of science and research in Germany is to award research funding to universities in a competitive procedure. Joint federal and Länder support is also provided for the above-mentioned non-university research institutions of the large research organisations.

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), which is mainly financed by the Federal Government, supports international exchanges of students, graduates and researchers. It is the world's largest funding organisation for cross-border academic exchange. Other public and private foundations also provide funding for research, for example the Volkswagen Foundation, the Humboldt Foundation (AvH), the German Environment Foundation DBU, the German Foundation for Peace Research (DSF), and the twelve organisations for the promotion of young talent in higher education.

Thirdly, companies: German industry is an important stakeholder in the German research and innovation system. The business enterprise sector accounted for 67.7% of R&D expenditure in 2011. The level of business involvement has remained stable since 2005, amounting to roughly two thirds of both the funding and performance of R&D. There are particularly close relations between R&D-performing organisations and companies in Germany. Many companies, particularly SMEs, are global technology and systems leaders in their specific fields. Almost one in two companies is engaged in innovation according to the 2011 innovation survey of the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW).

The Federal Government and the Länder provide joint basic funding to the following research organisations and institutions on a long-term basis and in a competitive procedure: Helmholtz Association (HGF), Max Planck Society (MPG), Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (FhG), Leibniz Association (WGL), National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech), Institute for Advanced Study Berlin (WK), German National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The larger of these institutions (HGF, FhG, MPG, WGL) make specific funds available for internal competition.

Increasing the effectiveness of the national research system has been at the core of the German policy agenda. Beside of just increasing the resources made available for R&D and innovation, in Germany, competitive funding plays an increasing role in Germany. The share of GBAORD allocated as project based was 33,62% in 2008. A comprehensive multi-layer system has been established in Germany to evaluate individual proposals as well as institutions relevant for research and innovation funding, bringing in increasingly the spirit of competitive funding while relying on appropriate forms of peer reviewing, benchmarking and impact assessment analyses (ex-ante/ex-post). Assessments are performed at individual research performance level, at programme level, as well as at research institutions’ level.

The funding procedures of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) are a major element of competition between organisations in the German research system both in quantitative and in qualitative terms. Successful university participation in the funding procedures of the DFG is generally seen as an important indicator of the individual university's position in the overall competition; the coordinated funding programmes (collaborative research centres, research centres, research training groups, priority programmes and research units), which involve participation by universities and the research organisations' cooperating with them in projects, are of special importance in this context. Peer review is the predominant evaluation instrument of the Deutsche Forschungs Gemeinschaft (DFG).

Under the High School Pact, the federal government and the Länder created a needs based range of study programmes thereby ensuring the quantitative expansion of the academic training. The federal government and the Länder have also decided to participate in the overhead financing as part of the research funding programme by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Universities that are very active in the research field can further strengthen their strategic manoeuvring capability thanks to the introduction of the DFG programme lump sum, which totals 20 % of the direct project funds. Until 2015, the federal government will continue to bear these costs alone, which total around 1.7 billion euros.

With their Initiative for Excellence in higher education, the Federal Government and the Länder want to strengthen academic research in Germany on a lasting basis, enhance its international competitiveness and increase the visibility of cutting-edge research at German universities. The Initiative for Excellence was launched in 2005/2006, its second phase covers the period 2012 to 2017. Total funds of €2.7 billion are being provided in the second phase to support 45 graduate schools, 43 clusters of excellence and 11 institutional strategies at 39 universities. In 2013, these universities are set to receive approximately 360 million euros from the Federal Government alone. International networking plays a major role in all these efforts as a cross-cutting, high-level task.

The Federal Government and the Länder concluded a Pact for Research and Innovation with the science and research organisations (DFG; FhG, HGF, WGL and MPG) in 2005. The Pact was renewed in 2009 to cover the period up to 2015. It is an agreed objective of this joint initiative to launch suitable measures to ensure and optimize the quality, efficiency and performance of science and research institutions which receive institutional funding. The initiative enables scientific and research organisations to pursue strategic goals and investigate new fields. In addition, the promotion of junior scientists and the inter-organisational network and internationalisation (incl. ERA), the main goals of the pact are the transfer of knowledge and technology and the formation of sustainable partnerships with commercial partners. To this end, the Federal Government and the Länder have increased the annual aid provided to the following large scientific and research organisations by 5% from 2011 to 2015: Helmholtz Association (HGF); Max Planck Society (MPG), Fraunhofer Society (FhG), Leibniz Association (WGL) and the German Research Association (DFG). The non-university research institutes (incl. DFG as the funding organisation of university research) can secure their position among the best in the world in the long term.

As part of the Federal Government's High-Tech Strategy, excellent clusters are funded in Germany´s innovation policy by a competitive scheme (Leading-Edge Cluster Competition) to take a leading position in international competition. The regional clusters are to integrate their ideas faster in products, processes and services in order to sustainably improve their added value.

Innovation Alliances are a relatively new competitive instrument for research and innovation policy within the framework of the High-Tech Strategy initiated by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Alliances are arranged with respect to specific application areas or future markets. They exercise a particular economic leverage effect.

The BMBF has set up the KMU-innovativ funding initiative within the thematic R&D programmes to facilitate access to these complex programmes for SMEs, particularly for first-time applications, with the aim to support excellence in R&D and innovation in SMEs. It offers specific, need-dependent access to the technology fields. The funding triggers additional investment in R&D in companies, which subsequently has a positive effect on the market and jobs in the medium to long-term. By the end of 2011, eight thematic R&D programmes participated in the initiative, with a yearly budget of 80 million €.

The Central Innovation Programme for SMEs (ZIM) is a nationwide, technologically and sectorally unrestricted funding programme for SMEs, including the industry-related research institutions with which they cooperate. In particular it funds cooperative projects between companies and research institutes, but also innovation projects by individual companies. The funding for research and development projects allows companies to directly implement innovative ideas for new products, production procedures or services, thereby realising innovation profits quickly. ZIM is managed by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi).

For science and research funding to be successful, international peer review principles like excellence, objectivity, transparency, confidentiality and ethics of science are an integral part of the German science and research system. It is an agreed objective of the national Pact for Research and Innovation to launch suitable measures to ensure and optimize the quality, efficiency and performance of science and research institutions which receive institutional funding. Competitive, peer review-based allocation of funds is the main procedure applied at DFG. In 2012, 26% of DFG expert opinions were prepared by experts abroad. The evaluation of the German science system has also become increasingly international since 2008. Participation by foreign researchers in the evaluation of German scientific performance and research strategies contributes to stronger links with the global scientific community – as does participation by German researchers in the evaluation of the performance of institutes abroad. International science is represented on the permanent advisory boards of the institutes of research organisations as well as on the commissions for institutional and programme evaluation. A majority of European and non-European experts are engaged in the Initiative of Excellence of the Federal Government and the Länder.

Transnational cooperation

FP funding represents 67 Euros per head of population.

The implementation of joint research agendas addressing grand challenges by Germany should be seen in the perspective of the federal government’s research and innovation policy objectives, in conjunction with Europe’s declared intention to become the world’s most competitive science-based economy, which called for better exploitation of the opportunities presented by increasing internationalism. The federal government has responded to these challenges in its first strategy to internationalise science and research in 2008. The combination of the High-Tech Strategy, the Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation and the Initiative for Excellence makes this Strategy of the Federal Government for the Internationalization of Science and Research a core element of German research policy.

The Strategy of the Federal Government for the Internationalization of Science and Research has four designated priority fields that form the central theme of the international activities of German science and research: Strengthen cooperation with the world’s best, Developing innovation potential at an international level, Strengthening the cooperation with developing countries in education and research in the long term, Assuming international responsibility and coping with global challenges. EU level instruments are being used for national goals, and there are attempts to influence the European level policy with core ideas as set out in the German “Internationalisation Strategy” and the “High Tech-Strategy”.

Over the last years a strategic thinking and action towards the ERA has been developed in Germany and there is (now) a strong involvement of the national policy makers into European issues. Triggered by a broadening of R&D policy and innovation policy at EU level, there have been steps towards a more functional “horizontalisation” at national level, i.e. European involvement is becoming part of the strategic thinking and there is a stronger awareness of European issues across all ministries. This is visible in a generally strong participation in cooperation under the EU Framework Programme and all new multilateral joint initiatives at the European level.

The share of participation of Germany in total participation in the Seventh Framework Programme is 13,1% so far, and Germany has received 16,8% of total EC contributions. The country also participates in almost all Joint Programming Initiatives. Germany participates as a member in 7 initiatives, is observer in 1. and coordinates Connecting Climate Knowledge for Europe (Clik'EU) and The Demographic change More Years, Better Life. Germany also participates in most ERA-Nets, in all joint research programmes undertaken under Article 185 of the Treaty of Lisbon (European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, Ambient Assisted Living, EUROSTARS, EMRP and Bonus). German partners are also involved in European Technology Platforms (ETP) and the FET Flagship "Human Brain Project".

Examples for this international commitment can also be seen in the establishment of the “Initiative on Multilateral Research Funding” under the leadership of the DFG in 2010. This programme’s medium-term goal is to establish a large pool of multilateral projects which can be supported by the national programmes of DFG and its partner organisations at any time. Joint international-level research programmes have also been part of jointly financed large projects and research facilities such as EMBL, CERN, ESA and telescopes for decades. Germany contributes a substantial, and often increasing, share to the required funding. An example of an interregional joint research programming is the initiative German Länder of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate and the French Alsace region to launch the Upper Rhine Trinational Metropolitan Region science programme in November 2011.

The general importance of international cooperation – especially with regard to solving the “grand challenges” – has been highlighted and reinforced in the High-Tech-Strategy 2020 (revised strategy released in 2010). The High-Tech Strategy is intended to help Germany assume a leading role in the solution of global challenges. It encompasses the Federal Government’s R&D activities in five high-demand areas: climate/energy, health/nutrition, communications, mobility and security. It focuses the Federal Government's research and innovation policy on selected forward-looking projects. These projects pursue specific objectives related to scientific and technological developments over a period of ten to fifteen years. They develop strategies for innovation and plan the steps towards their realization.

According to the NRP 2013, the High-Tech Strategy has contributed to higher and more efficient investments in education and research. There is a growing number of bi-/multilateral agreements on cooperation / joint activities in terms of research and innovation (and education). The initiative launched by BMBF to "Promote Innovation and Research in Germany" has been presenting Germany’s research achievements and opportunities to the international community since November 2006 under the brand "Research in Germany - Land of Ideas".

Mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to international peer-review standards by German is influenced by the 2008 Guidelines for the participation of the BMBF in the preparation and implementation of transnational calls for proposals (Leitfaden des BMBF zur transnationalen Zusammenarbeit). This was developed by the BMBF in the light of the fact that transnational networking of funding programmes was an issue of increasing importance for the Directorates-General of the BMBF. The range of joint calls issued or planned covers the European as well as the bilateral and multilateral level. The central goal of the guidelines is to provide the programme owners and administrators (BMBF and project management organizations) with a basis for the implementation of transnational calls for proposals within existing funding schemes, based on best practice and experience gained in bilateral and joint ERA-Net calls.

When transnational project funding initiatives (e.g. ERA-NETs, Art. 185 measures) include joint evaluation procedures, the scientific and technical results of such evaluations are usually recognised in Germany, based on the BMBF guidelines and on procedural rules agreed in individual initiatives. The D-A-CH scheme contributes to simplifying of cross-border funding, especially in terms of evaluation (2003) and Joint Proposal Submission since 2009. Under the Eurostars programme, the participating Member States inter alia Germany have agreed to coordinate and implement jointly activities aimed at contributing to the Eurostars Joint Programme. The G8 Research Councils Initiative on Multilateral Research Funding medium-term goal is to establish a large pool of multilateral projects which can be supported by the national programmes of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and its partner organisations at any time.

The D-A-CH collaboration contributes to the cross-border interoperability of national research programmes as envisaged by the ERA Communication. German research stakeholders have gained valuable experience with the Lead Agency principle under the D-A-CH agreement for basic research signed with Austria and Switzerland. The Eurostars Joint Programme is also aimed at aligning and synchronising the relevant national research and innovation programmes to establish a joint programme, featuring scientific, management and financial integration, marking an important contribution towards the realisation of the ERA. The Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation II calls upon the research organisations to continuously review and develop their internationalisation strategies in terms of their contribution to increasing institutional performance. The organisations establish and expand research collaborations on important topics with excellent international partners and strategic countries, gain access to research objects including those abroad and open up their own research infrastructures to foreign researchers, become involved in global knowledge flows and play an active part in shaping the ERA. The science organisations described major aspects of this effort in their 2011 Pact Monitoring Report and presented a joint position paper on internationalisation. The German federal government has signed a number of bilateral agreements with EU and non-EU countries in order to launch and/or further intensify cooperation in research and education, thus removing barriers for and/or explicitly permitting joint financing of projects and programmes.

Concerning financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, Germany participates in many of the 48 projects of the ESFRI Roadmap. It hosts the European XFEL in Hamburg and FAIR in Darmstadt as well as INFRAFRONTIER in Munich. SHARE-ERIC, the first ERIC founded in the Netherlands and coordinated by Germany, will soon move its headquarters to Munich. The legal basis for implementing a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) was adopted in Germany on 7 June 2013.

The Roadmap of Research Infrastructures – a BMBF pilot project – was presented to the public by Minister Wanka on 29 April 2013. It is the first German overview of priority research infrastructure projects which the BMBF is planning to realise in the coming 10-15 years. In addition to previously prioritised projects on which work has already started, the Roadmap includes three new ESFRI projects: the Cherenkov-Telescope Array, IAGOS and EU-Openscreen. Inclusion in the Roadmap requires a German financial commitment to the project in question. The ESFRI projects which have already been given priority by Germany include: CESSDA, CLARIN, DARIAH, ECRIN, E-ELT, ELI ESS social, ESS spallation and ICOS. Priorities outside of ESFRI are for example: several research vessels, the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing, and W 7-X. An update of the Roadmap is planned so that further projects can be added, including areas for which other government departments are responsible (health, environment, energy).

Germany runs already comprehensive thematic R&D support programmes (providing direct support to business R&D by means of grants and loans) which are increasingly aligned to the ESFRI roadmap. Overall, by middle of 2011, there were more than 60 on-going main thematic programmes (excluding defence research and technology). Germany's partnership agreement with the EU will provide for the possibility of spending structural funds on ESFRI projects between 2014 and 2020. The Federal Government called upon the Länder to include ESFRI projects in their operational programmes at Länder level.

The DFG supports the establishment of research infrastructure at universities in particular. Infrastructure is understood broadly and refers not only to the funding of equipment but also to the construction and establishment of core facilities as well as to the information infrastructure. Under the principles of the DFG, funding can take the form of an investment or is provided for a project to promote structure-building. The funded institutions must ensure the operation of the infrastructures in the long term. A number of DFG open programmes offer universities and scientific communities infrastructure funding which is not subject to thematic requirements or priority-setting. This can lead to DFG-funded projects which can supplement the European infrastructure or become part of specific ESFRI projects. Special funding is also aimed at projects which give broad access to publications and research data in order to enable them to be used and processed cooperatively via data networks.

While the main goal is promoting innovation and research in Germany by internationalising its R&D and innovation landscape, adopting bi- /multilateral cooperation agreements also contributes to “removing legal and other barriers” to R&D and innovation. The overall idea is joining the forces and resources, using infrastructures more efficiently and to the mutual benefit. The research organisations HGF, MPG, WGL and DFG and the German Council of Science and Humanities contributed to the FP7-funded project "MERIL, Mapping of the European Research Infrastructure Landscape". The MERIL database, which is under construction, currently lists 119 national research infrastructures which offer transnational access and are therefore relevant for the ERA.

Open Labour market for researchers

The number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 7.9 in 2010 and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 2.7.

HEIs and PROs in Germany have a wide autonomy in recruiting their staff and, in general, education and research, to a major extent, falls in the responsibility of the regions rather than the federal government. Hence, across Germany, it is difficult to refer to fully homogeneous standards and procedures in terms of recruitment (especially at HEIs). However, in general, there are no obvious barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers in Germany. The constitutional principle of the ‘selection of the best’ ensures the openness of recruitment procedures in this sector, aided by the provisions of equality legislation (gender mainstreaming) and the General Anti-Discrimination Act of 2006. The international advertising of every fixed-term or permanent vacancy for researchers is widely common practise (although not a compulsory rule). The 2009 and 2010 Reports on Researcher Partnerships statef that the Basic Law and the Länder Higher Education Laws stipulate the public and increasingly also international announcement of professorships. Public announcements of vacancies are also the norm for junior academic staff positions. Certain exceptions are possible and advisable, for example in the case of short-term employment periods or where candidates must satisfy special requirements. In 2012, 62% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

Recruitment procedures for university teachers in Germany are traditionally strongly competition-based. The Academic Freedom Act makes provisions for more autonomy in staffing decisions. Institutions will be allowed to make greater use of third-party private funds in order to attract or keep highly qualified researchers. Under current Länder law, the Länder Ministries are increasingly transferring the right to appoint staff to the respective universities and research institutions. Furthermore, the openness of advertisement and recruitment procedures in the higher education sector is guaranteed under the Länder Higher Education Laws. The most recent laws not only stipulate the traditional supra-regional and public advertising of vacancies, but also explicitly demand that vacancies are advertised internationally and only allow exceptions in special cases. The involvement of external experts along with a comparative evaluation of applications guarantees the transparency and competitiveness of the recruitment of university teachers (professors) in Germany. Moreover, in Germany, it is traditionally not possible to become a professor at the institution of higher education where one received one's academic training.

The principles that apply for the Fraunhofer Society, the Helmholtz Association and the Max Planck Society regarding the appointment of research staff in positions that correspond to the W-salary scale for professors are intended to enable them to recruit top-class staff in the face of international competition – particularly by appointing staff from the private sector, from abroad or from international organisations.

The EURAXESS Deutschland website (www.euraxess.de) contains updated information concerning entry regulations, social insurance, administrative support, etc. EURAXESS Germany is run by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, which encourages the individual service centres to implement the declaration of commitment. There is no legal obligation to use EURAXESS. Evidence suggests that - relative to its size as a science location - Germany tends to make little use of the EURAXESS Jobs Portal portal compared with its European partners (in terms number of vacancies entered into the data bank). Reason may be that the homepage of the German Rectors' Conference provides links to the job exchanges of the individual Member States and in addition, the BMBF-funded "Information and Communication Platform for Young Researchers" (KISSWIN) has been operating since 2008. KISSWIN is an online communication and information platform for young researchers. The project aims at making the German research funding system and career opportunities transparent. However, Germany is seeing more recently a strong increase in participation in the EURAXESS network: twenty-one of the 70 EURAXESS service centres in Germany have already signed the declaration of commitment, 15 of them in the course of 2012 and 2013.

Since 1 April 2012, opportunities to have foreign professional qualifications recognized in Germany have improved significantly. The Federal Government's Recognition Act introduces the legal right to have qualifications gained abroad assessed in comparison to the equivalent profession in Germany. The process and criteria for occupational recognition have been standardised, expanded and improved. This makes a sustainable contribution to securing a skilled labour force and facilitates the integration of persons with good foreign qualifications on the job market.

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft introduced the concept of “postgraduate research groups” in 1990. This remains an important programme to encourage institutions to provide structured post-graduate training and was complemented by the “Graduate Schools” programme under the Initiative for Excellence in 2006On 15 June 2012, the Grants Committee selected a total of 39 universities from 13 Länder including 45 graduate schools. The initiative’s budget is administered by the DFG. Following a competitive procedure, Baden-Württemberg launched eight “Cooperative Doctoral Programmes” at the end of 2010 in which universities and universities of applied sciences conduct doctoral courses together and on an equal footing.

The German higher education institutions – often in partnership with non-university research institutions – already began reforming the doctoral phase of training around 20 years ago in order to ensure the critical mass of research environment and variety of research methods which a doctoral candidate needs. This has led to the development of programmes for additional qualifications and skills and more structured doctoral training programmes across the board at all universities and at a number of non-university research institutions. At European level, this process was encouraged by the Salzburg II Recommendations of the European University Association (EUA) and its Council of Doctoral Education (EUA-CDE).

Since it first appeared in 2008, the Federal Government Report on the Promotion of Young Researchers (BuWiN), has contributed to improving the situation of young researchers in Germany. The National Report on Junior Scholars was published for the second time in 2013, provides sound data and the latest findings on qualifications and career pathways as well as on career prospects for doctoral candidates and postdocs in Germany. The report’s sound scientific monitoring is an important basis for the empirically-based steering of political processes.

Cross-border access to and portability of grants is mainly considered as a issue for the research actors themselves. The higher education institutions and non-university research institutions are endeavouring to recruit foreign researchers at all career levels and offer their research staff opportunities to spend research periods abroad. It is even becoming increasingly the norm in the German science system for German researchers to spend periods abroad. There are a number of programmes offering financial support, such as for example the DAAD Postdoctoral Programme (DAAD), DFG Programmes (DFG), Otto Hahn Award (MPG), et cetera.

The EURAXESS Deutschland website (www.euraxess.de) contains updated information concerning entry regulations, social insurance, administrative support, etc. In general, scholarships are increasingly being advertised internationally. For example, the German Research Foundation (DFG) expects that scholarships are advertised internationally within the framework of its scholarship funding for research training groups and graduate schools. This has resulted in an increasing number of applications from abroad. Scholarship-holders in Germany are commonly selected in a procedure involving experts (peer-review process) and the applicant's nationality is thus generally considered irrelevant.

Germany has decided in favour of voluntary advisory services to improve the quality of human resource management in the science institutions. The principles of the Charter & Code are already applied in Germany under observation of national peculiarities and taking into account the reservations expressed by the respective science organisations when the agreements were signed. The self-commitment of the science institutions and organisations and the statutory provisions governing wage agreements of the social partners, the equality standards of the science organisations and quality assurance measures such as the National Report on Junior Scholars (BuWin), the “Family-Friendly University Audit” or the “Total E-Quality” award play an important role in this context.

Over the last decade, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has launched several ideas competitions, some of them in association with partners. Examples include a prize for the friendliest Foreigners Office“, the “Welcome Centres”, and the “Researcher-Alumni” competition to support alumni work at universities in Germany. The majority of institutions have set up Dual Career Offices und Welcome Centres.

Germany's research funding organisations support current efforts to develop models for cross-border cooperation. The "Money Follows Cooperation Line" under the D-A-CH collaboration contributes since 2009 to cross-border portability of research grants. The D-A-CH collaboration also contributes to the interoperability of national research programmes, as well as to simplifying of cross-border funding, especially in terms of evaluation (2003) and Joint Proposal Submission with Austria and Switzerland (D-A-CH) since 2009.

Funding organisations such as the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH) and scientific organisations such as the Max Planck Society (MPG) provide scholarships for shorter or longer stays abroad which are necessary for research purposes. Within the scope of D-A-CH collaboration, an agreement has been signed between the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) and its partner organisations, the FWF (Austrian Science Fund, Austria) and the SNSF (Swiss National Science Foundation, Switzerland), regarding the mutual opening of the respective funding programmes ("Lead Agency" process) and cross-border funding ("Money Follows Cooperation Line") to simplify the mobility of researchers and the execution of cross-border research projects. The mutual opening of the respective funding programmes ("Lead Agency" process) contributes to cross-border access to research funds.

There are numerous programmes that encourage excellent foreign scientists to spend research periods in Germany, for example, such as for example the Sofia Kovalevskaya Award and the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship, which provide research scholarships to enable outstanding researchers from abroad to complete long-term and ground-breaking research stays at research institutions in Germany.

More detailed information can be found in the country profile for Germany in the Researchers’ Report 2013 http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/services/researchPolicies.

Gender

General Anti-Discrimination laws (with as most important the General Law on Equal Treatment of 18 August 2006) are in place to avoide discrimination based on sex and provide support in case of discrimination. The Germany's Federal Bodies Law (Bundesgremienbesetzungsgesetz) of June 1994 (BGremBG) provides a suitable framework for ensuring equal participation by men and women. In general, “equal opportunities” and thus also the responsibility for “equal opportunity commissioners” in Germany falls into the competence of the Federal Ministry for Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. The German government has set out the plan to conduct and publish a comprehensive report on equal opportunities (Gleichstellungsbericht der Bundesregierung). The first report was published in summer 2011, a second edition was presented in 2012.

The goal of realising equal opportunities for men and women and removing existing disadvantages at universities is firmly established in the Higher Education Laws of the Länder. Germany is planning to actively remedy the underrepresentation of women in academia by means of various recruitment efforts and target quotas. The Federal Government considers that Member States and institutions should find their own solutions for increasing participation by women and that fixed quota may lead to a situation in which women researchers in areas where they have so far been heavily under-represented have to shoulder a disproportionately greater workload than their male colleagues due to committee duties in addition to research. A so-called cascade model or a cross-disciplinary target quota would balance out numbers between the fields instead of applying a fixed quota, and the institutions should implement this measure as they see fit, the Federal Government has indicated.

Special attention is also given to the problem of balancing research and family life. For example, Section 2 para 5 of the Academic Fixed-Term Contract Law (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz) of April 2007 provides that fixed-term contracts may be extended where leave is granted for the purpose of caring for one or several children under the age of 18 or other relatives in need of long-term care or where there is an entitlement to statutory parental leave. The question of childcare, particularly for under-three-year-olds, and the provision of full-day care facilities has been a problem in Germany for a long time, making it very difficult for women to pursue a career in the science sector. The Federal and Länder governments have made improvements in this field a declared political goal and have provided additional funding.

Women are still under-represented in leadership positions in science in Germany (although numbers are rising). All stakeholders in the government and science sector are aware of this deficit. A variety of measures have been introduced to remedy the situation in science. This has been made to be one of the BMBF's central tasks, which created an ‘Equal Opportunities in Education and Research Division’ with the task of implementing these key strategic areas with the help of its own budget. The German government has implemented a number of initiatives aiming at improving gender balance in research. BMBF supports activities which raise awareness of issues in terms of equal opportunities and is aiming to stimulate innovative research and cooperation on the matter, national and international collaborations, the exchange of competence and knowledge and, in this regard, the thematic networking (including organisation of thematic workshops, etc.). The Länder have in addition their own programmes to enhance equal opportunities at universities.

The BMBF programme Frauen an die Spitze (Women at the Top) was launched in 2007 with funding from the European Social Fund (ESF). It studies gender issues, interdisciplinary research on a number of related thematic fields in order to develop new to gain insight into the causes why the number of women in academia as well as in leadership positions in general does not yet match the number of well qualified women. It also includes and tests new action schemes in Germany as a basis for new approaches towards increasing equal opportunities.

The Federal Government and the Länder are providing funding of approx. €150 million under the Female Professors Programme (2007-2012, decision on second phase on 27 December 2012) to increase the participation of women at all levels of academic training. The first and second rounds of the program, each with a total budget of 150 million Euros, were financed equally by the BMBF and the Länder. On the basis of a positive appraisal of their equality policies, higher education institutions have the opportunity to receive funding for up to three professorships for women. Gender equality has thus soon become an important competitive factor in higher education. The Female Professors Programme has met with great acceptance: 77% of all universities, almost 40% of the universities of applied sciences and more than 25% of the colleges of art and music are participating. The percentage of women professors almost doubled between 2002 and 2010 from 8% to 15% (She figures 2012).

The Centre of Excellence Women and Science (CEWS) aims to increase the number of women in leading positions at universities and research institutions, to raise the efficiency of political measures aimed at equality and to introduce gender mainstreaming in all areas of science and research. The FemConsult database, which contains current profiles of several thousand women academics, is a central instrument for increasing the number of women in leading positions. With regard to HEI, CEWS has issued rankings of institutions of higher education based on equality aspects every two years since 2003, and this has become an established instrument of equal opportunities quality control within the higher education system. Since 2009, the rankings have also been offered in relation to other equal opportunity evaluations, such as those of the Federal and State Programme for Women Professors, the Total-E-Quality Advisory Service (established in 2001), and the Family Friendly University Audit (established in 1998).

The higher education institutions' "Guidelines on fixed-term employment contracts" of April 2012 state that fixed-term employment should enable a higher proportion of women to work towards academic qualifications which are relevant to their careers and that family-related funding opportunities should be used in every individual case. Furthermore, equal opportunities policy is defined as a task for the institutions' senior management. The goal of equal participation by men and women is part of the institutional concept of many universities.

The 2007 German Pact for Research and Innovation firmly established the requirement that research organisations should develop strategies to ensure that women's research potential is fully used. The organisations are expected to implement significant changes in the quantitative representation of women in the research system, particularly in leading positions. The research organisations report on the progress made at the individual levels in clear terms and explaining their actions as part of the annual monitoring exercise under the Pact. Gender equity is also an integral part of the Initiative for Excellence of the Federal Government and the Länder. The experts evaluating the proposals also consider whether the proposed measures can promote equal opportunities for men and women in research.

In 2006 the organisations of the Research Alliance (DFG, HRK, HGF, FhG, MPG, WGL, AvH, DAAD, Leopoldina, Wissenschaftsrat) launched a campaign to promote equal opportunities for men and women in research (Offensive für Chancengleichheit von Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern) (reviewed in May 2012) with the aim of markedly increasing the proportion of women in leading academic positions within the following five years. In 2010 women accounted for 21% of the members of university bodies and 12% of senior management positions at universities were held by women (She figures 2012).

A decision of the Joint Science Conference (GWK) of 7 November 2011 calls upon all research institutions and universities to introduce flexible target quotas for the recruitment of young female researchers and managerial staff. The Federal Government and the Länder expect the research organisations to implement the GWK decision by establishing flexible target quotas in keeping with the "cascade model" of the DFG's research-oriented standards on gender equality. The organisations are expected to agree targets at management level to ensure that the quotas are achieved. The four research organisations HGF, FhG, MPG and WGL developed their own specific procedures for the application of the "cascade model" and established target quotas in 2012.

Since 2008, it has been possible to apply for funds for equal opportunities measures in all collaborative projects of the German Research Association (DFG). This ring-fenced funding can be used to increase the number of women researchers at project manager level, support young women researchers involved in the research collaboration in pursuing their research careers, or making researchers’ workplaces more family-friendly. In addition, funds to compensate for the loss of working hours resulting from maternity leave, parental leave or nursing care leave can be applied for in all DFG research projects.

The DFG together with its member institutions also adopted "Research-oriented standards on gender equality" in 2008. With this self-commitment, the institutions define personnel and structural standards for a sustainable gender equality policy in research and higher education. A working group set up by the DFG General Assembly supports the member institutions in the implementation of the gender equality standards and assesses their gender equality strategies and the progress they have made in increasing female representation. The joint goal is to markedly increase the proportion of women at all scientific career levels in science by 2013 following the "cascade model". This means that the target percentage of women at each career level follows on from the proportion of women at the level immediately below. In this process, the DFG developed a toolbox which contains a collection of equal opportunities measures. This freely accessible, quality-assured information system provides selected practical examples particularly for universities and research institutions. The standards on gender equality have given a clear signal in recent years. As a result, gender equality is now increasingly understood as a horizontal and managerial task, gender mainstreaming activities are being professionalised and concrete measures in member institutions consolidated.

Numerous partners from academia, research, industry, politics, associations, labour and management and the media concluded the National Pact for Women in MINT Careers in 2008 in order to increase the percentage of women in mathematics, informatics, natural science and technology. Efforts are being made to attract young women to studies and careers in science and technology, to encourage female university graduates to opt for careers in industry, and to increase the number of study places offered in natural science and technology disciplines.

Knowledge circulation

Circulating research knowledge and transferring it into markets and products will be crucial to maintain the productivity of the German economy; creates and preserves jobs and thereby ensures Germany's prosperity. Cooperation between HEI and industry is traditionally close in Germany in areas such as engineering and chemistry. According to OECD figures, 53 % of all German companies which engage in extra-mural innovation activities cooperate with universities. Many doctoral theses are completed in close cooperation with industry. For example, industry very often funds doctoral students or provides grants. Knowledge and technology transfer, and thus shaping innovations, is however not yet sufficiently fostered in academia, as illustrated by a series of activities which Germany has launched and/or is internationally involved in which tackle optimal circulation, access to and transfer of scientific knowledge.

The Higher Education Laws in all of Germany's 16 Länder have now identified knowledge and technology transfer as a task for institutions of higher education. Moreover, the Länder Hesse, Lower Saxony, North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW) and Thuringia have taken up the development of an intellectual property strategy in the target and performance agreements between the Länder and the universities. The programme Research at Universities of Applied Sciences programme funds R&D projects at the 190 universities of applied science (‘Fachhochschulen’) in order to improve knowledge transfer capacities at these institutions.Technology transfer networks have been established in many Länder. Transfer and patent agencies have been set up in the research institutions or at Länder level. All Länder and many institutions have facilities which advise people intending to set up in business / becoming an entrepreneur.

Other special programmes are often funded by the Economics Ministries at federal or Länder level and explicitly encourage mobility and exchanges of scientists between research institutions and SMEs. Validation of Innovation Potentials – VIP is a part of High-Tech Strategy 2020 and stimulates Knowledge Transfer by public research organisations. The Networks of Competence scheme stimulates the establishment of sector networks to promote cluster building and international awareness of industrial networks in Germany. The Research Campus programme contributes to Knowledge Circulation by enhancing partnerships which are aiming to develop new technologies in areas with high technological complexity and a great potential for radical innovation. Innovation Alliances represent a new instrument for research and innovation policy within the framework of the High-Tech Strategy initiated by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Currently, there are nine Innovation Alliances and a large number of “strategic partnerships” created by the BMBF, the scientific community and industry. The EXIST program is also part of the German government’s “High-tech Strategy for Germany” and is aiming to Improving the entrepreneurial environment at universities and research institutions and increasing the number of technology and knowledge based business start-ups. TechnologieAllianz unites patent marketing agencies and technology transfer agencies in a single network. The nationwide association representing over 200 scientific institutes provides enterprises with access to the entire range of innovative research results from German universities and non-university research institutions. The Go-innovativ programme provides vouchers to companies for consultancy services on innovation management in order to enhance learning from successful innovators. The High-Tech Business Start-up Grant is a joint initiative of the federal government, the industrial companies BASF, Deutsche Telekom and Siemens as well as KfW Mittelstandsbank within the framework of "Partners for Innovation". In total, € 262 million will be provided over the next five years. The objective of the ERP Start-up Fund is to leveraging access to finance for start-ups via venture capital. The focus is on technology-based company foundations. The National Agency for Women Start-ups Activities and Services (bga) aims to increase the number of businesses started by women.

The Federal Government has initiated a number of activities to promote open access such as a dialogue between science organizations and scientific publishing companies. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research also plans to add a clause on open access to the auxiliary terms and conditions governing its project funding [Check state of play]. The players in German research organizations are actively promoting open access, for example through the Priority Initiative "Digital Information".

For Germany as a high-tech location, information and communication technologies (ICT) play a decisive role. They are the key to productivity in all industries. Measured by gross value added today, the ICT industry itself is ahead of mechanical engineering and motor-vehicle manufacturing. However, Germany needs to better harness the large potential of ICT for growth and employment. Smart networking through modern ICT in traditional sectors, such as energy, transport, health, education, leisure, tourism and administration, affords new opportunities but also poses new challenges, especially in data protection. This is why the Federal Government has developed a new ICT strategy for the digital future of Germany: Digital Germany 2015. It sets out the government ICT policy framework, i.e. the priorities, tasks and projects for the period up to 2015. The strategy, which also deals with R&D and Education aspects, will be carried out in close interaction among policymakers, industry and scientists. The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, BMWi, is in charge of coordinating the implementation under the specific purviews of the various ministries. A major role here is played by the National IT Summit.

The Federal Government gives high priority to the topic of scientific information infrastructures, because they play a key role in the storage of scientific knowledge and in making it accessible. The German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat) issued recommendations for the further development of scientific information infrastructures in July 2012. The Federal Government and the Länder have appointed a working group on the implementation of the Council's recommendations, which will also review the various Europan Commission proposals.

The Deutsche Forschungsnetz (DFN) is the German National Research and Education Network (NREN), a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within the country. Through DFN, Germany is a member of GEANT and eduGAIN.         

Effectiveness

The Greek Research Technological Development and Innovation (RTDI) system has been affected by the economic crisis and is strongly dependent on foreign support (EU Framework Programme and Structural Funds).

In 2011 Greece set an R&D intensity target of 2%. The National Reform Programme (NRP) for 2013 revises this target downwards to 0.67%, which the authorities consider more consistent with the current trends and the economic outlook. EU structural funds continue to play an increasingly important role in promoting R&D and innovation. The measures included in the NRP for the achievement of the R&D intensity target are being implemented in the context of the current National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) or envisaged in preparation of the next programming period.

The General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT) operating under the auspices of the Ministry of Education Religion, Culture and Sports is the main organisation designing and implementing RTDI policy. The policy environment and the frequent changes in the governance of GSRT in the last three years have slowed down the reforms of the governance system. Furthermore the positioning of GSRT within the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Religion, Culture and Sports does not facilitate the coordination of innovation policies between Ministries and other bodies. Several attempts to introduce a new law for Research have failed. The law adopted by the Parliament in 2007 was never implemented. A new law is currently in preparation by the GSRT.

The Greek authorities are rationalising the system of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The Plan “ATHINA” foresees a process of consolidation and mergers of HEIs to achieve economies of scale and adapt skills to the labour market. In March 2013, the Greek Parliament transferred power to the Minister of Education, Religion, Culture and Sports to implement the Plan. Law 4046/2012 (29.02.2012) foresees the mergers of research organisations, with the purpose to enhance scientific cooperation and synergies in the same research fields, create a critical mass of researchers, decrease administrative and operational costs. Following the application of the Law, research organisations are expected to decrease from 56 to 31 and new governance procedures will be introduced. A first wave of consolidation/mergers of departments has been finalised in the framework of the ATHINA project. In the next academic year, the number of HEIs will be reduced from 40 to 36, and the number of departments from 528 to 4.

In August 2012, Law 4076/2012 on Higher Education was issued amending the Law of 4009/2011. Both contain measures to allow for external evaluation of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The Laws also provide for a reform of the governance structure of HEIs which is being implemented. Law 4076/2012 contains limited changes but includes provisions to facilitate the transition to more university autonomy (introducing an external management board for the first time) and prescribing the regulations for the election of professors/assistant professors/lecturers.

The national strategy for research and innovation follows the programming cycle of the Structural Funds. The strategy for the current programming cycle was developed in 2007 and is described in the “Strategic Development Plan for Research, Technology and Innovation” (SDP) and the Operational Programme “Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship”. Further to a consultation process in 2012 the GSRT and the National Council are elaborating the new National Strategic Framework for Research, Technological Development and Innovation that would run up to 2020. As specified in the National Reform Programme for 2013, the Greek authorities are developing a national research and innovation framework for smart specialisation taking into account the regional perspectives.

In 2011, the Hellenic National Reform Programme 2011-2014 identified key priority areas for research. The government intends to pursue these areas through calls addressed to strengthen and support the scientific/research personnel, encourage links between the scientific/research community and businesses and entrepreneurs, the support of bilateral and European and international collaboration and the promotion of research outreach to the community.

As regards institutional evaluation they are undertaken regularly and a Higher Education Institutions accreditation mechanism has been set up. The Hellenic Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAAHE) has been established since 2005 by Law 3374/2005 to create a methodological framework for evaluating capacity and monitoring the evaluation process of Higher Education Institutions. More recently, by law 4009/2011, QAAHE undertook also the role to negotiate with Higher Education Institutions the quality targets they have to achieve in order to be entitled to additional funding. Finally QAAHE decided in August 2012 to suspend the evaluation of academic units due to tensions between the government and the academic community.

Research organisations are evaluated by GSRT every 4-5 year without a formal process. The Law provides for an evaluation of the research organisations every 4 year and stipulates that if an evaluation does not take place within 5 years due to lack of data provided by the research organisation evaluated then this organisation would stop receiving funding from the government. The law stipulates that the overall academic performance of the organisation is evaluated with respect to academic publications and personnel. According to the new law the research centres will be evaluated every two year by thematic expert panels.

The evaluation results are however not influencing the attribution of block funding. Institutional funding for public research organisations and Higher Education Institutions covers mainly the salaries of the permanent staff and the operational costs.

As reagrds competitive funding, Law 3777/2009 sets its principles. Research projects are funded on a competitive basis through open selection procedures with emphasis on scientific excellence. All non-block funding is distributed via calls from the GSRT (for applied research and innovation), the Ministry of Education (for basic research) and the General Secretariat for Industry (for entrepreneurship including new technologies). There is no formal provision for adopting international peer review. However, both the GSRT and the Ministry have been increasingly adopting international peer review for calls for proposals. The recent programmes “Clusters”, “Innovation Poles”, “Cooperation” and “Excellence” were also evaluated by international panels.

Regions have their own research budgets in the current programming period but the majority of their funds are are transferred to the GSRT, which launches central calls and selects proposals complying with the regional budget lines.

Another relevant change in 2012 was the launch by GSRT of the Programme “Development Proposals of Research Organisations-KRIPIS” aiming to strengthen research (basic research, industrial/applied research and pilot development) and to make use of its results through the implementation of projects. The programme has a total budget of €32m, will run until 2015 and is co funded by ERDF and public funds. Only research centres may apply for grants under this call.

Transnational cooperation

In the last years research funding has decreased considerably. Research on grand challenges is pursued mainly in the context of EU policies.

In the last three years, participation in European initiatives for the design and implementation of collaborative programmes and research infrastructures also gained importance. In addition to the €31m for ESFRI, an additional amount of €34m has been allocated for supporting the participation in the Joint Technology Initiatives (€13m), in ERA-NETs (€17.5m) and in bilateral research agreements (€3.5m). The share of participation of Greece in the EU FP is 2.75%. Greece has received 2.36% of total EC contributions. FP funding represents 72 Euros per head of population. Greece is involved in 4 JPIs 5 Article185 Initiatives and lead one of them.

As regard transnational cooperation the budget is thinly distributed to several initiatives driven by bottom-up initiatives with an average budget between €0.4m and €0.5m. A scheme containing fewer but larger agreements is considered by GRST.

Greece is member of all major European research facilities. Few national research infrastructures (RI) are large enough to be of global relevance. There are however no financial commitments for ESFRI yet. A national Strategy including a Roadmap are being developed. They aim to support the decision making process and to enhance the effectiveness of investment in Ris at national and regional level, as well to support the development of an evidence-based national strategy in the framework of international negotiations linked to EU priorities and, where appropriate, ESFRI. Investments in the development of research infrastructures are also subject to competitive selection. Investments in research infrastructures amount to €140m. Decisions on the participation in specific ESFRI infrastructures are expected in the context of the planning of the new programming period 2014-2020.

Open Labour market for researchers

The number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 4.6 per 1,000 in 2010. The number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 1.2 and the percentage of doctoral candidates with citizenship of another EU-27 Member State was 7.3%. The percentage of non-EU doctoral candidates as a percentage of all doctoral candidates was 1.0%.

Researcher brain drain has increased in the last two years and is expected to further increase due to the salary reductions in Higher Education Institutions and Public Research Organisations in 2013 (Law 4093).

Each research and academic institution develops its own regulatory framework related to researchers’ confidentiality rights, membership in management bodies, freedom to carry out research and access to information. In 2012, Law 4076 introduced new regulations for the election of academic staff. The new Law on Research, Technology and Innovation is expected to include mechanisms for researchers’ career development, outbound mobility, fellowships for early-stage and post-doc researchers.

Inward mobility remains limited, while the system is in principle open. Both Greek and foreign researchers employed in higher education and research institutions abroad can apply for a researcher’s position in a Greek institution. The Greek language constitutes a barrier for inward mobility of researchers.

Up until 2012, inward and outward mobility was only supported by the measure “Support of Postdoctoral Researchers” which has been in place since 2010. The measure provides research grants for Greeks or non-nationals that have acquired their PhD from a non-Greek university in order to conduct research in Greece. It also supports Greeks with a PhD from a Greek university to conduct research in another Greek or a foreign research organisation.

In November 2012, the Ministry of Education, Religion, Culture and Sports launched a call for Higher Education Institutions in Greece for a pilot programme for the mobility of young researchers of the Mediterranean Office for Youth (MOY). The Programme aims to develop joint higher educational programmes, with the participation of at least two higher educational institutions from participating countries, at a postgraduate or at doctorate level, and is expected to enhance transnational mobility.

As regards portability of grants, the publicly funded grants or fellowships are not portable. Most grants are open to Greek and foreign candidates. However, the recipient of the grant must be located in a Greek research institution.

Law 2004/2011 enables a national researcher to leave for up to 3 years to participate in research projects abroad. An estimated 10% of researchers are using this opportunity. In 2012, 45% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

Academic promotion depends on open and competitive procedures and has in recent years been re-organised to include foreign researchers in the selection panels. Institutions systematically establish selection panels in accordance with national legislation and have clear policies for establishing the composition of such panels. Selection criteria are published together with the job advert. Researchers have a right to receive feedback and appeal against the decision.

Until recently higher education institutions published job vacancies only in Greek and on their own websites. The EURAXESS services are increasingly used by the authorities and the education institutions. There are 12 EURAXESS Services Centres in 8 different cities in Greece. In 2011, the number of researcher posts advertised through the EURAXESS Jobs portal per thousands of researchers in the public sector was 32 in Greece.

In October 2010, the 65th Rectors’ Assembly unanimously adopted the ‘Charter & Code’ encouraging all Greek higher education institutions to sign it and use it to promote their human resource strategies. The law 4009/2011 strongly promotes the ‘Charter & Code’ principles on excellence and innovation.

The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Euroscience, Greek Rectors’ Conference, International Hellenic University, the Marie Curie Fellows Association, the National Hellenic Research Foundation, the University of Crete, the University of Ioannina, the University of Patras and the University of Thessaly have undersigned the Charter&Code.9 Greek organisations are actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers of which 2 (The Centre for Research & Technology Hellas and the University of Crete) have received the "HR Excellence in Research" logo for their progress in implementing the Charter & Code.

Higher education institutions have the possibility to increase the quality of doctoral training through collaboration with national and international higher education and research institutions (Part IV of Law 4009/2011). Some PhD programmes explicitly follow the “Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training”, while many comply implicitly with some of the seven principles.

Gender

The Greek legislation (PD 176/1997, Law 3488/2006, Law 3996/2011) is fully aligned with provisions aiming at removing legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers.

Law 2839/2000 introduced provisions for the balanced participation of men and women in the Public Sector, Public and Private Law entities, as well as in municipalities. Law 3653/2008 addressed gender imbalances in the decision-making process in the research sector for the recruitment from National bodies, Research and Technology Committees, provided that the candidates have the same qualifications.

Gender equality is encouraged in the research profession by guaranteeing female representation in all top-level positions and decision-making bodies in a ratio of at least one-third (based on Article 16 of the Greek Constitution). However, the number of women researchers in particular in senior positions is limited. Female researchers are entitled to maternity leave only if they have signed a fixed-term contract with a research institution

There are no explicit policies to foster cultural and institutional change on gender by the funding agencies and there are no specific initiatives to strengthen the gender dimension in research programmes.

Knowledge circulation

GSRT has been established as the National Point of Reference for open access in Greece in January 2013 and elaborates a national policy framework for open access to scientific publications and research data, on preservation and re-use of scientific information, and their implementation and monitoring on related e-infrastructures

GSRT has set up a working group consisting of the main public stakeholders in O.A. (GREEK RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGY NETWORK (GRNET S.A), Research Centre ATHENA, EKT/NHRF and the Hellenic Academic Libraries Link (HEAL Link)). Through this process, harmonization and focused implementation of open access initiatives will be ensured, in line with the need for sustainable e-infrastructures, repositories and viable business models for access and preservation of scientific information. Open access will be made mandatory for scientific publications resulting from publicly funded research. Relevant changes to the legislative framework of funding terms are under progress.

In April 2013, there were 18 open access repositories operating in Greece in 9 Universities and 2 research organisations.

The Greek Open Knowledge Foundation Network (OKFN) was created following an initiative from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The OKFN will focus on open linked data and aims to enhance governance of local research procedures, improve transparency and access to research, cultural and financial data.

Greek researchers have access to Eduroam, a secure world-wide roaming access service developed for the international research and education community.

As regards public/private cooperation the Presidential Degree 274/2000 and Law 3777/2009 encourage collaboration between universities and the private sector. Researchers from public research centres can be recruited by private companies under specific agreements. Recognised scientists in the private or public sector can be offered to conduct specific research project or to collaborate on partial employment basis with national research centres.

Initiatives to encourage collaboration between industry and academia are performed mainly through bilateral cooperation programmes. In the last years new programmes have been established: the Clusters Programme (2007-2013), the Cooperation 2011 Programme, the Creation Programme (2007-2013), Innovation Vouchers for SMEs (2009-2015) as well as a scheme to support business with employment of highly qualified scientific personnel under the Human Resources Development Operational programme (2007-2013).

In 2012, competitive calls were announced, focusing on the development of human capital for research in a knowledge economy (including support to excellent researchers, support to mobility of researchers towards enterprises and support to training for innovation activities), with a total financing in excess of €150m in the period 2011-2013.

In addition to direct support measures, the development of an entrepreneurial and innovation friendly culture in the higher education sector aims to facilitate collaboration. To this end, €101m are budgeted for the development of offices in universities and Technical Education Institutions that combine career development counselling activities with the promotion of business planning competitions, as well as for the creation of entrepreneurship clubs and the development of courses on entrepreneurship. The 2011 law for Higher Education Institutions recognises these offices and gives them the status of “Innovation and Liaison Offices” which are also responsible for IPRs.    Greece is member of EDUgain through GRNet. GRNet is the Greek National Research and Education Network (NREN), a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within the country.

Effectiveness

The highest-level political body in the field of STI policy, the National Research, Innovation and Science Policy Council (NKITT), was set up in December 2010 to co-ordinate governmental STI policy decisions. It was replaced by the National Development Cabinet (NFK) in July 2012, chaired by the prime minister. Its members are the secretary of state heading the Prime Minister's Office, the ministers responsible for the national economy, and national development, respectively. The National Innovation Office (NIH) is responsible for the government’s technology and innovation policy. The share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D (GBAORD) was 0.3% in 2011. The national public effort on Research and development, measure as the share of total GBAORD in national expenditures in Hungary was of 0.6% in 2011.

Two strategies and an action plan, together with several other measures aim at improving effectiveness of the national system. The new National Research and Development and Innovation Strategy 2020 will ensure, amongst others, that the funding targets (R&D expenditure to reach 1.8% of the GDP by 2020) are met. The new Science Policy Strategy sets the framework for the financing of the academic sector. The National Research and Development and Innovation Strategy is accompanied by a two-year Action Plan to contribute to its implementation.

Funds allocated through the Operational Programmes of the New Hungary Development Plan (2007-13) are managed by the National Development Agency (NFU). The Hungarian Academy of Science (MTA) also allocates funds to its own research institutes, as well as to research units affiliated with universities. The main objectives of the MTA are to support and represent various scientific fields, to distribute scientific results and to foster international relations in the field of sciences.

Project based funding is a major mechanism for public support to RTDI activities in Hungary. The two most important financial sources providing competitive funding for R&D activities are the Research and Technological Innovation Fund (RTIF), and the various Operational Programmes of the New Hungary Development Plan co-financed by the EU Structural Funds (EDOP). Relevant as well is the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA), that provides financial support to basic research via competitive funding.

The share of competitive versus institutional funding is of about 40% to 60% and the share of the former is expected to grow in the years to come. In this context, for instance, the EEA (European Economic Area) Financial Mechanism provides 24.3 million euro in 2013-2014 competitive funding to joint research activities and young researchers.

The use of international peer review is not widespread. The Hungarian Academy of Science (MTA) applies more and more this type of evaluation in its funding programmes.

The Hungarian smart specialization strategy, currently being drafted, is expected to be in line with the national research and development and innovation strategy. The input documents from the seven Hungarian regions (RIS3 strategies) will be delivered by the regional innovation agencies in 2013, under the coordination of the National Innovation Office.

Transnational cooperation

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the Framework Programme. The share of participation of Hungary in total participation is 1.18 % so far, and Hungary has received 0.67 % of total EC contributions. FP funding represents 23 Euros per head of population. The country also participates in Joint Programming. Hungary participates as a member in 2 initiatives and also in 3 Article 185 initiatives.

The 'National Research, Development and Innovation Strategy 2013' explicitly addresses tackling grand challenges. It also highlights the importance of having excellent research infrastructures. Several schemes provide funding to research projects addressing this issue. And the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) has joined the initiative "Teaming for Excellence" from the Max Planck Society.

The Visegrad fund promotes research cooperation with the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Republic of Poland, and the Slovak Republic. It provides research grants from a common pot contribution of all countries involved.

With reference to ESFRI, the National Research Infrastructure Survey and Roadmap (NEKIFUT) done in 2012 provides an assessment of the Hungarian research infrastructures, and a unified national report and programme for the development of research infrastructures. In addition, Hungary has decided to participate in two research infrastructures from ESFRI: XFEL and ELI. Moreover, Hungary has joined several inter-governmental agreements, organisations and large Ris, but there is not much funding allocated for those collaborations. A National Research Infrastructure register is in place and provides information on the main Ris in Hungary.

With the aim of facilitating access of foreigners to Hungarian Ris, several programmes invite outstanding foreign researchers to workshops and other activities in Hungarian research infrastructures.

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010 the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 5.0 per 1,000 and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 0.8. The shares of non-national doctoral candidates were 5.7% from another EU-27 Member State and 2.6% from non-EU countries.

Research positions at public research institutions are open to non-nationals and no special or additional requirements are demanded to foreigners. However, in most cases, command of the Hungarian language is required. In 2012, 46% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

Retaining talented researchers is a major concern (more than attracting foreign researchers) and several programmes provide funding to that aim. For instance, the Momentum program provides currently financial support to 28 young scientists to conduct internationally competitive research projects with a total funding of HUF 1.1 bn. A new call is open, with a financial allocation of HUF 600 million. In this line, the National Excellence programme provides support to students and researchers and the Bolyai Janos scheme provides scholarships to 180 researchers under the age of 45.

EURAXESS Hungary or the Hungarian Mobility Centre provide information and services to foreign researchers, but Hungarian research institutes advertise very few (10 in March 2013) vacancies for researcher positions on the Euraxess website.

Publicly funded grants or fellowships are not portable to other EU countries. National grants are basically not open to students or researchers from other countries.

As regards the Charter and Code, the Hungarian Rectors Conference called the attention of the rectors by mail in January 2013 to join to the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers that aims to improve recruitment, to make selection procedures fairer and more transparent and proposes different means of judging merit. Two Hungarian organisations are actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers.

More detailed information can be found in the country profile for Hungary in the Researchers’ Report 2013 http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/services/researchPolicies

Gender

There are no specific provisions for female researchers in Hungary. Gender quotas have been discussed in order to reduce the gap between the representation of men and women in various professions and bodies, but have not been introduced.

In the new Labour Code the positions of women on maternity leave are no longer safeguarded. The rule in this respect changed significantly in the new Labour Code in effect from 1 July 2012. The restoration of the same position after maternity leave is no longer guaranteed. In contrast to this, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) introduced in 2012 a framework programme for equal opportunities that allow for female researchers with children under 10 years old to apply for grants over two years of age limit compared to male researchers. The Economic Development Operational Programme aims at creating work place environments that ensure equal opportunities for efficient work for female employees or employees who return to the labour market after a period of receiving child care fees (GYED) or child care benefits (GYES), and help integrate these groups into the labour market.

The L’ORÉAL-UNESCO Hungarian Grant for Women and Science provides financial support to young female scientists in the field of natural sciences. The financial allocation is 11,000 euro per year. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) has a special prize for female researchers, which is handed over annually at the “Week of Hungarian Science”. In addition several universities give prizes to female researchers.

Knowledge circulation

The National Research and Development and Innovation Strategy 2020 (RDI Strategy) specifically supports efficient knowledge and technology transfer collaborations.

Regarding the policies on access and preservation of scientific information, the President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) issued an Open Access Mandate, according to which researchers and employees of the MTA should make their scientific publications open access; and various online portals, such as the Hungarian National Scientific Bibliography, REAL (repository of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences' Library)or the Hungarian Open Access Journals portal, have been put in place providing free access to publications, journals and information about Hungarian researchers.

Initiated by the National Innovation Office in early 2013, discussions started with key stakeholders in order to formulate a national policy to promote knowledge transfer, although currently no specific funding is available for technology transfer offices that are operated at major Hungarian universities. A 2012 regulation introduces mechanisms for the protection and management of intellectual property rights of research outputs, ensuring that the patent rights of institutional and employee inventions created in research centres belong to these centres. The 2013 EU country-specific-recommendation (CSR) emphasises the need “ to provide targeted incentives to support innovative enterprises”.

 The National Information Infrastructure Development (NIIF) provides the framework for the development and operation of the research network in Hungary. In concrete, it provides an integrated computer networking infrastructure and, on the basis of that, a wide range of communication, information, and co-operation services, leading-edge environment for networking applications, as well as advanced framework for content generation and provision. Hungary is member of EDUgain through eduId.hu. HUNGARNet is the Hungarian National Research and Education Network (NREN), a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within the country.

Effectiveness

The Science, Technology and Innovation system in Ireland is evolving towards a strong prioritisation of research areas, focused on innovation for growth and jobs. Well aligned with the ERA priority to promote effective national research systems, peer-reviewed competitive funding continues to prevail in Ireland.

Science, Technology and Innovation policy is centralised in Ireland. The two main ministries with responsibility for research and innovation policy are the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and the Department of Education and Skills. Forfás, an agency of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, acts as policy advisory board for enterprise, trade, science, technology and innovation. The share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D (GBAORD) was 0.5% in 2011. Total GBAORD per capita rose until 2008, when it started to decline. The national public effort on Research and development, measured as the share of total GBAORD in national expenditures in Ireland was of 1.05% in 2011.

Key implementing bodies include Science Foundation Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland (under the aegis of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation) and the Higher Education Authority and IRC (under the aegis of the Department of Education and Skills). Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) acts as funding agency for academic researchers and research teams. It advances co-operative efforts among education, government, and industry that support its fields of emphasis and promotes Ireland’s ensuing achievements around the world. Enterprise Ireland is the government organisation responsible for the development and growth of Irish enterprises in world markets. It works in partnership with Irish enterprises to help them start, grow, innovate and win export sales on global markets. In this way, it support sustainable economic growth, regional development and secure employment. The role of the Higher Education Authority (HEA) is to create a higher education system that maximises opportunities and ensures a high quality experience for students. As regulator of the higher education system, HEA is required to implement funding responsibilities and a process of effective strategic engagement to ensure well-functioning, well-governed, accessible and accountable higher education institutions, operating to high standards in all areas. The HEA advises the Minister for Education and Skills on the objectives to be set for the higher education system and performance indicators to be applied. It is the HEA’s responsibility to ensure that national objectives are aligned with institutional objectives, that performance is measured against these and funding allocations made accordingly.

The National Research Prioritisation Strategy adopted in March 2012 prioritizes competitive Exchequer funding in 14 priority areas and 6 underpinning platform technologies. The Action Plan for Jobs 2013 presents a set of measures to drive job creation, among which there is a section specifying several actions in the area of research and innovation. The strategy for Higher Education to 2030, also adopted in 2012, establishes a new performance framework for public Higher Education Institutions.

Project based funding received around 51,43 % of GBAORD in 2008 according to OECD. SFI uses an international merit review process to choose far-reaching, high-impact research for support in its target areas and to fund excellent scientists and engineers on the dynamic intellectual frontiers of Biotechnology, Information Communications Technology (ICT) and Sustainable Energy & Energy Efficient Technologies (Energy). Recurrent (institutional) funding to universities, institutes of technology and other designated colleges is allocated by HEA using different methods which depend on the use of the funding. It includes core recurrent grants based on the “Recurrent Grant Allocation Model”, grants in respect of the “Free Fees” Scheme, funding in respect of increased student intake, supplementary funding requirements, and other miscellaneous initiatives that may require funding.

The use of international peer reviews to evaluate funding programme applications has been used extensively since 2000 by major R&D funding agencies such as Science Foundation Ireland and the Higher Education Authority.

Transnational cooperation

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the Framework Programme. The share of participation of Ireland in total participation is 1.42 % so far, and Ireland has received 1.29 % of total EC contributions. FP funding represents 107 Euros per head of population. The country also participates in nine Joint Programming initiatives. The country also leads one Article 185 and participates in four others Art. 185 initiatives and in seven ERANET +. Ireland also has signed several bilateral research agreements with countries outside the EU. The amendment of the Science Foundation Bill will provide the legal basis for funding research activities in fourteen priority strategic areas, notably with Northern Ireland.

The development of research infrastructures has been a key element of national STI strategies and the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions has been a major funding vehicle to facilitate higher education institutions to invest in new facilities. The fifth and current cycle of the programme covering the period 2010-2015 will involve an estimated investment of €348m in the higher education sector dealing with a range of projects including infrastructure. The ESFRI road-map has influenced the contents of the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions investment, the 2012 infrastructure-related funding programme and the Research Infrastructure Call 2012 Programme, developed by Science Foundation Ireland. All these instruments continue to provide for building and sustaining research infrastructures to accomplish high quality, high impact and innovative research.

Ireland endorses the facilitation of trans-national access to infrastructures (in person and remotely). It also devotes significant resources to helping researchers to secure right of access to specialist facilities in Europe, particularly those linked to Ireland’s research priorities and/or having relevance to enterprise goals.

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010, the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 6.6 per 1,000, and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 1.6. The share of non-national doctoral candidates was 16.0% with citizenship of another EU-27 Member State and 22.3% from outside the EU.

There are no restrictions on access by EU and non-EU researchers to national grants. However, grants usually stipulate that research must be carried out in Ireland. There are a number of exceptions where the funding support measure seeks to encourage Irish researchers to collaborate with researchers in other countries such as the SFI US-Ireland R&D Partnership Programme.

The Employment equality legislative framework ensures that job opportunities are open to all, nationals and from abroad. This also applies to access by international researchers to research positions in the Irish higher education and enterprise sectors. A key focus of Government policy has been to attract high calibre researchers to Ireland and this is reflected in a number of support measures to assist international researchers and their families to locate in Ireland. Researchers applying for research positions in accredited research organisations can avail of a fast-track agreement that will allow the research organisation to employ them without recourse to the usual Green Card or work permit. In 2012, 71% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

All nine Irish universities along with one funding organisation and the representative body for contract researchers have endorsed the European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. 16 Irish organisations are actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers of which three Irish higher education institutions have received EU Commission acknowledgement for their progress in relation to the HR Strategy incorporating the Charter and Code.

EURAXESS accompanies the process, providing free advice and guidance to researchers from abroad. It has now expanded its scope to also cover research employment opportunities in the industrial sector. It is is administered by the Irish Universities Association.

Several actions address a more effective connection between doctoral training programmes and industrial needs. The National Research Prioritisation Strategy has put considerable emphasis on the development of innovative fourth level training provision e.g. structured PhD courses that preserve the PhD’s traditional strengths and embed activities that support the acquisition of a range of relevant specialist and generic skills. The fifth cycle (2010-2015) of the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions is funding a number of innovative doctoral training programmes.

More detailed information can be found in the country profile for Ireland in the Researchers’ Report 2013 http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/services/researchPolicies

Gender

Several actions address gender equality and gender contents in science. For example, the Women in Technology and Science (WITS) network was established in 1990 to actively promote women’s participation in science and technology; and the Centre for Women in Science & Engineering Research (WiSER) in Trinity College Dublin seeks to develop sustainable practices to ensure that women can compete in research on an equal basis using their scientific expertise, knowledge and potential. Also, Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) funded a number of programmes that sought to encourage the entry of women into science and technology and to facilitate researchers (male and female) to resume their careers after family care breaks. One of these programmes was the Principal Investigator Career Advancement (PICA) support measure which supported researchers returning to active academic research after a family care career break. While PICA has been discontinued as a separate programme, the supports it provided have been integrated into another SFI programme, the Principal Investigators Programme. The Irish Research Council is a partner, along with Intel and Accenture, in the Women Invent Tomorrow initiative organised by Silicon Republic, which seeks to champion the role of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

In 1995, the Irish Government introduced a requirement for a minimum of 40% of women and men appointed to all State boards. In March 2011, the incoming Government in its ‘Programme for Government’ announced that it would be taking steps to ensure that all State boards have at least 40% of each gender. These targets apply for public institutions.

Knowledge circulation

The statement presenting the National principles for Open Access Policy provides the overall framework in support of Open access to scientific publications.

The 2012 National Intellectual Property Protocol recommends that the development of a Central Technology Transfer Office act as a "one-stop-shop" to facilitate industrial access to public research results. It is hosted by Enterprise Ireland and will work closely with existing Technology Transfer Offices within higher education institutions. Ireland is also well advance in the implementation of the Commission Recommendation on knowledge transfer (COM (2008) 1329 final).

Access to Digital research services and fostering electronic identities are respectively supported by Ireland's participation to DARIAH consortium and EDUROAM. HEAnet is the Irish National Research and Education Network (NREN), a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within the country.

Effectiveness

The Ministry for Education, Universities and Research (MIUR) is a key player in the Italian research system. MIUR is in charge of policy-making and provides funding to universities and research agencies. MIUR also coordinates the preparation of the three-year National Research Programme (PNR), the main government document for R&D planning, which sets the strategies for the national system. The overall coordination of S&T policy falls under the remit of the Inter-ministry Committee for Economic Planning (CIPE). Universities and public research organisations (PROs) are the core performers of the public research sector. The Council of National Research (CNR) is the largest PRO operating under the supervision of the MIUR.

Horizon Italia 2020 (HIT2020), published by the MIUR in March 2013, is the key document outlining Italy’s research and innovation strategy between 2014 and 2020 in line with Europe2020 goals. The National Research Programme covers the period 2011-2013.

The share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D (GBAORD) was 0.56% in 2011. The national public effort on Research and development, measured as the share of total GBAORD in national expenditures in Italy was of 1.13% in 2011. The share of GBAORD allocated as project based is unknown.

The recent 2009 and 2010 laws have introduced mechanisms for allocating a share of institutional funding to universities and public research organisations on the basis of competitive and performance-based criteria. It is envisaged that this share of funding will increase. Project-based funding by the MIUR has been allocated through the Research Projects of National Interest (PRIN), Fund for investments in fundamental research (FIRB)and Smart Cities competitive calls.

The use of peer review as a standard method for evaluating research proposals was recently introduced by Law no.134 (2012) and further reinforced by HIT2020, according to which peer review shall be applied for all project-based funding. According to HIT2020, the implementation of peer review is a priority with a view to increase the quality and competitiveness of research in the country. Peer review with the use of foreign experts has been implemented for the main calls managed by the MUIR (e.g. FIRB, PRIN, Smart Cities). However, the peer review reform does not apply to public research organisations that do not fall under MIUR’s supervision.

Transnational cooperation

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the Framework Programme. The share of participation of Italy in total participation is 8.6% so far, and Italy has received 8.4% of total EC contributions. FP funding represents 45 Euros per head of population. The country also participates in Joint Programming. Italy participates in 11 initiatives. The country also participates in 5 Article 185 initiatives and leads one of them. HIT2020 reinforces MIUR policy towards a higher degree of integration into the EU research agenda and acknowledges the need to reinforce joint programming.

Regarding the mutual recognition of evaluations, Italy has adopted two regulations (i.e. Law 4/2012 and 134/2012) which create the legal basis for the domestic recognition of evaluation of international research projects selected by EU programmes. The Operational procedures 556/2013 support the recognition of ex-ante and interim international evaluation of projects, however it does not apply to the recognition of ex-post evaluations.

Regarding the interoperability of programmes, Law 4/2012 has introduced several changes to eligibility definitions and eligibility of costs as well as the simplification of rules of research projects with a view to align national practice with EU legislation and practice.

Italy hosts a significant number of research infrastructures, many of which are linked to EU programmes. An update to the national roadmap of research infrastructures of pan-European interest took place in 2010. The ordinary fund for research institutes (FOE) constitutes the main source for financing research infrastructures on the Italian territory.

In addition, HIT2020 provides guidelines for identifying strategic research infrastructures in line with ESFRI criteria and for the definition of a national plan for research infrastructures. The Italian strategy focuses by and large on the adoption of smart specialisation for selecting regions for research infrastructures and on increased integration at EU level of selected research infrastructures (as opposed to developing more research infrastructures).

According to HIT2020, the setting up of a specific fund for financing research infrastructures is foreseen, however it is not clear whether a timeframe and budget line have been identified.

Regarding researchers’ access to research infrastructures, HIT2020 also envisages support to researchers’ mobility across pan-European research infrastructures. Law 35/2012 and Law 134/2012 removed some barriers to researchers’ access to research infrastructures. Law 35/2012 allows researchers from HEIs and PROs participating to international projects to leave their employer for the whole duration of the project or for a maximum period of five years. However, certain categories of researchers (e.g. fixed term researchers, researcher with atypical contracts, researchers employed by PROs not under MIUR control) are excluded from this provision.

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010 the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 4.1 per 1,000 and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 1.6. The shares of non-national doctoral candidates were 3.1% from another EU-27 Member State and 6.2% from non-EU countries.

Italy has adopted several measures targeting researchers.

Changes to the recruitment rules for researchers and professors were introduced by Law 240/2010 and Law 1/2009 with a view to making recruitment more open, transparent and merit-based. These new regulatory provisions were implemented with the first call for professors in July 2012 (eligibility criteria, guidelines for selection and the composition of selection panels are publicised and candidates can appeal). In 2012, 31% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

Euraxess Italy provides updated information on vacancies, fellowships, administrative matters and tailored services to mobile researchers. However, there is no specific budget line at national level for the management of the Euraxess portal.

Law 35/2012 removed legal barriers to grant portability, which means that researchers can leave their employer to spend a maximum period of five years abroad in a public, private of international organisation.

Access to national grants by foreigners is restricted. However, some programmes provide grants to foreign researchers regardless of their citizenship (e.g. ‘Rita Levi Montalcini’ programme).

A series of regulatory measures have been recently introduced to reform the Italian doctoral training system. Law 240/2010, Law 4/2012 and HIT2020 introduced changes with a view to creating an attractive and competitive doctoral system. Some regulations (Law 240/2010, Regulation 94/2013) draw on the principles of innovative doctoral training (e.g. cooperation with the private sector, international research, IPRs). Moreover, funding support for the development of research doctoral schools is allocated by regional programmes and Law 4/2012.

Two regulatory measures (Law 240/2010 and Government Decree 213/2009) explicitly acknowledged the Charter and Code principles and support their inclusion into research organisations’ statutory regulations. However, there is no specific funding line at national level to support the implementation of the Charter and Code. Eighteen Italian organisations are actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers of which 4 have received the "HR Excellence in Research" logo for their progress in implementing the Charter & Code.

More detailed information can be found in the country profile for Italy in the Researchers’ Report 2013 http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/services/researchPolicies

Gender

Besides general legislation on gender equality (e.g. Law 215/2012 which introduced the ‘quote rosa’ for selection panels and boards of public companies), no specific measures addressing gender equality in research have been adopted yet. However, the need to achieve gender balance for peer review selection panels has been formally acknowledged in MIUR HIT2020. Moreover, an agreement on gender equality between MIUR and DPO (Dipartimento per le Pari Opportunità) was formalised in January 2013.

Knowledge circulation

Italy has not put in place yet a general regulatory framework addressing the issue of open access to publications and data and data preservation. Several measures have supported the voluntary adoption of open access by universities and research organisations (e.g. 2004 Declaration of Messina, CRUI Working Group on Open Access and related guidelines), whilst the Cohesion Action Plan supports the setting up of open access infrastructures in the convergence regions.

With regard to digital services, funding is provided to universities and research organisations and for the dissemination of research data as part of the Cohesion Action Plan and the Funding programme for start-ups in the convergence regions, 'Big Data'. Italy is member of EDUgain through IDEM. GARR is the Italian National Research and Education Network (NREN), a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within the country.

The 2013 NRP announced several hard and soft law measures aiming at reinforcing academia-SME cooperation and researchers’ sectoral mobility.A funding programme supports researchers’ mobility between industry and academia (Project ‘Messengers’). The 2013 Country Specific Recommendation stressed the need to foster firms’ “innovation capacity and growth”

Effectiveness

The Ministry of Education and Science (Research and Development) and the Ministry of Economics (innovation policy, influencing the research domain, mainly through selected innovation policy measures) share the governance of the national research and innovation system. The Declaration of intended activities of the new Cabinet of Ministers proposed in November 2011 envisages transferring the development of the innovation policy to the Ministry of Education and Science, but until early 2013 the transfer has not been implemented. At the political level, a new national authority, namely, the Prime Minister’s Cross-sector Coordination Centre started to coordinate and monitor national development planning in 2012.

The Science, Technology and Innovation system in Latvia has been strongly affected since 2008 by the crisis. The share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D (GBAORD) was 0.15 % in 2011. Total GBAORD per capita rose until 2008, when it started to decline. The national public effort on Research and development, measure as the share of total GBAORD in national expenditures in Latvia was of 0.38% in 2011. The National Development Plan (adopted at 20.12.2012) foresees to invest on average 1.5% of GDP in research by 2020, which comprises expenditures from national sources and financing from abroad. Funding for the research system is very linked with EU funding (EU Structural Funds and the 7th Framework Programme): in 2010/11 it constituted 50.7% of GERD.

Public R&D funds are provided via a mix of institutional and project based competitive funding, with similar overall shares. The allocation principles of the state budget resources are in the process to being changed, thus promoting concentration of excellence and human resources, fostering cooperation with industry and strengthening national identity. In 2013, public and private scientific institutions are being evaluated. The 2013 Country Specific Recommendation advises to “take further steps to modernise research institutions based on the on-going independent assessment”.

National research centres are being established to strengthen excellence and concentrate resources in the following areas: Innovative Technologies for High-Quality, Safe and Healthy Food Production from Genetically, Physiologically and Biochemically Diverse Plant and Animal Material; New Medicines and Biocorrection Tools: Design, Transports and Mechanisms of Action; Research and Elaboration of Modern Methods and Developed Technologies in the Field of Energy: Environmentally Friendly Energy, Security of Energy Supply and Energy Efficiency; Scientific Foundation of Information Technology; “Letonika” (Latvian Studies): Studies of History, Language and Culture; Development of Advanced Functional Materials for Microelectronics, Nanoelectronics, Photonics, Biomedicine and Constructional Composites, as well as Related Technologies; Substantiation of Deciduous Trees Cultivation and Rational Utilization, New Products and Technologies; Multi-Disciplinary Research Consortium on Major Pathologies Threatening the Life Expectancy and Quality of Life of the Latvian Population; and Climate Change Impact on Water Environment in Latvia (Kalme).

Peer review is used for project based funding since Latvia regained independence in 1990. New rules for the evaluation of proposals on the basis of international peer review have been proposed and are expected to be implemented next year.

A Smart Specialisation strategy is being prepared, which also addresses transnational and international cooperation in research and innovation.

Transnational cooperation

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the Framework Programme. The share of participations of Latvia in total participations is 0.23 % so far, and Latvia has received 0.09 % of total EC contributions. FP funding represents 15 Euros per head of population. The country also participates as observer in one Joint Programming initiative. The country also leads one Article 185 initiative and participates in 3 other Art. 185 initiatives and in five ERANet +. Bilateral and trilateral cooperation agreements on research and innovation with some countries have been established and several activities are being developed. The country continues developing with Lithuania and Estonia the proposal for the Baltic Innovative Research and Technology Infrastructure (BIRTI) platform, whose aim is to create favourable conditions for the innovation process, scientists, engineers, designers and contractors, working together on a competitive knowledge-based world-class product development and manufacturing. As support of this platform, the Memorandum of Understanding between ministries of Education and Science of the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania and the Republic of Estonia has been signed.

The Latvian Academy of Science participates in the Joint Baltic Sea Research and Development Programme (BONUS), an Article 185 initiative co-funded by the Baltic Member States and the European Union. The main aim of BONUS is to generate and disseminate knowledge and provide necessary know-how in order to resolve successfully major challenges facing the Baltic Sea region in the coming decade and beyond on Adapting to the climate change and its effects; Restoring good environmental status of the Baltic Sea and its coasts; Achieving sustainable and safe use of the exploited coastal and marine ecosystem goods and services; Creating cost-efficient environmental information system; Evaluating and developing relevant policies and collective governance and Adapting to a sustainable way of living.

On research infrastructures improvement, the government supports the development of the national programme.

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010 the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 3.4 per 1,000 and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 0.4. The shares of non-national doctoral candidates were 0.8% from another EU-27 Member State and 0.6% from non-EU countries.

The “Law on Institutions of Higher Education” (1995) provides for the autonomy of Higher Education Institutions. It indicates that open competitions are announced for vacant professor and associate professor positions. They are elected by the Council of Professors in the relevant subject area. Each applicant who is a candidate for the position of professor receives an independent international evaluation organised by the Council of Professors in the relevant subject area. Vacancies for academic positions and top-level positions (e.g. directors) in publicly-funded scientific institutions and publicly-funded higher education institutions are advertised in the official newspaper. The EURAXESS Jobs portal provides a link to the official newspaper. Institutions can take additional measures in order to advertise job vacancies. The Law on Scientific activity defines the rights, duties and liability of researchers. It does not mention the conditions for recruitment. In 2012, 61 % of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012). The regulation on Attraction of Human Resources to science promotes the attraction of additional human resources in the public sector, funded with the contribution of the European Social Fund.

A number of Latvian universities have implemented dedicated study programmes (Master and doctoral studies) aimed at promoting researchers’ skills sets and career prospects, including inter-sector cooperation and mobility. The implementation of the ‘European Charter for Researchers’ and the ‘Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers’ is not directly promoted at national level. In 2011, the Riga University - as the first institution in Latvia - signed the ‘Charter & Code’. One Latvian organisation is actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers.

Mobility is supported by several measures. While research grants are portable to another national research institution, the current law does not regulate the portability of grants to another country. Some of them address inward "return-mobility”, others seek to attract foreign researchers and sets up the conditions for hiring foreigners.

Contracts on publicly-financed research activities are concluded between the funding agencies and the research institutions or higher education institutions. Therefore, national grants are also open to non-residents provided that these people are employees of a contracting institution.

National fellowships are also open to non-residents providing they people are students of the same study programme that provides the fellowship.

Some grants seek to induce a higher degree of integration between PhD programmes and industry. However, these grants are seldom implemented and there seems to be little follow up by industry in terms of hiring the graduates after degrees are granted.

More detailed information can be found in the country profile for Latvia in the Researchers’ Report 2013 http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/services/researchPolicies

Gender

The Labour Law includes gender among the principle of non-discrimination. In 2007, the percentage of women grade A academic staff was 29.1% in Latvia. The proportion of women working in the science sector is among the highest in the EU-27: in 2009, the percentage of women scientists was 53.8%. The share of women scientist is above 0.5 in the category of female graduates (ISCED6) per 1,000 population aged 25-34, while it is 0.3 for the case of men. However, male scientists dominate in leadership positions in Latvia. As of 2011, the Latvian Government had not introduced any new measures aimed at supporting women in top-level positions.

The European Structural Funds co-funded activities aim at promoting gender equality in the research profession. For example, promotion of gender equality is one of the criteria for the evaluation of grant proposals in the context of the ESF activities within the field of higher education and science.

Knowledge circulation

On open access to publications and data, a national repository of research data, MIDAS, is been set up. Public funded projects through competitive VEGA grants are requested to upload and make available scientific publications and/or include them in the national repository.

Knowledge transfer also receives attention from national authorities. The amendment of the Law on Scientific Activity will ensure, once adopted, the efficient protection of inventions from the public sector. Support is also being provided for the establishment of technology transfer units in eight Higher Education Institutions (University of Latvia; Riga Technical University; Ventspils University College; Rezekne Higher Education Institution; Latvia University of Agriculture; Riga Stradins University; Daugavpils University; Laboratory of Design innovation and technologies at the Art Academy of Latvia). Leading scientists from major universities of Latvia and fifty innovative entrepreneurs have teamed up to establish technology transfer centre for innovative products. Baltic Innovative Research and Technology Infrastructure (BIRTI) unite and coordinate cooperation between universities, scientific institutes and entrepreneurs.

In relation with Digital ERA, Latvia is gradually building a hi-tech industry - with a range of innovative projects pointing to rapid progress. Notably, the University of Latvia has been very active in projects such as QCS in the field of quantum computing, Osiris which aims to help European countries establish a coordinated approach to large-scale investments in transnational ICT research infrastructures, Geo-Seas, which is expanding researchers' access to information about Europe's seas and marine environment; Choreos to bear on some of the main challenges of the Future Internet of services; Accurat, which develops new tools and methods for identifying and analysing comparable bodies, or 'corpora', of texts between different language pairs, and especially in specific domains, in an effort to improve existing machine translation technology and TAAS, which focuses on creating a cloud-based platform for acquiring, cleaning up, sharing and reusing multilingual terminological data. Latvia is a member of EDUgain through LAIFE. LATNET is the Latvian National Research and Education Network (NREN), a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within the country.

Effectiveness

The Government budget appropriations or outlays for research and development (GBAORD) as a share of Gross Domestic Product were 0.58 % in 2011. Total GBAORD as a % of total general government expenditure, as a measure of the effort by national authorities to research in their country, notably in times of crisis, has initially increased from 1.09% in 2004 to 1.26% in 2008, dropped to 1.05 % in 2010, and increased again to 1.19% in 2011. The share of GBAORD allocated as project based is unknown.

In 2012, in addition to existing strategies and programmes, a number of new strategic documents with relevance for research and innovations which addressed the Knowledge Triangle were published: the National Progress Programme for Lithuania for the period 2014-2020; the Concept of the Establishment and Development of Integrated Science, Studies and Business Centres (Valleys); the State Studies and R&D Programme for 2013-2020. These added to the existing Lithuanian Innovation Strategy for 2010-2020 (adopted in 2010), the General National Research and Science and Business Cooperation Programme (adopted in 2008).

Lithuania has witnessed an increasing share of government budgetary funding for research allocated on competitive basis. The new Law on Higher Education and Research (adopted in 2009) and accompanying bylaws (Decisions) were a major policy shift and led to considerable increase in the share funds that are allocated through competitive procedures. The reforms had the largest impact on two streams of funding for public higher education institutions (HEIs) and research institutes: firstly on basic institutional funding, secondly, on grants for research projects, introducing a competitive procedure. The Research Council of Lithuania (LMT) acquired the functions of a funding agency. It provides grants to research projects through competitive calls for proposals that are subject to peer review. The scale of grant-based funding has significantly increased and reached more than €21m in 2012.

As a result, the proportion of competitiive funding has increased from 12.1% in 2006 to approx. 40% in 2011. In 2012 around 50% of all research funding would be allocated on a competitive basis, but statistics on the share of GBAORD allocated as project based are not yet available.

The 2009 Decision (as amended in 2010 and 2012) established that 40% in 2010 and 50% in 2011 and subsequent years of basic funding will be allocated to public HEIs and research institutions on the basis of results of assessment of R&D activities. Since 2011, the remaining 50% is allocated on the basis of “normative number of staff” that is approved for each institution by the decree of Minister of Education and Research.

From 2012 onwards, the “competitive” half of basic funding will be reallocated every three years taking into consideration the results of assessment of R&D activities. This will be based on four criteria: a) funding received from participation in international research projects; b) the funding received from R&D contracts with private establishments; c) the public funding from participation in joint R&D projects with private establishments; d) the evaluation of research production, focussing on publications and patents, annually carried out in accordance with the principles of international peer review.

Evaluation of R&D activities and outputs should be in line with international peer review standards. The peer-review process is organized and managed by Research Council of Lithuania (LMT). In 2012, the peer review was applied for a) Competitive calls for proposals for national and international research grants and b) Evaluation of research production. The results of evaluation have an impact on basic funding of research carried out in public HEIs and research institutions. The first evaluation was completed in 2010. In principle participation of international peers is not limited, but in practice a majority of grant proposals are submitted in Lithuanian language, which could pose linguistic barriers to participation of international reviewers. There are no publicly available data on the extent to which the peer review involves international scholars.

The updated Concept of the Establishment and Development of Integrated Science, Studies and Business Centres – Valleys (adopted in October 2012) provides the basis for continuation of investments into five science ‘valleys’, but also defines steps on setting the priorities for investments into research and innovation in the context of smart specialisation.

Transnational cooperation

The developments since 2010 have paved the way for closer integration of Lithuanian research system into ERA. This includes preparation of the Roadmap for Research Infrastructures of Lithuania (in 2011) and accompanying documents that regulate Lithuanian research institutions’ involvement in international research infrastructures (Ris); participation in Joint Programming Initiatives and six other international research programmes; launch of bilateral research programmes.

Overall, since 2010, Lithuania stepped up efforts to implement joint research agendas through Joint Programming Initiatives, international programmes, and bilateral programmes. Financial commitments to joint research agendas are however rather limited and national research programmes are only implicitly aligned with research priorities pursued at ERA.

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the Framework Programme. The share of participation of Lithuania in total participation is 0.33 % so far, and Lithuania has received 0.15 % of total EC contributions. FP funding represents 13 Euros per head of population. The country also participates in Joint Programming. Lithuania participates as a member in 2 initiatives. The country also participates in 2 Article 185 initiative(s).

Since 2010 Lithuania participates in two Joint Programming Initiatives: "Cultural Heritage and Global Change: a new Challenge for Europe" and "Healthy and Productive Seas and Oceans". Lithuania together with partner countries also contributes to six international programmes: the Joint Baltic Sea Research and Development Programme (BON US); the ERA-NETS "BiodivERsA2”m "EuroNanoMed”, "M-era.NE T”, as well as "HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area) Network Programme on Cultural Encounters and (contribution to 2nd calls for proposals launched in 2012) and "LILAN": Nordic Baltic Programme on Living Labs.

Lithuania was also involved in the drafting and adoption of the European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, which is the first macro-regional strategy in Europe, adopted by the European Council in 2009. It aims at reinforcing cooperation within the Baltic Sea region in order to face several challenges by working together as well as promoting a more balanced development in the area. Lithuania also participates in the Joint Baltic Sea Research and Development Programme (BONUS). The main aim of this article 185 programme is to generate and disseminate knowledge and provide necessary know-how in order to resolve successfully major challenges facing the Baltic Sea region in the coming decade and beyond on adapting to the climate change and its effects; restoring good environmental status of the Baltic Sea and its coasts; achieving sustainable and safe use of the exploited coastal and marine ecosystem goods and services; creating a cost-efficient environmental information system; evaluating and developing relevant policies and collective governance and adapting to a sustainable way of living. The Lithuanian Ministry of Economy (ŪM) actively seeks participation in the international innovation programmes which support international innovation networks, especially in the Baltic Sea Region. One example is a project supported by the ‘BSR Stars Programme’ and coordinated by ŪM together with Swedish partners, that aims at the preparation of a development programme for the Baltic Sea SME innovation clusters (part of the Art.185 initiatives – the ‘Eurostars’ joint research programme). The objectives of this project include implementation of international collaboration projects and creation of a macro-regional communication platform based on digital technology. The programme is a joint effort which has been developed over a period of one and a half years, involving approximately forty people from ten countries’ ministries and national innovation agencies from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland and Sweden.

In addition, in 2011 five bilateral or trilateral programmes (with Belarus, Latvia and Taiwan, France, Ukraine and Switzerland) funded 39 collaborative research projects with the total budget of €0.2m. The objectives of these programmes are not explicitly aligned with broader grand challenges and the funded projects covered a wide range of research areas.

Evaluations of research projects carried out within the framework of ERA, bilateral and trilateral programmes are recognized in Lithuania, which typically results in funding of the projects within the limits of financial commitments made for the programmes.

The Roadmap for Research Infrastructures of Lithuania was approved in 2011. An international group of experts reviewed 20 project proposals submitted by consortia of Lithuanian HEIs and research institutes and identified 15 mature or promising projects. The Roadmap also presented the selected list of the European Research Infrastructures to be considered attractive for some national research infrastructures. No financial commitments for construction and operation of the global, national or regional Ris has been made to date (March 2013).

A Decree of the Minister of Education and Science established that Lithuanian research institutions can submit applications for joining international research infrastructures on a continuous basis and the Roadmap should be subject to major revision every 5 years. The applications will be regularly assessed by the Research Council of Lithuania (LMT). The latter in December 2012 approved internal Guidelines regulating the assessment and selection procedures ("Decision of the Research Council of Lithuania on procedures for initiation of participation in international RIS").

Research infrastructure in Lithuania operates on the principle of open access - this means that RI are openly available for business (SMEs included), students and researchers from other institutions or abroad. Regulation on “Open Access Centres” – R&D infrastructures in higher education and research institutions or in other public and private entities in the Republic of Lithuania - was approved by the Minister of Education and Science in 2011. The Open Access Centres are registered by MITA.

There were no such legal development regarding removal of barriers for international access of Lithuanian Research Infrastructures. However, the following "Open Access Centres of Information Technologies" were created: the Competence Centre of Food Science and Technology, Civil Engineering Centre of the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, and the Centre of Animal Health and Quality of Raw Materials of Animal Origin. These centres provides services necessary for the performance of scientific research and (or) experiments.

On the basis of ‘Lithuania 2030’, on 28 November 2012 the Government approved the National Progress Programme for Lithuania for the period 2014-2020, providing a basis for the European Structural Funds support under the next programming period. It is projected that 14.23% of funds will be invested in education, culture and basic research (e.g. mobility, research infrastructures, competitive research funding, etc.).

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010 the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 5.3 per 1,000 and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 0.9. The shares of non-national doctoral candidates were 0.3% from another EU-27 Member State and 0.2% from non-EU countries. One Lithuanian organisation is actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers.

Lithuania has made some recent progress in creating an open labour market for researchers, and has recently put in place measures to meet its R&D target and at promoting attractive employment conditions in public research institutions (Researchers Report 2012). However, practice suggests that more needs to be done in ensuring competitiveness of the recruitment process, in terms of transparency in institutional recruitment of outsiders and access for foreign researchers to national grants. In 2012, 46% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

The Law on Higher Education and Research (adopted in 2009) establishes necessary conditions for open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers. Public HEIs and research institutes are legally obliged to: publish information on vacancies, establish selection panel, publish selection criteria, provide adequate time period (three months) between vacancy publication and submission of applications, offer the right of appeal, etc.

There is an internet portal that should include all vacancy publications and the Lithuanian EURAXESS portal should provide relevant and up-to-date background information on Lithuanian higher education and research landscape, vacancies, social insurance, work permits, etc. In 2011, LMT took over from the Centre of Quality Assessment in Higher Education the functions of the coordinator of the Lithuanian national EURAXESS centres, but there is still scope to improve the relevance and quality of its services.

In principle researchers from EU and non-EU countries can apply for grants administered by LMT. However, the number of participating foreign researchers remains limited. Application needs to be submitted in Lithuanian. There is a legal requirement that beneficiaries of grants have to be employed in a Lithuanian institution. This poses considerable barriers due to low level of salaries and careers (contractual agreements) elsewhere. National grants are not portable as they are awarded to specific institutions and therefore cannot be transferred to other institutions (in Lithuania or abroad). There are no specific measures supporting the portability of grants (Researchers Report 2012).

The decree of the Minister of Education and Science on procedures for establishing the right to offer PhD studies stipulates that institutions willing to register new PhD programmes have to comply with considerably more stringent requirements in terms of excellence of research, relevance of proposed research programmes, human and physical resources, etc. As a result, an increasing number of Lithuanian institutions establish joint PhD programmes, with the view of pooling intellectual resources and research infrastructure. Furthermore, several universities have started Joint international PhD programmes, (some of them funded by Erasmus Mundus). The use of the principles for Innovative Doctoral Training has not been identified.

More detailed information can be found in the country profile for Lithuania in the Researchers’ Report 2013 http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/services/researchPolicies

Gender

Despite the relatively high proportion of women researchers, they are grossly under-represented in senior academic (less than 20% of professors are women) and managerial positions. A Strategy on Equal Opportunities was adopted in 2008, endorsing gender equality in science and research in Lithuania. It provides legal foundations for introduction of “Gender equity and gender mainstreaming” as a horizontal principles in other strategies and programmes (for example, Researchers Career Programme). Since 2011, the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences implements a project “Promotion of gender equality in sciences”. These steps, however, do not seem to be sufficient to counter historically embedded barriers to gender equality in research. At the moment, there is no systemic approach or legal regulations to promote gender equality on academic and research committees, boards and governing bodies in Lithuania.

With the view of tackling practical issues related to gender equality project the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and its partners LMT, association "BASNET Forumas” and the National Union of Student Representations of Lithuania implement the national project “Promotion of gender equality in sciences” (LYMOS). The project started in 2011 and runs until beginning of 2013. It has issued several analytical reports, provided recommendations for updating the Strategy on Equal Opportunities, to research and higher education institutions of Lithuania with measures helping to ensure gender equality in science and its management and provided grants to researchers after maternity (paternity) leave (budget for 2011-2012 was €0.09m). This project is the only example of a partnership related to gender issues, as proposed in the ERA Communication.

Knowledge circulation

The Law on Higher Education and Research stipulates that all results obtained from research activities carried out in State higher education and research institutions or in education research institutions using State budget funds must be publicly announced (in the Internet or any other way) and that the results of research conducted in non-State higher education and research institutions with funds of the State budget shall be announced publicly (in the Internet or any other way).

In order to address the insufficient incentives for institutions and researchers to ensure open access to research results, and the fragmented public support, in 2012, the Minister of Education and Science approved the Programme for Development of Lithuanian Research and Studies Informational Infrastructure for 2013-2016 (total budget €18m). It seeks better integration of previously developed databases and increased accessibility of research outputs (publications, etc.) and data. The target is that 40% of publications and at least 10% of collected data should be publicly available free of charge by 2016. The allocation of €4.3m in 2011 to Vilnius University for implementation of the project “National open access archive of research information (MIDAS)” seeks to provide infrastructure for preservation and open access to research data. It is planned to integrate it with other databases.

The year 2012 witnessed proliferation of new strategic documents with relevance for innovation and knowledge transfer between public research and private enterprises: the National Progress Programme for Lithuania for the period 2014-2020; the Concept of the Establishment and Development of Integrated Science, Studies and Business Centres (Valleys); the State Studies and R&D Programme for 2013-2020 which addresses the knowledge triangle, adding to existing strategies and programmes: the Lithuanian Innovation Strategy for 2010-2020 (adopted in 2010), the General National Research and Science and Business Cooperation Programme (adopted in 2008).

A dedicated programme to promotion of High-Level International Scientific Research has as goal to promote the execution of high-level international research directed towards the priority areas of economy that will determine the future prosperity and competitiveness of Lithuania, as provided for in the Lithuanian Innovation Strategy for 2010–2020. Applications for the execution of 25 projects in the amount of LTL 41.41 million were received in 2012. Currently, there are 15 agreements signed for the total of LTL 25.71 million.

Investments in five so called “Integrated science, studies and business centres – valleys” constitute the most important instrument (worth around € 597m) for fostering open innovation and transfer of knowledge between public research and private enterprises. The initial idea behind the “valleys” projects was to establish state-of-art business-science collaboration centres/clusters with respective research infrastructure and supporting services (knowledge and IPR transfer services, commercialization units, etc.). However, systemic and legal obstacles prevented business from entering R&D collaboration with universities (and vice versa).

The updated Concept of the Establishment and Development of Integrated Science, Studies and Business Centres – Valleys (adopted in October 2012) seeks to address some of the drawbacks. It provides the basis for continuation of investments into five science ‘valleys’, but also defines steps on setting the priorities for investments into research and innovation in the context of smart specialisation and should launch a specific programme for funding the ‘joint projects’ in defined priority areas. The Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology (MITA) received a mandate to coordinate the implementation of ‘joint projects’. A new coordinating body – the Strategic Council for Research, Development and Innovation under the Prime Minister’s Office will be set up. MITA together with other institutions (ŪM and ŠMM) belongs to secretariat of this new coordinating body.

The Ministry of Economy has prepared and announced a draft description of conditions for financing under the measure “Intellect LT”. In accordance with this description the activities of the commercialization of research results will be financed. Currently there are 15 applications for projects funded by the Ministry of Education and Science that have been assessed by the European Social Fund Agency; also, contracts on project funding and administration are being concluded. The implementation of the projects is scheduled to start in 2013.

In 2012, the Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology (MITA) implemented a call for applications for the funding of commercialization projects of scientific research and development results. 13 projects were financed, 13 companies established for commercialization of R&D results. In order to promote more active business-science cooperation and technology transfer processes, the implementation of the project “Science and Technology for Innovative Businesses” aiming at the provision of innovation-related services for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) was started. The funding in the amount of LTL 6.2 million was allocated for the project.

Around € 100 mln are allocated for other measures foreseen for 2007-2013 aiming at direct support for fostering public-private cooperation and for the promotion of clusterization are allocated around € 100 mln and include: “PRO LT”, “Inoklaster LT”, “Inogeb LT-1”, “Inogeb LT-2”, “Inogeb LT-3”, “Advanced technologies development programme”, “Biotechnologies development programme”, „Innovation vouchers”, “Eurostars” and “Eureka”. The implementation of the programme “BSR Stars”and the project “StarDust” aimed at the development of innovations, clusters and small and medium-sized enterprise networks was being continued in 2012. Under the “BSR Starts” programme, 11 new clusters, 3 of which were international, were created. The country continues developing the proposal for the BIRTI platform, whose aim is to create favourable conditions for the innovation process, scientists, engineers, designers and contractors, working together on a competitive knowledge-based world-class product development and manufacturing.

As a general rule publicly funded e-infrastructures are accessible to researchers from public and private sectors without major restrictions. In late 2012 there have been discussions to set up a portal that could provide e-services to public research institutions and private enterprises. The overall objective of the initiative is to facilitate commercialisation of ideas generated in research institutions and foster cooperation between public and private sectors. In 2012, 47 Lithuanian research and higher education institutions were provided with a possibility to use the information system of the Lithuanian academic e-library. The Lithuanian e-learning infrastructure was created and ensured. In 2012, the Lithuanian Distance Education Network (LieDM) supported distance learning (e-learning) in Lithuania in 2012. The implementation of the Lithuanian Virtual University Programme for 2007–2012 was completed. Its continuation in 2013–2016 was approved under the name "Lithuanian higher education and science institutions' informational infrastructure development programme" (LITMIS). LITNet is the Lithuanian National Research and Education Network (NREN), a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within the country.

Effectiveness

Luxembourg has a young public research system. Its public research institutions are slightly more than two decades old and its sole university was formed in 2003. The GBOARD as a share of GDP was 0.58% in 2011. Luxembourg’s national RDI strategy is founded on multi-annual planning and focuses on targeted priorities defined in the strategy Luxembourg 2020.

The Ministry of Higher Education and Research (MESR) is in charge of research performers University of Luxembourg, the public research institutions Gabriel Lippmann, Henri Tudor, Santé and CEPS/INSTEAD. The MESR oversees also the National Research Fund (NRF). Founded in 1999, the NRF oversees funding for public sector research programmes and administers the national funding programme for doctorate and post-doctorate studies (Aid for Research Training-AFR).

The Ministry of the Economy and Foreign Trade (MECE) supports private sector research under the law of 5 June 2009. Luxinnovation, the National Agency for Innovation and Research, bridges the public and private sectors, while a governmental Superior Committee for Research and Innovation (Comité Supérieur de la Recherche et de l’Innovation) ensures consistency and coherence in the research policy mix.

The most important recent developments have been the establishment of performance contracts with the major research actors in the public sector (all PROs, FNR, Luxinnovation) in 2008 and the law of 5 June 2009 for government support of activities in the private sector. Performance contracts provide the institutions with quite large autonomy in defining and implementing a 3-year research development strategy. They include funding commitments and targets for external funding as well as provisions for human resources development for researchers. Increasing amounts of competitive and project-based funding as well as mandatory annual evaluations of the public research centres (or one of its departments) by international peer review are mandated by performance contracts. The University of Luxembourg is also evaluated on a regular basis under the law of 12 August 2003. The results of evaluations of the public research centres are published on the MESR website and, for the University, on its website. All evaluations are conducted through a peer review by independent, international experts.

In order to further consolidate and harmonise the national research system, new legislation was submitted to the Parliament in 2012 modifying the law of 31 May 1999 on the National Research Fund as well as new legislation concerning the public research centres (“Law on Public Research Institutions”). According to the new legislation the Public Research Centres (PRCs) Gabriel Lippmann and Henri Tudor will be merged and the Integrated BioBank of Luxembourg (IBBL) will be integrated into PRC Santé,. This implies that the University of Luxembourg will focus on the creation of new scientific knowledge, fundamental research and academic teaching whereas the “New PRC” will focus on applied research.

About 60% of the Luxembourgish GBOARD is allocated through calls for proposals. This is one of the highest shares of all EU Member States. All programmes funded through the NFR operate through calls. The ATTRACT (2006-2013), CORE (2008-2013) and OPEN programmes have annual calls and the INTER programme (2006-2014) has regular calls, while calls for the PEARL programme (2011-2013) are open over the whole year. Funding programmes of the NRF imply proposals to be reviewed by independent, international experts. NRF adheres to the core principles of international peer review.

The NRF CORE programme, which is the main public research funding instrument, covers five thematic domains for a budget of €69 million for 2011-2013. The launch of the NRF OPEN programme intends to provide funding for a limited number of high quality research projects that do not fit into areas covered by the NRF’s thematic CORE programme. It aims at supporting established researchers to pursue new and emerging developments in their research fields. The first call for proposals is taking place in early 2013 with an annual budget set at €1 million.

Transnational cooperation

The NRF actively encourages research collaboration between researchers in Luxembourg and abroad. In order to optimise the visibility of Luxembourg as an attractive location for research activities within Europe, the NRF plans to reinforce collaborations with selected countries as well as its own international cooperation instruments. In the Luxemburg 2020 strategy, the government agrees that significant augmentation of participation in international programs and initiatives is needed.

Luxembourg has always been committed to transnational co-operation and the NRF has established widespread bi-lateral and multi-lateral agreements with other international research performers and consortia. These include participation in seven ERA-Nets as well European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST), European Research Consortium in Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) and ESF Research Networking Programmes. The share of participation of Luxembourg in the EU FP is 0.14%. Luxembourg has received 0.08% of total EC contributions. FP funding represents 86 Euros per head of population. Luxembourg participates in one JPI and 4 Article 185 initiatives, and leads one of them.

Luxembourg has multiple bi-lateral agreements with SNF (CH), DFG (DE), NCBR (PL), FWO (BE),FWF (AT) and CNRS (FR), which follow the Lead Agency principle in which the rules and evaluation procedures of the agency to whom the proposal is submitted apply. When not itself the Lead Agent, Luxembourg accepts the decision of the Lead Agent as the basis of the funding decision and funds the research activities carried out in Luxembourg. Since 2012, proposals under the bi-lateral agreements with Germany’s DFG and Switzerland’s SNF are submitted under the NRF CORE programme. It requires peer review by three independent international experts and a panel review including one of those experts.

The NRF INTER programme funds Luxembourg researcher participation in international projects. The aim of the programme is to promote international scientific cooperation, to create synergies between research centres within and outside Luxembourg, to achieve a critical mass in certain fields and to increase the visibility and competitiveness of research in Luxembourg.

NRF participates in European Heads of Research Councils (EUROHORCs), the European Science Foundation (ESF) and the International Council for Science (ICSU). NRF is also a member of Science Europe.

There is no European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) roadmap for Luxembourg. Luxembourg does not participate in large-scale, intergovernmental RI projects. This is not considered to be an issue or detrimental to its national research strategy.

Open Labour market for researchers

The number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 11.4 per 1,000 in 2010. The number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 0.8 in 2010 and the percentage of doctoral candidates with citizenship of another EU-27 Member State was 67.9%. The percentage of non-EU doctoral candidates as a percentage of all doctoral candidates was 20.4%.

Most researchers working in Luxembourg are foreigners. Grants are fully open to non-residents and are portable to other EU countries on condition that the project objectives and deliverables remain the same abroad.

The AFR programme, which funds PhD and post-doc work and is run by NRF, is currently supporting around 600 researchers. The ATTRACT and PEARL programmes also aim to attract outstanding researchers. The ATTRACT programme is targeted at outstanding younger researchers from abroad two-to-eight years beyond their doctorates, while the PEARL programme offers PROs the means to recruit senior researchers in areas of strategic importance to Luxembourg. The NRF accompanying measure on Training and Mobility is dedicated to the support of both inward and outward mobility from one month up to one year.

The public research centres enjoy full autonomy in their recruitment policy, while the University autonomy is limited. All the public research organisations in Luxembourg have signed the Declaration of Commitment (including the NRF and STATEC -Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques). The University and all PROs are in the process of developing a human resource policy under the provisions of the Charter and Code, as is the MESR. Under the future new Law on public research institutions, the implementation of the “Charter & Code” will become mandatory. 6 Luxembourg organisations are actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers of which 2 have received the "HR Excellence in Research" logo for their progress in implementing the Charter & Code.

The AFR funding programme is in compliance with the principles advocated in the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers and follows the guidelines “Towards a European Framework for Research Careers.”

Job vacancies are posted on the Luxembourg’s Euraxess website (83 posts per 1,000 researchers) as well as on the websites of its PROs. All new positions in the University are open to external researchers. English is the preferred language for non-administrative posts. The Luxembourg Portal for Innovation and Research has links to researcher job openings and internships and all PROs also list openings for researchers, including PhD and post-doc positions. However, selection criteria are not published and limited information is provided on the selection process or selection panels (composition not published). The University of Luxembourg includes international experts in its selection panels. Institutions do neither offer the right to receive feedback nor to appeal. In 2012, 72% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

In the future the government is planning to set up a series of doctoral schools for PhD candidates to improve researchers’ employment skills and competencies. The government is also plans to define supervision criteria to monitor the advancement of funded PhD projects. The AFR funding programme meets the “Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training”.

Last, Luxembourg offers full social benefits to researchers at all levels, including PhDs and post docs.

Gender

There are laws prohibiting discrimination based on gender.

Eleven Luxembourg public research institutions have signed the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers that supports gender equality. Gender is highlighted in all performance contracts and gender balance is taken into consideration for the nomination of board personnel.

There are however no quotas or national targets or other measures to ensure representative gender balance for researchers. Luxembourg ranks at the bottom of the EU as regards the proportion of female researchers, women in Grade A academic positions and women in PROs’ boards.

NRF encourages Luxembourg PROs to support female candidates for ATTRACT and PEARL grants. Despite this, there are only 2 out of eight women as ATTRACT fellows, and none out of 4 as PEARL grant recipients. The AFR PhD and post doc grant programme is also supportive of women candidates.

Knowledge circulation

The University of Luxembourg has chosen to support the Open Access “Green Road”. In cooperation with the University of Liège, the University of Luxembourg is implementing an Institutional Repository. The NRF is also developing a policy on Open Access.

In addition to its own digital repository, the University Library is in the process of becoming Luxembourg’s National Open Access Desk (NOAD) for the European Commission’s Openair project. The role of the NOAD is to provide a nationally accessible helpdesk which will advise all authors financed by FP7 and H2020, whether they are in the University or not.

All PROs and the University of Luxembourg offer listings of their publications. CEPS/Instead publishes its papers which are not published in commercial journals. The NRF provides the final reports of the projects it funds.

While there is no federated electronic identity for Luxembourg researchers, all Luxembourg residents, including researchers and private sector employees, can obtain free online access to the National Library’s digital resources. The National Library also has initiatives in capturing digital content for researchers. The “Digital Humanities” project offers public access via the internet to digital copies of previously inaccessible works and is being extended to the national digitisation platforms.

The University library has an e-resource which provides online access to e-books and journals to the university community, as well as links to the National Library’s digital services.

As regards public-private cooperation the AFR programme promotes it by paying an incentive for research projects carried out in collaboration with the private sector. Furthermore the law of 5 June 2009 supports the secondment of researchers from the public sector to private enterprise.

All the performance contracts between the MESR and Luxembourg’s PROs and the University foresee public-private partnerships as a key component. The Cité des Sciences being built in Esch-Belval will provide facilities for public-private partnerships and a business incubator. Several PRO performance contracts include the creation of spin-offs using IP from research activities, though with limited results in spin-offs and patents up to now.

A new initiative increases links between the NRF and Luxinnovation. To support the valorisation of the research results of NRF-funded projects, each funded CORE project will be assessed by the NRF together with Luxinnovation in terms of its potential economic impact. If a potential is identified for a given project, the researchers are invited to collaborate with Luxinnovation in order to explore its possible valorisation.

In June 2013 the Council recommended that Luxembourg should take further measures “fostering private investment in research, notably by developing cooperation between public research and firms.” (Council Recommendation No. 4)

The Réseau Téléinformatique de l'Education Nationale et de la Recherche (RESTENA) is the very high speed network for the education and research community of Luxembourg (NREN). It is a partner in the GÉANT project

 

Effectiveness

Malta’s research governance system consists of the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) and Malta Enterprise. MCST, which has recently moved under the Ministry for Education and Employment, is responsible for research and innovation policy and manages the implementation of the national research and innovation funding programme. Malta Enterprise, which answers to the Ministry of Economy, Investment and Small Business, is the national development agency responsible for the growth and development of Maltese enterprise and operates a number of R&D schemes. The development of R&I policy (including the R&I funding programme) started only recently with Malta’s accession to the EU in 2004. Malta’s research landscape is relatively small with one public university, the University of Malta, which is the main research performer in the higher education sector. Malta has only one public research organisation, the Malta Aquaculture Research Centre. A number of government departments may be involved in research activities to a small degree, but do not have a dedicated research budget.

The draft National Research and Innovation Strategy (2011-2020) is expected to be adopted by September 2013. The previous strategy, the National R&I Strategic Plan covered the period 2007 – 2010. The implementation of research policy is carried out through annual research and innovation programmes (the 2013 National R&I Programme is currently on-going).

The share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D (GBAORD) was 0.22% in 2011. Total GBAORD per capita rose until 2010, when it started to decline. The national public effort on Research and development, measure as the share of total GBAORD in national expenditures in Malta was of 0.53% in 2011. The share of GBAORD allocated as project based is unknown.

Project-based funding is allocated on a competitive basis through the National Research and Innovation (R&I) Programme. The annual budget for Malta's national R&I programme amounts to approx. 1.6 million Euros and funding allocation is done using international peer review. Although it is not clear whether the evaluation process is in line with the international peer review principles, competition amongst applicants is fierce and the programme is systematically over-subscribed. It can be assumed that the quality of research proposals is high considering the strong competition for the limited amount of funding available.

There are no institutional assessments of the University of Malta or the public research centre and the allocation of institutional funding is hence not based on performance. In a country with so few public research organisations, competitive allocation of institutional funding is not considered realistic or effective.

Malta is currently elaborating its smart specialisation strategy with eight areas of national interest having been identified. It is expected that the strategy will be endorsed by September 2013.

Transnational cooperation

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the Framework Programme. The share of participation of Malta in total participation is 0.14% so far, and Malta has received 0.04% of total EC contributions. FP funding represents 36 Euros per head of population. The country also participates in two Joint Programming and in one Article 185 initiative

Malta typically faces the issues of a small country with limited R&D capacity and funding to engage in cross-border cooperation. Given the relative short history of R&D policy in Malta, the bulk of efforts have been directed towards Malta’s participation in the EU Framework Programme. The draft R&I Strategy emphasises the importance of international cooperation but the document does not detail out specific policies or actions supporting joint activities. The identification of strategic areas for cross-border cooperation (e.g. microelectronics, health) is linked to the on-going elaboration of the smart specialisation strategy.

Given Malta's small R&D base (and limited research funding available), participation in the ESFRI Roadmap is not a priority for the time being. However, the draft National R&I Strategy (2011-2020) recommends the preparation of a national strategy on research infrastructures. There is no timeframe or financial target specified in the recommendation. The construction of the LifeSciences Centre may be considered a first step towards the development of a national research infrastructure.

The draft National R&I Strategy (2011-2020) includes a recommendation supporting Maltese researchers’ access to research infrastructures of interest outside Malta. According to national authorities, access to research infrastructures outside Malta has been recognised as problematic, mainly due to the high costs involved.

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010 the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 3.4 per 1,000 and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 0.2. The shares of non-national doctoral candidates were 4.1% from another EU-27 Member State and 4.1% from non-EU countries.

Considering that R&I policies were put in place only recently (with Malta’s accession to the EU in 2004), the key priority for Maltese authorities is to strengthen Malta’s S&T basis. In particular, a key challenge identified by Maltese authorities is to ensure that the country trains a sufficient number of researchers and highly-skilled people and is able to retain them locally. This has resulted in a series of measures aiming at raising the attractiveness of research careers and R&I environment.

With regard to researchers’ recruitment and according to the Deloitte Researchers report, the job profile, competence and eligibility criteria are published with the vacancy. The setting up of selection panel is clearly defined and candidates can receive feedback and appeal. However, the composition of selection panel is not published and it is not common practice to include external national or international members in the selection panel. In 2012, 55% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

Malta Euraxess website provides links to researchers’ positions published on other websites.

The portability of public PhD scholarships managed by the Ministry of Education and Employment is allowed. However, access to grants is restricted for non-resident researchers.

The Charter and Code were officially endorsed by the Office of the Prime Minister in 2005 and the Draft National R&I Strategy (2011-2020) explicitly supports the implementation of the ‘Charter and Code principles’ by research organisations. However, the draft National R&I strategy does not detail concrete actions to support the implementation.

With regard to doctoral training, Malta has adopted several schemes and programmes (e.g. STEPS scheme, MGSS) which aim at creating a competitive and attractive research environment for PhD candidates.

More detailed information can be found in the country profile for Malta in the Researchers’ Report 2013 http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/services/researchPolicies

Gender

No measures addressing gender equality in research are reported besides general legislation and soft law measures supporting gender equality (e.g. Gender Equality Action Plan 2009-2010)

Knowledge circulation

Malta has adopted a series of measures to support public-private linkages. Knowledge transfer has been at the core of Malta’s national R&I Programme, which funds projects jointly undertaken by industry and academia. Projects financed by the national R&I Programme need also to demonstrate a strong commercialisation potential. The recently set-up knowledge transfer office at the University of Malta and the development of Malta Life Sciences Centre also constitute important steps towards the development of strong public-private linkages, although it is still too early to assess the effectiveness of these measures. In addition, Malta Enterprise runs several schemes (e.g. advisory services for researchers in search of venture capital, Loans for Highly Qualified Personnel, Royalty Income from Patents) supporting public-private cooperation in the field of industrial and experimental development.

UoM-CSC is the Maltese National Research and Education Network (NREN), a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within the country.

Effectiveness

The Netherlands has set itself the target of spending 2.5% of gross domestic product on research and development (R&D) by 2020. The Government budget appropriations or outlays for research and development (GBAORD) as a share of Gross Domestic Product was 0.79 % in 2011. Total GBAORD as % of total general government expenditure, as a measure of the effort by national authorities to invest in research in their country, notably in times of crisis, has dropped from 1,78% in 2002, 1,77% in 2005 and 1,58% in 2011%. This figure does not take into account an increased emphasis on indirect funding via tax measures. The share of GBAORD allocated as project based was 31,01 % in 2008.

The Dutch government will pursue this ambitious target to achieve 2.5 of GDP by continuing the implementation its policy for the business sector ("Naar de Top") and the Quality in Diversity strategic agenda ("Kwaliteit in verscheidenheid"), which presents a long-term scenario for higher education, research and science.

The main actors and institutions responsible for allocating competitive funds for research and innovation in the Netherlands are the responsible ministries (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Ministry of Economic Affairs) and a group of main funding bodies: the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) for scientific research, and NL Agency, for the allocation of grants and financing instruments aimed at industrial research, innovation and collaborative projects. Funding for scientific research in NL is provided in three steps: 1) block / institutional funding by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science for the HEIs (including university hospitals with involvement of the Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sports) and; 2) competitive funding by NWO and KNAW; 3) projectbased funding from different sources. Both KNAW and N.W.O. also fund their own institutes. KNAW funds primarily own institutes but offers also limited competitive funding for some programmes (and prizes/awards). Research is also funded by some ministry´s own knowledge institutes, and for policy-oriented research by their policy budgets.

A reform with effect on the effectiveness of the Dutch research system is firstly the new policy for the business sector ("Naar de Top") launched in 2012. The Top Sectors should promote synergy and coherence of research and innovation activities on economic and social priorities, and foster public-private cooperation and leverage private investments. PPP’s are stimulated by means of the TKI-allowance (named after the 19 Topconsortia for Knwledge an Innovation that commenced the implementation of Top Sector research roadmaps) and the MIT (MKB Innovatiestimulering Topsectoren), the latter targeting SME’s. The new enterprise policy has coïncided with the start of a major shift from direct funding of research and innovation to indirect funding. Thus, investments in private R&D will be stimulated primarily by tax measures, notably from 2012 onwards. Additional funds will be available for the Top Sectors (TKI allowance) and for fundamental research, the latter will continue to be allocated competitively based on scientific excellence by the research council N.W.O. The shift in funding of business R&D could lead to a larger share of user-inspired type of fundamental and applied research in the Netherlands’ overall research output, with more short-term economic and societal impact. The effect of the Top Sector policy on fundamental research will be closely monitored by KNAW, which will issue a second monitoring report by the of 2014.

Secondly, the reforms of the Dutch Higher Education institutions will have impact on research, knowledge transfer and cooperation with industry, aligned with the Top Sectors. Performance agreements as agreed in the autumn of 2012, combined with a financial sanction mechanism, should lead to better academic achievement (quality) and sharper profiles of the HE institutions. The HEI-funds in the period 2013-2016 will be awarded on the basis of the performance agreements with individual universities and colleges, with impact on both their education as well as research funding.

Project funding is normally reviewed by international independent experts in the case of NOW and KNAW, not in the case of the NL agency which has different procedures, depending on the type of grant or subsidy, but not automatically with an evaluation committee. The quality of the institutions for scientific research is regularly evaluated based on the national Standard Evaluation Protocol 2009-2015, which follows international evaluation standards and lays down four main assessment criteria: quality, productivity, feasibility/vitality and societal relevance. The ERiC project resulted in 2010 in guidance for evaluating the societal relevance of research. A report by Committee Theeuwes analysed in 2012 evaluation practices under the responsibility of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, with recommendations for improvements for the evaluation of R&D programmes.

A relatively new competitive scheme was launched in 2012. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science initiated the programme 'Zwaartekracht' (Gravitation) which offers additional institutional funding for top research consortia in the Netherlands. This is competitive institutional funding for max 10 years and aims to support outstanding research in consortia (which can include research schools). The basic budget amounts to 50 million euros per year. For the 2012 round 167 million euros have been awarded for new commitments up to a maximum of ten years.

Transnational cooperation

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the Framework Programme. The share of participation of Netherlands in total participation is 5.79 % so far, and Netherlands has received 7.15 % of total EC contributions. FP funding represents 144 Euros per head of population. The country also participates in Joint Programming. Netherlands participates as a member in 10 initiatives, and coordinates Healthy Diet for Healthy Life. The country also participates in 5 Article 185 initiative(s) and leads 1 of them.

N.W.O. research funds and actions cover broad themes that relate to national and international agendas for the period 2011-14. The themes are agro food and horticulture, healthy living, water and climate, cultural and societal dynamics, high tech systems and materials, sustainable energy and connecting sustainable cities. Via these themes, N.W.O. is actively contributing to joint research agendas at global and European level, including ERA-nets, article 185 initiatives and Joint Programming Initiatives. Representatives of the Top Sectors will update in 2013 the innovation contracts and will align these with Europe 2020 objectives. There is no overall coordination yet with the different Dutch research stakeholder organisations which relate to implementing joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, or to discuss Dutch contributions to European and international initiatives, but the possibilities for this are currently explored. This seems increasingly important given the relation with the Top Sectors and the increased budget for cofunding of Horizon 2020.

While the Dutch government has Memoranda of Understanding with non-EU countries to ease international cooperation, the details and implementation of international cooperation and therefore also mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to international peer review and cross-border interoperability, are determined at the level of the funding agencies. N.W.O. has several programmes supporting international collaboration, researcher mobility and international exchanges, which involve Memoranda of Understanding between N.W.O. with other research councils, and co-ordinated and joint evaluation procedures following international peer review standards. N.W.O. also experiments with the Lead Agency approach, for example in the ORA-Programme. N.W.O. has prioritised working with China (working closely together with KNAW), India and Brazil. In all of these countries the policy is regularly discussed in a joint committee with the main players both nationally and in the partner countries concerned. Also KNAW has two major international collaboration programmes, with China and Indonesia.

The Netherlands has a national roadmap with 28 large scale research facilities which are of interest for Dutch science. Based on the 2011 Strategic Agenda for Higher Education and Research, additional funds have become available for large research infrastructures. Each year, 40 million euro will be available for the facilities on the national roadmap, which are for a large part connected to the ESFRI roadmap. N.W.O. is implementing investment programmes for medium sized and large infrastructures. Excellence is one but not the only criterium in the selection under these programmes. Universities compete for support for their participation in national and European facilities. There are 3 ESFRI initiatives currently being implemented with the Netherlands as hosting country: (CLARIN-ERIC –Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure; SHARE-ERIC Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, EATRIS - European Advanced Translational Research Infrastructure in Medicine). The Dutch government gives grants to a number of European intergovernmental organisations, to provide researchers in the Netherlands access to large-scale facilities and international networks.

Access to large research facilities (via N.W.O.) is normally based on excellence, access conditions are however defined by the facilities themselves.

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010 the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 6.1 per 1,000 and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 1.9. The Dutch government has put in place a range of measures aimed at training enough researchers to meet its R&D targets and at promoting attractive employments conditions in public research institutions, including the funding by NWO of top researchers at universities and in word-class scientists (Researchers Report 2012).

All vacancies in the Dutch academic world are published on the international website Academic Transfer. In 2012, 63% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012). The government provides support to take part in EURAXESS initiatives, which provides personalised information and services to researchers and Phd students who want to study and/or work in the Netherlands or in another related country. EURAXESS cooperates intensively with the relevant ministries (Social Affairs and Employment, Interior, Foreign Affairs). The Dutch organisation NUFFIC delivers specific expertise to EURAXESS on immigration procedures, health insurance, social security and taxation; the University of Tilburg on social security and taxation and the agency AgentschapNL on the FP7 Marie Curie programme and research funding opportunities in general. EURAXESS is linked to Academic Transfer. In 2011, the number of researcher posts through Euraxess was 51 compared with an EU average of 24 (Researchers Report 2012).

The Netherlands encourages international mobility of researchers via a range of grants and fellowships designed to promote international cooperation between Dutch researchers and researchers of different nationalities. The NWO Rubicon scheme, since 2010 co-funded by the 7th Framework Programme Marie Curie COFUND scheme, gives for example postdoctoral researchers the chance to gain experience at top research institutions in other countries. The scheme, like NWO´s Innovational Research Incentives Scheme (Vernieuwingsimpuls), is open to all disciplines and talented applicants with all nationalities. The research funded by the latter scheme must however be carried out at a research institute in the Netherlands. It allows for some grant portability. In the case of mobility the remainder of the grant may be transferred to the new institute, after approval by NWO on a "case by case" basis. Transfer of the remainder of the grant is more applicable for Veni laureates, as the grant always covers the salary costs of the PI and no other personnel is involved. PhD students and Postdocs mostly stay in the Netherlands.

Doctoral schools in the Netherlands are well aligned with the European principles for innovative doctoral training. Doctoral education is under development in the Netherlands. The Dutch HE-system contains an accreditation system by the Dutch Higher Education and Research Act (WHW, since 1997). However, PhD programmes are the responsibility of individual universities and outside the scope of the overall accreditation process. The Dutch Royal Academy for Science (KNAW) has a Research School Accreditation Committee (ECOS), which assesses teaching and research at Dutch research schools against specific quality criteria. Research schools are accredited by the ECOS. Transferable skills are considered important, as 75% of researchers will not reach the level of excellence needed and should ultimately find a job outside research. A next wave of top research schools may be funded in the near future. The NWO Graduate Programme is to create an excellent educational and research environment for highly talented young researchers. The NWO Doctoral Grant for Teachers aims to increase the number of teachers holding a doctorate. The NOW programme Zwaartekracht, aiming to select the best research consortia in the Netherlands, is also open to Research Schools, with calls in 2013 and 2016.

Research institutions in the Netherlands are autonomous in the area of human resource management. Any initiatives by the Dutch government, for example towards the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers, can only be taken in consultation and collaboration with these institutions (and, where relevant, the private sector). 15 Dutch organisations are actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers of which 2 have received the "HR Excellence in Research" logo for their progress in implementing the Charter & Code.

More detailed information can be found in the country profile for Netherlands in the Researchers’ Report 2013 http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/services/researchPolicies

Gender

The Dutch government wants to promote the emancipation: the empowerment of girls and women, and the emancipation of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT). The Minister of Education, Culture and Science is responsible for this policy and has as, in addition to general anti-discrimination law and regulations, as instruments specific laws and regulations, subsidies to institutions for women's and LGBT emancipation and project grants to civil society and communication actions. On 10 May 2013, the Minister presented her policy for the period 2013-2016 to Dutch parliament. The participation of women in science was not addressed in this policy letter, but the need for gender balance in health care and health research is a policy priority, and a number of measures for this policy area were announced. The Dutch situation on gender is rather diverse between disciplines and institutions.

As a general soft-law measure, the Charter "Towards the Top" was initiated in 2008 and aims to achieve a higher intake, promotion and retention of female talent in top jobs, and thus to promote gender diversity in the senior ranks of companies, organisations and institutions. The signatories need to indicate their baseline situation, commit themselves to objectives and strategies regarding gender balance and annual monitoring. The Dutch government will initiate a dialogue with those sectors which do not show improvements.

A number of other softer measures and financial incentives are in place for science. The Aspasia scheme is linked to the NWO Talent Scheme and is intended to encourage the promotion of female Vidi grant candidates to an associate professorship and female Vici grant candidates to a full professorship. The NWO programme Plural aims to move more women at Dutch universities to a position as a lecturer, in the area of Earth and Life Sciences. The Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) supports the appointment of a woman in permanent employment in physics and visibility of female physicists, including by the Minerva-Prize."Girlsday" is an annual event aiming at awakening the interest of young girls aged 10-15 years in science and technology, which has become more and more embedded in the curriculum of the schools and more and more companies are interested in the initiative. The Dutch network of women professors aims to promote proportionate representation of women within the university community and is supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science as well a by the research council NWO.

Knowledge circulation

The Dutch government supports the principles of access to and dissemination of scientific information, but does not invest substantially in the furthering of open access and preservation of scientific information. A strategy on scientific information is under preparation, and a letter should be sent normally to Dutch parliament in September 2013.

The scientific community and libraries are very active at national (and international) level despite severe budget cuts. All Dutch universities have a green open access policy, although not all have the same policy and they do not make open access compulsory. The research council NOW encourages that research results acquired with N.W.O. funding are accessible to the public. The “Incentive Fund Open Access” is a pilot in the humanities for starting open access journals, and has launched a call for proposals for all disciplines served by N.W.O. for starting open access journals. N.W.O. also co-finances OAPEN (Open Access Publishing in European Networks) focusing on open access publishing of books. A new N.W.O. policy stimulating Access to research data is currently being implemented. DANS encourages researchers to archive and reuse data in a sustained manner, e.g. through the online archiving system EASY. The library of the Technological University Delft (TUD) has a national, cross-institutional task with respect to technological-scientific literature, for students, companies and citizens. The TUD receives a special subsidy for this task. Together with the Royal Library and the e-Science research centre, TUD works on Open Access and digitalising of scientific literature and an electronic documentation system (e-depot). One of the national tasks concerns support on scientific information management to companies. In June 2013, the government announced to cut the budget for this national task, expressing the hope for continuity of the activities funded by the regular budget for universities.

The EU country-specific recommendation 2012 for the Netherlands was to promote innovation, private R&D investment and closer science-business links, as well as foster industrial renewal by providing suitable incentives in the context of the enterprise policy. With its "Top sectors" strategy and related funding, the government is implementing this recommendation in association with the business sector, knowledge institutes and regional and local authorities. The government will promote private spending on research and development and fundamental research and the annual public funding for research and innovation will increase by more than 0.7 billion euro to around 6.4 billion euro in the period 2008-2016. In 2012, 19 Top Consortia for Knowledge and Innovation (TKIs) have been established, who started to implement the research agendas as agreed in innovation agreements.

Knowledge transfer or more broadly valorisation is considered now as an integral part of the mission of Dutch Higher Education institutions as laid down in Dutch law. This is illustrated by the increased number of staff working in related activities, and knowledge transfer capacities which are increasingly rewarded in the human resources policies of the institutions. In the performance agreements between the government and the Higher Education institutions as agreed in autumn 2012, valorisation is one of the priorities. In MBO (Secondary Vocational Education) Centres for Innovative craftsmanship and in HBO (Universities of Applied Science) Centres of expertise entrepreneurs, scientists, lecturers and student cooperate to raise the quality of technology education. The RAAK programme is a competitive funding scheme for applied research in HBO institutions. Recently, budget cuts on this programme were prevented, but the government agreed with employers, partners of the Innovation Alliance and with the research council N.W.O. that the latter would implement the RAAK scheme as from 2014. In each call for proposals, NOW asks researchers to state the contribution their research will make to society and N.W.O. facilitates this contribution in various ways.

The National Platform Science & Technology was set up to ensure sufficient availability of people who have a background in scientific or technical education to meet the expected demand. Knowledge transfer and innovation may also benefit from a recent multi-annual strategy as recently agreed between a large range of Dutch stakeholders from industry, education, employers, regional authorities supported by additional funding by the Dutch government, in order to guarantee the availability of sufficient number of technology skilled people ("Techniek pact").

SURF unites Dutch research universities, universities of applied sciences, and research institutions into one foundation for ground breaking innovations in ICT allowing researchers and higher education institutions to make optimal use of the potential of ICT and improve their quality. Funds are made available in accordance with the government's response to the advice by ICTRegie on ICT research infrastructure in the Netherlands to strengthen the ICT research infrastructure such as computer networks (SURFnet, GigaPort), E-Science and High Performance Computing. SURF (which is the Dutch National Research and Education Network - NREN) is also member of the eduGAIN network which works towards the trustworthy exchange of information related to identity, authentication and authorisation between the GÉANT (GN3plus) Partners' federations.

Effectiveness

The Government budget appropriations or outlays for research and development (GBAORD) as a share of Gross Domestic Product was 0.34% in 2009. The share of GBAORD allocated as project based was 31.52% in 2008.

Major changes were introduced in the public R&D sector, resulting from numerous legislations enacted in 2010 (science reform) and 2011 (higher education reform) – altogether 8 laws and 92 ordinances. They establish new institutions and rules. The Ministry of Science and Education (MNiSW) manages the science budget and supervises two key fund distribution agencies: the National Science Centre (NCN), financing basic science projects, and the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBiR), financing applied research and innovative development, including R&D projects of business enterprises. The Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP), agency of the Ministry of Economy (MG) funds R&I in business enterprises. The Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) is a non-governmental institution, partly funded from the science budget, the EU Structural Funds and other sources, awarding research grants and scholarships. In 2011, 105 public higher education institutions (PHEIs) and 207 public research organisations (PROs) were actively conducting R&D activities as well as the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). MNiSW is assisted by the Committee for Science Policy (KPN) for priority setting and Committee for Evaluation of Scientific Research Institutions (KEJN), evaluating the performance of public sector R&D performers. The Ministry of Regional Development (MRR) defines the policies and regulations related to the absorption of the EU funds. Several other ministries have dedicated programs, stimulating innovations and research projects in relevant sectors.

Since 2013 Poland has multi-annual research development and innovation (RDI) plan - The Strategy for the Innovation and Effectiveness of the Economy for the years 2012-2020 “Dynamic Poland” – coordinated by the Ministry of Economy. The strategy is the highest level policy document related to RDI in Poland and sets quantifiable objectives in R&D funding, indicators to measure their fulfilment and delegates specific tasks to different governmental institutions. The National Research Program “Foundations for the science and technology policy and innovation policy of the state” (NRP) issued in 2011 has set all-encompassing national R&D priorities.

The Act on principles of science financing (2010) established financing modalities for NCN and NCBiR, assuring gradual increases in the allocated funding for competitive calls. The share of competitive, project base funding has increased from 44.63% in 2009 to a planned 63.79% in 2012. In 2012, the eight programmes managed by NCN and the 19 programmes managed by NCBiR were distributing 52.67% of the science budget through open competitive calls. Besides those agencies, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW), the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) and the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP) run each of them four research programmes.

In 2009, survey of Polish universities revealed that on average, 65% of their budgets were coming from core institutional funding and only 7% from competitive funding. Institutional funding is partly statutory (based on number of researchers) and partly the result of an evaluation. In 2012, MNiSW amended the standards for the institutional assessment of public R&D organisations, promoting internationally significant research and successful commercialisation of research results. Nation-wide performance evaluations are managed by the newly established, independent Committee for Evaluation of Scientific Research Institutions (KEJN) and are based on transparent, pre-defined criteria. It is planned to enhance the use of bibliometric indicators in institutional assessments. The MNiSW develops a nation-wide online system POL-ON, which will make the results of institutional assessments publicly available alongside the bibliometric indicators. The Ministry has also set rules for selecting the leading research institutions in each scientific discipline so-called KNOWs – National Leading Scientific Centres.

National peer review is used by all funders NCN, NCBiR, MNiSW, FNP and PARP and peer-review rules are defined by publicly available procedures and compliant with international standards for peer-reviews. For NCN foreign reviewers are involved in the evaluation of selected proposal.

Transnational cooperation

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the Framework Programme. The share of participation of Poland in total participation is 1,73% so far, and Poland has received 1,05% of total EC contributions.

The National Research Program contains a list of priority areas partially coinciding with the grand challenges. These are reflected in the Strategic Research and Development Programs of NCBiR and the Resolution of the Council of NCN concerning priority areas for fundamental research. In 2013 a dedicated inter-disciplinary committee was set up to make recommendations on how funds for international research co-operation should be distributed by the MNiSW, while R&D funding agencies NCN and NCBiR have corresponding institutional arrangements since 2010. The draft Operational Program "Smart Growth" (POIR), which defines the rules for distribution of the EU Structural Funds in years 2014-2020, includes measures to foster the internationalisation of Polish science through support for the creation of international research agendas and to stimulate cross-border R&D.

Through NCBiR and NCN Poland is involved in seven JPIs and also participates in 5 Article 185 initiatives and leads one of them. It also participates via the same funding agencies in ERA-nets, ERA-nets+, EUREKA, EUROSTARS, ESA, and JTIs (ENIAC, ARTEMIS). Funding for those trans-national initiatives is allocated via ministerial ordinance.

Mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to peer review standards is illustrated by the program "Ideas Plus", established by MNiSW in 2010 and supporting the participants of the European Research Council competition "IDEAS", who did not qualify for funding from ERC. Funding within bilateral agreements is offered via NCN and NCBiR dedicated programmes (for ex. HARMONIA).

Cross-border interoperability of national programmes is based on the Act on principles of science financing (2010). There are standard procedures for co-funding of Polish researchers from academia or industry to participate in international initiatives and using international peer review in national funding decisions. Poland has bilateral cooperation programs with Norway, the Czech Republic, Israel, Luxemburg, Germany, Singapore and Taiwan (with co-funding managed by NCBiR). The Visegrad fund (between the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Republic of Poland, and the Slovak Republic) provides also research grants from a common pot contribution of all countries involved.

The Act on principles of science financing (2010) established open competitive calls for large R&D infrastructure investments. Several ordinances of the Minister of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW) (2010-2011) earmarked parts of science budget for RI, defined investment criteria, selection modes involving peer-reviews, and opened up the competitions to business enterprises as well. In 2011, the MNiSW published the Polish Roadmap of Research Infrastructure (PMDIB), compliant with ESFRI standards. In 2013, a call for updates to the Roadmap was announced.

The existing legal framework does not prevent foreign researchers from using the RIs in Poland. POIR includes measures which would help optimise the use of existing RIs for applied research and development, especially jointly with business enterprises and international partners. The MNiSW continues the development of an online system POL-ON, which will publish detailed information about scientific organisations, including the availability of research infrastructures.

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010 the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 3.7 per 1,000 and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 0.5. The shares of non-national doctoral candidates were 1.8% from another EU-27 Member State and 1.9% from non-EU countries.

The Act on higher education (including amendments from 2011) and the corresponding Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences (2010) and the Act on research institutes (2010) strengthen the autonomy of universities and eliminate direct influences from government bodies. Those acts define general employment conditions; provide general principles for career progression and set general conditions for offering doctoral studies. The above mentioned acts require university bylaws to define clear, transparent and competitive recruitment and promotion rules, as well as precisely defined criteria for award of scientific degrees and titles and ask for regular performance reviews for all researchers. Job offers at the public higher education institutes have to be published online on websites of the university, the MNiSW and EURAXESS. Additionally, Poland participates in the EU Scientific Visa package. In 2011, the MNiSW elaborated modalities to recognise foreign academic degrees and to allow under certain conditions foreign researchers to fill in professors positions. In 2012, 62% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

Publicly funded R&D projects can be ported to institutions in other countries within dedicated funding programs supporting international cooperation. Most grants are also available to foreigners (NCN, NCBiR), providing that the beneficiary institution is in Poland.

EURAXESS POLAND portal operates since 2009, with English-language online services, information portal, regular publication of job offers and calls for proposals, scholarships and fellowships in Poland. It currently maintains 10 EURAXESS Service Points in 10 different academic cities in Poland.

Several legislative acts support the excellence, interdisciplinary as well as internationalised doctoral training, providing certain rights to doctoral students and catering for the transparency of the process. They have formalised doctoral programmes, detailed specific requirements from doctoral candidates to be awarded PhDs and provided for documentation and quality assurance in doctoral awards and study programmes. The Polish Accreditation Committee conducts assessment of study programs.

The science and higher education reform from 2010-2011 incorporated many of the measures of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. In the meantime, several Polish HEIs have endorsed the Charter & Code. Six Polish organisations are actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers of which 2 have received the "HR Excellence in Research" logo for their progress in implementing the Charter & Code.

More detailed information can be found in the country profile for Poland in the Researchers’ Report 2013 http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/services/researchPolicies

Gender

Poland belongs to the EU countries with traditionally high shares of women involved in R&D activities. In 2011, 65.5% of all university graduates were women, including 51.5% of new doctorate graduates. Women are 22.05% of all professors employed in Poland and out of 524 members of the Polish Academy of Sciences, in 2011 20 (3.81%) were women.

General legislative acts prohibit discrimination and protect women during the pregnancy and maternity leave period. Recently, the government published a proposal to amend the Labour Code and the Act on financial benefits from social insurance in the case of sickness and maternity (2013). Also in 2013 it introduced measures on flexitime, paid parental leave, child care facilities and return to work after bringing-up a child and support and financially contributed to projects promoting equal opportunities for working men and women.

In the science and higher education field, the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers is fostered by several measures: fixed term contracts are extended by the periods of maternity leave and additional leaves to raise children; doctoral studies are prolonged in the same conditions, annual workloads of women giving birth to and raising children are reduced. Periods of maternity leave and leave for taking care of children are not included in the calculation of maximum age for grants for young researchers for NCN and NCBiR's program LIDER. The Foundation for Polish Science runs a program “BRIDGE” (“POMOST”), with grants for researchers-young parents. In MNiSW there is a Steering Committee ‘Women in Science’ to monitor women’s positions in academia.

Several soft measures are put in place to foster cultural and institutional change on gender. The Conference of Rectors of Polish Technical Universities manages a program "Girls on technical universities", compiling lists of "women-friendly" technical universities and establishing dedicated contact points for women. The MNiSW in cooperation with the magazine "ELLE" offers financial awards "Girls of the future" for outstanding female researchers. L’Oréal with the support of UNESCO offers scholarships for women-scientists. The Central Statistics Office (GUS) monitors gender balance at national level and many public sector R&D institutions publish corresponding data in their annual reports.

30% of the Polish Accreditation Committee appointed by the MNiSW should be women and there should be a balanced representation of women on the Main Council of Science and Higher Education and Central Committee for Scientific Degrees and Titles.

Knowledge circulation

Several measures have been put in place by MNiSW to guarantee open access for Polish researchers and students to a variety of research results: gold open access publications in Springer's journals; license to the Virtual Library of Science; digitisation of scientific journals and their electronic distribution. In 2012 MNiSW defined criteria and modalities for evaluation of Polish scientific journals: those journals get extra points if they publish contents of articles on-line. The NCBiR model agreement requires publications to be made available via open access and software to be free or open source. An on-going project called "“Interdisciplinary System for Interactive Scientific and Scientific Technical Information (SYNAT)", funded by NCBiR and developed by University of Warsaw and Warsaw University of Technology, will establish an open repository of scientific publications and data for the use of all researchers and institutions in Poland. Additionally, patented inventions for scientific, non-commercial research can be used without the need to license the invention or pay royalties.

In 2012 several draft measures were proposed to grant open access to contents generated by government institutions (including public R&D organisations) and to facilitate the integration of ICT systems, with the purpose of supporting open access to publicly funded research results and assuring financing for this integration.

The Strategy for the Innovation and Effectiveness of the Economy for the years 2012-2020 (2013) stresses the importance of knowledge transfer and co-operation between scientific institutions and industry and supports open innovations. The draft Operational Program "Smart Growth" (POIR) includes measures to stimulate the cooperation between business and scientific organisations. Additionally, in January 2013, the Ministry of Economy published a draft of the Enterprise Development Program (PRP) which proposes measures to foster industry-academia partnership such as building of mixt consortia and internships/secondments from business to academia; centralising funds for enterprises in a single agency and changes in the application and evaluation procedure of grants.

Several legislative acts set relevant rules regarding IPR, include the possibility or obligation to commercialise publicly funded research-results, encourage the establishment and use of academic spin-offs, oblige universities to set up technology transfer entities and include performance in commercial knowledge transfer as part of institutional assessments of R&D organisations. The National Reform Programme 2013 promotes the cross-sectoral mobility of researchers.

Under NCBiR several programmes foster academia-business collaboration (BRIdge VC, BroTech, “Innovation Creator”, LIDER and SPIN-TECH). MNiSW manages also programmes of training for personnel in TTOs and hiring technology brokers for public universities and has published several guidebooks on the topic.

POIR includes measures which would fund and allow better use of e-infrastructures for open access.

The electronic identity of researchers is implemented by the Virtual Library of Science which is available to all universities in Poland and allows logging into multiple publication databases by means of institutional or individual authentication.

The Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Centre (PSNC) affiliated with the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry at the Polish Academy of Sciences acts as National Research and Education Network and provides specialised Internet service dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within Poland. It is affiliated with the GÉANT project and network and operates PIONIER – the Polish Optical Internet network.

Effectiveness

The research and innovation system is supported by the prime minister’s office and the main ministries in charge of R&D: the Ministry for Education and Science and the Ministry for the Economy and Employment. On the operational level, Portugal counts with operational programmes financing the research system together with the major executive agencies, notably the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).

The development of the academic research system until recently has been possible through the combination of national funds with resources from the EU structural funds. The basic management of this system has matured, with the FCT operating as the research council. The creation within the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) of an Office for Evaluation and Programs, a Study and Strategy Office and a Technology Office are important steps in that direction. R&D Units is a scheme consisting of a system of incentives for the creation of R&D units in business firms. It gives support to projects aimed at enhancing the productivity, competitiveness and integration into the global market through the creation of R&D units in firms. And the R&D Projects of Scientific and Technological Development Research provide funding to research by HEI (high education institutions), public labs and the research non-profit sector.

The share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D (GBAORD) was 1,03% in 2011. Total GBAORD per capita rose until 2011, when it started to decline. The national public effort on Research and development, measure as the share of total GBAORD in national expenditures in Portugal was of 2.08% in 2011. The Portuguese government intends to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the national S&T system.

Regarding institutional and project-based competitive funding, the trend has been for a rise of the second and in both there has been an increase of funding provided though peer review mechanisms, especially within the university system. On the subject of institutional funding, the culture of international peer review is widespread in the university system. An exception to this is the network of public laboratories, not subject to peer review mechanisms.

Transnational cooperation

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the Framework Programme. The share of participation of Portugal in total participation is 1,65% so far, and Portugal has received 1,14% of total EC contributions. FP funding represents 37 Euros per head of population. The country also participates in Joint Programming. Portugal participates as a member in 5 initiatives. The country also participates in 4 Article 185 initiatives.

The internationalisation of the research system is one of Portugal's main priorities. This is reflected, amongst others, in the large number of bilateral agreements that Portugal has with other EU countries and with several US universities.

Regarding ESFRI and in view of the preparation of a National Roadmap of Ris, Portugal is analysing the possible alignment of national research infrastructures with ESFRI's Roadmap through a national consultation launched in 2013. The consultation will help identify Ris of strategic interest. A very important RI is the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), result of an agreement of the Spanish and Portuguese governments in 2005, which is the first fully international research organisation in Europe in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Several countries are interested in cooperating (China and Brazil, for instance).

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010 the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 8.2 per 1,000 and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 1.9. The shares of non-national doctoral candidates were 3.0% from another EU-27 Member State and 10.6% from non-EU countries.

The conditions in the research labour market in Portugal have changed in recent years. Many institutions have adapted harder tenure granting procedures and the recruitment of new researchers, even for replacement purposes, is much more difficult due to budgetary pressures. In this context, institutions have been able hire new people by contracting younger researchers for non-permanent positions, and by using Post-Doc grants which provide support from three up to six years. In 2012, 46% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

Concerning the removal of barriers to open recruitment, the Statute of University Teaching Career, adopted in 1979 and amended in 2009, regulates the academic career at the universities. According to its Article 37, the competitions for the recruitment of full professors, associate professors and assistant professors cannot be restricted to nationals and should be open to foreigners.

The Regulation for Grants awarded by the Foundation for Science and Technology, amended in 2012, regulates the selection, hiring and legal regime applicable to all research fellows, funded directly or indirectly by the Science and Technology Foundation (FCT). Article 14 foresees that candidates applying for the grants awarded by the Science and Technology Foundation can be nationals of Portugal, EU citizens or non-EU citizens but holders of permanent residence or beneficiaries of the status of long-term residents in Portugal. Cross-border portability of grants is not foreseen.

High priority is given to the recruitment of the most qualified human resources, and to avoiding that talented scientists leave Portugal. Initiatives like ‘FCT Investigator’, which currently provides funding to 155 researchers, and FCT’s Doctoral Programs, that provide funding to PhD programmes in line to the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training, are important steps in this direction.

On doctoral education, the Programme of Applied Research and Technology Transfer to the Industry provides support to doctoral training, funding for post-docs in the industry and foresees national competitions to provide scholarships for PhD's in the areas defined in the R&D Strategy for Smart Specialisation.

Three Portuguese organisations are actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers of which 1 has received the "HR Excellence in Research" logo for its progress in implementing the Charter & Code.

More detailed information can be found in the country profile for Portugal in the Researchers’ Report 2013 http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/services/researchPolicies

Gender

PT has one of the lowest proportions of female heads of institutions in the high education sector in 2010 (7.3%), well below EU 27 average (15.5%). However, female participation in scientific and management boards in Portugal is 38%, slightly above the EU-27 average (36%). According to the 2012 SHE figures report, the private non-profit sector employs a share of researchers that is worth mentioning only in Italy, Portugal, and Cyprus in 2009.

Regarding the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers, the Fourth National Plan for Equality, Gender, Citizenship and Non-discrimination (2011-2013) aims at promoting equality as a trigger for competitiveness and development and dedicates one of its 14 strategic areas to research, and in particular to three actions: to consolidate the role of the gender Observatory; to consolidate the protocol between Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) and the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (CIG) to promote research in the fields of gender and non-discrimination; and to monitor the evolution of the researcher population broken down by sex and scientific field. The same position is guaranteed by law after a maternity leave. There are no initiatives or regulations promoting equal gender representation in academic and research committees, boards and governing bodies.

GIC, the national mechanism for the promotion of gender equality, provides technical and financial support to the implementation of gender equality action plans in universities, focusing on the promotion of gender equality in organizational structures, management practices - selection/recruitment procedures, career development and rewarding mechanisms -, and on family-work life reconciliation. Two Portuguese universities have gender equality action plans.

Portugal hosts annually the L’Oréal Portugal Medals of Honor for Women in Science, intended for the study of advanced scientific research at post-doctoral level, in Portuguese universities or other institutions of recognised merit in the field of Health Sciences and Environmental Sciences.

Knowledge circulation

As regards open access, the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) is developing a proposal for a policy on open access. Portugal holds a recognised repository of publications (RCAAP) to support open access. And an online Knowledge Library that provides unlimited access to researchers to a large database of scientific publications. FCT has also prepared a policy document on open access to data, more cautious than open access to publications though.

Concerning knowledge transfer, there is a relevant initiative under preparation, called GAIN (Global Innovation Acceleration Network), that aims at providing a national structure for technology transfer.

As regards Digital ERA, FCT has drafted an intellectual property policy for R&D projects financed through the main science funding agency. FCCN is the Portuguese National Research and Education Network (NREN), a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within the country.

Effectiveness

At the level of policy-making, the National Council for Science and Technology Policy is by law the government’s highest level policy coordination body. The Ministry of National Education is another key player in research and innovation policy, with the National Authority of Scientific Research which is part of the Ministry of National Education and formulates and implements research policies. The Ministry of National Education cooperates with other sectoral ministries however the role of the latter in research policy tends to remain limited. At the level of R&D funding and implementation, the Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI), which is a public body under the authority of Ministry of National Education, plays a key role in coordinating the research and innovation plan and allocating higher education and research funding. The public research system also includes funding/coordinating organisations such as the Romanian Academy, the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences and the Academy of Technical Sciences which fund their own network of institutes and research centres. R&D public performers include universities and public research institutes.

The bulk of public R&D funding (approximately 80%) is allocated to the National Authority of Scientific Research/Ministry of National Education. Approximately three quarters of the National Authority of Scientific Research budget finances calls under the National Research, Development and Innovation Plan (2007-2013), whilst the remaining 25% is allocated as institutional funding for the national R&D institutes. Of the remaining 20% of public R&D funding, less than half (approximately 8%) is allocated to the Romanian Academy, which subsequently funds its own institutes.

Romanian authorities are currently in the process of elaborating the National Strategy for Research, Technological Development and Innovation for 2014-2020 and the National Plan for Research, Development and Innovation 2014-2020 (their finalisation is due for October 2013). The previous National Strategy for Research, Development and Innovation covered the period 2007-2013.

The share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D (GBAORD) was 0.27% in 2011. Total GBAORD per capita rose until 2008, when it started to decline. The national public effort on Research and development, measure as the share of total GBAORD in national expenditures in Romania (3) was of 0.68% in 2011. The share of GBAORD allocated as project based is unknown.

Several recent policy initiatives aim at reforming the current funding system for universities and public research institutes in order to better link the allocation of funding with their performance and thus increase the effectiveness of the Romanian public research system.

With regard to universities, it should be noted that from 1994 onwards Romanian universities did not receive any institutional funding for their research activities. The only source of funding for their research activities is through project-based funding. The reform introduced by Law of Education 1/2011 aimed at reforming the current system by evaluating universities activities (and thus separating research universities from those oriented to teaching and local needs) and by setting up institutional funding for research-oriented universities (the allocation would be based on the research performance). The evaluation of Romanian universities has now been completed however no changes to institutional funding for research-oriented universities have been adopted yet.

The restructuring of public research institutes launched in 2011 foresaw the evaluation and certification of all public research institutes linked to a new method for allocating institutional funding. In practice however no restructuring has taken place yet (i.e. all institutes have been certified, which means that they will continue to qualify for institutional funding).

The use of international peer reviews has been in place since 2007. According to Romania’s National Plan for Research, Development and Innovation (2007-2013), the allocation of project-based funding is carried out in line with the principles of international peer reviews. It should be noted that all proposals need to be drafted in Romanian and English. Moreover, earlier legislation foresaw the use of foreign evaluators for the evaluation of R&D projects, programmes and institutions (at least 50% foreign experts). However, this provision has been scrapped as part of the Government Ordinance 1241/2013.

Romania’s 'Smart specialisation' approach is currently being drafted as part of the National Strategy for Research, Technological Development and Innovation for 2014-2020 and the National Plan for Research, Development and Innovation 2014-2020. On-going consultations and foresight activities are currently taking place with the aim of identifying R&D areas with the highest expected socio-economic impact.

Transnational cooperation

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the EU Framework Programme. The share of participation of Romania in total participation is 0.81% so far, and Romania has received 0.36% of total EC contributions. FP funding represents 5 Euros per head of population. The country also participates in Joint Programming. Romania participates in six initiatives. The country also participates in 3 'Article 185' initiatives Moreover, Romania has research programmes inter alia with France, Switzerland, Norway, Island and Liechtenstein and it actively participates in the International Centre for Advanced Studies Danube River - Danube Delta - Black Sea

With regard to the recognition of international peer review evaluations, Romania routinely implements this mechanism as part of its joint programmes or bilateral agreements. For example, projects financed under the Swiss-Romanian cooperation programme are entirely evaluated in Switzerland. Moreover, the ERA-like grant scheme provides grants to researchers who have been successfully evaluated but not retained for funding by the ERC competition.

The national roadmap for research infrastructures was produced in 2007 by the Romanian Committee for Research Infrastructures (CRIC). Funding for research infrastructures is provided through the 2007-2013 National RDI Plan (Capacities Programme). Romania participates in nine pan-European infrastructures and hosts the Extreme Light Infrastructure - Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) infrastructure.

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010 the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 2.0 per 1,000 and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 1.4. The share of non-national doctoral candidates coming from another EU-27 Member State was 1.7% and the share of candidates coming from non-EU countries was 2.0%.

The recruitment system is regulated by the Government Decision on general principles for recruitment in the public sector (HG no.286/2011), the Law on the Statute of R&D personnel (Law no. 319/2003) and the National Education Law (Law 1/2011). HEIs and R&D institutions have their own internal procedures on recruitment that are in accordance with these laws and are generally published on the institutions’ website. In 2012, 51% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

The EURAXESS Network aims to support trans-national mobility. Romania is involved in two FP7 projects dealing with EURAXESS: 'Discover Europe' and 'EURAXESS T.O.P' (Transnational operation of the EURAXESS Services Network). However, the network has relatively low visibility among researchers, and the mobility of foreign researchers in Romania is low, due to the unattractive conditions.

With regard to grant portability, it should be noted that grants are open to non-resident researchers provided that the applicant secures a prior agreement with a Romanian organisation (the grant agreement is eventually signed with the institution).

Support to the development and strengthening of the doctoral training system is provided through EU Structural funds. The Sectoral Operational Programme ‘Development of Human Resources’ aims at funding international mobility (minimum periods of staying abroad) for 12,000 doctoral and 2,000 post-doctoral candidates. Several regulatory and 'soft law' measures were recently adopted with a view to reform the Romanian doctoral training system. Education Law 1/2011 and Government Ordinance 681/2011 and 92/2012 introduced changes to the organisation of doctoral schools and the delivery of doctoral training.

Three Romanian organisations are actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers.

More detailed information can be found in the country profile for Romania in the Researchers’ Report 2013 http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/services/researchPolicies

Gender

No measures addressing gender equality in research are reported besides a recently adopted government ordinance (Government Ordinance 111/2010), which supports career breaks for PhD candidates.

Knowledge circulation

Support to knowledge transfer has been mainly provided through funding schemes (e.g. National RDI Plan (2007-2013), SOP Increase of Economic Competitiveness and minimise aid for innovation vouchers). These schemes have financed partnerships between academia/research institutes and the private sector. The 2013 Country Specific Recommendation stressed the need to “ensure closer links between research, innovation and industry, in particular by prioritising research and development activities that have the potential to attract private investment”.

RoEduNet is the Romanian National Research and Education Network (NREN), a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within the country.

Effectiveness

Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D (GBAORD) amounted to 0.47% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2011. The aim is to reach 1.2% GDP allocated to R&D in 2020. The share of GBAORD allocated as project based was 37,86% in 2008.

In the Slovak Republic legislative powers in higher education, research, development, and innovation policies lie at national level. Regions do not legislate and there are no regional research or innovation councils. Bratislava is the major centre of R&D activities. All research and innovation measures are designed and implemented by agencies of central government.

Since 2007, responsibilities for the research and innovation policies are separated between the Ministry of Economy (ME) and the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sports (MESRS). MESRS is the highest governmental body responsible for policy- and decision-making in the field of science and technology. The national science and technology policy is prepared and coordinated by the MESRS with co-operation of other ministries, the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS), higher education institutions (HEIs), associations of employers, and industrial research organisations. The Slovak Republic Government Board for Science and Technology (under MESRS) was the most important body for coordination of science and technology policies (S&T) until 2011 to be replaced by the Slovak Government Council for Science, Technology and Innovations (SGCI). SGCI is to coordinate central government agencies involved in development of the knowledge-based economy. The ME implements the Operational Programme of Competitiveness and Economic Growth (OPCEG). The MESRS implements the Operational Programme Research and Development (OPRD) and the Operational Programme Education (OPE). As to manage the OPRD and OPE, the MESRS established the Agency of the MESRS for the Structural Funds of the European Union (ASFEU).

Between 2010-2011 MESRS drafted the “The Fenix Strategy: Update of the Long-Term Objective of the State Science and Technology Policy up to 2015” and the Ministry of Finance “Minerva 2.0 for the knowledge-based economy”. The documents tried to integrate research and innovation policies, and suggest a range of institutional reforms for increasing quality of higher education and research, notably: reforming some key research performer institutions (the Research and Development Agency –RDA -and the SAS); implementing more efficient and transparent evaluation techniques; internationalisation of the Slovak R&D system; defining national priorities in building large-scale R&D infrastructures compatible with the ESFRI roadmap; creating a national system for technology transfers; introducing new programmes supporting new technology-based firms and innovation-oriented research and re-allocating finance provided by the Operational Programme Research and Development towards large-scale projects with strategic importance and removing administrative hurdles related to calls and projects supported by the Structural Funds. Systemic changes in support to R&D were also detailed in the 2010 New Model of Financing Science and Technology in the Slovak Republic. The support primarily is channelled to infrastructure building, applied research, and international scientific-technical cooperation. The MESRS and the ME started preparatory works on the respective R&D and Innovation Strategies for planning period 2014-2020. The strategies should be ready in 2013.

In the medium- to long-term horizon, the Government would like to support physical and virtual (both thematic and regional) pooling of scientific and research institutions, organisation of institutes of applied sciences in university parks and concentrate basic research in academic centres. The Smart Specialisation Strategy for Slovakia until 2020 (S3) will have research and innovation as one of its main priorities, promote better links to industry and it is planned that it proposes a reform of the R&I sector, including its management and financing. Via amendments to different legislative acts (among others the Act on Research and Development Incentives and the Act on the Organisation of State Support for Research and Development) Slovakia envisages to provide long-term, effective, predictable and stable funding; increase private funding in research and innovation; set in place clear and transparent criteria for the funding projects; link institutional assessment to cooperation with the private sector and quality recruitment; foster mobility between the public and the private research sector; focus on excellence and prioritise the grand challenges fields and applied research for industry needs. (NRP 2013)

The MESRS supports basic and applied research via state budget allocations and competitive grants given to a network of organisations and agencies. The Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS) is providing the bulk of basic research in Slovakia. Both the MESRS and SAS have their own chapters in the State Budget Laws. Competitive funding is managed via two agencies: The Scientific Grant Agency (VEGA) – funding basic research projects and the Research and Development Agency (RDA) – funding mostly applied research projects. VEGA is funded and managed by MESRS and SAS. It is funding research projects performed in the Slovak Academy of Science (SAS) and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in all fields of science. In 2012 VEGA allocated €13.34m in grants. RDA is giving research grants to public and private bodies. The RDA budget increased from €0.15m in 2001 to €21.81m in 2012 with a peak of €39.83m in 2009.

Institutional funding supports basic research in HEIs and is provided directly (via block grants) from the state budget divisions. Total volume of institutional funding from state budget was €39.43m in 2010, €106.42m in 201 and €145.02m in 2012. Competitive funding accounted for 17.5% and block transfers for 82.5% of the total HEIs funding in 2011 (The 2005-2011 annual reports on R&D, the 2006-2012 VEGA reports, and the 2005-2013 State Budget Laws).

Public bodies and support schemes in research and innovation are subject to regular evaluation, every six years. The main evaluation body for Universities is the Accreditation Commission of the MESRS. The composition and responsibilities of the Commission are set by the 131/2002 Law on Higher Education and include foreign experts. It evaluated 20 public, four private and three state HEIs in 2009-2010. MESRS plans to have new criteria for HEI accreditation including excellence starting with 2014.

The institutes of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS) have been evaluated regularly by their own commission from 1992 onwards. The latest evaluation has been taking place in 2012 with one third of foreign experts taking part. Indicators prepared by the independent Academic Ranking and Rating Agency were used for the first time. The SAS may re-distribute only 5% of total wage budget based on the evaluation result.

All competitive funding is subject to peer review, in which one expert has to be foreign.

Transnational cooperation

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the Framework Programme. The share of participation of Slovakia in total participation is 0.37% so far, and Slovakia has received 0.18% of total EC contributions. FP funding represents 11 Euros per head of population. The country also participates in three Joint Programming Initiatives and two Article 185 initiatives. In 2010 Slovakia joined the Joint Programming on combating neurodegenerative diseases, in particular Alzheimer's. The challenge is mentioned in the 2010 New Model of Financing Science and Technology in the Slovak Republic. The ‘New Model’ sets the MESRS responsible for participation in this cross-border initiative and budget €1m. Slovakia continues supporting a limited number of projects within COST and EUREKA programmes. Additionally, Slovakia participates in the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) as the coordinator of its priority area 7 – Knowledge society based on research, education and information and communication technologies.

The Information on International Co-operation in Science and Technology in 2011 (MESRS 2012) contains some policy recommendations on multilateral co-operation in S&T: (a) Slovakia should maintain its membership in multilateral S&T joint research agendas despite high membership cost; (b) Slovakia should consider joining the European Space Agency; © Slovakia must increase intensity of co-operation under EUREKA, European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC) and ESFRI. Cross-border interoperability of national programmes is pictured by the same document which summarises bilateral and multilateral schemes in S&T co-operation managed by the RDA. In 2011 the bilateral schemes supported 159 projects (€0.31m) with eight ERA countries, and 43 projects (€0.12m) with three other countries. The Visegrad fund (between the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Republic of Poland, and the Slovak Republic) provides also research grants from a common pot contribution of all countries involved.

In 2010 MESRS drafted the ‘National Research Infrastructures Roadmap’. By 2012 Slovakia participated through MESRS and its agencies in nine ESFRI projects (CLARIN, ESS Survey, EPOS, Erinha, INSTRUCT, ESRF Upgrade, European XFEL, ILL 20/20). The Slovak Republic also participates in six out of eight largest inter-governmental scientific research organisations that are responsible for infrastructures and laboratories (CERN, EFDA-JET, EMBL, ESA, ESO, ESRF, European XFEL and ILL). The most important cooperation is with CERN, the European X-Ray Laser Project and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna (Russia). Infrastructure projects are funded from the Structural Funds. Access to Slovak research infrastructure is provided for foreign researchers under bilateral and multilateral schemes in S&T co-operation.

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010 the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 5.6 per 1,000 and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 3.1. The shares of non-national doctoral candidates were 6.3% from another EU-27 Member State and 1.4% from non-EU countries.

The Law 131/2002 on Higher Education Institutions provides that Slovak HEIs are self-governing institutions and can recruit researchers according to their needs, regardless of their nationality. HEI teachers and research workers are considered civil servants, therefore civil servant laws apply. Foreign researchers may apply for permanent jobs (including managerial) with SAS, HEIs and public research institutions. Many institutions require candidate to prove fluent Slovak language. In 2012, 52% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

The government plans to reform the system of higher education and to promote merit-based recruitment of researchers. An amendment to the Law 131/2002 on Higher Education Institutions was adopted to tighten rules on the award of assistant professor and professor titles to meet more stringent (bibliometric-based) criteria (NRP 2013).

The Decree of the Government of the Slovak Republic No. 391/2004 enables access to Slovak labour market to citizens of all EU member states without any restrictions. The 404/2001 Law on Residence by Foreigners entered into force which enabled easier access to Slovak labour markets by researchers from third countries, including the ‘research and development permit’. The MESRS drafted in October 2012 an amendment of Law on Qualification Degree Documents which makes mutual recognition of degrees easier for citizens of Slovakia, and European and third country nationals.

The Fenix strategy includes support measures to attract prominent foreign scientists and foreign research institutions to Slovakia. Several programmes support human resources in R&D, and international mobility by PhD students and researchers (for example ‘Human Resources in Research and Development and Popularisation’).

As far as cross-border access to and portability of national grants is concerned, the 172/2005 Law on Organisation of State support to R&D enables the participation by foreign researchers in Slovak research programmes. National funding for R&D is reserved for the Slovak nationals and/or HEIs and research bodies established in the Slovak Republic, except for the bilateral and multilateral co-operation programmes.

The Slovak Academic and Information Agency manages the Slovak version of the EURAXESS webpage. The services centres help researchers and their family to plan and organise their move to a foreign country or foreign researchers to Slovakia, providing assistance in all matters related to mobility. All services of the EURAXESS Network are free of charge. Job vacancies in HEIs and the SAS have been published only in Slovakia so far. The Slovak public authorities plan to publish job vacancies in Slovakia and other countries on relevant Europe-wide online platforms (including EURAXESS) and use the English language (Deloitte 2012).

Two national research organisations signed the Charter for Researchers in Slovakia, the Rectors of the Slovak Higher Education Institutions and the Slovak Academy of Sciences. These two bodies represent about 80% of the total researchers in Slovakia. One Slovakian organisation is actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers.

More detailed information can be found in the country profile for Slovakia in the Researchers’ Report 2013 http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/services/researchPolicies

Gender

Gender equality is guaranteed by the Slovak Constitution (2001), Labour Code Law (Law No. 311/2011) and the Antidiscrimination Law (Law No. 365/2004). Under the Labour Code Female researchers have right to return to the same position after maternal leave, except for fixed term contracts.

Cultural change on gender is the Central Information Portal for Science and Technology which publishes information of Slovak female scientists: success stories, interviews and profiles of excellent Slovak women researchers, under the title “Women in Science”.

Knowledge circulation

Open access policies are implemented via the Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information (SCST). SCST is the national information centre and specialised scientific library of the Slovak Republic. It implements two projects financed from Structural Funds through the Operational Programme Research and Development. The first one is the ‘National information system supporting research and development in Slovakia’ invests €19.9m in the period 2009-2014. It collects, stores and maintains data on research projects funded from public sources, data on research project outputs and a register of R&D organisations and database of research personnel. A new research information system SK CRIS (CRIS = Current Research Information System) will become operational shortly and contain a publications repository.

The second one is the Data Centre for Research and Development a €33m project for period 2008-2014. It will store and process the complex information essential for R&D in Slovakia and provide auxiliary services.

These projects provide access to the scientific community, university students and businesses.

There is a strategy to create a national technology transfer system, by creating a National Technology Transfer Centre at SCST, with technology transfer centres at universities, research institutes and the SAS as well as locally and a National Patent Fund to finance IPR protection. This strategy should be financed via Structural Funds and the State Budget.

Through the Operational Programme Research and Development two important programmes for technology transfer were put in place. The first one is the ‘Transfer of knowledge and technology from research and development into practice' supporting the establishment of University science parks within HEIs and the SAS as well as applied research projects and academia-industry cooperation. Most financial assistance is provided via grants for technology transfers and supporting R&D co-operation networks. The second one, implemented via SCST is the ‘National infrastructure supporting technology transfer in Slovakia’ to support application of RTD results and the establishment of technology transfer centres in Universities and public research organisations. It also aims to establish a National Portal for Technology Transfer. Since May 2003 SCST maintains the Centre of Patent Information (PATLIB) and provides information on IP-related issues and IPR protection.

The State Budget supported six horizontal and three thematic State Research and Development Programmes (SRDPs) in period 2003-2010. The SRDPs should (among other goals) promote co-operation by private and public sector in research and development. Total support by the state budget was €91.36m and the private sector provided €20.94m in the above-mentioned period. The 2011 Innovation Policy suggested several new policy measures, amongst those the ‘Support to the Industrial Cluster Organisations’ scheme. The MESRS launched a ‘tailor-made’ call supporting five incumbent clusters in October 2012 where applicants have to prove co-operation with the Slovak Universities and the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

In June 2013 the Council recommended that Slovakia continues its efforts to foster effective knowledge transfer by promoting cooperation between academia, research and the business sector (Recommendation No 4).

The policies on access to research and education-related public e-infrastructures and associated digital research services are implemented through the Slovak Academic Network (SANET), the Slovakian NREN, who is a member of GÉANT. MESRS subsidises SANET services for high schools and universities. SANET is an independent civil association (non-profit body), members of which agreed with conditions to provide each other with Internet services. By 2013 the SANET had 322 members including all Slovak Universities, institutes of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, scientific libraries, 170 primary and secondary schools and several state institutions and municipalities. The SANET implemented some important projects in 2012:

- ‘SANET2’ project aimed at building high-speed (100 gigabyte) network for Slovak academic community. The network became a member of GEANT trans-European network and the Internet (assigned through resolution N° 383/2001 of the Slovakian Government);

- Implementing the Eduroam (education roaming) services for secure, world-wide roaming access service for the international research and education community.

- Issuing TERENA Certificate Service (TCS).

In 2012 there were 38 HEIs, 20 research institutes, 7 institutes of further education, 250 secondary schools, 100 primary schools and 6 libraries connected to TERENA in Slovakia.

Effectiveness

The technology policy is handled by the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology (MEDT) while the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports (MESS) is in charge of the education and science sectors and sports, with a new Directorate in charge of higher education and science. Research support is provided mainly by the Slovenian Research Agency (SRA), the Public Agency for Entrepreneurship and Foreign Investment (PAEFI) and the Technology Agency (TIA), established by the 2011 Law on Research and Development. The share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D (GBAORD) was 0.55% in 2011. Total GBAORD per capita rose until 2009, when it started to decline. The national public effort on Research and development, measure as the share of total GBAORD in national expenditures in Slovenia was of 1,09% in 2011. A number of support measures were not announced in 2012 due to lack of resources and also because the funding modality changed, especially for the measures supporting business R&D and innovation projects. However, national authorities have increase general tax incentives for investments in R&I, to attaint 100% in 2012.

In 2010, the Research and Innovation Strategy of Slovenia (RISS) 2011–2020 was adopted, covering virtually all activities in the field of R&D. It fosters horizontal coordination of R&I policies and a shift towards target-oriented budget, aiming at a higher quality of life for all, using a critical reflection of the society, efficiency in addressing societal challenge, increased value added per employee, while providing more and better jobs. The National Higher Education Master Plan (NHEMP) 2011-2020 was also adopted in 2010 addresses a number of issues related with tertiary education.

Most of the public research is co-financed by the SRA on the competitive basis. The NHEMP introduces an incentive-based extra block funding element, which takes into account study programmes, internationalisation, quality assurance and social focus. The national reform programme 2013 proposes to increase institutional funding linked with regular evaluation of research institutes and universities. However, the share of GBAORD allocated as project based is unknown. Universities and technical colleges/polytechnics receive institutional funding.

Peer-review process for competitive research is enforced since 2008, after the adoption of the Rules on the Procedures of the (co)financing and Monitoring of Research Activities Implementation.

The national smart specialisation strategy (RIS3) is being prepared. On the basis of the results of an on-going public consultation, priority areas will be selected. Moreover, several Competence centres and Excellence centres are being developed to support Smart Specialisation (Nanosciences and Nanotechnology (CE NS and NT); Biosensors, Instrumentation and Process Control (CEBIC); Integrated Approaches in Chemistry and Biology of Proteins (CIPKeBiP); Low-Carbon Technologies (CoE LCT); Advanced Non-Metal Materials with Technologies of the Future (CE NAMASTE); Polymer Materials and Technologies (CE PoliMaT); Space: Science and Technology (CE Space.si); Studies in Biotechnology, Pharmacy and Physics of Matter (CE EN-FIST)). During 2009-2010 the majority of additional R&I funds intended for the establishment of smart specialization.

Transnational cooperation

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the Framework Programme. The share of participations of Slovenia in total participations is 0.67 % so far, and Slovenia has received 0.40 % of total EC contributions. FP funding represents 66 Euros per head of population. The country also participates in Joint Programming. Slovenia participates in four initiatives. The country also participates in three Article 185 initiatives and in ten ERANet+. The Research and Innovation Strategy of Slovenia (RISS) seeks to increase international bilateral and multilateral co-operations.

With regards to research infrastructures, the RISS supports the funding of the national roadmap, the cooperation in international Research Infrastructure projects and indicates the willingness to settle one of the key EU research infrastructure head office in the Country. The National reform programme 2013 announces the institutionalisation of at least five ESFRI projects.

The RISS proposes a systematic support of research infrastructure consortia that will enable their successful operation, long-term management and development of integrated services with regard to specific needs of particular areas, open access, necessary training of users, efficient use of equipment, and provision of support to users in interpreting the results.

Open Labour market for researchers

To facilitate mobility, the Research and Innovation Strategy of Slovenia (RISS) proposes to eliminate barriers hindering cross-border access of national grants and to opening-up tenders to participants from abroad.

The RISS also establishes the strategy for a merit-based rejuvenation of Human resources in Research and Development.

To achieve the merit base, RISS supports the implementation of open recruitment. Among the measures, the strategy includes the elimination of administrative, technical and tax barriers for international mobility, inwards and outwards. It also requires more systematic public calls for new jobs openings. In 2012, 41 % of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012). Five Slovenian organisations are actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers of which 2 have received the "HR Excellence in Research" logo for their progress in implementing the Charter & Code.

The fundamental recruitment system for researchers in public research and higher education institutions is based on general rules which are mandatory for all public servants in Slovenia. Additionally, the Slovenian Research Agency, which is responsible for funding, evaluation and distribution of national public funds for research activities, provides merit-based, open and transparent rules on funding different research activities (programmes, projects, young researchers, international cooperation, science meetings etc.) The Agency provides transparent procedures for evaluation and selection by public calls. All criteria and indicators, including the research and bibliometric references for evaluation and selection, are publicly available through its website.

National authorities are co-funding PhD training programmes in various fields, with special emphasis in the field of research-business collaboration and current issues of modern society.

More detailed information can be found in the country profile for Slovenia in the Researchers’ Report 2013 http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/services/researchPolicies

Gender

Gender issues are covered by the Principle of Equal Treatment Act. The RISS strongly advocates for improving career opportunities for researchers and gender equality. It emphasises that the necessity to follow the principle of balanced representation of both genders when appointing working bodies within the competence of MESS, and when preparing legal acts and other strategic documents.

Knowledge circulation

Concerning Open access to publications, the RISS indicates that a national repository of scientific information should be established and expanded to all scientific fields. So far, these libraries are not always publicly accessible but opened only to their members. Among services, most of the digital libraries also offer access to journal databases or specific databases, important for scientific research.

Related to knowledge transfer, it is mandatory that results from each project/programme being co-financed by public funds are publicly available.

Concerning the development of e-infrastructures, the Slovenian Research Agency channels the funding for the development of digitalisation and knowledge access for all Slovenian libraries and interested public (COBISS), notably through its infrastructural financing. Because it is funded with public funds, COBISS is available for all internet users, and in some cases, the bibliographic note includes a link to the material, while in other cases, it indicates in which library is located the material. The National Library network (“NUK network”), provide distant access to these databases by using the inscription ID and password provided by the library. Slovenia is candidate to EDUgain through ArnesAAI. ARNES is the Slovenian National Research and Education Network (NREN), a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within the country.

Effectiveness

The research, development and innovation system in Spain is supported by national and regional authorities. At national level, the Secretary of State for Research, Development and Innovation of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness is responsible for the implementation of Research, development and innovation policy. The Law for Science establishes the legal framework for research and innovation, and it notably specifies the competencies at national and regional level. It also regulates mobility between private and public sector, researchers' contracts, evaluation of researchers, knowledge transfer, and internationalisation of the Spanish system. It also highlights the role of the Spanish strategy for science, technology and innovation and the State plan for scientific and technical research and innovation.

The Government budget appropriations or outlays for research and development (GBAORD) as a share of Gross Domestic Product was 1,3% in 2011. Total R&D appropriations rose until 2009, when they started to decline. Total GBAORD as a % of total general government expenditure was in 2011 less than half of the one in 2007. The considerable increase in public and private research and development (R&D) expenditure over the decade 2000-09 has had a positive impact on science performance but did not boost innovation significantly (Innovation Union Scoreboard).

The Spanish strategy for science, technology and innovation highlights the general objectives for the period 2013-2020. These objectives are aligned with the ones of the new framework programme, Horizon 2020, to promote the active participation of Spanish agents in the Science, Technology and Innovation system in the European space. The State plan for scientific and technical research and innovation presents the type of instruments that will be used to foster R&I.

Two agencies manage funding: the recently created Agency for science and technology and the Centre for industrial technology development. Besides, the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), a public foundation under the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, fosters science, technology and innovation, promoting their closer integration to society, responding to the needs of the Spanish for Science, Technology and Enterprise system (SECTE).

A high proportion of funding is allocated through competitive calls for proposals. Institutional funding represents a low share (19%) of the GBOARD in 2011. In the case of universities, funding for teaching and operational costs is the responsibility of the regions, which offer institutional funding to universities based mainly on the number of students and teachers and other related criteria. The assessment of quality of research-performing organisations and teams and their outputs is not usually the basis for institutional funding decisions, especially in the case of universities. Public funding does not provide sufficient incentives for universities and public research organisations to cooperate with industry and societal stakeholders. The result is a low rate of transformation of R&I into commercial products and services.

Peer review of international standards is being proposed for the selection of projects, human resources activities and development of infrastructures in the new Spanish Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation (EESTI) and the PECTI include international evaluation of competitive funding as one of its five basic principles.

Transnational cooperation

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the Framework Programme. The share of participation of Spain in total participation is 7.89 % so far, and Spain has received 7.11 % of total EC contributions. FP funding represents 53 Euros per head of population.

The country also participates in Joint Programming. Spain participates in nine initiatives, and coordinates the initiative Water Challenges for a Changing world. The country also participates in four Article 185 initiatives and acts as leader in one of them.

Spain has several bilateral and multilateral agreements with various countries’ research funding agencies and organisms (i.e. US, Japan, Canada, Brazil), in different research areas.

The new Plan implementing the Spanish Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation (PECTI) foresees increasing international peer review through programmes of support to R&D Centres of Excellence.

Spain has a national roadmap for Research infrastructures. Besides, Spain considers ESFRI as an important initiative and the country contributes significantly to a broad range of these facilities. At least three large ESFRI installations will be hosted in the country: the construction in Catalonia of one of the five supercomputers in Europe of the Partnership for Advanced Computing; the solar research infrastructure (EU-SOLARIS) at the Advanced Technological Centre for Renewable Energy in Almeria; and the European Spallation Source (ESS) in the Basque Country, an advanced centre for researching the atomic and molecular arrangement for materials. The budget cuts are causing delays in the payment of Spain's financial contribution to some international research infrastructures.

On e-infrastructure, the Spanish Public Universities and Research Libraries Network (REBIUN) and the FECYT has launched a national joint programme called RECOLECTA to create repositories and their integration with international repositories.

The Law of Science, Technology and Innovation from 2011 includes a provision to remove legal barriers to access research infrastructures, in conformity with EU provisions.

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010 the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 5.8 per 1,000 and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 1.2. The shares of non-national doctoral candidates were 5.7% from another EU-27 Member State and 17.3% from non-EU countries.

The Law of Science, Technology and Innovation introduces measures to improve the mobility of researchers between sectors and to facilitate access to a research career. Within the National Programme for hiring Human resources, several sub-programmes (Torres Quevedo, Ramón y Cajal, Juan de la Cierva) support private-public mobility. There are also provisions for special visa for foreigner researchers. The current legislation does not consider grant portability. In 2012, 52% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

Concerning the Code and charter for researchers, the council of universities indicated its support in 2008. The Law of Science, Technology and Innovation (LCTI, 2011) requires that all universities applying for public funding accept and comply with the principles mentioned in the Code and Charter for researchers. Notably, the Law sets up the conditions to ensure openness of the recruitment process. However, most of the times only nationals are recruited in public universities. The Statute for Research Interns sets the rights and obligation for young researchers. Spain joined Euraxess in 2004 and the FECYT (Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology) acts as national bridgehead organisation for general inquires. Funding is provided through several subprograms to research stays of foreign lecturers and researchers in Spanish higher educational institutes and research organisations. Twenty-one Spanish organisations are actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers of which 3 have received the "HR Excellence in Research" logo for their progress in implementing the Charter & Code.

Spain supports the link between academia and the private sector. The LCTI includes a chapter on the purposes of collaboration, including the training of staff. Notably, the Spanish Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation (EESTI) (2013-2020) aims to promote "Industrial PhD programmes", through the exposure to industry and other relevant employment sectors during the PhD training period. The Torres Quevedo Programme provides grants for doctors to do research in the private sector. Regarding structured doctoral training programmes, there is an inter-institutional agreement to put in place a new normative framework and the basis are on the PECTI (Plan Estatal de invstigación Científica, Técnica y de Innovación).

More detailed information can be found in the country profile for Spain in the Researchers’ Report 2013 http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/services/researchPolicies

Gender

The Law of Science, Technology and Innovation (LCTI 2011) and other policy measures from the new Spanish Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation (EESTI) and the Plan (PECTI) implementing it introduce positive changes regarding gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research. For instance, the LCTI introduces a provision according which public research bodies should adopt within two years 'gender balance plans' that will be yearly monitored. And the evaluation and selection committees of the research system should follow the gender balance principle so that no gender group will account for neither more than 60% nor less than 40%.

Knowledge circulation

The Law of Science, Technology and Innovation (LCTI) indicates that publicly funded research publications have to be made publicly available after, at the latest, a period of twelve month embargo. These publications have to be included in an open access repository.

Related to knowledge transfer, the LSTI has a section setting up the conditions in support to scientific and technological research, innovation, knowledge transfer, dissemination and scientific, technological and innovation culture. It lays out the objectives and conditions for implementing collaboration between the private and the public sector at all levels. Several programs, like INNPACTO or INNPLANTA, specifically promote knowledge transfer.

Concerning Open Innovation, Spain has decided to focus on the preparation of an annual plan that will facilitate the knowledge management (more than knowledge transfer).

On e-infrastructures, the national joint programme called RECOLECTA provides a free open access platform and support to Spanish repositories so that they comply with international standards of interoperability and sustainability. Spain is member of EDUgain through SIR. RedIRIS is the Spanish National Research and Education Network (NREN), a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within the country.

Effectiveness

The share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D (GBAORD) was 0.83% in 2011. Total GBAORD as a % of total general government expenditure, as a measure of the effort by national authorities to research in their country, notably in times of crisis, has dropped from 1.63% to 1.54% in 2009, but increased again since to 1.62% in 2011. The share of GBAORD allocated as project based is unknown.

Both the Swedish public and private sector investments in R&D can be said to be long-term secured by structural features of the system. In the case of the public sector, all spending is appropriated in annual governmental budgets. It formally means that R&D appropriations (as any other governmental expenditure) are subject to year-to-year decisions. However, the absolute bulk of these funds are earmarked and determined by structural features such as the collection of governmental agencies and their relative responsibilities. These structures and the broader priorities of the governmental R&D budget are laid down in the quadrennial governmental research bills, which constitute the chief policy instrument for the government and essentially the binding document for governmental research policy and RDI strategy, including R&D investments.

The Swedish public sector R&D system is dominated by the higher education institutions, whose research income from governmental sources is split almost equally between institutional block grants and competitive project funding. The development in the past years has been a steady increase on both accounts but the long-term development based on the recent years is a shift from institutional funding to project based competitive funding. The trigger of this, especially in recent years, is clear governmental policy priorities in favor of competitive funding. However, also the institutional block grants to university research have increased in the past years, as a result of deliberate governmental policy.

The 2008 Research bill made parts of institutional block grants for academic R&D subject to competitive allocation, based on bibliometric indicators, with an especially notable growth in the institutional block grant research funding to the academic sector of almost 17% between 2009 and 2010. A corresponding increase in competitive funding (also resulting from the 2008 research bill) of almost 20% between 2008 and 2009 makes the long-term development of the ratio between institutional block grants and competitive funding largely unchanged in the past five year period (with a slight relative overall increase of the share of competitive funding from 50.9% in 2007 to 52.5% in 2011).

Taking into account the 2012 CSR on research and innovation (to implement measures to improve excellence in research, commercialisation of innovative products and the development of new technologies), the Swedish Government presented in October 2012 a bill on research and innovation. In parallel with the research and innovation bill, the Government adopted an innovation strategy aimed at strengthening the innovative climate. The innovation strategy takes a holistic view with the purpose of enhancing innovative capacity and meeting social challenges.

Among the proposed measures, and relevant for the ERA action on competitive funding, the research and innovation bill increases funds aimed at universities, colleges, research funders and research institutes, as well as new instruments for solving grand challenges. It proposes a changed system for the allocation and reallocation of appropriations to universities and colleges to further reward quality. The bill entails a substantial increase in funding to strengthen Sweden’s position as a prominent research nation, which in total amounts to SEK 4 billion for 2016. Effective from 2014, an additional 10 percentage points, or a total of 20 % of the appropriations, will be subject to reallocation based on aspect of quality and performance. The bill also presents several measures to improve utilisation of research results and innovation. The Swedish Research Council will be tasked with setting up a special programme, whereby researchers will be allocated research funding over a period, normally of seven years, enabling high-risk, high-potential research.

With regards to the application of the core principles of international peer review, the allocation of competitive public R&D funding in Sweden (mainly executed within the framework of the research councils) typically follows the procedure of internal peer review assessment boards with predominantly Swedish or Scandinavian members. However, the 2006 and 2008 Linnaeus Grants and the 2009 Strategic Research Areas grants (allocating in total €30 million and €300 million, respectively) involved the use of international peer reviewers. As also announced in the 2012 bill on research and innovation, the Swedish Research Council will develop, in consultation with other research funders, a new resource allocation system that includes international peer assessment of universities and colleges’ research quality and performance. This task will incorporate findings from the task Vinnova is leading in setting up a system for assessing university collaboration with the surrounding society and impact of research results. The new system can be introduced in 2018 at the earliest.

Transnational cooperation

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the Framework Programme. The share of participation of Sweden in total participation is 3.35 % so far, and Sweden has received 3.87 % of total EC contributions. FP funding represents 136 Euros per head of population. The country also participates in Joint Programming. Sweden participates as a member in 7 initiatives, is observer in 1 and coordinates the JPI Antimicrobial resistance - An emerging threat to human health. The country also participates in 6 Article 185 initiative(s) and leads 1 of them.

Swedish governmental research and innovation policy is strongly based on the analysis that the competitiveness of the Swedish national economy and society hinges upon a strengthening of the Swedish national research and innovation system. Swedish research policy measures are designed partly taking into account the policies of other European countries. The almost 30 Strategic Research Areas, identified in the 2008 research bill and endowed with a specific funding program allocating a total of €300 million to 43 research environments in Swedish universities have been identified as highly relevant also in broader European perspective. Further, Vinnova began 2011 launching calls aimed at solutions to grand challenges. The role of the Swedish research and innovation system in strengthening the long-term common European competitiveness is further strengthened in the latest research and innovation bill with a new coordination function for European partnership programmes. This function is placed at Vinnova and involves all Swedish research funding agencies. An additional 220 million funding per year has been allocated to this function to meet the increased number of European partnership programmes.

Sweden is actively cooperating with other Nordic countries in joint programmes and institutions within the Nordic Council of Ministers. Nordic cooperation involves Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden as well as the three autonomous areas, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and the Åland Islands. The organisation of Nordic collaboration in research and innovation rests on two main pillars, one for research, NordForsk, and one for innovation, Nordic Innovation (formerly The Nordic Innovation Centre, NICE). In 2008 the Nordic Prime Ministers initiated the Top-level Research Initiative (TRI) and it is to date the largest joint Nordic research and innovation initiative that has a research focus within climate, environment and energy.

The Swedish national policy for research infrastructures and the commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI infrastructures, has been, and is still, in a phase of intense restructuring. Sweden published a third edition of its national Research Infrastructures Roadmap in 2011. Given its relatively small size and rather peripheral position in Europe, Sweden has been exceptionally strong in science and not least big science in the second half of the 20th century, as seen in its record of contributions and participation in European collaborations in research, e.g. CERN, the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), and many others. Sweden had, up until a decade ago, not been actively seeking to become host of any of these collaborations. This changed in 2007, when it was decided to fund an initiative to build and operate two world-leading research infrastructures in materials sciences European Spallation Source (ESS) and MAX IV. The fate of the ESS plans is still not completely determined, as the only binding funding pledges made are those by Sweden and Denmark, covering 42% of the construction costs, and 2013 is supposed to be the year when a number of bilateral agreements are made between Sweden and the other prospective European member countries. MAX IV, on the other hand, is currently being constructed in Lund and its opening is set in 2015. Sweden also supports and actively participates in the European Social Survey, CESSDA and SHARE, and has invested in the Science for Life Laboratory, SciLifeLab, in Stockholm/Uppsala. Several billions euros are related to those infrastructures.

Regarding cross-border access to research infrastructures, the room for assessment of details of access to large research infrastructures in Sweden is dependent on decisions to be made with regard to the organization and legal status of MAX IV, ESS and SciLifeLab. In the case of ESS, it depends on decisions with regard to its realization and the nature of the facility in terms of organizational and legal status (international treaty organization, limited liability company, etc.) and distributions of shares or similar among member countries.

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010 the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 9.9 per 1,000 and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 2.9. The shares of non-national doctoral candidates were 10.0% from another EU-27 Member State and 20.0% from non-EU countries.

With regards to open, transparent and merit based recruitment, Swedish HEIs have been required by the Employment Ordinance since 1994 to announce all job vacancies (both permanent or for a fixed period) for academic staff (including teachers and researchers) and advertise all relevant information on e.g. the EURAXESS portal (Researchers Report 2012). The 2010 universities autonomy reform gave universities however greater autonomy in determining their own organisation and HR policies, including liberties to change the procedures for hiring and promotion of academic staff. This autonomy reform does undoubtedly impact the mobility on almost all levels and in almost all instances: vacancy announcements (including job profile, skills and competences required, and eligibility criteria); the selection process and criteria; time periods for various stages in the recruitment process; possible feedback to applicants; routines for appeals against decisions; and the composition of selection panels as well as rules for the composition and publication of the composition of panels. However, since the reform not explicitly changed the procedures in any direction, it is difficult to assess the effects. The reform also influences open recruitment, as it allows Higher Education institutions to call individuals to specific posts, allowing to compete internationally for talent. The impact of this provision is also not clear yet. In 2012, 64% of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012).

The 2012 research and innovation bill contains new legal provisions and a funding programme to incentivize HEIs to recruit internationally researchers who conduct research of the highest quality. In the bill, the annual governmental grant to the Swedish Research Council is increased with an earmarked amount of 150 million SEK (€ 18 million) in 2013, followed by increases of 50 million SEK (€ 6 million) in 2014 and 2016 to be spent on a program – designed and launched by the Council – “for the international recruitment of researchers who conduct research of the highest quality.” The programme has been launched recently.

The past years have seen no new legislative or policy efforts on national level to alter cross-border access to and portability of national grants. First-stream funding to universities are naturally tied to specific institutions. Third party grants are generally flexible in that they can, once granted and commenced, be transferred across national borders to foreign institutions; however, it is typically the case (as for Swedish Research Council grants) that applicants must, in order to be eligible for a grant, localize the grant to a Swedish institution to which the funding will be disbursed by the funding agency and which will act as employer of the grantee.

Regarding coordinated personalised information and services through EURAXESS, it can be noted that the EURAXESS network is in Sweden not subject to a national coordinated policy effort but rather administered and sustained by research councils and the participating institutions. There is no mentioning of EURAXESS in the two most recent governmental research bills (20098 and 2012) or in other governmental policy documents.

Four Swedish organisations are actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers.

Gender

Regarding recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers, it can be noted that there are few or no legislative barriers to gender equality in the public Swedish R&D system. Swedish government leaves however the work to achieve gender balance in the academic sector largely to the institutions themselves. In spite of the general Swedish strong showing in international rankings and evaluations of gender equality and equal opportunities policy, the recent few years’ general policy initiatives on national level aiming have had little involvement of policies aimed at providing equal opportunities in academia and thus end the waste of talent brought by gender inequalities institutionalized in academic culture.

The 2008 research bill mentions gender inequality once, stating that the work to achieve better gender equality in the research system “continues to be a priority” for the government but with no reference to concrete policy measures in the area. The 2012 research bill mentions gender inequality also once, and instructed the universities and higher education institutions to intensify the work to break gender bias in education efforts. It also announced a budget of 32 million SEK per year, to be allocated to Vinnova for practical equality research during 2013-2014. The Vinnmer programme was intended for the underrepresented gender in the scientific field of application and towards researchers who have a PhD and who have completed their Post Doc qualification.

In the Autonomy Reform bill, the liberalization of certain regulations for academic institutions includes the opportunity for universities and higher education institutions to give a candidate from an underrepresented gender priority in recruitments.

In relation to the goal of at least 40% of the under-represented sex in committees, the government gave a general instruction (Regulation) to the Swedish Research Council to establish and sustain equal gender representation in discipline-councils and peer review assessment boards and committees involved in the recruitment of academic staff. This regulation has remained in place also after the implementation of the aforementioned 2010 so-called Autonomy Reform which otherwise deregulated several similar procedures within academic institutions. The panels assessing grant applications at the Swedish Research Council are supposed to have a balanced composition with respect to gender; the government’s instruction to the council is that the council shall “promote gender equality within its area of work”. The Council has, on basis of this instruction, adopted its own gender equality strategy.

Although this may not be considered as a partnership to foster cultural, and institutional change on gender in the strict sense, the former Delegation for Gender Equality in the Higher Education Sector is an initiative worthwhile mentioned. It was initiated by the government, the Swedish Agency for Higher Education and the academic sector. The Delegation was active between 2009-2010 but a few projects are still running. Their work, while not yet having been directly translated into governmental policy, has become the focus of national debate and raised key issues in connection with gender (in)equality in the public R&D system. The new Swedish Council for Higher Education´s will work against discrimination and in other ways encourage equal rights and opportunities regardless of gender, gender transcending identification or expression, ethnic background, religion or other belief system, disability, sexual orientation or age.

More detailed information can be found in the country profile for Sweden in the Researchers’ Report 2013 http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/services/researchPolicies

Knowledge circulation

With respect to Swedish governmental policy on access to and preservation of scientific information, efforts to enhance or support the flow of information in scientific communities are limited. Governmental policy is limited to the language in the 2008 and 2012 research bills in support of efforts, conducted on agency level, to facilitate open access publishing and publicly available online information databases. However, the strong policy standpoint in favour of open access publishing articulated in the 2012 research bill is directly connected to the EU guidance in the area.

The Swedish government gave an instruction to Swedish Research Council and the National Library of Sweden to develop a national policy for open access to scientific information – research data and publications. This work will be carried out in cooperation with research funding bodies, universities and higher education institutions. The initiatives on EU level to build up research infrastructures for the facilitating of dissemination of data and results (e.g. European Social Survey, CESSDA, SHARE) are supported by the Swedish government who take active part as members in these initiatives.

Two national initiatives to facilitate better access to scientific publications by indexing publications nationwide and promoting open access publishing are worthwhile mentioning. None of them are the result of direct governmental policymaking but they are rather collaborative efforts between public and private national organizations (agencies and foundations). First, the SwePub database, run by the National Library of Sweden and makes it possible to search among articles, conference papers and doctoral dissertations published by researchers at Swedish universities and higher education institutions (all institutions except the Stockholm School of Economics are part of SwePub). Second, the OpenAccess.se project, run and funded by the National Library of Sweden in collaboration with the Association of Swedish Higher Education (an voluntary interest organization for Swedish universities and higher education institutions), The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences and the Knowledge Foundation (a public research foundation). Within this project, the collaborators work with information and counselling, infrastructure and services, and policy development regarding open access publishing.

The 2012 research and innovation bill presented several measures of importance for increased commercialisation and utilisation of research results, including funding and relevant instructions to governmental agencies. The research policy target was broadened for research to contribute to the development of society and industry’s competitiveness, resulting in an overarching focus on utilisation. The measures for example include a new instrument focussing on grand challenges and further strengthening of industrial research institutes, as well as new innovation offices at universities. It also includes measures and initiatives to strengthen the universities and colleges’ assignment to work together with external society and work for research results to be of benefit, with the aim of bringing the lessons learned from this into the future performance based resource allocation system for 2018 which the science council is tasked to propose.

In parallel with the 2012 Research and Innovation bill, the Government adopted an innovation strategy aimed at strengthening the innovative climate. The innovation strategy takes a holistic view with the purpose of enhancing innovative capacity and meeting social challenges. The strategy emphasises, for example, the importance of all relevant actors being involved, the lowering of thresholds and the creation of incentives to advance different actors’ capacity for growth and innovation. The innovation strategy includes several different areas of policy and affects a number of government bills over the period up until 2020.

NORDUnet (www.nordu.net) is a joint collaboration by the 5 Nordic National Research and Education Networks in Denmark (Forskningsnettet), Finland (Funet), Iceland (RHnet), Norway (Uninett) and Sweden (SUNET) and operates a world-class Nordic and International network and eInfrastructure service for the Nordic research and educational community. It is a member of GEANT. SUNET's aim is to provide Swedish universities and colleges with access to well-developed and effective national and international data communication and related services that meet their needs, whatever their geographical location. NUNOC (Nordic University Operations Centre) is the 24/7 operations organisation established by NORDUnet to operate and support SUNET´s network and services. Sweden is member of EDUgain through Swedish Academic Identity – SWAMID, operated via SUNET.

Effectiveness

The Science, Technology and Innovation system in the United Kingdom is evolving towards focusing more on innovation and on areas of basic funding in which only the government can invest. Well aligned with the ERA priority to promote effective national research systems, peer-reviewed competitive funding continues to prevail in the UK.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) plays the lead executive role in research issues, and is the major provider of research funds for the public sector. It provides funds for the seven Research Councils, each organised on a broad disciplinary basis, which in turn support R&D both in Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) and in their own institutions. Thus, BIS has oversight for the majority of R&D policy formulation, and forms the main author of strategic policies for R&D and innovation, while the Research Councils will develop their specific R&D policies. The UK government provides support also to research and innovation activities in the private sector through a number of mechanisms, including tax credits for R&D investment. The share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to Government Budget Appropriations or Outlays for R&D (GBAORD) was 0.59% in 2011. Total GBAORD per capita rose until 2008, when it started to decline. The national public effort on Research and development, measure as the share of total GBAORD in national expenditures in United Kingdom was of 1,22% in 2011. The Government’s plans for austerity measures have continued to be applied, although offset by targeted investments aiming at boosting industrial growth and longer term recovery.

The Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth was adopted in 2011. It sets out the Government’s approach to boosting business investment in innovation and ensuring UK success in the global economy. It indicates that invest will focus on critical areas that only government can fund. As a consequence, a number of new measures have been introduced and modifications made to existing measures over the period 2011-2012. The recent Autumn Statement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer confirmed support for these measures while the BIS Annual Innovation Report for 2012 charted the progress made with their implementation. At the same time, the Government has continued its practice of assessment, evaluation and review in order to ensure it adheres to its longstanding commitment to evidence based policy-making.

Competitive funding allocation based on excellence prevails. Research Councils provide competitive funding for basic research while the Higher Education Funding Council allocates funding for research using the Research Excellent Framework allocation mechanism.

International peer review principles remain embedded in all UK research funding allocation mechanisms.

Transnational cooperation

Co-operation between countries is fostered by the Framework Programme. The share of participation of United Kingdom in total participation is 12.80 % so far, and United Kingdom has received 14,48 % of total EC contributions. United Kingdom coordinates the Food Security, Agriculture and Climate Change (FACCE) initiative and participates in nine other Joint programming initiatives. The country is leader in on of the five Article 185 initiatives in which it participates. It is also a member in sixteen ERANET + initiatives.

The Economic and Social Research Council is a partner in Open Research Area in Europe for the Social Sciences (ORA), which currently involves 4 European countries (UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands) and is bringing in third countries (India and the United States). Co-ordinated peer review and a single common selection process is conducted by the partner funding agencies. Also, the UK has several bi-lateral science and technology agreements with third countries

Several actions support the development of Research Infrastructures. Funding for large facilities and infrastructure is available from the Research Councils, Government Departments, Regional Development Agencies, Devolved Administrations, charities, the private sector, the European Commission and other international bodies. A particular source of funding is the Large Facilities Capital Fund, administered by central Government. In 2012 the RCUK Strategic Framework for Capital Investment was adopted. It outlines where capital investment is important to ensure sustainability of the research base in the medium to long term. The Framework includes large facilities as previously described in the "Large Facilities Roadmap", but has broadened to include other significant capital priorities. In 2013 £600 million Pounds have been earmarked for funding the development of infrastructures and facilities. The Research Partnerships Investment Fund 2012-2015 supports large-scale projects able to leverage substantial co-investment from private sources to enhance the research facilities of higher education institutions undertaking world-leading research. It will secure £1 billion investment in university research infrastructure.

Access to UK research infrastructures is open to all UK and non-UK nationals who are registered as UK academics; Postdoctoral researchers from UK universities; those applying via EU transnational access arrangements; and overseas organisations that have contractual access agreements with the relevant facilities. In addition, applications from overseas (non-EU or without prior contractual access arrangement) are considered.

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010 the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 8.2 per 1,000, and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 2.3. The shares of non-national doctoral candidates were 16.4 % from another EU-27 Member State and 31.4 % from non-EU countries.

The UK National Action Plan on researcher mobility and careers within the European Research Area (2009) points out that the UK research base is already one of the most open in the world both as regards recruitment of researchers and scientific collaborations (over 40% of UK scientific papers now have one or more non-UK co-authors). In 2012, 78 % of university-based researchers were satisfied with the extent to which research job vacancies are publicly advertised and made known by their institution (More2 survey, 2012). Evidence shows that researchers who returned to the UK after an extended time abroad were significantly more productive in terms of articles published than those who had never left the UK. The UK Government funds a number of dedicated fellowship schemes (Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships, Newton International Fellowships,) which seek to attract the best early career researchers from around the world to UK institutions.

The UK Government has a well-defined and long term skills agenda for researchers. UK Research Councils have allocated GBP 120 million (some EUR 141.3 million) to this since 2003.

In relation to actions to promote mobility, all UK Research Councils are members of the “money follows researchers” scheme. This scheme allows researchers relocating to a new country to take with them the remainder of a current research grant. The Academic Visitor Visa programme allows overseas academics to travel to the United Kingdom for up to 12 months when taking part in formal exchange agreements with UK counterparts or carrying out research whilst on sabbatical leave from their home institution.

The Concordat between funders and researchers employers set up the expectations and responsibilities in terms of researchers careers. It is aligned to the EU Charter and code and the Human Resources Excellence in Research Award. Four British organisations are actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers. Seventy-nine universities have been awarded with the HRS4R Acknowledgement for the implementation of a Human resource strategy for researchers in the organisation, reflecting the enabling framework provided by Vitae. Thirty stakeholder organisations (e.g. Funding Councils, Research Councils, unions, and Universities UK) have developed the “Researcher Development Framework”, a strategic agenda to train and support researchers and further improve their skills. Researchers in the UK have access to private pension arrangements and may transfer their pensions to another pension arrangement abroad, subject to tax requirements.

EURAXESS provides information for UK and overseas researchers. The British Council participates in the Euraxess Services network.

In relation to the implementation of the practices and principles for innovative doctoral training, they are espoused by the Research Councils for the recruitment and training of researchers.

More detailed information can be found in the country profile for United Kingdom in the Researchers’ Report 2013 http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/services/researchPolicie

Gender

Several actions address women researcher careers. Both the Concordat and the Equality Act provide for equal opportunities. The RCUK Statement of Expectations for Equality and Diversity places expectations on universities receiving Research Council funding to promote and lead cultural change in relation to equalities and diversities, to engage staff at all levels, ensure researchers are trained and supported to address inequalities and to evidence of this. The Research Excellence Framework (REF) includes equality issues, and the REF equality and diversity panel advises on the implementation of REF.

Cultural and institutional change is promoted by several measures. The Athena Swan Charter fosters cultural changes across organisations. The joint programme of the Royal society and the Royal academy of engineering addresses diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

Knowledge circulation

Open access to publication is well advanced in the UK, notably in Gold Open Access. The "Gateway to research" initiative provides the infrastructure for preservation and open access.

Knowledge transfer is supported through several activities. The Knowledge Transfer Network is one of the Technology Strategy Board's key tools to facilitate the connection, collaboration and finding out about new opportunities in key research and technology sectors by UK's innovation communities. The Knowledge Transfer Partnerships foster relationship formed between a company and an academic institution ('Knowledge Base' partner) to facilitate the transfer of knowledge, technology and skills to which the company partner currently has no access. The Catapul Centres are physical centres where the very best of the UK's businesses, scientists and engineers work side by side on late-stage research and development - transforming "high potential" ideas into new products and services to generate economic growth. The Cooperative Awards for Science and Engineering are used by the institutions to promote knowledge transfer.

The recently established E-infrastructure Leadership Council (ELC) is taking an holistic view of the entire computational resources (e-infrastructure) ecosystem to enable an integrated approach to investment, and found that on-going sustained investment is essential in all aspects of hardware, software and data storage, along with investment in the associated skills and training to enable these., and is developing the business case for future investments. RCUK is also currently developing its own complementary integrated set of priorities for e-infrastructure for research, and we will work closely with ELC to ensure linkage. Six areas are being tackled: Computer systems, software, data, skills, authentication and security, and networks. United Kingdom is joining EDUgain through UK federation. Janet is the United Kingdom National Research and Education Network (NREN), a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within the country.

Effectiveness

The research and innovation system in Iceland is based on two legislative acts from 2003 (2/2003 and 3/2003) and Act No. 75/2007 on Government Support for Technology, Research and Industry Development.

The Science and Technology Policy Council (STPC), headed by the prime minister, is the body in charge of R&D policy at a strategic level. At an operational level, the Icelandic Centre for Research (RANNIS) reports to the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture and provides technical support to the STPC while also managing and following up the implementation of most R&D programmes. In addition, the Innovation Center Iceland, which comes under the aegis of the Ministry of Industry and Innovations is in charge of technology development, technology transfer to companies and support to innovative businesses.

The national policy on science and research is outlined in a three year policy plan issued by the Prime Minister’s Office. The policy for 2010-2012 was dedicated to the importance of fostering and strengthening research and innovation in Iceland under the guiding principles of cooperation and sharing; quality and rewards and international research and innovation. The Science and Technology Policy Council (STPC) is currently drafting a new research and technology policy for the period 2013-2015.

Public research funding mainly takes the form of block grants. However, the new investment plan for Iceland 2013-2015 brings a considerable increase in public R&D funding in 2013 through competitive funds with a less increase in block funding of higher education and research institutions. The funds are open to application from anyone regardless of institutional affiliation and allocation of grants is based on the core principles of international peer-review, as is stipulated by STPC.

Block R&D funding to higher education and research institutions is allocated by the Finance law. Performance indicators for research have been included in the University of Iceland’s Strategic Plan in negotiations with the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. Similar agreements have been made with the other public universities.

The Icelandic Quality Board for Higher Education monitors the quality of the education offered in accordance with the Icelandic Quality Enhancement Framework. Quality assurance of higher education institutions, both in regards to research and teaching, is carried out by an internal evaluation of higher education institutions as well as by periodic external evaluation.

Transnational cooperation

Currently Iceland is participating in one JPI namely the JPI on healthy and productive seas and oceans. Iceland is also an active partner in nine ERA-NETs (M-era.net, EraSME, CORNET, EuroNanoMed, HERA, NORFACE, MARIFISH, MATERA+, SEAS-ERA).

Iceland participates in a number of ERA-Net projects some of which have the objective of becoming established Article 185 initiatives in the future. Eurostars has been running as an Article 185 initiative since 2008, with Icelandic participation from the start. Iceland has not had an official policy towards participation in Article 187 initiatives. However, Icelandic organisations participate in Innovative Medicines and Hydrogen and Fuel Cells initiatives. Iceland is member of EUREKA, COST and ESPON.

Iceland is part of the NORIA, the Nordic Research and Innovation Area, which is responsible for the Nordic R&D cooperation in the fields of research and innovation. This involves Nordic research funding institutions, fixed-term research programmes, Nordic Centres of Excellence, the Top-level Research Initiative (the largest joint Nordic research and innovation initiative to involve the very best agencies and institutions in the Nordic region, and promote research and innovation), grant schemes, and the coordination and planning of major infrastructure investments among the Nordic countries .

Finally, Iceland has signed a number of bilateral agreements with third countries such as the US, China and India.

As regards financial commitments to research infrastructures, Iceland has participated in the preparatory phases of several ESFRI infrastructures (CLARIN, ESSurvey, EPOS, LIFEWATCH, BBMRI, ECRIN, ELIXIR, ESSneutrons) and are currently involved in the next phase.  Iceland also is a member of other international infrastructures such as EMBL, GBIF, GEANT, ICDP, IODP, NOT.

The Strategic Research Programme, to be launche din 2013, should encourage increased investment in research infrastructure.

Open Labour market for researchers

In Iceland, universities are financed and controlled by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. However, the Act on Public Universities (Act no. 85/2008) resulted in a new management structure for university councils in public universities, with the majority of members coming from external bodies. The Rector of each university is appointed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture based on a recommendation from the University Council, and for a limited period of time, normally four or five years.

These institutions (both public and private) have private boards and they have a significant degree of autonomy. They can for example decide on such matters as admission requirements, progression of students from one year to the next, certification, etc.

No formal barriers exist to recruiting non-nationals for permanent research and academic positions. On EURAXESS Iceland, foreign researchers can access information on vacant positions in Icelandic universities and research institutions as well as companies. Iceland’s EURAXESS webpage provides information for researchers on social security access and health insurance.

All Icelandic universities have, furthermore, signed the European charter for researchers and the code of conducts for their recruitment.

As regards training and collaboration beween academy and business, Growth Agreements, regional development contracts among national government, local business local authorities and regional development agencies, reflect the government’s emphasis on innovation policy, by encouraging R&D at regional level via clusters of local SMEs and other businesses, regional and external universities, and research organisations.

Three universities have been accredited by the Ministry to run doctoral training. Research excellence is the cornerstone of doctoral training.

Concerning outward mobility, the ABEL Extraordinary Chair (2009) is an initiative created as part of the project on ‘Improving student, researchers’ and artist’s mobility and cooperation between Spain, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein’. The programme aims to promote the temporary incorporation of high level researchers from Spain in research centres in Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

Finally, funding is always allocated to Icelandic organisations and thus, trans-border funding flows from national programmes is not allowed.

Gender

Gender equality is regulated by labour market law.  The current Gender Equality Act aims at establishing and maintaining equal status and equal opportunities for women and men, and thus promote gender equality in all spheres of society.  It introduces a minimum quota of 40% in governmental (state and municipal) committees and councils, if the body consists of more than three members and  Gender mainstreaming is institutionalized.

Since 2008 the Centre for Gender Equality has been working on a project called Side by Side, a gender-mainstreaming project funded by the EU Progress Programme. The aim of the project is to implement and develop gender mainstreaming in national policies and activities in Iceland.

Furthermore, since 2009 there has been a focus on gender responsive budgeting in Iceland and this is reflected in a recent parliamentary resolution on a four year gender equality action programme 2011-2014. Funds and public support for scientific research should systematically collect information on the gender composition of expert councils, applicants and grantees, and grant amounts. If an uneven distribution is found between the grantees of either sex it should be examined whether action should be taken to correct this inequality, for example, by making grant applications more accessible, or reviewing the allocation rules

Gender balance in education and research is of major concern for Iceland. In 2012 the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture took part in a Nordic project on gender balance in academia. The aim of the project was to compare the developments in gender equality legislation, statistics and policy in the Nordic countries and find good examples of successful instruments and measures that have improved the gender balance in academia in these countries

Knowledge circulation

The Science and Technology Policy Council 2010-2012 policy hassintroduced a dedicated section on Open Access and had sent a letter to the Boards of competitive research funds, to universities and research institutions to encourage them to set policies for publishing results in open access.

Scientific publications based on projects, funded entirely or partially by Rannís must be published in Open Access. Projects that have received grants from Rannís prior to January 2013 are not subject to the requirement of Open Access publishing, even though Rannís encourages all researchers to publish in Open Access.

Iceland features a setup called the Iceland Consortia for electronic subscriptions, hosted by the National and University library. “It serves not only academics and research institutions but each and every computer in the country that is connected to the Internet through an Icelandic Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Iceland has dedicated working groups focusing on primary research data and researchers are reported to be increasingly practicing self-archiving (green open access).

There are open repositories maintained by Landspitali University Hospital and the National and University library, and  a national synchronized repository (CRIS based on CERIF) is being planned in 2013/14

Knowledge transfer is actively being promoted by the Research Liaison Office of the University of Iceland.       

Effectiveness

The Government budget appropriations or outlays for research and development (GBAORD) as a share of Gross Domestic Product was 0.79% in 2011 (EU average 0.71%) and 0.92% in 2013. The government has set a 1% target. The proportion of the national budget allocated to R&D rose between 2005 and 2013 from 3.4% of the total budget to 3.7 % in 2013. Of the 34 OECD countries, only one allocates more government funding per capita to R&D than Norway. The share of GBAORD allocated as project based was 44,17 %  in 2008.

Norwegian R&D policy formulation within the government takes place within structures that have remained largely unchanged over a long time period. The structure is based on the “sector principle”, by which each ministry is in charge of financing and assigning priorities to research activities that relate to its specific sector. All ministries administer research funds. Norway’s multiannual R&D strategies are defined in periodical (every four years) white papers or so called Reports to the Stortinget (Norwegian Parliament). The Ministry of Education and Research administers the greatest proportion of the funding and oversees the administration of close to half of the overall, publicly provided research funds. About 27% of all R&D activity in Norway is conducted in universities and university colleges, 23% in independent research institutes with basic funding from the state, but serving markets and the public sectors. Since its reorganization in 2003 the Research Council of Norway (RCN) acts as the only operational research policy agency in Norway and is thus the Government’s key instrument for implementing national research policy priorities. In addition to funding research, RCN has the mandate to advise the government about research policy and to create communication and coordination arenas for actors of research, industry and government.

The White paper Meld. St. 18 (2012–2013) Long-term perspectives – knowledge, published in April 2013, announces a long term planning for the entire public funding of Norwegian research. In relation to competitive funding is it relevant to note that the White paper proposes that priority is given to "assessing whether the overall funding of universities and university colleges is suitable for fostering high quality in research and education and encouraging institutions to focus on fields in which they have special advantages".

Approximately 30 per cent of public funding for research is channelled through the Research Council of Norway (RCN). The remaining is mostly allocated directly to the research institutions (universities, hospitals, research institutes) and to cover Norwegian participation in the EU Framework Programmes for Research. RCN answers to sixteen ministries and has a broad set of system-wide responsibilities to ensure that, for example, allocations of research funding apply to the core principle of international peer review. In 2011, 77 per cent of the overall budget of RCN was allocated to project-based funding based on international peer review.

In addition to the Research Council of Norway – which is the main arena for competitive funding through calls of proposal, the Norwegian government has introduced performance-based funding systems with the purpose to reallocate significant parts of institutional core funding in the higher education sector (introduced in 2002), the research institute sector (in 2009) and in the health trusts (university hospitals and other hospitals)(in 2004). Funding is reallocated from research institutions with low performance to institutions with high performance. These reallocation systems of core R&D-funds are based on a predefined set of performance indicators which are well-known to all institutional actors.

In 2012 the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research commissioned an independent evaluation of the performance-based system for the reallocation of core funding to the Norwegian research institutes, which is in action since December 2008. On the basis of the findings and recommendations from this evaluation the Norwegian Government is revising in 2013 the indicators used in the system and their relative weights.

Transnational cooperation

Regarding the implementation of joint research agenda addressing grand challenges, the strategy Meld. St. 18 (2012–2013) Long-term perspectives – knowledge provides opportunities stipulates to "increase internationalisation in parts of the research system and ensure more effective coordination in the use of national and international policy and funding instruments". For this reason, the Norwegian Government will develop a national strategy for participation in Horizon 2020 and for ERA with clearly defined goals and priorities. Based on this strategy, RCN shall work towards facilitating participation in transnational joint research programmes when these address grand challenges or if these are expected to strengthen the Norwegian research or the knowledge-based business sector. At the moment, The share of participation of Norway in the Framework Programme in the total participation is 1,65% so far, and Norway has received 1,79% of total EC contributions.

The RCN in cooperation with relevant ministries are in process to address whether there are legal or other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions, and is participating in initiatives to develop new models for cross-border cooperation, e.g. the Lead-Agency model.

Through the RCN, in close cooperation with six ministries, Norway is also participating in all ten common Joint Programming Initiatives (JPIs) and the SET-plan. Norway is, together with Spain and Belgium, the coordinator of the JPI on healthy and productive seas and oceans. The country also participates in 5 Article 185 initiative(s) and leads 1 of them. Norway is also an active partner in ERA-NETs. Today, approximately 2% of the overall funding from the RCN is allocated to transnational cooperation activities supported by the EU Framework Programme (ERA-NET, ERA-NET plus, Joint Programming Initiatives, Article 185 initiatives). Current focus in the national JPI work is to establish and prepare implementation of joint research agendas. Both the RCN and the Government are in process to address how the structure of JPIs and other transnational cooperation activities should find its place as an integrated part of the Norwegian research system.

Norway is cooperating with other Nordic countries in joint programmes and institutions within the Nordic Council of Ministers. Nordic cooperation involves Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden as well as the three autonomous areas, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and the Åland Islands. The organisation of Nordic collaboration in research and innovation rests on two main pillars, one for research, NordForsk, and one for innovation, Nordic Innovation (formerly The Nordic Innovation Centre, NICE). In 2008 the Nordic Prime Ministers initiated the Top-level Research Initiative (TRI) and it is to date the largest joint Nordic research and innovation initiative that has a research focus within climate, environment and energy.

RCN has a broad set of system-wide responsibilities to ensure that, for example, allocations of research funding apply to the core principle of international peer review. The main conclusion from the evaluation of RCN in 2012 was that the Research Council functions satisfactorily and its services are generally considered by users as relevant and of high quality. A large part of the available funding through the RCN is open for competitive funding. The evaluation of RCN in 2012 demonstrated that the evaluation processes in RCN are of good quality and trustworthiness.

The Tools for Research – Norway’s national strategy for research infrastructure 2012-2017 strategy should ensure that the Norwegian research community and trade and industry have access to relevant, up-to-date infrastructure that facilitates high-calibre research, which in turn will help to solve major knowledge challenges facing society. The first edition of the Norwegian National research infrastructure roadmap was published in 2010, and a revised second edition was published in 2012.

The National Financing Initiative for Research Infrastructure was launched as part of the follow-up to the government white paper on research, Climate for Research (2009), and Norway’s national strategy for research infrastructure, Tools for Research (2008-2017). The strategy document establishes a clear division of responsibility for investment in research infrastructure, distinguishing between basic equipment and nationally-oriented research infrastructure. Under the infrastructure initiative, funding may be sought for nationally oriented research infrastructure with investment costs of more than NOK 2 million (260k euro). The maximum amount of funding that may be sought from the Research Council is NOK 200 million.

Funding for Norwegian participation in Nordic, European and other international cooperation on research infrastructure, including Norwegian participation in the implementation phase of projects on the ESFRI Roadmap, is provided under The National Financing Initiative for Research Infrastructure. The Research Infrastructure (INFRASTRUKTUR) programme supports Norwegian participation in establishing research infrastructure on the ESFRI Roadmap.

Norway is currently participating in 12 different ESFRI projects and is hosting three of the projects (ECCSEL, CESSDA and SIOS). All 12 projects have received funding from the national financing initiative for research infrastructure. In addition, Norway takes part or participates in 11 other preparatory phase projects on the ESFRI Roadmap. Decisions on Norway’s commitments to these ESFRI projects will be taken based on the outcome of open, competitive calls in the National Financing Initiative for Research Infrastructure.

In general, there are no legal barriers to cross-border access to RI in Norway.

Open Labour market for researchers

In 2010 the number of researchers (FTE) in relation to the labour force was 10.2 per 1000 and the number of new doctoral graduates per thousand population aged 25-34 was 1.9. The shares of non-national doctoral candidates were 12.9% from another EU-27 Member State and 30.9% from non-EU countries.

For the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers it is relevant that the White paper Meld. St. 18 (2012–2013) Long-term perspectives – knowledge strategy announces the introduction of a trial scheme for tenure-track positions for especially talented younger, researchers in mathematics and natural sciences, technology, medicine and dentistry. It also stipulates that priority should be given to the reduction of the number of temporary positions.

To support the implementation of the Charter and Code, the RCN has sent personalised invitations to universities and university colleges to endorse the Charter and Code principles. RCN has also discussed implementation strategies with institutions on a bilateral basis and with the national group mirroring the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R) mutual learning seminars, as well as in relevant seminars were HR-policy is taken up. RCN has together with the Association of Norwegian Research Institutes (FFA), taken the initiative to carry out a national gap analysis for the independent research institute sector on the Charter and Code principles. The analysis looks into relevant national legislation and common practises among the institutes. RCN has through its action plan for the Charter and Code 2010-2013 incorporated the Charter and Code into its funding instruments. RCN has thus included a reference to the Charter and Code in information to applicants under 'General requirements for applications', saying that RCN wants the principles of the Charter and Code to be followed up in projects funded by the Council. 14 Norwegian organisations are actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers of which 6 have received the "HR Excellence in Research" logo for their progress in implementing the Charter & Code.

As part of the RCN Charter and Code action plan 2013-2015, RCN will consider whether to include a requirement for the portability of funding in contracts with institutions. On the Norwegian Charter and Code web page (part of EURAXESS NORWAY), it is indicated which research institution signed the charter and code and are then responsible for implementation.

The Law relating to universities and university colleges (2005) regulates the common principles of recruitment by universities and colleges, who should active and systematically work towards equal recruitment. Applicants from abroad must as a rule have a formal affiliation with a Norwegian institution to be eligible to seek Norwegian funding. However, some financing opportunities are specifically designed for foreign researchers and partners.

For mobility and access to, and portability of grants, it is relevant to note that the Research Council Top Fund scheme provides compensation to Norwegian host institutions for additional costs incurred when employing (foreign) Marie Curie fellows at applicable salary levels in Norway. From 2013 this scheme will also fund outgoing mobility for researchers from Norway with grants from the Marie Curie Actions Intra-European Fellowships for Career Development (IEF) and International Outgoing Fellowships (IOF). For these Norwegian researchers the scheme will top up the difference between mobility allowance covered by the Marie Curie scheme and the RCN’s own mobility allowance rates.

All higher education institutions have received two invitation letters to become members of the EURAXESS Service Network and to implement the Declaration of Commitment. RCN coordinates the network and offers network members to take part in national and European working groups, to bring up typical problems hampering researchers´ mobility, to take part in training activities and to take part in mutual learning seminars and exchange of experiences.

For the ERA action towards structured doctoral training based on the principles for innovative doctoral training it is relevant that the White paper Meld. St. 18 (2012–2013) Long-term perspectives – knowledge strategy introduces a scheme to increase the number of doctoral degrees in public institutions similar to the existing Industrial Ph.D. Scheme. The objective is also to raise the number of Phd Candidates in public institutions.

More detailed information can be found in the country profile for Denmark in the Researchers’ Report 2013 http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/services/researchPolicies

Gender

Gender equality is implemented in legislation, including a minimum of 40 % of each gender in boards, panels and committees. This is also valid for higher education and research institutions. All state higher education institutions are expected to adopt binding action plans for gender equality. Practicing gender balance as a standard requirement has successfully brought Norway and other Nordic countries to a European lead position of the share of women on scientific boards and in management positions. However, Norway is at the European average when it comes to the total share of women faculty and women in grade A positions.

A Committee for Gender Balance in Research exists with as primary task to provide recommendations on national and local measures to promote the integration of gender equality work in the institutions in the university and university college sector and the research sector gender balance in research. Another task is to raise awareness about relevant issues related to gender equality. The committee is required to provide input and support to all research institutions, ministries and the Research Council of Norway.

In 2010 the government launched a temporary incentive scheme to encourage the institutions to appoint women to permanent academic positions (associate professor and professor) in mathematics, natural sciences and technology. The scheme is currently evaluated to see whether the measure has had any effect.

Gender Balance in top academic positions and research management (BALANCE) The program will support the cultural and structural changes in order to improve the gender balance at senior level in the Norwegian research sector through new knowledge, mutual learning between different parts of the research system (both public and private) and innovative measures. This new program will fund innovative measures and support mutual learning , both in the public sector and in private industry. A first call of 15 million NOK was launched in 2013.

In the Vanguard of Research Strategy for the RCN increases the participation of women in research, especially in high-level positions, by following up the measures set out in the Research Council’s Policy for Gender Equality and Gender Perspectives in Research. It has been agreed to include a statement in the RCN calls for applications that projects headed by women are given priority in cases where professional quality and relevance are rated equal.

In order to improve gender balance in academia, a gender equality prize was established by the Ministry and is awarded to the higher education institution or the research institute with best results on improving gender balance within the institution.

Regarding the gender dimension in research programmes, an information centre for gender research in Norway, KILDEN, is affiliated under the RCN. KILDEN has the national responsibility for promotion and information about Norwegian gender research nationally and abroad and promotes the documentation of resources and activities within gender research in Norway. KILDEN’s target groups are gender researchers, the academic communities in general, journalists, politicians, public administrators, students and the public in general.

The Government's overall objective is that the proportion of women among new entrepreneurs should be at least 40 percent by 2013. This project should accumulate the knowledge for the achievement of this goal. On the basis of the action plan the Research Council of Norway will work for a significant increase in the proportion of women in their business-oriented applications. Ideas Bank contains ideas for how to develop new instruments and measures to achieve the goal of a more equitable gender balance in the Research Council programs.

Knowledge circulation

The White paper Meld. St. 18 (2012–2013) Long-term perspectives – knowledge strategy emphasises the need of a greater flow of knowledge and increased openness. In principle, it is the Government’s view that all research that is wholly or partially funded through public allocations must be made openly available, and research results available in language that allow users to apply the knowledge. The Government will require that all scientific articles that are wholly or partially publicly funded must either be published as open access articles or self-archived as agreed on with the publisher. There is on-going work in the RCN to implement these policy goals and to develop national policies on both open access to publication and to scientific data.

The Norwegian Open research Archives system is an online digital archive, which aims to increase the proportion of publicly available scientific articles in Norway. CRIStin is a research information system for hospitals, research institutes, and universities and university colleges. One of the primary purposes of the system is to collect all the registration and reporting of research activities of institutions within the three R&D sectors in a common system. CRIStin shall also demonstrate, present, and make publicly available quality-assured data for scientific publication in a national database as a basis for the performance-based financing systems inuniversities and colleges, research institutes and the health trusts. CRIStin is a national point of reference for open access policies, and coordinates the negotiation of agreements around the procurement of electronic research resources.

As a general rule publicly funded e-infrastructures are accessible to researchers from public and private sectors. The eInfrastructure (part of eScience - Infrastructure, Theory and Application (eVITA)) Programme is designed to address computing- and data-intensive challenges in science, technology and medicine. It develops the scientific case for e-infrastructures that can best serve Norwegian research groups.

Open research and innovations instruments are the priority of Norwegian Government. Since the change of the University Act and the Employee Invention Act in 2003, Norway has undertaken a great number of activities promoting knowledge transfer, like coordinating IP policy measures for universities, launching several research programs aimed at commercialization, innovation and co-operation between research communities and actors within the business sectors, NGOs and public sector. Further development of policies that facilitate knowledge transfer will be prioritised in the coming period. This includes an action plan towards a significant increase in the proportion of women in their business-oriented applications.

Effectiveness

Swiss research policy is characterised by continuity and stability, including for the level of R&D spending. Important characteristics of R&D funding in Switzerland are the high priority of competition in selecting targets for funding, the bottom-up principle in defining the content, and the absence of instruments to directly support private R&D.

Political responsibilities for research and higher education are divided between the central state (Confederation) and the regional authorities (the Cantons). The Confederation is responsible for the direct funding of research and for the coordination of research activities. The Confederation is responsible for the two Federal Institutes of Technology (FITs) in Zurich (ETHZ) and in Lausanne (EPFL). The Cantons are responsible for their universities, while a national act regulates federal support to these institutions.

At the federal level, responsibilities for research and higher education are concentrated in the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER) – as of 2013.

At the intermediary level, the main actors are the two project funding agencies and an advisory body. The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) is a private foundation, headed by the State Secretariat for Education and Research and Innovation (SERI, part of EAER) and funded by the Confederation, responsible for the support to basic research. Moreover, it manages the national research programmes (NRP), as well as a programme aiming to create “National Centres of Competence in Research” (NCCR) at the national level. The Swiss Innovation Promotion Agency (CTI) is the federal agency for innovation, which supports joint projects between universities and private companies as well as innovation activities.

Competitive funding is at the core of the Swiss research and innovation system: both SNSF and CTI allocate their competitive funding by submitting projects to a thorough peer review in line with international standards.

The main policy initiative is the Message on the promotion of education, research and innovation for 2013-2016 which increases the amount of grant funding awarded on a competitive basis for research and innovation.

Transnational cooperation

Switzerland has a long tradition of participation in international programmes at European level. It participates in the Cooperation in Science and Technology in Europe (COST), where the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation provides additional funding for research in COST actions with Swiss participation. It further participates in the European technology initiative EUREKA, where Swiss participations are funded through the CTI. Switzerland also supports a number of inter-governmental research infrastructures, namely ESA, CERN, ESRF, EMB, ESO, ILL, CIESM and HFSP. It also invests funds in national top research infrastructures accessible to foreign partners such as Swissfel, Swiss Light source, CSCS and others.

In general, Swiss participation in international programmes and opening of national programmes reflects the decentralised nature of Swiss research policy and less focus on grand challenges.Research funding organisations are generally both willing and adequately funded to participate. Switzerland participates in about 20 projects in the context of ERA-NETs, 5 JPIs and in a number of projects of the European Science Foundation (ESF).

The SNSF manages the SCOPES programme which 2013-2016 budget includes in particular Joint Research Projects (JRPs) providing funding for researchers from partner countries to carry out innovative projects at the Eastern European and Swiss research facilities involved, and Institutional Partnerships (IPs), which contribute to the development and modernisation of institutional aspects of research and teaching institutions in Eastern Europe and the NIS.

Switzerland reached an agreement with Germany (DFG) and Austria (FWF) concerning joint financing of bilateral or trilateral projects, where submission and evaluation takes place in one of the three countries, while funding is on national basis (lead agency procedures) or from the country where most of the research is performed (money follows cooperation line procedure).

For researchers moving abroad, it is possible to transfer Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) funding to finalise the project. However, SNSF funding for stays abroad is not restricted to the European Union, allowing outward mobility to third countries as well.

On the basis of the Swiss Roadmap for Research Infrastructures (SRRI), in the Message on the promotion of education, research and innovation for 2013-2016 the federal government confirmed its financial commitment to the construction and operation of ESFRI, national and regional research infrastructures of pan-European interest.

Research infrastructures are generally accessible to foreigners. Nationals from EU/EFTA States can benefit from the agreement on the free movement of persons.

Open Labour market for researchers

All universities and most of the other research institutions have signed the Charter for Researchers and the Code on Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. Rules concerning academic personnel in Swiss universities make little distinction between Swiss and foreign applicants. There are no recruitment procedures that may hinder the openness or discourage participation of non-national applicants. Within the framework of the Swiss-EU Bilateral Agreement on Free Movement of Persons, Switzerland has adopted the EU’s system of mutual recognition of foreign qualifications issued by EU member states. Third-state nationals are also entitled to apply for recognition of their foreign qualifications in Switzerland.

As a general rule any scientist working in Switzerland, regardless of their nationality, can apply for funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). With respect to the portability of grants, the main principle for most European countries is money-follows-the-researcher: researchers who move abroad can ask for ongoing SNSF funding to continue.

Funding of whole research groups based abroad is generally not allowed, though the Sinergia instrument allows funding of a single research group based outside Switzerland but within a consortium of Swiss-based research groups.

Switzerland has been active in the EURAXESS initiative since 2008. The Rectors' Conference of the Swiss Universities (CRUS) acts as country coordinator and has also issued Euraxess Zurich the mandate to participate in the Euraxess TOP 2 project (Enhancing the Outreach and Effectiveness of the Euraxess Network).

No national policies, initiatives or pieces of legislation aimed at applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training have been found.

Gender

There are no generalised measures to establish quotas or minima for the participation of the underrepresented sex in research and innovation. The proportion of female researchers and professors varies considerably according to research areas, mainly following the common pattern that sees them underrepresented in more technological domains.

The proportion of women involved in the decision-making panels and in the research funding programmes, bodies of administration, science and science politics suggests the existence of an overall balance

The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) commissioned a study on "Gender and Research Funding" where it did not find any gender-specific discrimination in the SNSF’s research funding. The SNSF also joined AcademiaNet , an internet database aimed at making it easier to find qualified female scientists to fill management positions and serve as members of scientific bodies.

The Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI) introduced in 2009 a measure called Diversity@CTI, which focuses on improving guidance of female researchers and entrepreneurs by raising the share of female experts and coaches, by mentoring and networking and by establishing best practices.

Knowledge circulation

Several parliamentary motions were introduced in the past years to ensure greater transparency and cooperation in the area of research policy. The Federal Law on the Promotion of Research and Innovation (FIFG) specifies that research institutions must take care that their research results are available for the public. They also must support analysis and utilisation of research work. To ensure greater transparency and cooperation in the area of research policy, the ARAMIS information system makes information on research projects and assessments accessible to the general public and project managers. The Federal Statistical Office (FSO) and the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) are able to use this detailed information for statistical and other assessment purposes.

Swiss universities, the Swiss Confederation, cantons with universities and the federal bodies responsible for education policy are cooperating, through the SWITCH Foundation, to promote optical fibre interconnection of universities, universal login procedures, the digital repositories library and applications of e-identity to academia.

The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) fosters cooperation among researchers by using it as an evaluation criterion. Furthermore, it provides instruments explicitly requiring cooperation, notably the interdisciplinary instruments National Research Programmes (NRP) and National Centres of Competence in Research (NCCR). Most of the budget of the Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI) is devoted to projects promoting cooperative research between higher education institutions and private companies, especially those, essentially small and medium enterprises (SMEs), without their own research capacity.

As of 2013, Swiss companies received additional long-term support for innovative activities. National thematic networks (NTNs), innovation mentors (IMs) and physical and web-based plat-forms for Knowledge and Technology Transfer (KTT platforms) have indeed been introduced in 2013. NTNs help establish contacts between businesses and  public research institutes. Following a multi-stage assessment procedure in 2012, eight national thematic net-works were recognised by the CTI: ‘Carbon Composites Switzerland', ‘Inartis', ‘Inno-vative Surfaces', ‘Swiss Biotech', ‘Swiss Food Research', ‘Swiss Wood Innovation Network', ‘Swissphotonics' and ‘Logistics Network Association'.

Austria

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || The National Research, Technological Development and Innovation Strategy “Becoming an Innovation Leader: Realising Potentials, Increasing Dynamics, Creating the Future" || 2011 || The Austrian Research, Technological Development and Innovation Strategy “Becoming an Innovation Leader: Realising Potentials, Increasing Dynamics, Creating the Future" was published in March 2011. It introduces a coordinated vision and strategy across all ministries in charge of RTDI and identifies new challenges.  Also in 2011 a Task Force of senior officials was put in place to coordinate activities from the strategic perspective and monitor the implementation of this strategy. Nine inter-ministerial working groups were established which are active from 2012 on. These working groups focus on "climate change & scarce resources”, “quality of life and demographic change”, human potential, research infrastructures, knowledge transfer and start-ups, business enterprise research, "internationalisation & external dimension" and "Action Plan: Austria and the European Knowledge Area 2020"  and international rankings. This strategy builds on the exchanges of ideas among the most relevant stakeholders and an analysis of the innovation system as a whole: The Austrian ”Research Dialogue” (2008), the “System Evaluation” of the R&D support and funding system (2009), and the Strategic Recommendations of the Austrian Research and Technological Development Council (“Rat für Forschung und Technologieentwicklung”) (2010). In addition, the Austrian Council for RTD as an independent scientific and technological advisory body has the main task to monitor progress of the strategy’s implementation and reports to the Parliament (National Council) on an annual basis.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Revision of the Federal law on the organisation of universities and their studies (Austrian Universities Act) Revised university financing provisions || 2013 || §14d and §14e of the Universitätsgesetz 2002, last amended in 2013, regulates University funding for Austrian Universities. $ 14f regulates the implementation plan. Universities receive their global budget (institutional funding) in a procedure which is determined every 2 years by performance contracts. The global budget consists of three parts: 1) Budget for teaching, 2) budget for research and advancements in arts, 3) budget for large scale research infrastructures. Universities are free to use any part of the budget as they deem it appropriate - the major aim is to fulfil the performance contract made between the ministry and the individual universities. The budget for (2) is based upon a) An amount depending upon the number of students per research area, applying a specific weighting, b) a competitive oriented research indicator, and c) a strategic budget depending on societal objectives to be pursued by universities. Full implementation of the institutional funding model is foreseen for the performance contract period 2019-2021, for period 2016-2018 up to 60% of university funding will be based upon this model. An additional EUR 1 billion especially for universities over the years 2013 to 2016 were injected in the science system, with part of those funds (€450m) allocated on the basis of efficiency criteria (“HEA structural funds”).

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Performance agreements of the Federal Ministry for Science and Research with the Austrian universities and the Austrian Academy of Science || 2006 || §13 of the University law defines performance contracts between individual universities and the Federal Ministry of Science and Research.  Last changes made in 2013. Performance contracts exist since 2006 by law - concrete implementation since approximately 2009-2010. The negotiation of performance contracts is a basis for allocation of institutional budget for Austrian Universities. Performance contracts are being negotiated every two years. They comprise the following dimensions: 1) strategic orientation and personnel development of university; 2) Research projects and research programmes; 3) study programmes and advanced vocational training for university members; 4) Measures to reduce nr. of students quitting studies without degree; 5) Measures to improve student/teacher ratios; 6) Measures for part-time students; 7) societal objectives; 8) Increased internationalisation and mobility; 9) Inter-university cooperations; 10) definition of indicators for each performance area, on which degree of fulfilment of performance areas can be measured. The performance contracts and the funding system which has an implementation period of 2013-2020 comprises a set of indicators, upon which funding is based upon.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Quality Assurance Framework Law established the Agency for Quality Assurance and Accreditation Austria || 2012 || In March 2012 the "Quality Assurance Framework Law" established the Agency for Quality Assurance and Accreditation Austria. It is responsible for external quality assurance in the Higher Education sector. The mission of the Agency is to provide institutional and programme accreditation, audit, evaluations, studies and projects, information and supervision.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Updated evaluation standard published by the semi-public Platform Research & Technology Policy Evaluation (FTEVAL) || 2012 || In late 2012, the Platform Research & Technology Policy Evaluation (FTEVAL) published its new standards for evaluations in the field of STI policy. Among other things, the standard provides support for formulating Terms of Reference (TOR), for drafting evaluation systems, support for outlining the design of a specific evaluation and comprehensive information about evaluation approaches and methodologies. These standards will impact on future institutional assessments and general evaluation practice in Austria on medium- and long-term.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Reform of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW) || || A multi-annual Performance Agreement, which features a concentration of the OeAW's research activities on six major thematic priority research areas. For a three-year period, a global budget of € 224 m has been agreed upon.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || The Austrian Research, Technological Development and Innovation Strategy “Becoming an Innovation Leader: Realising Potentials, Increasing Dynamics, Creating the Future" || 2013 || As part of the national RTI strategy, funds supporting R&D are allocated on a competitive basis using international peer review procedures. The specific potential of expanding these principles to additional areas of the national research system will be analysed.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || International peer review in the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) programmes || || The majority of public funds aiming at scientific excellence and basic research and lately also knowledge transfer are based on international peer-review. In 2011, core principles of international peer review procedures were in use. In particular peer review methods are applied in cooperative funding programmes (e.g. thematic competitive calls, COMET). The international peer review procedures are being improved continuously. Overall principles for selection procedures are detailed in the FTE-Richtlinien (Richtlinien zur Förderung der wirtschaftlich-technischen Forschung und Technologieentwicklung) (2007) in paragraphs 2.2. (evaluation) and paragraphs 5.2 (Verfahrengsgrundsätze=procedures for application and decision processes). Procedures concern processes and documentation of project applications and funding decisions that have to be applied. Major principles include: Transparency about decision processes, i.e. evaluation criteria have to be specified, evaluation processes have to be specified; evaluation results and explanations thereof have to be provided to the applicants. The Austrian Science Fund, the main agency for funding academic oriented research, has implemented a purely international oriented peer review system, following highest international standards. Specific guidelines for the FFG are regulated in the legal base FFG-Richtlinien (2008). For Austrian Research Promotion Agency for each programme a set of specific selection criteria are set up, which fit the objectives of the programme. The FFG-law stipulates, that all FFG-funding decisions have to be taken upon the principles of Transparency, impartiality, and fairness. The FFG-Directives of 2008 provide clear regulations on application and funding decision procedures. Research quality, is usually a core selection criteria in all programming documents.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Austria is leading the JPI Urban Europe and is participating in 6 more Joint Programming Initiatives || 2013 || Contribution to the activities of the JPIs like: Joint Calls, development of Joint Strategic Research Agendas (SRA). Alignment of research funding (national and European) is an element of the national strategy. Within the NRP 2013 there is commitment to consistently increase participation in JPIs.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || National financial commitment and lead in coordination and support action (CSA) “JPIs to Co-Work” || 2010 || In 2010, Austria committed to taking the lead in the coordination and support action (CSA) “JPIs to Co-Work”, focusing on framework conditions for Joint Programming. The first results of this project suggest that: implementation activities are mostly not yet fully explored; funding modalities are not yet defined; in general, alignment of funding sources and rules is still low and the benefit of participation for programme owners seems to require further attention.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Participation in Article 185, JTIs and Joint Undertakings, including funding of ENIAC and ARTEMIS Participation in SET-Plan Activities || 2013 || Austria participates to a large number of ERA-nets, INCO-nets, European Science Foundation programmes, JTIs, including funding of ARTEMIS and ENIAC, five Article 185 initiatives while leading one of them, and in seven Joint Programming Initiatives while also leading the JPI Urban Europe. Austria participates e.g. in the areas Smart Grids, Smart Cities, EERA (European Energy Research Alliance) as well as in der SET-Plan Steering and Sherpa Group.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Establlishment of a Climate Change Centre Austria (CCCA) || 2011 || The CCCA has been established as coordinating facility to promote and support climate research in Austria with particular focus on Strengthening the climate research landscape in Austria, facilitating the education of a new generation of researchers and supporting knowledge transfer and advising politics and society.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Ensure mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to international peer-review standards as a basis for national funding decisions || D-A-CH Cross-border funding agreement, a cooperation activity between (basic) research funding agencies in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Similar agreements exist  with France, Slovenia, Hungary, UK (only for social sciences), Luxembourg, Belgium, Czech Republic. || 2008 || Within the D-A-CH agreement between Germany, Austria and Switzerland, namely the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) have agreed to follow a lead agency principle for research projects with participants of at least two of the three countries. Within the “Lead Agency Procedure” (since 2008) it is possible to submit a joint transnational application to a single funding organisation (the Lead Agency) in accordance with this organisation’s guidelines. The Lead Agency will review the application and will reach a funding decision in accordance with its national procedures. The funding organisations of the remaining countries participating in the project will decide on the basis of the review documentation and the decision provided by the Lead Agency and if the application is approved they will fund the participant(s) in their countries according to their national guidelines.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Classical bilateral programmes (Memoranda of Understanding) || 2012 || This type of programme serves to fund bilateral collaborations in cases where the two national subprojects are so closely connected that they may only be performed in conjunction with one another. Examples: bilateral calls for applications with Russia (RFBR), China (NSFC), Japan (JSPS), Korea (KRF), Taiwan (NSC), etc. Intergovernmental bilateral S&T agreements with China, FYR of Macedonia, India, Croatia and Ukraine. New or reinforced bilateral cooperation in 2012 with Slovenia, Slovakia, France, China, Saudi Arabia, Albania, Singapore, Montenegro and Indonesia. Bilateral agreements are not only at federal government level, but also cooperation on university or public research organisations levels.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || The Austrian Research, Technological Development and Innovation Strategy “Becoming an Innovation Leader: Realising Potentials, Increasing Dynamics, Creating the Future" || 2013 || The improvement of national research infrastructures as well as Austria’s integration and commitments to international infrastructures (e.g. ESFRI) are among the policy priority outlined in the national RTDI strategy.  This is the focus of one of the inter-ministerial working groups of the Task Force established for the strategy's implementation.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Participation in ten ESFRI Initiatives and eight additional research infrastructures of pan-European interest. || 2013 || Austria participates in international large-scale research programmes and infrastructures, ten of which are ESFRI initiatives, such as the European Laboratory for Particle Physics of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), International Centre for Mechanical Sciences, Energy and Environment, Fluid Mechanics (CISM), Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), Synchrotron Light Laboratory (ELETTRA), but does not host any such infrastructure.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Draft national roadmap for for the building of new infrastructures and link to ESFRI. || 2011 || The inter-ministerial working group (set up under the Task Force for the RTDI strategy) has suggested a research infrastructure roadmap to the government.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Establishment of a repository of research infrastructures in Austria || 2011 || A national RI repository for all RI at publicy financed research institutions was established as an information source for further financial commitments. An Open for Collaboration tool was set up for its continuous improvement. Additionally, Austria participats to the MERIL portal. The existence of the repository and the participation to MERIL support cooperation and access to national RI.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Revision of the Federal law on the organisation of universities and their studies (Austrian Universities Act) (revision of/amendment to the original 2002 law, Bundesgesetz BGBl. I Nr. 81/2009) || 2009 || Since 2009, Austrian university laws (revision of/amendment to the original 2002 laws, Bundesgesetzes BGBl. I Nr. 81/2009) require public research institutions to advertise for research positions internationally. However, it is up to autonomous research institutions in Austria to publish job vacancies in English, systematically establish selection panels, establish clear and transparent rules for the composition of selection panels etc.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Implementation of the provision of the Scientific Visa Directive 2005/71/EC and recommendations 2005/762/EC and 2005/761/EC || || General immigration procedures for researchers from all over the world have been facilitated in 2008.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Recognition ("Nostrifizierung") of foreign diploma or training qualifications || 2011 || The faster recognition ("Nostrifizierung") of foreign diploma or training qualifications has been implemented. This does not comprise academic degrees.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || The brainpower austria programme; the Career Grants Programme; various grants and scholarships || || Such programmes and grants aim at attracting expatriates and foreign researchers (for the former one) to pursue research in Austria. Although these measures are implemented by different organisations, information is accessible through a single web-based platform: http://www.grants.at.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || D-A-CH Cross-border funding agreement, a cooperation activity between (basic) research funding agencies in Germany, Switzerland and Austria || 2003 || The DACH-agreement between the main (basic) science funds from Austria, Germany and Switzerland allows grant portability between these 3 countries to a very high extent ("Money follows researcher").

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Research fellowships and programmes administered by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) - APART, DOC and DOC-fFORTE Programmes; FWF programmes || 2009 || Research fellowships and programmes administered by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) may be used either domestically or abroad. In general, Austrian researchers are allowed to move their grant to another ERA country and this is decided mostly on case-by-case basis. Applicants applying to the FWF for individual grants must have been living in Austria for at least three of the last ten years at the time the application is submitted (principle of territoriality). (Deloitte) The following programmes administered by the Austrian Academy of Sciences are open to non-residents: − APART, a programme for post-docs from any discipline, is open to Austrian citizens and anyone else planning to carry out their research project at a research institution in Austria; − DOC, DOC-fFORTE or DOC-team, programmes for doctoral candidates, are open to Austrian citizens or anyone enrolled in a PhD programme at an Austrian university. (Deloitte)

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Austrian Science Fund (FWF) projects || || Grants have been largely made portable as part of Austrian Science Fund (FWF) projects carried out through the EUROHORCS (European Heads of Research Councils) initiative called "Money follows researcher".

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || National  EURAXESS portal || || Austria participates in the EURAXESS initiative with a national portal. The Austrian Ministry of Science and Research actively promotes the EURAXESS Jobs portal via brochures, flyers, and newspaper advertisements in order to raise awareness of the European job database among universities and public research organisations. The EURAXESS Jobs portal offers a cost-free platform for posting jobs internationally.  In 2010, over 525 jobs were published on the portal which is an increase of more than 50% in comparison to 2009. More than 250 Austrian research institutions registered by the end of 2011 (Deloitte 2012, Austria country report), including more than 25 universities and universities of applied sciences. The Austrian Bridgehead Organisation and all EURAXESS Services Centres and 14 out of 32 Austrian Local Contact Points have signed the Declaration of Commitment by mid 2010. Through EURAXESS web information is provided for incoming researchers concerning residence and employment and a respective guidebook as well as information for taxation of income of researchers in Austria.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || FWF structured doctoral programmes || 1998 || A very well established funding programme to develop Human Resources is the Doctoral Programme of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). It forms centres of education for highly qualified young scientists/scholars from the Austrian and international scientific community.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Marietta Blau grant scheme || 2010 || Since 2010, the Marietta Blau grant aims at generating internationally competitive PhD diplomas in Austria. It offers financial support to highly-qualified doctoral candidates at Austrian universities for carrying out the abroad part of their doctoral programme (6-12 months). Monthly grant volume is up to €1,200.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || sub auspiciis Praesidentis grants || 2012 || This is a small-scale grant scheme for excellent post-docs, €9,000 for 2 years.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Performance agreements with HEIs for 2010-2012 and 2013-2015 - Application of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers || 2013 || The principles of the Charter & Code have been integrated in the performance agreements with HEIs for 2010-2012 and 2013-2015. 31 Austrian research institutions, including all major Austrian Universities, the Austrian Science Fund and a number of relevant public research organisations have undersigned the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. The implementation of the ‘Charter & Code is part of the National Action Plan for Researchers. The Medical University of Graz, as the first institution in Austria, has been recently acknowledged as “human resources excellence in research” following the EC’s five stage certification process under the human resource strategy 4 researchers.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Federal Constitutional Act (BV-G) and Federal Budget Act (BHG) Federal Equal Treatment Act and equivalents at regional level || 2013 || In the course of the new reform of budget laws, gender budgeting and gender equality were laid down in the Federal Constitutional Act (BV-G) and Federal Budget Act (BHG). On this basis, a gender equality objective was developed by all ministries. Federal finance law 2013 (Bundesfinanzgesetz für das Jahr 2013) stipulates the following objectives in respect to gender equality in Science and Technology: a balanced representation of women and men in academic leadership positions and boards as well as in young scientist positions; better usage of skilled labour in Austria especially through raising the share of women employed in science, technology and innovation. It also provides for the promotion of Women in corporations with special focus on raising the share of women in state owned businesses in management, executive and board positions and enhancing their leadership competencies. The Federal Equal Treatment Act and its equivalents at regional level also address gender equality.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || The Charter on the Compatibility of Family and Career, The National Action Plan (NAP) for Gender Equality in the Labour Market, The Care Allowance Reform Act 2012 and The Care Allowance Act National policy on gender equality || || Laws require equal treatment for women and several provisions are included to ensure this: maternity leave must not be a discriminating factor; long grace period for maternity leave; pregnancy automatically freezes temporary contracts; women have the right to return to an equal position to the one held before their maternity leave; women are entitled to have a part-time position when they end their maternity leave. Women researchers with employment contracts enjoy the same maternity benefits as any other employee: - Researchers are protected by Austrian employment law in the event of interruption of a contract during maternity leave; - Career development programmes offer project leaders the possibility of interrupting and extending a project at no additional cost in the event of a maternity. In the NRP 2013 measure are envisaged for the closure of the income gap between women and men and work-life-balance.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Revision of the Federal law on the organisation of universities and their studies (Austrian Universities Act) (revision of/amendment to the original 2002 law, Bundesgesetz BGBl. I Nr. 81/2009) Regulation on formula based budgets for Austrian Universities (FBV) Regulation on intellectual capital reports for Austrian universities || 2009 || In the research field the objective is to attain gender balance in leadership positions and decision-making bodies and new measures were put in place in 2009 for public research organisations and higher education institutions, including implementation of gender monitoring with respect to recruitment as well as in governance entities, and targeted recruitment. The Regulation on formula based budgets for Austrian Universities (FBV) formulates the following indicators for social objectives related to promotion of women: Indicator 8 measures the share of women in grade A (full professors) positions and indicator 9 measures the number of women PhD graduates weighted by discipline of PhD study. The regulation on intellectual capital reports for Austrian universities (Wissensbilanz-Verordnung 2010 – WBV 2010) stipulates that universities have to provide indicators on share of women, gender pay gap, share of women and men in appointment procedures and budget for work-life balance measures.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Performance agreements with HEIs Performance agreements with Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) || || The Performance Agreements aim to improve the position of women at all career stages and in responsible positions in universities. In addition, they support work-life balance by offering child-care facilities, parental leave and flexible working hours. Universities receive funding against concrete statements announced in their Performance Agreements, including on 'Gender' budget and how they progress on gender equality. The Federal Ministry of Science and Research (BMWF) evaluates those performance contracts on an yearly basis against a set of indicators including on gender (career progress, 40% target etc.). In the first performance agreement (2012 to 2014) between the ÖAW and the Federal Ministry of Science and Research the affirmative action plan for women is in preparation and will be implemented 2014. Universities Act 2002 contains regulations concerning performance agreements between universities and the federal government: "The universities shall formulate their contribution to social progress. This includes measures to improve social permeability, to increase the proportion of women in leadership positions at universities, the promotion of female junior researchers in a targeted manner, the advancement of socially relevant areas of art, culture and research, and knowledge and technology transfers. " It also stipulates the establishment of Working Groups on Equal Opportunities in all Austrian Universities: "§ 42. (1) The senate of each university shall establish a working group on equal opportunities responsible for combating gender discrimination as well as discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, religion or conviction, age, or sexual orientation by university governing bodies and for advising and supporting the university’s members and governing bodies in connection with these issues."

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || FWF structured doctoral programmes Hertha Finberg Programme and Elise Richter Programme || || A quote of 30% female scientists/scholars is targeted and achieved within the ongoing programmes of the FWF.  Guiding principles for Doctoral Programs (DKs) by FWF Austrian Science Fund demand a gender-equal focus/orientation of applications: - gender relevant aspects in respect to research topics as well as in respect to working conditions and environment have to be taken into account. Gendergerechte Ausrichtung. The share of female doctoral students should at least be as high as the share of women graduating on Master level. Likewise should the share of women scientists involved in a Doctoral Program at least be as high as in the respective scientific discipline. The implementation of gender equality measures is an important criterion for the assessment of the quality of applications. The Hertha Firnberg Programme exists since 1998. It supports women at the start of their scientific careers (two-stage funding for a maximum of six years). The Elise Richter Programme is aimed for senior post-docs and helps them acquire the necessary qualifications to apply for professorial positions within Austria or abroad.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || inter-ministerial action umbrella programme fForte (Women in Research and Technology), industry and PROs branch (FEMtech) || 2002 || FemTech is a line of fForte-programmes, and since 2011 a line of Talents Programme, mainly managed by the Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT, http://www.femtech.at/en/femtech.html). It seeks to increase female participation in industry innovation and applied sciences at PROs in the medium and long-run.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Gender dimension in fellowship programmes || || Women researchers enjoy a set of rights to interrupt or extend a contract in the event of maternity leave: - Fellowship programmes administered by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (APART, DOC, DOC-fFORTE, and DOC-team) allow women researchers to interrupt and extend their contract for a maximum of 12 months during maternity leave. Women researchers receive payments covered by the Austrian social security system. - Fellows (mothers or fathers) providing proof of care for at least one child under the age of seven are eligible for a part-time fellowship. The duration of the fellowship can be extended; - Persons receiving grants from the FWF are financed by means of employment contracts. This applies to doctoral students and incoming scholars as well.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || FWF general principles in decision-making procedures || || General Principles of the Decision-Making Procedure in the FWF: The share of women among reviewers should average at least 30% per year. In addition, efforts must be made to ensure that the panel at SFB and DK hearings includes at least two women as reviewers. At least one third of the members of these bodies should be women, and every effort should be made to ensure a maximum of diversity in terms of regions and institutions.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Working Group on Gender and Diversity Management || 2013 || Working Group within the Ministry of Science and Research, consists of members in top management positions within the Ministry of Science and Research and aims to implement diversity measures as cultural and institutional change initiatives in the ministry and in future also in public universities and research organizations. Diversity and gender measures increase equal opportunities, more innovation in decision-making, an open working climate and include minority groups. Diversity activities support a more flexible European labour market for researchers and an increase in the innovation potential throughout the research area.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Inter-ministerial action umbrella programme fForte (Women in Research and Technology), industry and PROs branch (FEMtech) || 2002 || Some fForte activities, i.e. specifically FEMtech ones, aim to increase female participation in industry innovation and applied sciences at PROs in the medium and long-run. These support activities include, among others, the FEMtech internships or FEMtech PhD grants, i.e. directly supporting internships or scholarships in applied sciences for female MINT (mathematics, informatics, natural sciences, engineering) students, or support PRO institutions implementing e.g. fair recruitment strategies etc.. Similarly, certain FEMtech R&D grants target gender-specific innovation since 2010, e.g. accounts for gender differences and its implications for product design.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || The Laura Bassi Centres of Excellence || || The Laura Bassi Centres of Excellence encourage cooperation between highly-skilled male and female researchers from academia and the private sector. More specifically, women scientists are encouraged to apply for top positions within the ‘Laura Bassi Centres of Excellence’ to address the shortage of women in scientific roles. These Centres have been evaluated recently. Evaluation results suggest that not only the female researchers’ scientific achievements to date should be taken into account in the candidate selection process, but also capacity and potential in the areas of management, team leadership and career planning of the candidate.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || inter-ministerial action umbrella programme fForte (Women in Research and Technology), schooling branch Educational gender initiatives by BMWF || || fForte-programme activities support activities on school level encourage e.g. gender specific teaching schemes for MINT (mathematics, informatics, natural sciences, engineering) subjects at school, mainly driven by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture (BMUKK). Recent educational gender initiatives include additional funding by the BMWF for 2011 and 2012 aimed to strengthen general and female participation in MINT subjects, with a total extra budget of €40m.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Ensure that at least 40% of the under-represented sex participate in committees involved in recruitment/career progression and in establishing and evaluating research programmes || Revision of the Federal law on the organisation of universities and their studies (Austrian Universities Act) (revision of/amendment to the original 2002 law) || 2011 || Sets 40% quota for underrepresented sex at Committees (management board, selection procedure, recruitment etc). Amendment of the Universities Act 2002 in order to increase female participation:  a women quota in university committees of 40% is stipulated: "(6a) Both the senate and the Federal Government shall apply § 11 para. 2 subpara. 3 of the Federal Act on Equal Treatment in the Public Service by analogy when electing or appointing the members of the university council. The university council shall therefore consist of at least 40% women. If the required women's quota is not met, the working group on equal opportunities may raise an objection against the incorrect composition by 31 March of the respective year." "(3a) Both the rector and the university council shall apply § 11 para. 2 subpara. 3 of the Federal Act on Equal Treatment in the Public Service by analogy when suggesting or electing vice-rectors. The rectorate shall therefore consist of at least 40% women. If the required women's quota is not met, the working group on equal opportunities can raise an objection against the incorrect composition. " "(7a) When appointing members of the collegial bodies established by the senate, § 11 para. 2 subpara. 3 of the Federal Act on Equal Treatment in the Public Service shall apply by analogy. The collegial bodies established by the senate therefore shall consist of at least 40% women. If the required women's quota is not met, the working group on equal opportunities may raise an objection against the incorrect composition."

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Ensure that at least 40% of the under-represented sex participate in committees involved in recruitment/career progression and in establishing and evaluating research programmes || Performance agreements with HEIs || 2009 || Performance agreements aim for a 40% share of women in leadership positions and gender mainstreaming in university careers and studies.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Performance agreements with HEIs || 2012 || Austria supports open access in the frame of the performance agreements with universities. Activities concerning open access policies are up to individual research performing institutions and research funding institutions. Open access is granted to diploma thesis and PhD theses.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Open Access Network Austria || 2012 || In 2012 the "Open Access Network Austria" (http://www.oana.at/en/home/) was established as a joint activity under the organisational umbrella of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and The Austrian Rectors' Conference (UNIKO). The network comprises of representatives of all public universities, many private universities, universities of applied sciences, non-university research institutions, and funding agencies. Its main tasks include the coordination of and recommendations for the Austrian OA-task/ activities of the research institutions, funding organisations and research policies (incl. taking into account international developments) as well as positioning towards the information providers (mainly publishing houses).

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Overarching laws on the research system Inter-ministerial working group “knowledge transfer and start-ups” || || Research funders and public research organisations are obliged by law to play a full role in supporting national innovation and competitiveness by fostering knowledge transfer. Knowledge transfer remains high on the political agenda, with the establishment in 2011 of an inter-ministerial working group “knowledge transfer and start-ups” and introduction of new measures.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Performance agreements with HEIs Performance agreements with Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) || || In the ongoing performance agreements of BMWF with the Austrian universities and the Austrian Academy of Science, assurances were given that reliable and sustainable intellectual property and utilisation strategies would be developed that enable partners from the economy to formulate long-term research targets. At the universities and at the Austrian Academy of Sciences knowledge transfer and IPR Management are widely recognised as important objectives.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || General Programme of the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) || 2011 || The General Programme of the FFG has remained Austria’s most important source of public funding for R&D carried out by industry in terms of funding budget, efforts to promote R&D in all economic sectors and industries, areas of technology, and sizes of companies. Various measures established during the last decade aim at academia-industry transfer of knowledge and technology: COMET, COIN, BRIDGE, Laura Bassi Centres of Expertise, uni:invent or most recently the thematic programme “Leuchttürme eMobilität” (Lighthouses of E-mobility) and the Laura Bassi Centres of Expertise, which are applied industrial research facilities featuring a new research culture. Eight such centres have been approved so far.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Establishment of a national contact point (NCP) for IP management || 2010 || In 2010, a national contact point (NCP) was designated at the Federal Ministry of Science and Research to tackle IP management. The NCP's tasks include the coordination of measures regarding knowledge transfer between public research organisations and the private sector, including tackling trans-national issues, in liaison with similar contact points in other Member States. The NCP is assisted by the Federal Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth, the Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology, and the Austria Wirtschaftsservice (AWS). More specifically, in order to follow up the IP Recommendation, the Austrian National Contact Point concentrates on the following tasks: Reviewing and reporting on measures taken in Austria to implement the Recommendation and Code of Practice; analysing IP data; inspecting, cleaning and modelling data with the goal of highlighting useful information; conferences and workshops to enhance collaboration between universities and industry; and it settles legal issues (consolidation of model contracts, development of guidelines).

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Christian Doppler Research Association || || The Christian Doppler Research Association promotes the cooperation between science and business. Specifically, this takes place in specially established research units with fixed terms, in which application-orientated basic research is pursued: Christian Doppler Laboratories at universities and non-university research institutions, Josef Ressel Centres at universities of applied sciences.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Tax incentives for research || 2012 || In 2012 the research premium for companies has been increased from 8% to 10%

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || ACOnet “Österreichisches akademisches Computernetz” - member of GÉANT || || ACOnet is the Austrian Academic Computer Network (NREN) for science, research, education and culture. ACOnet offers its members high-performance access via the GÉANT pan-European data network to international academic networks. It is run by the Universitaet Wien and almost 80% of Austria's HEI are taking part to it.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || eduGAIN || 2013 || ACOnet has also signed the partnership for eduGAIN in March 2013.

Belgium

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Research Strategy 2011-2015 || 2011 || Remains the main policy document: allows for PPP funding and the support of several calls for projects connected to its priority themes (GREENTIC, competiveness poles, RELIABLE programme, Employment-Environment Alliance etc.)

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Fundamental Strategic Research Fund || 2012 || Additional funds were made available for fundamental strategic research, hosting the virtual research institutes for life sciences (continuation, Euro 6 million per year) - which already funds research through competitive calls- and sustainable development (creation, Euro 5 million per year). The fund will also accommodate the Walloon Institute for Sustainable Development.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Wallonia's Marshall Plan 2.Green || 2012 || Funding is allocated to competitiveness clusters, with additional support for public/private partnerships and to R&D programmes on subjects linked to the Research Strategy for, in particular, ICT, the environment and sustainable development, ageing and health.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Belgian Research Action through Interdisciplinary Networks (BRAIN_be) || 2012 || The Council of Ministers approved on October 2012 the launch of the first phase (2012-2017) of the recurrent Research Framework Programme BRAIN-be. The programme, which mobilises EUR 18 million/ year, is organised around six themes, is open to the participation of researchers and institutions form other countries on a co-funding basis and supports two types of research projects: network projects and pioneer projects.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || WAL-TECH || 2012 || Simplification of the institutional structure: the Walloon Government asked for 22 approved research centres to be brought together into 7 institutes, in order to simplify the landscape of these research centres and to guarantee cohesion among the subjects handled within them.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Flemish Parliament Act || 2012 || The Flemish Parliament Act on innovation was modified, whereby 3 elements were added: conditions for the support of the higher education sector (good governance, strategic planning, gender balance, reporting and science communication), the legal basis for subsidies for the special research funds, the legal anchoring of the programme for the support of young researchers.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Monitoring and quality control of research performance of HEIs/PROs || || In Flanders, a Dutch-Flemish accreditation body carries out systematic review, primarily focused on education. Educational quality is monitored proactively, in consultation with all parties involved, and with increasing attention to the results of various external analyses and audits. The AEQES is the independent QA agency, full member of ENQA and registered on EQAR, which autonomously develops its procedures used for assessing the quality of teaching in bachelor and masters programmes in the HEIs recognized by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Although the 3rd cycle programmes are presently excluded from the scope of external evaluation of the AEQES, the current reference list of indicators used by the international experts' pools includes somehow the research dimension. A new reference list has been adopted in May 2012, which includes additional dimensions related to research including the articulation between research, training and learning. Furthermore, in a position paper adopted in June 2012 by the Steering Committee of the AEQES for further improving the QA system of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, it is stated that the scope of QA should be formally extended to the 3rd cycle (doctoral training).

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Universities funding in Flanders || || Additional funding for universities distributed based on an allocation key, which is partially based on scientific output indicators

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Block funding for HEIs in Wallonia-Brussels Federation || || Allocation on the basis of the number of students and full-time equivalent researchers and not on the basis of scientific performance indicators such as bibliometrics. Nonetheless some additional public funding tools for the HEIS, such as the ARC (Actions de recherche concertées) and the FSR (Fonds spéciaux de la recherche) are based on competitive peer reviewing procedures and take the excellence of the research production into account.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Peer Assessment of the Walloon regional innovation system (OECD) || 2012 || The principles of international peer review have been applied. The analysis has guided the Government in several areas of reform (with particular focus on the reorganisation of the innovation landscape in Wallonia). The peer review has supported the Government in its efforts to consolidate different policies (including competitiveness poles, integrated Research Strategy and the Creative Wallonia plan)

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Calls on international experts for the evaluation of fellowships and projects applications || || In Flanders, the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) calls on international experts for the evaluation of all applications, both fellowships and projects. These procedures are based on ESF’s European Peer Review Guide. Furthermore, BELSPO procedures are ISO 9001 accredited

More effective national research systems || Support through the Smart Specialisation Platform Member States and regions in using Structural Funds to develop research capacity and smart specialisation strategies, including support to joint research programmes, in line with Cohesion Policy objectives || Brussels‐Capital Region strategy for Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) - up-date || 2012 || The strategy focuses on the strategic sectors for regional investment within the framework of a strategy of smart specialization in line with the EU 2020 Strategy, the future HORIZON 2020 and the ERDF 2014- 2020,the strengthening of interregional cooperation and the long‐term evaluation of research and innovation policy of the Region.

More effective national research systems || Support through the Smart Specialisation Platform Member States and regions in using Structural Funds to develop research capacity and smart specialisation strategies, including support to joint research programmes, in line with Cohesion Policy objectives || Flanders : Smart Specialisation strategy concept paper || 2013 || Innovation policy is considered critical for a smart specialisation strategy and there are strong links with the various “innovatieknooppunten” (innovation hubs) and the work of the “innovatieregiegrpoepen” (IRG) (innovation steering groups) on the one hand and the VRWI foresight study on the other hand.

More effective national research systems || Support through the Smart Specialisation Platform Member States and regions in using Structural Funds to develop research capacity and smart specialisation strategies, including support to joint research programmes, in line with Cohesion Policy objectives || Indicators' database of BELSPO || 2012 || Creation of a database with indicators, based on the concept of Smart specialisation, as demanded by the federal government in Its “Plan de relance”  of 2012

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Adoption of a joint action plan shared by the  governments of Flanders, Wallonia and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation for boosting economic activity through R&D || 2012 || The action plan provides for the launch of joint calls for submission of projects, strengthening collaboration between regional and community actions and definition of common positions, particularly at European and international level.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Grants to regional R&D performers in consortia || || The various Belgian governments are committed to support the participation of R&D performers in international networks, namely JPI’s, ERA-NETs and EUROSTARS initiatives. In Flanders, project for participating in the EUROSTARS programme can be obtained from IWT (Flanders’ innovation agency). In 2009-2012 the Flemish Government (IWT) supported 35 EUREKA projects for in total 31.5 million euro which is 48% of the total project amount. On average, 7.9 million euro is awarded annually to Eureka projects (including the EUROSTARS initiatives). The IWT launched a call for support to technology-driven roadmaps for the 6 Key Enabling Technologies initiated by a consortium of Flemish companies. Wallonia co-funds projects by giving grants to regional R&D performers in consortia (€6.8m in 2010 and €5.9m in 2011) and takes also part in the Eurostars initiative (art.185 initiative) (€3.2m in 2010 and 1.4m in 2011), where up to €1.5m is exclusively directed towards Walloon SMEs.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Joint call Belgium/India || 2011 || Within the framework of the agreement between Belgium and India on cooperation in the field of R&D, the second 'Joint Commission' meeting, held in Delhi on April 13th, 2011, decided to organise joint calls for proposals for networking activities. In August 2012 the first call was launched.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Ensure mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to international peer-review standards as a basis for national funding decisions || Lead agency agreements || || The Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) has concluded Lead Agency agreements with Luxembourg and Slovenia as a model of cross border collaboration.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Joint call for micro awareness-raising projects in 2011 called ‘Later, I will be Einstein or Marie Curie' Regions Wallonia/ Brussels and French speaking community || 2011 || Acknowledge the need to promote scientific studies among young people and the added value of conducting a joint action on this topic.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Joint call for RDI projects- WB GREEN (Brussels Region and Wallonia) || 2012 || Organisation of joint call for proposals between RBC and Wallonia Region (projects in sustainable development).

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Wallonia Creative District || || Wallonia is one of the 2 winners of the “European Creative Districts” call for proposals, launched by the DG Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission in the context of the CIP (Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme).

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Flanders: Interreg programme participation || || Flanders is active in several EU Interreg projects in future-oriented domains. Examples are BioBase Europe (bioeconomy), NanoSensEU   (nanotechnology) or Waterstofregio (Hydrogen Region, a finalist of the EUROSTARS AWARD 2012.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || International research collaborations || || In Belgium transnational cooperation is being executed via various channels : participation in supranational / international programmes or initiatives (EU, UN, OECD), structural or ad hoc policy initiatives with (priority) partners; bilateral research cooperation; funding of cooperation exchange projects; lead agency agreements; public support to initiatives of / access for STI-actors in international initiatives or programmes, etc.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Bilateral agreements for economic, industrial, scientific and technological cooperation with third countries || || The Federal Science Policy Office is responsible for coordinating the preparation and follow-up of the scientific part of the bilateral agreements for economic, industrial, scientific and technological cooperation that Belgium concluded with a number of third countries (China, India, and Vietnam)

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || International cooperation agreement between Brussels and foreign actors || || The cooperation agreements allow Brussels's universities to perform students’ exchanges, to organise post-doctoral schools and programmes, to exchange staff and to build EU and international projects.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Participation in the ESFRI roadmap || || Belgium participates in the following ESFRI infrastructures: INSTRUCT, PRACE, SHARE-ERIC BBMRI (already operational agreements). The Federal authority will cover the national contributions to those infrastructures. Still in preparation is the participation of Belgium in ESSurvey, CESSDA, ICOS, LIFEWATCH and ELIXIR. For CESSDA, ICOS and LIFEWATCH, an in kind participation of federal scientific institutes is planned. There is also a common interest of the various entities (Federal State and Regions/Communities) for ECRIN, EATRIS, DARIAH. The Belgian federal project MYRRHA is in its preparation phase (2010-2014) with a total budget of ca 100 MEUR, of which 60 M EUR paid by the Federal Government (Science Policy and Economy). The creation of an international consortium is actively pursued. The ERIC legal framework would be the preferred status.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Financing of research infrastructure investments || || At regional level, there are specific measures that finance research infrastructure investments (such as, for instance, the Hercules Foundation and the FWO’s Big Science programme in Flanders and the Athena Budgets managed jointly by Wallonia and Wallonia-Brussels Federation since 2011). In particular, the regional Flemish investments in research infrastructures are significant: the Hercules Foundation for large infrastructures received €5m additional funding for 2012-2016. The FWO’s Big Science programme funds Flemish research groups’ research programmes in large European research infrastructures, such as CERN-CMS, CERN-ISOLDE, the Mercator telescope, ESRF Dubble, Spiral2 and IceCUbe. Moreover, the Finance Fund for Paying off Debts and Investments (FFEU)  also aims at research infrastructures, it invested for instance €45m in the marine (VLIZ), energy and environment (VITO), ICT (Flemish Supercomputer Centre), medical and educational infrastructure. In line with the new Research Strategy 2011-2015, Wallonia and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation have set up the Athena fund in 2011 with a joint budget of €6m for research infrastructures.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Debate on participation in the ESFRI roadmap || || Ongoing national debate on the approach regarding the participation in the ESFRI roadmap with a clear division of responsibilities and guiding rules.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || ‘Wallonia-Brussels Partnership for Researchers’ || 2012 || The partnership promotes the open and merit based recruitment of researchers

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Opening up recruitment of researchers || || Contributes to the simplification of procedures and better use of EURAXESS by opening job offers and improving the Belgian site.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Measures to attract Belgian researchers who settled abroad || || Several measures exist to attract Belgian researchers who settled abroad: return mandates form BELSPO, scientific impulse mandates - ULYSSE from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation’s  F.R.S-FNRS ("Fonds de la Recherche scientifique" and Fund for Scientific Research) and the FWO's programmes for the Flemish Community (Odysseus, visiting postdoctoral fellowship and  Pegasus Marie Curie), as well as measures in the Brussels-Capital region (‘Brains Back to Brussels’, ‘Research in Brussels’).

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Reform of F.R.S-FNRS || 2010 || The research funding agency of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation F.R.S-FNRS reformed its recruitment system in 2010 throughout the selection process. The reform: - eliminates the age criterion formerly applied to applicants for F.R.S.-FNRS mandates; - provides pre-defined evaluation criteria that are communicated  to the candidates in advance; - provides candidates with feedback; - develops an evaluation procedure for the selection of projects that involves  more external experts  from outside the  Wallonia-Brussels Federation; - advertises the calls for candidates and the mechanisms for obtaining a mandate in FRS-FNRS/Associated Funds more widely on different internet portals (FRS-FNRS, EURAXESS, etc); - provides a renewed internet portal containing information of better quality on the F.R.S.-FNRS procedures of the (mechanisms, calls, results, etc).

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Scheme FIRST International || || In Wallonia, the scheme FIRST International allows Walloon companies and research centres to collaborate with foreign research organisations, which will host a researcher for a minimum of six months.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Initiative EUROHORCs || || The F.R.S.-FNRS are amongst the participating organisations of the initiative EUROHORCs. In order to remove mobility barriers for European researchers, EUROHORCs partners agreed on authorising researchers moving into partnering countries to take with them the remainder of a current grant.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Flanders implementation of Science Europe roadmap || || In Flanders, the FWO has underwritten the Science Europe roadmap, which is the result of an update of the former EUROHORCS roadmap. FWO fellowships are open to all nationalities, except for the pre-doctoral grants where a Master’s degree from a university of a European member state is required.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || Euraxess Belgium || || Several actions are planned to simplfy procedures and facilitate the use of EURAXESS for job vacancies.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Reinforced Joint Action Plan between Wallonia, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and the Brussels-Capital Region || 2012 || The Joint Action Plan focuses on: - Development of collaboration in the area of researcher training and access to the job market for those with the title of Doctor. - Comparison, evaluation and possible harmonisation of different tools allowing doctorates to be carried out in business-university partnerships. - Bringing closer together the two interfaces connected to Industrial Higher Institutes.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Plan Creative Wallonia || || Under the Plan Creative Wallonia, new approaches are developed in the field of awareness and in particular the implementation of multidisciplinary research initiatives and creative and innovative training. In particular, international PhD students and young researchers from abroad will be invited in Wallonia in order to benchmark the Plan Creative Wallonia with similar initiatives that exist in their country, and write a collective report about it.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Training young researchers and opening up career prospects || 2011 || Since 2011, the Flemish minister for innovation has provided a yearly sum of EUR 4 million to reach the following objectives: train young researchers (doctoral schools); develop careers and open up career prospects; reinforce the international orientation of researchers’ careers; cooperate within Flanders.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Improve  objectivity and transparency of decision making on recruitment and researchers career paths, including equal opportunities || || Belgium has recognised the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers as a good basis for improving researchers’ career prospects - ten  institutions signed the Charter, including  BELSPO, F.R.S-FNRS and the Rector’s Conference of the French Community, the Flemish universities and FWO.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Research strategy 2011-2015 of Wallonia and the Brussels-Wallonia federation || 2012 || The strategy has introduced the Partnership Wallonia‐Brussels for Researchers aimed at implementing the European Charter for Researchers. A sound monitoring of the Partnership implementation has been put in place i.e. via a dedicated steering group.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Brussels Capital region - DOCTRIS || || This programme aims to finance the PhDs' projects carried out in collaboration with a private company.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Flanders – Baekeland mandates            nnovation mandates || || Baekeland mandates support inter-sectoral mobility by offering support to projects at the interface of companies and knowledge institutes. The “innovation mandates” (previously known as “research mandates”) from the IWT (Flanders’ innovation agency) provide support to postdoctoral researchers who wish to transfer, exploit and utilise their research findings, either through a collaboration with an existing company, or a new spin-off company to be established.

A more open labour market for researchers || Develop and implement structured programmes to increase mobility between industry and academia || Wallonia - Second “Public Private Partnership” (PPP) call || || The PPP allows for the financial resources of Wallonia to be put together with those of a company or research institution to meet the requirements of a technological breakthrough in a determined activity sector.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Collaboration agreement  with the Flanders Scientific Research Fund (FSR) 2012-2016 || 2012 || The agreement specifically mentions the need for more (female) researchers, more international researchers and better research conditions in Flanders

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Gender at Universities high-level action group || 2013 || To ensure that gender policy at universities is developed bottom-up, the Flemish Interuniversity Council (Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad/VLIR) set up the Gender at Universities high- level action group. The group aims to improve the gender balance among professors, researchers and students by a gender action plan at the level of the universities.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Maternity leave/Wallonia-Brussels Partnership || || In addition to social security provisions (including maternity leave provisions), the Walloon Government ensures that all researchers enjoy the same rights to grant extension and alternative incomes during maternity leave. The provisions are applicable to researchers with fixed-term contracts as well as grant beneficiaries. The F.R.S.-FNRS allows for an extension of a mandate or a grant when a fixed-term mandate or a grant is suspended due to maternity, paternal or adoption leave, for a period equal to that of the suspension. A replacement income is then provided by the health care mutual (as is also the case for open-ended mandates) and a complement is provided by the F.R.S.-FNRS to compensate for the loss of income.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Wallonia-Brussels Partnership for researchers || 2011 || The Wallonia-Brussels Partnership promotes gender equality and provides for the insertion of a “genre” approach in scientific careers and the perpetuation of 10 researchers in the FRS-FNRS.  (Scientific Research Fund – National Scientific Research Fund)

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Flanders : Gender Action Plan || 2012 || End May 2012 the VLIR (Flemish’ inter-university Council) submitted the Actieplan Gender Hoger Onderwijs (Action Plan Gender Higher education that increases the efforts of the universities of the Flemish Community to deal with the gender inequality. Also, regulation for the support to universities in the framework of the BOF (Special Research Fund) has been modified whereby universities must become more gender-friendly. The headmasters are required to submit (by early 2014) a proposal thereto. A partnership between the universities and the responsible ministers will be setup through a Charter.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Women and Science committee Wallonia-Brussels Federation || || The Wallonia-Brussels Federation has established a ‘Women and Science’ standing working group aimed at enforcing equality between men and women. The group’s mandate is to implement the Wallonia-Brussels Partnership’s actions on gender equality as well as the Walloon Government’s Roadmap on equal opportunities. The “Women and Science” committee has recently approved the nomination of three gender contact person for each Wallonia-Brussels Academy. These gender contact person will be in charge of all matters relating to gender in their Academy.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Ensure that at least 40% of the under-represented sex participate in committees involved in recruitment/career progression and in establishing and evaluating research programmes || Minimum % of experts of the same sex in scientific evaluation panels || || In Flanders, the FWO makes sure that in its scientific evaluation panels no more than two thirds of the experts are of the same sex. Moreover, Flemish Minister for Innovation Ms. Ingrid Lieten has strongly encouraged the universities to increase their efforts in getting more women in university management.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Brussels Declaration on Open Access || 2012 || In October 2012, the three responsible ministers (federal government, Flemish and French Community) signed the “Brussels Declaration on Open Access” which promotes the OA as the default infrastructure for the dissemination of Belgian scientific research results.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Open Access scheme || || All universities of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation as well as the F.R.S.-FNRS have adopted an Open Access Scheme (OA Green Repositories). The deposit of the papers is in most cases mandatory even if the access remains restricted by copyrights, where required. OA Green Repositories are generally used in the evaluation process of the researchers and follow the so-called “Liège Model” (Immediate Deposit / Optional Access). The University of Ghent (Flemish Community) adopted an Open Access scheme (a repository).

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Open Access awareness across the Belgian scientific community || || Ghent University Library is the Belgian partner in the DRIVER projects and created a Belgian repository community, DRIVER Belgium which is instrumental for developing Open Access awareness across the Belgian scientific community.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || "Innovation centre Flanders" - Concept Note || 2012 || The concept note boosts Flemish innovation policy by connecting it to the key economic and social challenges of the future. It defines 6 innovation hubs which were the subject of various initiatives in 2012. A call for social inclusion has been launched and a new innovation platform, “Sociale Innovatiefabriek” (“Social Innovation Factory”) is being supported.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Excellence centres - Flanders || 2012 || Since 2012, a new structure has been adopted to integrate these centres into the framework of the thematic innovatieknooppunten (“innovation hubs") to allow raising sufficient levels of funding from industry by way of innovatieplatformen (innovation platforms). Also, the support contracts with several excellence centres were renewed (Flanders’ Synergy, Flanders’ Drive, VIM (mobility), VIL (logistics), FIS (design)), and also a new platform has been setup, on sustainable chemistry (FISCH). Upstream to the supply of knowledge, Flanders also supports its four strategic research centres In December 2011 three of them have been granted a renewed and extended Management Agreement for the period 2012-2016.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Public-Private Partnership (PPP 2012) Programme || 2012 || Contributes to ERA by supporting PPP to address grand challenges such as : Industry-science schemes like the FIRST schemes, consisting in the transfer of personnel between academia and industry, are also an important instrument of the regional policy-mix. In the Brussels-Capital Region, the Spin-Off in Brussels programme also supports the launch of spin-offs and the programme DOCTORIS was set up in 2011 to facilitate doctoral studies in enterprises and universities.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Fostering the valorisation of research results in industry || || Since 1998, the Walloon government supports the reinforcement of the university-industry interfaces with specialised personnel in charge of fostering the valorisation of research results in industry. The DGO6 provides financial support to a total of 11 persons in charge of valorisation at the universities and university colleges. For Flanders, the Baekeland mandates support inter-sectorial mobility by offering support to projects at the interface of companies and knowledge institutes. Since 2012, Flanders has setup the SOFI fund (10 million euro budget) to support spin-off companies setup from research from the 4 Flemish strategic research centres. In 2013 the resources and the scope of SOFI increase: an extra 10 million is available to support spin-off companies setup from research conducted at universities and university colleges of the Flemish Community. Another initiative is Vinnof, to provide seed capital to innovative starters (preferably in future-oriented domains). Since many years, the Flemish Government supports the IOF (Industrial Research fund) and the Interfacediensten (Technology transfer offices) to manage and facilitate technology transfer.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Support of interface technology transfer offices || || The Brussels-Capital region supports the interface technology transfer offices of three universities as well as the Indutec interface that gathers together the four university colleges of the region.

Bulgaria

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || National Strategy for Scientific Research 2020 || 2011 || Remains the main policy document. The tendency is to increase the competitive public funding for R&D projects. The strategy sets five priority areas for development of research in Bulgaria: energy, energy efficiency and transport; development of green and eco -technologies; biotechnologies and bio-foods; new materials and technologies; cultural and historical heritage.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || National Fund Scientific Research || 2012 || Offers competitive grants for fundamental and applied research in priority areas 2012. Proposals were submitted only in Bulgarian, which prevents organising an international peer review.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || National Innovation Fund - competitive grants 2012 || 2012 || First new open call for proposals since 2008. The allocation of funding is based on evaluations following international peer review standards.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || OP Competitiveness || 2007 || Allocation of funding is based on international peer review evaluation.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Law on Scientific Research Promotion || 2003 || Allocation of funding is based on evaluations following international peer review standards, introduced also by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Law on Higher Education || 1995 || The Law puts a focus on the quality of education and academic scientific research. In 2004 the National Evaluation and Accreditation Agency at the Council of Ministers was appointed “statutory body for evaluation, accreditation and monitoring of the quality of higher education institutions and scientific organizations”.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Draft regulation for monitoring and evaluation of scientific research activities || 2011 || Introduces the principle for international peer review

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Joint ESF and ALLEA International evaluation “Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences” || 2009 || The evaluation mechanisms apply the best practices for international peer review. The evaluation has led to the re-structuring and re-focusing of BAS research

More effective national research systems || Support through the Smart Specialisation Platform Member States and regions in using Structural Funds to develop research capacity and smart specialisation strategies, including support to joint research programmes, in line with Cohesion Policy objectives || Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialisation (draft) || 2013 || It will define the national and regional priorities in the area of innovation, in line with the Partnership Agreement concerning the use of the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund, where Bulgaria will propose two mutually complementing operational programmes in the R&D area in the period 2014-2020: “Innovations and Competitiveness“ and „Science and Education for Smart Growth“.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Support to transnational cooperation || || Bulgaria takes part in FP7 where for the period 2007-2012, BGN 158.4 million was absorbed. Bulgaria is well positioned in some of the other on-going ERA initiatives i.e. COST actions, schemes under JRC, and schemes for coordination of national research programmes. As of the end of 2012, Bulgaria has taken part in 140 actions and 251 projects under the COST initiative, it has signed cooperation agreements with 14 countries, and agreements with another 3 countries will be signed. Under the FP7, 580 contracts were signed at a total value of BGN 158.4 million where Bulgaria’s success rate is 16.6%, compared to an EU27 average of 21.8%. Financing has been provided to 130 bilateral cooperation projects for the period 2007-2012.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || National research infrastructure roadmap || || Published in 2010

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || National Roadmap for Scientic Infrastructure || 2010 || National support to investment in scientific infrastructure which defines the priority areas for development of scientific infrastructure. The Roadmap has allowed Bulgaria to be included in several European research infrastructure projects. Still, Bulgaria lacks financial, industrial and human potential for the construction and maintenance of big research infrastructures

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Bulgarian Rectors Conference || 2008 || The Bulgarian Rectors’ Conference (as a collective body of the largest national university network) has signed the European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct. Still, there are no specific regulations or schemes for increasing the researchers’ salaries.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Ordonance in accordance with  European Council Directive 2005/71/EC of 12 October 2005 on a specific procedure for admitting third country nationals for the purposes of scientific research || 2008 || The ordonance includes a provision on the obligation for HEI and BAS to apply policies to remove  barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || EURAXESS BULGARIA portal || || Bulgaria is part of the EURAXESS network for mobility of researchers.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Operational programme “Human resource development”(OP HRD) || || Supports the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training providing funds for mentoring, research training, etc..

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Sofia Techno Park || 2012 || The project plans for an entrepreneurship training for young enterprising talents, scientists and R&D units with ideas with high innovative potential.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Support to doctoral training || 2012 || To foster the interest of young people who are completing their doctoral studies, and hence improve the age profile of people engaged in R&D, funding has been made available for one-month internships of doctoral candidates in high-tech R&D centres and infrastructure.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Harmonisation of strategic documents according to Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 || 2000 || Provides for equal treatment of women and men in research. The restoration of the same position after maternity leave is guaranteed by law (until the child reaches 3 years of age).

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Support to Open Access || 2014 || Support for building and maintaining high-performing computing infrastructure, Access to different network infrastructures like GRID networks, European digital data bases

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Open access infrastructure for research in Europe (OPEN AIRE) || 2010 || Setting up of data repository of Open Access to research outputs, journal articles, conference papers and datasets of various kinds; six depositories are set-up in Bulgaria and linked to European repositories.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || National digital library || 2006 || The specialized system DocuWare allows free access to digitalized originals.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Central library of the BAS || || Provides for free on-line access to on-line resources.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || The world’s largest bibliographic database, providing the foundation of cooperative library services in metadata management, discovery, resource sharing and collection management (OCLC WorldCat® || 2008 || Support work together to improve access to the information held in libraries around the globe; reduction of the costs for libraries through collaboration.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Draft Law on Innovations || 2013 || It will adopt a modern organisation of innovation processes and eliminate the existing imbalances in the methods of financing research and innovation in enterprises

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || "Science-Business" project || 2011 || The project assists the participants in the scientific-innovative system in maintaining sound and flexible dialogue on issues and problems of common interest with view to overcome imperfect information and the lack of adequate environment, including a digital one

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Technology Transfer Offices || 2011 || Grant procedure to establishing New and Strengthening the existing Technology Transfer Offices in the amount of 5 M EUR

Croatia

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || The amendments to the Act on Science and Higher Education || 2013 || Provides legal basis for reforming R&D system, including, among others, implementation of multiyear performance based institutional funding.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Law on Quality Assurance in Science and Higher Education || 2009 || The quality assurance of Croatian scientific and higher education sectors, coordinated via the activities of the Croatian Agency for Science and Higher Education (ASHE) (member of the ENQA – European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education and EQAR – European Quality Assurance Register) through its evaluations procedures ensures a favourable ratio of input/intake and output/outcome.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on the Croatian Science Foundation || 2012 || The amendments to the Act on the CSF were adopted in July 2012 by the Croatian Parliament and they place CSF as a central, independent seat for the concentration of the national financial instruments of supporting scientific project activities. An increase in size and relevance of scientific projects, support to excellent researchers and projects, set-up of national user labs, establishment of a matching funds scheme for EU framework programs, installation grants for young scientists and synergies with the Unity through Knowledge Fund (UKF – see below) are only some of the provisions implied in the new Act.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth (World Bank) || 2012 || The World Bank’s analyses strongly supports the transition from the current mode of “per head” institutional funding towards the new performance-based institutional funding based on the “program contracts” between the MSES and PROI/HEI

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Second Science and Technology Project || 2013 || Carried out in collaboration with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Funds are aimed at boosting the knowledge-based technological and innovation sectors in Croatia as well as at increasing the absorption capacities for EU funds. Part of the funds will also be dedicated to the programs of the Unity Through Knowledge fund (UKF) and programs of the Croatian Business Innovation Agency (BICRO).

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Unit through Knowledge Fund - Guidelines and Procedures Croatian Science Foundation - Evaluation Procedure Manual || 2007 || Provide definition of the evaluation procedures of research projects to allocate research grants and include respect of international peer review standards.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || IPA Programme || || Represents one of the main instruments of the cross border cooperation in Croatia. Its 2nd component devoted to the cross border cooperation which can be classified into the three categories: /1/ cooperation with the EU member states (Hungary, Slovenia) including transnational programme – ADRIATIC, /2/ cooperation with the EU non-member states (Serbia, Bosnia  and Herzegovina and Montenegro) and /3 /transnational programmes -  South East  Europe (SEE)  and Mediterranean (MED).However, IPA projects are not strongly focused on R&D.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Participation to intergovernmental organisations || || The Republic of Croatia participates in a number of intergovernmental organizations, including EUREKA, COST, EMBL/EMBO CERN, ERIC.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Regional Research and Development Strategy for Innovation for the Western Balkans || 2010 || Definition of the general strategy, common priorities and the working programme for promoting regional cooperation in South East Europe including research and innovation

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Establishment of the Committee for Scientific Infrastructure and preparation of the National Roadmap for Science Infrastructure || 2013 || Provide transparency and guidelines on existing and new national research infrastructures.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Participation in ESFRI || 2010 || Croatia is a member of ESFRI since October 2010 and participates in the four related projects: CLARIN, DARIAH, ESS and SERSIDA. The drafting of the National Roadmap is also currently underway.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Preparation of project pipeline for infrastructure projects for the European Regional Development Fund 2014-2020 || 2012 || Aims at preparing the project pipeline for infrastructural projects eligible for funding from the ERDF in the period of 2014-2020, with efforts to achieve smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and to be oriented towards the investments in development of scientific excellence and innovation and through development of infrastructure. These goals will be fulfilled by improving conditions for the transfer of technology and knowledge, by supporting research cooperation between industry and public research institutions and through sound development of scientific research and technological infrastructure which can contribute to ESFRI goals.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Action Plan for Mobility of Researchers 2011-2012 || 2010 || The Action plan further simplifies the participation of foreign scientists in research activities in Croatia and assists their job placement in Croatia.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Unity through Knowledge Fund programme Cross-border grants || 2013 || Aims at attracting promising research projects to Croatian companies and institutions

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Marie Sklodowska Curie COFUND_ NEWFELPRO || 2013 || Aims at fostering the mobility of young outgoing and incoming scientists as well as the repatriation of Croatian scientists.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || EURAXESS portal || 2007 ||

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Implementation of the Charter & Code principles in Croatia || 2009 || 37 institutions included in Croatia’s research and higher education system had signed the Declaration of Commitment to the Principles of the Charter and the Code. 14 institutions have conducted internal analysis on its implementation such as institute of Physics, Institute of Public Finance, Institute of Social Research. Eleven public and one private research organisation have completed the self-evaluation studies of existing human resources practices with the aim to carry out the action plans for human resources strategy for researchers. The University of Rijeka, which was the first research organisation to complete the implementation procedure and earned the EC HR logo.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || National Policy for Gender Equality 2011-2015 || 2011 || Obliges Croatia to the inclusion of the gender dimension in all policy areas

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || National scholarship programme "For Women in Science" of the L'Oreal Adria and Croatian Commission for UNESCO || 2012 || Promotes women scientists through scholarships for women researchers in the last phase of their doctoral dissertations in natural sciences and younger than 35.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Ordinance on the Office for Gender Equality || 2012 || Prescribes the scope of work of the Office for Gender Equality by calling the latter to conduct research and analysis in cooperation with NGOs and research performing organisations.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Ensure that at least 40% of the under-represented sex participate in committees involved in recruitment/career progression and in establishing and evaluating research programmes || The Gender Equality Act || 2008 || Croatia is obliged to promote gender equality as specified by the law including the rule of "40% of participation"

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Ensure that at least 40% of the under-represented sex participate in committees involved in recruitment/career progression and in establishing and evaluating research programmes || Action plan Science and Society || 2012 || Includes activities aimed at neutralizing the gender underrepresentation and inequality (particularly of women) in the research community, especially on high-level managing positions (The activity sets the goal to secure that at least 1/3 of women are represented in national and regional councils, scientific and political bodies). In order to increase gender equality the Action plan also includes the stimulation programme for women scientists.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Croatian Declaration of Open Access to Scientific Information || 2012 || Scientific information created by Croatian citizens should have open access.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Croatian scientific bibliography - CROSBI || 1996 || Open access to the entire Croatian scientific bibliography (all works published by the Croatian researchers)

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Hamster - Croatian scientific journals portal || 2006 || Provides open access to the Croatian scientific and professional journals

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Science and Innovation Investment Fund || 2009 || Projects financed under the Science and Innovation Investment Fund are aiming to facilitate technology transfer, academic entrepreneurship and engage PROs and universities in the local and regional development.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Second Science and Technology Project (STP) II || 2013 || Provides, among other, funding for Technology Transfer Office Program in order to enable them to perform commercialization related services for researchers and create pipeline of projects in R&D sector, ready to apply for available EU funds.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Unit through Knowledge Fund programme "Research in industry and academia grant" || 2007 || Supports inter-sectoral mobility  between private and public sectors

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Intellectual property policy for universities and research institutions Biosciences Technology Commercialisation and Incubation Centre – BIOCentre || 2012 || BIOCentar is a project aimed at supporting the creation and development of spin-offs based on technology and knowledge and stemming from public research organizations and higher education institutions. Through the provision of necessary infrastructure and access to technology and business development services, all the necessary conditions for doing business will be provided to small and medium-sized enterprises in the field of bioscience and biotechnology. It is an incubation center area of about 4500 square meters, the first center of this kind in the Republic of Croatia and unique project in the region, of a total value of about HRK 140 million, which will be located within the campus of the University of Zagreb in Borongaj. Incubation Centre for Bioscience and Technology Commercialization (BIOCentar) is the first major infrastructural project and a greenfield investment financed through IPA programme, IIIC Component.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || BICRO's programmes || 2013 || Aimed at managing state-supported technological activities, including technology transfer from academia to industry, set-up of start-up, spin-off and spin-out companies and similar activities

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || The Croatian Academic and Research Network - CARNet || 1991 || Provides public e-infrastructure for the Croatian scientific community

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || Regulations on the organization of authentication and authorization infrastructure of science and higher education in Croatia- AAI@EduHr || 2008 || Provision of the legal framework for developing authentication and authorization infrastructure for  the Croatian research community

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || The Croatian National Grid Infrastructure (CRO NGI) || 2007 || The Croatian National Grid Infrastructure (CRO NGI) is distributed computing environment, consisting primarily of computer (processing) and data (disc and tape) resources, located in geographically distributed sites within the Republic of Croatia. CRO NGI is a common resource of the scientific and academic community and represents the fundamental infrastructure for the scientific research, the application of new technologies and the integration of Croatia and Croatian scientists into the European Research (ERA) and European Higher Education (EHEA) Area.

Cyprus

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Innovation Strategy (under review) || 2013 || Contains proposals for the creation of new support schemes.The aim is to give the opportunity to all the enterprises, research institutes and public organizations to benefit from special schemes promoted with financing from the structural funds.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || DESMI Programme || || Represents the main means of disbursing competitive research funding and is designed and managed by the Research Promotion Foundation (RPF). Additional competitive funding for innovation, entrepreneurship and investments is distributed by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Enhancement of Business Innovation in Cyprus || 2012 || Provides funding for SMEs in research and technology for the development of market oriented competitive innovative products and services.

More effective national research systems || Support through the Smart Specialisation Platform Member States and regions in using Structural Funds to develop research capacity and smart specialisation strategies, including support to joint research programmes, in line with Cohesion Policy objectives || Smart Specialisation Strategy for Research and Innovation (under preparation) || || Will cover three key dimensions: -Research / Technological infrastructure -Linkages with the rest of the world as well as the position of Cyprus in the European and in the global economy, -The dynamics of the business environment

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Joint Research Agendas || || There are no joint research agendas addressing Grand Challenges, except in the context of ERAnets and JTIs. The small size of the research budget and the lack of interest from the side of the business sector are the most probably explanations of this gap.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Participation in Joint European Programmes || 2014 || Cyprus allocates funds to Joint European Programmes (EUROSTARS, Ambient Assistant Living, MED ERA-NET programme for cooperation in the Mediterranean network and Joint Programming Initiatives in cooperation with other participating countries in the areas of Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change, Urban Europe, Water Challenges and Cultural Heritage).

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || National Roadmap - under preparation || || RPF started preparing a national ESFRI roadmap but  progress is subject to the constraints of public finance. Cyprus participates as a coordinator in 4 FP7 projects related to Ris through 5 HEIs and research organizations. Cyprus also participates in the European portal of Research infrastructure services with 3 RI

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Law N.29(I)/2009 Aliens and Immigration (Amending) Law of 2009 || 2009 || The Scientific Visa package helps researchers to obtain a permission to enter, stay and work in the European Union Member States for the purpose of carrying out scientific research for a short-term (up to 3 months) or long-term (more than 3 months).

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Programme for the Support of Young Researchers || 2000 || The programme offers funding and training opportunities and also encompasses the involvement of corporates in innovative activities. Areas of interest include Biotechnology, Energy, Environment, ICT, Nanosciences and nanotechnologies, Socio-economic sciences

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || Euraxess Cyprus || || Contributes to the implementation of Euraxess services

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || HR Logo award - Action Plan of the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics & University of Cyprus for Charter and Code || 2010 || The initiative is developed in the context of the implementation of the European Charter for Researchers. The University of Cyprus and Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics have been acknowledged for their progress in HR Strategy for Researchers and have been awarded HR Excellence in Research logo

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Law 205/2002 for equal treatment of men and women in the workplace (as amended) || 2007 || The law ensures equal treatment and opporunities of men and women in the workplace and in professional training

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Law 100/1997 for the protection of mothers (as amended) || 2011 || The law includes provisions for the protection of the employment rights of pregnant women, regulates maternity leave issues and working hours after they give birth.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Gender in EU-funded Research (Toolkit and Training) in cooperation with Yellow Window || 2009 || The training covered theoretical aspects of gender and research and provided practical guidance on how the gender dimension could be integrated in Health and Social Sciences.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Participation in COST Programme:"Gender, Society, Technology and Environment” Initiative || 2012 || Promotion of gender equality in research and technology. Operation of 3 working groups (WG1: Promoting Structural and institutional change, WG2: Promoting Gendered Innovations, WG3: Mapping Gender in environment-related Horizon2020 Grand Challenges).

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Open access repositories || 2013 || In April 2013, there were 3 open access repositories in Cyprus, all in Universities (Cyprus University of Technology, Open University of Cyprus, Cyprus University). 2 of the repositories provide access to digital collections and one repository (Cyprus University of Technology) provides access to research data

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Development and Operation of Enterprise Liaison Offices at the Universities Operating in the Republic of Cyprus || 2011 || Establishment (in process) and operation of the network of model offices for liaison between the academic and business worlds in the six Cypriot universities (University of Cyprus, Cyprus University of Technology, Open University of Cyprus, European University, Frederick University, University of Nicosia). The two pilot offices (University of Cyprus, Cyprus University of Technology) are more advanced.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || “Manufuture-CY” || 2012 || Represents a technology platform initiative for future industrial technologies, launched by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism. Activities include information exchange, thematic training workshops, the production of position papers and other contributions of industrial policy, as well as new initiatives for the enhancement of cooperation between its members.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || Digital Strategy || 2012 || Represents a comprehensive plan for the period 2012-2020 and adopts a holistic approach for the development of information society in Cyprus. It focuses on six strategic objectives, (i) Connect Cyprus, (ii) Modernize public administration and provide public electronic services, (iii) Inclusion of all into digital Cyprus, (iv) Education and learning, (v) Digital entrepreneurship, (vi) ICT for the environment.

Czech Republic

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Act No. 211/2009 Coll, amending Act No.130/2002 Coll. on the support for research and development from public funds || 2009 || In 2008 a comprehensive reform of the research, development and innovation system was launched and approved by Act No. 211/2009 Coll, amending Act No.130/2002 Coll. The reform: - defines new long-term national priorities for R&D&I (up to 2013); - establishes a singl advisory body responsible for the innovation policy (in a boarder sense) and for the coordination of public support in RDI; - increases the share of public funding allocated on competitive basis; - simplifies and decreases the number of providers of R&D funds: create the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TACR), which together with the already existing Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (GACR) should administer competitive funding instead of the ministries; -introduced a new national methodology for research evaluation based on quantitative indicators to allocate institutional funding on the basis of performance – and annual evaluation performed by CRDI; - links better research in the academia to industr; - ensures open access to the Research and Development Information System of the Czech Republic.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Council for Research, Development and Innovation (CRDI) || 2009 || As a result of the reform the Council for Research, Development and Innovation (CRDI) has been set in place as an advisory body of the government. It statue is defined by the Government Resolution No. 1457/2009 (Statute of the RDI Council of the Czech Republic). CRDI defines research priorities (through different committees); proposes the research budget and is also ultimately responsible for the evaluation of research institutions. It should also target funding of potentially strong and highly, globally competitive research fields and fields with strong potential for applications. Since the reform there has been a constant decrease in institutional funding from 56% in 2009 to 51% in 2012 and it is further planned to decrease to 47% in 2014 and 2015 (CRDI outlook for 2014).

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || GACR funding for excellence in basic research || 2011 || The Grant Agency of the Czech Republic - GACR - provides competitive grant funding for basic research using international peer review to guide the allocation of funds. The main funding instrument is a standard grant project, the call for which announced annually and can have duration of 1-3 years. GACR has an annual budget of CZK 3.3b (€132m) in 2013.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || TCAR programmes for applied research and development ALFA, BETA, GAMA, DELTA, OMEGA programmes, Competence Centers || 2013 || The Technology Agency of the Czech Republic - TACR -was established under Act No. 211/2009 Coll and provides competitive project-based funding for applied research and development. Currently there is a transition period where TACR takes over competitive funding administration form MEYS and especially MIT. The budget of TACR has grown significantly in recent years from CZK 0.9b (€34m) in 2011, to CZK 2.8b (€113m) in 2013. Among programmes funded by TACR are the ALFA, BETA, GAMA, DELTA (expected to start in 2014) and OMEGA programmes.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Other programmes providing competitive funding TIP programme || 2008 || Five ministries administer their own (small) competitive research funds in their domain: Ministries of Agriculture, Health, Defence, Interior, Culture, which seem to be mostly dedicated to immediate policy needs. A major part of competitive project funding for applied research is still administered by the MIT, primarily through the TIP research programme with a budget of CZK 3.0b (€121m) in 2012, which however has been significantly reduced in the medium-term budget plans and is going to expire in the coming years.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || GACR Postdoc grants || 1998 || GACR awards postdoc grants with limited funding on open, merit, competitive basis.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Act No. 211/2009 Coll, amending Act No.130/2002 Coll. on the support for research and development from public funds || 2009 || According to the reform amendment of Act. No 211/2009 Coll of the Act No. 130/2002 Coll, institutional funding is based on evaluation of research performance: the share of an institution on the total amount of institutional funding of research organisations in the given year corresponds to its share on the sum of research results of all research institutions/organisations in previous five years which is in turn based on annual evaluation performed by the CRDI. Between 2010-2013 block funding was almost entirely based on institutional assessment. The evaluation methodology was based on quantitative indicators.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Partial revision of the formula for allocation of institutional funding || 2012 || Over the period 2010-2013 the performance of research institutions was systematically evaluated on an annual basis using the current methodoloy (‘methodika’) and used by the CRDI as a starting base for the allocation of funding. However, ‘methodika’ in its enterity has been criticised by some stakeholders and by the independent international audit of the Czech research system (Arnold, E. 2011) due to the fact that it is based strictly on quantitative inicators which do not sufficiently reflect the quality of the S&T outputs nor the specificities of different scientific fields.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Future evaluation methodology and allocation of institutional funding || 2009 || A new methodology which will serve to allocate institutional funding is under development and should be finalised by 2014 to be implemented for the period 2014-1016. This new methodology should be a combination of new evaluation criteria and international peer review to better take into account the quality and relevance of the research performed. Its development is part of the government priorities to develop conditions for excellent research and responds to the Council Recommendation No 6 (from the specific Council recommendation for the Czech Republic dated 10 July 2012) asking for an effective system for evaluation and funding of R&D projects.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Participation in Joint Programming EUREKA, COST || 2009 || The Czech Republic is participating in five Joint Programming Initiatives (Neurodegenerative Disease Research; Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change; Cultural Heritage and Global Change; Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life; The Microbial Challenge – An Emerging Threat to Human Health) and there are programmes at national level which support research on topics relevant to the Strategic Research Agendas. Funding of common actions and alignment of national programmes to the SRAs are still under development. The Czech Republic also participates in in EUREKA and COST.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Participation in Joint Technology Initiatives || 2007 || The Czech Republic is also formally engaged in all five Joint Technology Initiatives (JTIs). Under two of them, ARTEMIS and ENIAC, MEYS also finances calls for proposals. The NRP 2013 states that the Czech Republic is interested in participating in the Cross-Thematic Contractual Public Private Partnerships and/or Joint Technology Initiatives (JTI),

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || National Research, Development and Innovation Policy of the Czech Republic 2009-2015 National priorities of oriented research, experimental development and innovations || 2012 || In the context of the National Policy of RDI 2009-2015 implementation, new long-term national priorities of oriented RDI were identified (period until 2030) in view of better targeting the six major societal challenges identified (competitive knowledge economy, sustainable energy and material resources, environment for quality life, social and cultural challenges, healthy people and secure societies). These are largely in line with the grand challenges. They were prepared by panels of experts at the end of 2011 and approved by the government in mid- 2012 (CRDI 2012).

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Member of intergovernmental organisations in ERA || || The Czech Republic is a member of most intergovernmental organisations in ERA as well as of projects of large European infrastructures (ESFRI). The Czech Republic participates European Space Agency, European Southern Observatory, European Molecular Biology Conference,  the European Laboratory for Particle Physics of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA) and others.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Ensure mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to international peer-review standards as a basis for national funding decisions || GACR and TACR programmes || || In the frame of bilateral agreements, GACR and TACR (for the future DELTA programme with non-EU countries) recognise evaluations made by partner agencies as basis for national funding; however, it is not mandatory that the evaluation conforms to international peer-review standards, although this is typically the case. Regular funding is attributed through the GACR bilateral grants and comprises about 2% of GACR budget (based on agreements with the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, National Science Foundation of Korea and National Science Council of Taiwan).

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || International bilateral agreements || 2006 || The Czech Republic has bilateral agreements, either at inter-governmental or inter-institutional level, with India, Israel, South Korea, Russia, Argentina, China, and the United States.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || The Visegrad Fund || 2000 || The Visegrad fund promotes research cooperation with the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Republic of Poland, and the Slovak Republic. It provides research grants from a common pot contribution of all countries involved.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || National Information Centre for European Research (NICER) Czech Liaison Office for Research and Development in Brussels (CZELO) || 2005 || The National Information Centre for European Research (NICER) operated under the Technology Centre of the ASCR, It provides comprehensive support for the participation of national teams in international research cooperation, especially in the EU Framework Programmes. Czech Liaison Office for Research, Development and Innovation (CZELO) in Brussels supports the successful integration of the Czech research into the European research cooperation, particularly through the EU Framework Programmes for Research and Development. The office provides free services to researchers from all fields and all research bodies in the Czech Republic. CZELO is a project managed by the Technology Centre of the ASCR and financially supported by the MEYS.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Draft version of the Amendment of the Act No. 130/2002 Coll. On the support for research and development from public funds; 281th meeting of the CRDI on 29th March 2013 || 2013 || A draft Amendment of the principal law governing research and development Act No. 130/2002 Coll has been approved for releasing to the government at the 281th meeting of the CRDI on 29th March 2013. This draft amendment should allow to provide institutional funding for support of international cooperation in research on the basis of international evaluation (in order to conform to the Council Regulation 2009/723/EC from 25th June 2009 on ERIC).

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Update of the Roadmap for Large Research, Development and Innovation Infrastructures || 2011 || In 2011 an update of the Roadmap for Large Research, Development and Innovation Infrastructures in the Czech Republic was released. It updates the roadmap approved by the Government in March 2010 as a strategic document for development of large infrastructures for research, development and innovation (RIs).

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Large Ris linked with ESFRI || 2010 || All the six large RI projects financed so far for a total amount of €835m (85% funded by the ERDF) had to have a partnership with ESFRI: ELI - Extreme Light Infrastructure (€271m); BIOCEV - Biotechnology and Biomedicine Research Centre (€92m); CEITEC - Central European Institute of Technology (€209m); Centre for excellence IT4Innovations (€72)m (e-infrastructure) ICRC - International Clinical Research Centre (€94m); and Udrzitelna energetika (€97m). Some other e-infrastructures were also funded: Czech Education and Scientific NETwork (CESNET) and CERIT Scientific Cloud.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || National Sustainability Programmes I and II || 2013 || Their future financing of RI projects was secured by launching the National program sustainability I and II financed from Structural Funds via MEYS, allowing also private funding to contribute to their operation.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || The Higher Education Act (Act No. 111/1998 Coll.) || 1998 || Higher education establishments and public research institutes are allowed to pursue fairly autonomous approach to recruitment of academic staff, including the appointment of professors and docents, which are decentralised even to faculty and department level. The Higher Education Act gives the task of appointing professors and obtaining venium docendi (habilitation) to the Scientific Board of the higher education institution. Foreign researchers, especially EU citizens, can be employed in academic positions.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Reform of Tertiary Education programme || 2013 || A draft amendment of the Higher Education Act (Act No. 111/1998 Coll.) was recently sent to universities, in line with the White Paper on Tertiary Education adopted by the Government in 2009. The draft amendment is not expected to alter the current system of recruitment but to simplify the recognition of university diplomas acquired abroad.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Scientific Visa Package - transposed through Act No. 379/2007 || || The adopted Scientific Visa Package simplifies inward mobility of researchers from the non-EU countries. The act enables specific residence permits to be issued to third country researchers through a hosting agreement with a research organisation. Variuos research bodies can provide these (including public research institutions and HEIs) , although they must first be accredited to do so. The hosting agreements allow researchers to bypass the need for a work permit and gain recognition as resident employees, with all the rights and benefits this entails, including cross-border mobility, within the EU, and certain guarantees on working conditions and social security.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || NAVRAT programme || 2011 || A new programme called NÁVRAT, i.e. “return in English”, aims to improve conditions for re-integration of top researchers coming back from abroad. It was launched under the MEYS in 2011 and the first projects have been supported in 2012.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Fellowship J. E. Purkyně || 2003 || Fellowship J. E. Purkyně awarded at the ASCR aims to attract talented doctoral students from abroad.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || MOBILITY programme || || The MOBILITY programme supports short-term outward internships and bilateral agreements allow for exchange or university teachers and students (financed from Structural Funds).

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Act. no 211/2009 Coll. that is the reform amendment of the Act No. 130/2002 Coll. || 2009 || According to Act No. 130/2002 Coll. on the Support of Research and Development from Public Funds and on the Amendment to Some Related Acts (the Act on the Support of Research and Development) - complete amendment announced as Act. no 211/2009 Coll.), namely Section 18 and paragraph 9, a legal person having its seat in a Member State of the European Union or any other country forming the European Economic Area or a citizen of such state may participate in the public tender in research and development provided that such participant does not apply for support from public funds of the Czech Republic. All research projects funded by national research programmes must be performed in the Czech Republic.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || GACR programmes || || GACR require applications exclusively in English, with background documentation (i.e. Programme Operators’ Manual, etc.) being in Czech.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || Project „EURAXESS Czech Republic 2012 - 2015“ || 2012 || The EURAXESS Centre is funded by the MEYS through the EUPRO programme: Project „EURAXESS Czech Republic 2012 - 2015“. EURAXESS supports foreign incoming researchers with information about job opportunities, advice and assistance on visa procedure, social security, taxes, translation services, language courses and help with other practical aspects of everyday life; the project includes the operation of www.euraxess.cz on-line portal. The network created by the project includes contact points in ten cities. Project „EURAXESS Czech Republic 2012 - 2015“ finances the EURAXESS Centre and website. It has to be noted that is not formally required to advertise new positions nationally and internationally via the media, on EURAXESS or other international portals.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || The Common Rules for Human Resources Management of CEITEC Code of Ethics for Researchers of the ASCR || 2011 || Two institutions, namely the ASCR and Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC), have endorsed the Charter & Code.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Act No. 262/2006, Coll. on labour code Act No. 435/2004 Coll. On employment Act No. 198/2009, Coll. On antidiscrimination General provisions in the NRP 2013 || || General legislation on non-discrimination and equal opportunities applies also to the research field. Labour law guarantees a maternity leave of two years with return to the same position (not for fixed contracts). Recently the government has set a national target for increasing the employment rate for women to 65% and decided to increase the availability and affordability of quality pre-school facilities for children after six months of age.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Government proceedings ("Jednací řád vlády") || 1998 || In government proceedings (or law), the so-called "Jednací řád vlády", there is requirement to assess gender impact of every government resolution, i.e. there must be an appendix evaluating gender impact.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Governmental Resolution No. 1033 of 2001 || 2010 || The Governmental Resolution No. 1033 of 2001 establishes measures on equal opportunities and (among others) the Council for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men as an advisory body of the government. The Council for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men addressed for the first time the problem of gender equality in science, and drafted a suggestion to the government regarding fair representation in expert and advisory bodies and grant competitions. However, while acknowledging this suggestion, the government has not initiated any action in this respect.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || ERA Working Group on Human Resources Development and Equal Approach to Women and Men in Research, Development and Innovation. || 2001 || Since 2011 at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) the ERA Working Group on Human Resources Development and Equal Approach to Women and Men in Research, Development and Innovation replaced the Working Group for women in science (set up in 2001). This is an advisory body with experts on mobility, gender equality and human resources, employees of the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Industry and national experts-members in programme committees. The coordinator of the National Contact Centre for Women and Science is a member of the Working Group.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Ministerial gender focal points Working Groups for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men || 2001 || There are ministerial gender focal points. Since 2001 ministries are required to create a systemic job (one-half of full-time equivalent, 4 hours per day) to take care of the equal opportunities agenda. The position has been established within various departments and units at various ministries. Additionally, there are Working Groups for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men to assist the gender focal points.  They are advisory bodies and should meet twice a year and report on their activities.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || GACR grants || 2010 || GACR grants restrictively allow female researchers to interrupt of postpone research due to maternity. For more information please see http://en.zenyaveda.cz/changing-science/parenthood-grants/

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || National Contact Centre for Women and Science || 2001 || The main agent promoting cultural change in women in science is National Contact Centre for Women and Science (en.zenyaveda.cz). Established in 2001, the centre carries out analysis and raises awareness about gender issues. It contributes to building gender equality in science and research by stimulating debates and petition for measures and steps to eliminate discrimination and gender inequalities.  The most recent initiative is "Grant interruption/postponement" in order to address career progression and retention of female researchers.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Milada Paulova Award || 2009 || Milada Paulová Award is organized jointly by MEYS and National Contact Centre for Women and Science for lifelong achievement of female researchers to Czech science since 2009. The Award is named after the first Czech woman to lecture at a university (1925) and to receive a professorship (1939), historian Milada Paulova. The award aims to publicly and financially appreciate research achievements of prominent Czech women researchers, who provide role models and inspires women researchers and students at the beginning of their research careers. The award is conferred in a different field of science each year and the winner receives a donation of 150,000 CZK.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || L’ORÉAL Scholarship Czech Republic for Women in Science || 2007 || L’ORÉAL Scholarship Czech Republic for Women in Science is awarded by L’ORÉAL in cooperation with ASCR and UNESCO for young female scientists in the field of natural sciences (no more than 35 years old) since 2007. The winner receives a donation of 250,000 CZK.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Central Register of R&D projects Register of public R&D tenders Information Register of R&D results Central Register of Institutional Research Plans || 1993 || The CRDI administers the Research and Development and Innovation Information System of the Czech Republic, an information system of the public administration for a collection, processing, publication and utilisation of data about publicly funded research activities, projects and their outputs. The system consists of the following parts: 1) Central register of R&D projects (CEP); 2) Central register of Institutional Research Plans (CEZ); 3) Information register on R&D results (RIV); 4) Central register of R&D Activities (CEA); and 5) Register of public R&D tenders (RES). Web pages of the R&D Information System have two language versions – Czech and English – which allows foreign users to use the system as well.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Statistical Data for Scientific Research Purposes || || The Czech Statistical Offices (CZSO) – pursuant to the Section 17 “Provision of confidential statistical data” of the Act No. 89/1995, on the State Statistical Service - provides confidential statistical data for scientific research purposes. Micro data can be provided only on the basis of a special contract for provision of confidential statistical data.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Research Data Repositories || || OpenAIRE gives a list of 4 research data repositories: 1) CKAN Czech Republic; 2) Czech Social Science Data Archive, Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic; 3) LINDAT-Clarin Repository, Centre for Language Research Infrastructure in the Czech Republic; Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague; and 4) opendata.cz, Transparent data infrastructure, Initiative for transparent data infrastructure. For more information see www.openaire.eu/en/open-access/country-information/czech-republic.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Open access repositories || || OpenAIRE gives a list of 10 open access repositories in various research organizations and universities: 1) CERGE-EI Library; 2) Digital Library of the Czech Technical University in Prague;  3) Digital Library of the University of Pardubice (registered with DRIVER); 4) Brno University of Technology Digital Library; 5) Digital Library of ASCR (registered with DRIVER); 6) Czech Digital Mathematics Library; 7) Digital repository od VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava (registered with DRIVER); 7) LINDAT-Clarin Repository, Centre for Language Research Infrastructure in the Czech Republic; 8) Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague; 9) Tomas Bata University in Zlin: UTB Research Repository; and 10) University of West Bohemia Digital Library.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || www.openaccess.cz www.dspace.cz || 2010 || Portals to raise the awareness on open access

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || NRP 2013 - Strategy || 2013 || Improving the links between industry and academia is one of the main points within the National Reform Programme 2013 and at the top priorities of the on-going reform of the research, development and innovation system.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || National Innovation Strategy of the Czech Republic || 2011 || National Innovation Strategy of the Czech Republic published in October 2011 (coproduced by MIT and MEYS) lists “Cooperation and knowledge transfer between academia and industry” as one of the four priority areas.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Priority Axis 3 “Commercialisation and popularisation of R&D“ of the OP Research and Development for Innovation || 2006 || Beginning with 2012 the set-up of the first Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) at universities or intermediary organisations is supported from this programme.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || ALFA Programme Centres of competence DELTA programme EF-TRANS TIP programme || 2009 || All programmes support public-private R&D co-operation. TACR funds the ALFA programme which was launched in March 2010 and the first projects started at the beginning of 2011; the Centres of competence programme has been launched during 2011-2012 and the DELTA programme is expected to start in 2014. MIT funds the TIP programme to support industrial research. MEYS supported the EF-TRANS project on "Efficient Transfer of Research and Development Outputs in Production and their Subsequent Utilisation" with the goal to set up and bring into effect knowledge transfer between R&D institutions and industry.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Action plan to promote growth, entrepreneurship and employment || 2013 || On 20 December 2012, the government approved an action plan for to promote growth, entrepreneurship and employment, of which one of the proposed measures is to extend the existing R&D tax credits to purchase of external R&D services from research organizations. The R&D tax credit scheme which enables enterprises to deduct in-house expenditures on R&D from their tax base has been launched in 2005.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || Czech Education and Scientific NETwork (CESNET) || 2010 || The keystone of the Czech e-infrastructure for research is CESNET (Czech Education and Scientific NETwork); national partner of GÉANT and EGI.eu and the coordinator of NGI (National Grid Infrastructure). CESNET develops with support from public budget two major Ris projects: CESNET Large Infrastructure and Extension of the National R&D Information Infrastructure in Regions (eIGeR). The reconstruction of the CESNET2 backbone network started in 2011; it forms the necessary foundation for the other components of the national information e-infrastructure.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || CERIT Scientific Cloud || 2010 || CERIT Scientific Cloud offers storage and computing resources and related services, including support for their experimental use . The centre complements the other parts of the approved national e-Infrastructure – CESNET and the supercomputing center IT4Innovations.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || IT4Innovations || 2010 || IT4Innovations aims to build a national Centre of Excellence in the field of information technologies. The centre, which is integrated in the ESFRI Roadmap, enables concentrating a wide range of scientific disciplines relating to information technologies. Part of the project is acquisition of a high-performance supercomputer that is planned to be put into operation in 2014, in which time it is supposed to rank among the top 100 most powerful supercomputers in the world. IT4Innovations is the national partner of PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe).

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || Czech academic identity federation (eduID.cz) - member of eduGAIN || 2009 || The purpose of the eduID.cz federation is to provide means for inter-organizational identity management and access control to network services, while respecting the privacy of the users. The federation infrastructure implements easy, standards-compliant and secure methods for exchange of user information. Every organization, which complies with the Access Policy, may become a member without restrictions. The eduID.cz federation is based on the Shibboleth project developed by Internet2 and is a member of eduGAIN since April 2013 and participates in REFEDS.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || Project eduroam.cz || 2004 || CESNET is the national operator of EDUROAM infrastructure in the Czech Republic. The purpose of the eduroam.cz project is to support and spread IP mobility and roaming within the Czech NREN. The idea to enable users of interconnected networks easy and transparent usage of any network connected to the roaming space. User has one account (at his home site) and this account grands him permission to use any wireless network connected into eduroam.

Denmark

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Finance Act Agreement || 2013 || Strengthens funding for basic research from 2012 and introduces 3-years budget security. It also strengthens and expansion of the knowledge pilot scheme

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || New university funding model || 2013 || Modifies the funding system towards a higher share of competitive funding. The funding distribution for 2012 is: 45% based on education appropriations, 20% based on external funding of R&D activities, 25% based on bibliometric indicators, and 10% based on PhD graduates.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Forks2020 process || || Identifies areas of effort that form the basis for the political prioritisation of funds for strategic research.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || RESEARCH2020 catalogue || 2013 || Publication of the catalogue functions as a basis of knowledge and decision-making for political prioritisation of funds for strategic research

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Peer Review College of the Danish Council for Strategic Research || 2012 || Research funds are allocated based on the principles of international peer review. The Council for Strategic Research, for example, has established a peer review panel that is intended to strengthen the quality of the project reviews. Assessments made by the peer review panel are complemented with assessments provided by other, internationally recognized academics.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Funding provided by the Nordic Innovation Centre (NICE) || 2012 || Boosts innovation and competitiveness in the Nordic business sector that leads to commercial and sustainable development. Specific recent initiatives issued in 2012 are oriented towards following topics: Green business model innovation, development of cost-efficient solar cells, fostering entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial activity, sustainable renovation and construction.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Top-level Research Initiative || 2008 || In 2008 the Nordic Prime Ministers initiated the Top-level Research Initiative (TRI) and it is to date the largest joint Nordic research and innovation initiative that has a research focus within climate, environment and energy.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Openness of national research council funding || || The research council law allows the national research councils to allocate up to 20 % of their funds to international initiatives. These initiatives are allowed to administer the funds on behalf of the Danish research councils on a real common pot model as long as it benefits Danish research and fulfils the other general principles. Furthermore, the council funds are generally available to international researchers.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Funding schemes open to researchers abroad || || Danish funding schemes are open to researchers based abroad, regardless of their nationality, provided that their research is judged to be of benefit to Danish research.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Collaboration agreements || || Denmark has developed specific strategies for the BRIC-countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) in fields such as climate and energy, welfare, architecture, research, education and food. Moreover, Denmark has innovation centres in hotspots around the world; in Silicon Valley, Munich and Shanghai. During 2013 and as part of the national Innovation Strategy, Denmark will open three new innovation centres in Bangalore, Seoul and Sao Paulo.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Strategic Research Alliance Strategic Network Project scheme || || All the strategic research programmes with recent calls promote this openness to researchers based abroad, regardless of their nationality, provided that their research is judged to be of benefit to Danish research. They include strategic research alliances as an instrument. The rationale for this openness is to strengthen Danish research groups through cooperation with excellent researchers from third countries.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Further develop and deploy the Lead-Agency, Money-Follows-Cooperation Line, Money-Follows-Researcher and other models for cross-border cooperation || Money follows researcher (MFR) initiative in Denmark || 2009 || The Danish Councils for Independent Research participate in the EUROHORCS initiative and its follow-up Science Europe, authorizing researchers moving to other countries to take the remainder of any awarded grant with them, while the DCSR has not signed the letter of intent ‘Money follows researchers’

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || National research infrastructure roadmap || || Published in 2011

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Denmark participation in ESFRI || || ESFRI projects which are of Danish interest are the following: CESSDA - Council of European Social Science Data Archives, CLARIN - Common Language Resources, DARIAH – Digital Research Infrastructure, ESS - European Social Survey Upgrade, SHARE - Upgrade of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, EPOS - European Plate Observing System, ICOS - Integrated Carbon Observation System, LifeWatch - e-Science and Technology  Infrastructure for Biodiversity and Research infrastructure for biodiversity and Observatories, WindScanner.eu, BBMRI - Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure, EATRIS - European Advanced Translational Research Infrastructure in Medicine, ELIXIR - European Life Sciences Infrastructure for Biological Information, INSTRUCT - An Integrated Structural Biology Infrastructure for Europe, ESRF-upgrade, ESS - European Spallation Source, European XFEL, ILL20/20 Upgrade, E-ELT - European Extremely Large Telescope, PRACE - Partnership for Advancing  Computing in Europe.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Globalisation Fund || 2006 || The Globalisation Fund includes funds earmarked to a comprehensive modernization of research infrastructure, including a green stimulus package and other measures. A ‘road map’ for the development of research infrastructure was to be developed, based on a mapping of the short-term and long-term infrastructure needs in the following six areas: material and nanotechnologies, biotechnology, health and life sciences, physics and astronomy, energy, climate and environment, humanities and social sciences, e-science.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to cross-border access to Research Infrastructures || START-scheme || || The EuroCenter under DASTI is specialised in information and consulting services regarding the FP7; and other measures from DASTI include the START-scheme and Pre-project grants for SMEs. In most programmes under the DCSR and the DCTI foreign participation and cooperation is encouraged, through higher rankings in the evaluation process and through the inclusion of foreign research institutes in project consortia.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Ministerial order on the appointment of academic staff at universities || 2012 || Sets the overall framework for the appointment of academic staff. Positions at professor and associate professor levels have to be posted internationally.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || Euraxess in Denmark || || Research job vacancies are published on the EURAXESS portal.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Industrial PhD Program || 2002 || Increases the absorptive capacity in the private sector and strengthen innovativeness. Since 2002, it has been part of the Danish Council for Technology and Innovation’s umbrella of innovation promotion initiatives, and has been run on behalf of the council by the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation. The programme has been evaluated several times and in 2011 an impact assessment was conducted. It was found that the programme has contributed to an increased absorptive capacity in the private sector that can be expected to facilitate knowledge and technology transfer from academia to industry and hence to foster innovation in firms.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Implementation of "Charter for Researchers" and "Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers" || 2009 || All Danish universities have joined the ‘Charter for Researchers’ and the ‘Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers’. Recognising academic and professional qualifications from other countries is a prerequisite for foreign researchers to be able to apply for researcher positions in Denmark. The Danish Agency for International Education provides assessments of non-Danish degrees, diplomas and certificates as well as information about international recognition of Danish qualifications.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || The Charter and Code were debated by the Human Resources group, the Danish Committee of University Directors and the Danish Rectors’ Conference. || 2009 || Universities Denmark and the Danish Agency for Universities and Internationalisation (UI) both argued that, overall, Danish universities met the European Commission’s standards with regard to the Charter and the Code of Conduct. However, to date only one of the eight Danish universities, Copenhagen Business School (CBS), has been added to the list of “HRS4R Acknowledged Institutions”. The recognition was awarded in 2012.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Gender Equality Act (revision) || 2013 || The GEA stipulates that boards, assemblies of representatives or similar collective management bodies within the public administration should have an equal gender balance. In order to achieve such gender balance the collective management body in question is obliged to formulate gender equality targets. The legislative goal is to achieve a gender composition of 60/40 of the underrepresented gender in such collective management bodies. In addition to gender equality targets, institutions and companies in the public administration are obliged to formulate gender equality policies concerning the underrepresented gender on a managerial level. This is only a requirement for institutions and companies with 50 employees or more

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Council of Independent Research Conference on the role of gender in research and excellence || 2013 || The objective of the conference was to stimulate the debate about the role of gender and how to achieve equality between the genders in all research contexts. In this context, the minister of science, innovation and higher education and the minister of gender equality discussed the introduction of special initiatives to enhance the chances of female researchers to access leading positions in research institutions. Moreover, in 2013, the Council of Independent Research commissioned a study on the role of gender in research and excellence (Det Frie Forskningsråd, 2013). The report maps gender aspects and differences in the Danish R&I system. Moreover, the role of gender is analysed in the context of funding decisions.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Joint Open Access Policy || 2012 || Public research councils and foundations implemented a joint Open Access-policy in June 2012. Moreover, Danish universities are in the process of implementing institutional Open Access policies. To date, five of eight universities in Denmark have introduced Open Access policies, which their researchers have to comply with.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Open Access Committee || 2011 || The measure contributes to Improving open access to scientific information in the digital age. The Danish Government has approved the Council of the European Union's conclusions about scientific information in the digital age. An Open Access Committee was appointed under the steering committee for Denmark's Electronic Research Library (DEFF). In March 2011 the Open Access Committee published the recommendations for the implementation of Open Access in Denmark (Danish Agency for Libraries and Media, 2011). This report can be seen as an implementation plan for a 4-years period with indication of process, players and finances.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Innovation strategy || || Develops new model for partnership that will ensure that investments in research and development are translated to concrete solutions, growth and new jobs. It is composed of 27 concrete initiatives which also focus on enhanced exchange of knowledge between knowledge institutions and enterprises. Initiatives include a review of the council structure, establishing a fund for maturing markets, strengthened knowledge collaboration and innovation by means of recognition and attractive career paths for researchers and initiation of social partnerships concerning innovation.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Act on Inventions at Public Research Institutions || 1999 || Supports the transfer of knowledge between public research institutions and industry, the establishment of research-based enterprises; and cooperation between public research institutions, foundations and associations.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Act on Technology Transfer at Public Research Institutions || 2004 || Since 2004, the commercialisation of public research results has been assessed annually. In 2004, DASTI established an inventor service counselling office. An external evaluation of this office has shown that it has acted effectively and will be continued, in a strengthened form, until 2013.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || National Network for Technology Transfer || || Organises the TTOs from the universities, research institutes, hospitals and regional TTOs and supports the sharing of competences, knowledge and methods involved in technology transfer.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || SPIR - Strategic Platforms for Innovation and Research || 2010 || This policy measure targets inter-sectoral R&D co-operation and improved linkages between research and innovation. The platforms will be funded for 5-7 years.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Small and medium-sized businesses initiative for interaction between SMEs and knowledge institutions || 2011 || Supports the transfer of knowledge between public research institutions and industry, the establishment of research-based enterprises; and cooperation between public research institutions, foundations and associations. The initiative doubles the funding amount available for  knowledge coupons

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Globalisation Fund || 2010 || Globalisation fund allocates funding for improvement of a number of innovation and knowledge transfer initiatives.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || Danish e-Infrastructure Cooperation (DeIC) || 2012 || The objective of DeIC is to support Danish science by making e-infrastructure such as computing, data storage and networks available to research and research-based teaching. DeIC provides a platform for initiatives like a research data platform that is planned to be established in cooperation with Denmark’s Electronic Research Library (DEFF) in 2013. The platform is planned to provide the service infrastructure research institutions, other public institutions and companies, and here especially SMEs.

Estonia

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || || New strategy for R&I (in preparation) || 2013 || One priority will be to integrate ERA initiatives (integrated ERA and H2020).

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Detailed conditions and procedure for applying for, conducting and approving the result of regular evaluation of research and development || 2012 || Assess the level of research and development in a corresponding field of research and development at a research and development institution compared to internationally recognized criteria. The Minister of Education and Research shall form an evaluation committee with foreign experts and approve its working procedures

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Organisation of Research and Development Act (last amendment in 2012) || 1997 || The purpose of the Act is to provide the bases for the organisation of research and development and to ensure legal means for the preservation and further development of scientific and technological creation as a component of Estonian culture and the Estonian economy.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Organisation of Research and Development Act - amendment 1997 and 2009 || 1995 || Introduction of the evaluation of research institutions by international standards. Positive evaluation is a  precondition to apply for institutional funding and  for targeted funding of research topics.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Conditions and procedure for applying for, awarding and amending the amount of institutional research funding || 2011 || System reformed in 2011.  Framework for the conditions and procedures for applying for, granting and amending the amount of the institutional research funding for research and development institutions. Evaluations follow international peer review standards. The funding conditions were also updated in the view of current view to role of RDI in solving global and local socio-economic  problems.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Conditions and Procedure for Evaluation of Research and Development Institutions || 2009 || Regulates the evaluation of the research performance of Higher Education and Public Research Organisations, which applies the core principles of international peer review (revised in 2012). Allocation of competitive funds follows an international peer review of proposals.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Personal Research Funding || 2012 || Enhance funding of high-level research and development activities carried out by researchers or small research groups who are employed by a research and development institution. The core principles of international peer review are applied.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Research and Innovation Policy Monitoring Programme 2011-2015 (TIPS Programme) || || To analyse the impact of current policy measures and give policy recommendations for implementation of the current RDI Strategy "Knowledge-based Estonia 2007-2013" and to design the new Estonian RDI strategy (2014-2020).

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Measure: Improving the competitiveness of Estonian R&D through the research programmes and modernisation of higher education and R&D institutions || 2007 || Strategic programme which includes among others 16 programmes or grants for modernisation of HEI and R&D institutions. Competitive grants. Evaluations following international peer review standards.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Implementation Plan for achieving the objectives of Estonian Research and Development and Innovation Strategy 2007-2013 “Knowledge-based Estonia” in 2012-2013 || 2011 || Supports participation of Estonian researchers, R&D institutions and enterprises in international cooperation networks and in the EU Framework Programmes.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Intergovernmental and inter-ministerial agreements || || The Ministry of Education and Research of the Republic of Estonia and Archimedes Foundation annually offer scholarships to foreign nationals, pursuant to bilateral intergovernmental or inter-ministerial agreements.  To promote academic mobility.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || The Programme for the Internationalisation of Science || 2011 || Broaden the possibilities for Estonian scientists and doctoral students to conduct research abroad, by supporting Estonian participation in implementing EU research policy initiatives. Competitive grants. Evaluations following international peer review standards.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Centres of Excellence Programme || 2012 || Support Estonian top-level research to strengthen the position of Estonian research co-operation and competitiveness in the European research field. Competitive grants. Evaluations following international peer review standards.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Nordplus Programme || 2012 || To strengthen and develop Nordic educational cooperation and contribute to the establishment of a Nordic-Baltic educational region. Competitive grants (Postdoctoral Research Grant). Evaluations following international peer review standards.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Norwegian-Estonian Research Cooperation Programme for 2009-2014 || 2009 || Enhance research-based knowledge development in Estonia through research cooperation between Norway and Estonia.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Swiss-Estonian Research Cooperation Programme for 2009-2014 || 2009 || Assess Enhance research-based knowledge development in Estonia through research cooperation between Norway and Estonia.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Estonian Research Infrastructures Roadmap 2010 (to be updated in 2013) || 2010 || The Roadmap lists research infrastructures of national importance which are new or need to be modernised.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Implementation Plan for achieving the objectives of Estonian RDI Strategy 2007-2013 || 2007 || Describes the allocation of funds for developing infrastructures.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || The research and Development Organisation Act - amended in 1997 and 2009 || 1995 || Basic rules for open, transparent and merit-based recruitment of researchers are set. In 1997 and 2009 the regulation was complemented but without changing the basic principles.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || The conditions of and procedure for the election of academic research professors || 2002 || Establishes the conditions and procedures for filling in the vacancies of research professors by public competition.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Aliens Act (amended 2013) || 1996 || Procedures have been revised for giving work permits with the objective of facilitating potential top-level specialists and highly qualified employees to enter the Estonian labour market.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || The Research and Development Organization Act-amended in 2012 || 1997 || To offer Ph.D. students an employment contract with the same social guarantees as any other employment . This will contribute to more attractive doctoral studies.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Estonian Research Council adhesion to EUROHORC Money Follows Researchers letter of Intent || 2005 || Agreement to finance research carried out in a foreign institute after it has been initiated in an Estonian R&D institution, provided the host country institution has also signed a Letter of Intent.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Personal Research Funding || 2012 || Enhance funding of high-level research and development activities carried out by researchers or small research groups who are employed by a research and development institution. Grant competitions are open to all permanent residents and citizens of a foreign country. Grants should be applied through an Estonian Institution.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Programme ERMOS || 2010 || To develop and diversify Estonian research potential through the mobility of researchers and exchange of experience, and support the development of careers of young researchers. Competitive grants (Postdoctoral Research Grant). Evaluations following international peer review standards.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Programme Mobilitas || 2008 || To activate international exchange of researchers and knowledge. Competitive grants.  Evaluations following international peer review standards.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || EURAXESS Service Centres - Agreement of good practice || || All public universities hosting a Centre have signed the Agreement on Good Practice supporting the internationalisation of Estonia's Higher Education Institutions.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Quality Agreement of Estonian Universities || 2011 || Signed by Rectors' Conference, it specifies quality standards for doctoral studies.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Standard of Higher Education (amendment in 2012) || 2008 || Doctoral study usually includes training on transferable skills.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Programme DoRa || 2008 || Doctoral Studies and Internationalisation Programme provides support to students of Master's and Doctoral studies in Estonia as well as to visiting foreign students and faculty staff and supports co-operation of R&D institutions and Enterprises. Targeted grants to universities and R&D institutions. Evaluations following international peer review standards.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Programme for Co-operation and Innovation between Higher Education Establishments || 2012 || Support doctoral schools; co-operation between higher education establishments and enterprises; innovation in higher education establishments. Competitive grants. Evaluations following international peer review standards.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Agreement on Good Practice in the Internationalisation of Estonia’s Higher Education Institutions || 2007 || To attract to Estonia  students and researchers and teachers who hold high academic qualifications

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Universities Act || 2012 || To provide the procedure for the establishment, merger, division, and termination of the activities of universities, the bases for the activities, limits of autonomy and principles of management of universities. Regulates establishment and activities and principles of financing of universities.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Quality Agreement of Estonian Universities || 2011 || Agreement between universities to follow some principles for co-operation, openness, focus on target group interests, focus on students, quality of PhD studies, intellectual property rights, life-long learning, and implementing of the Charter & Code and HR Strategy for Researchers.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Gender Equality Act  - amended in 2012 || 2004 || The Act provides for the prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of sex in the private and public sectors; the obligation of state and local government authorities, educational and research institutions and employers to promote equality between men and women; the right to claim compensation for damage. To ensure equal treatment of men and women as provided for in the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia in 1992 and to promote equality of men and women as a fundamental human right and for the public good in all areas of social life. The Republic of Estonia Employment Contracts Act § 3 obliges employer to guarantee the employees the environment of non-discrimination and promote the principles of equal treatment according to the Gender Equality and Equal Treatment Acts.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Programme “Advancing Gender Equality" || 2011 || Support initiatives on gender equality. Competitive grants. Evaluations following international peer review standards.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Organisation of Research and Development Act || 2012 || Legal framework for the organisation of research and development To provide the grounds for the organisation of research and development and to ensure legal means for the preservation and further development of scientific and technological creation as a component of Estonian culture and the Estonian economy

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Reform of national funding schemes || || Compulsory green or gold access to results publications.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Innovation voucher grant || 2009 || Increasing competitiveness of Estonian SMEs through transfer of knowledge and technology, expansion of cooperation with R&D institutions and increase of capability of protection of intellectual property. Competitive grants. Evaluations following international peer review standards.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Principles for the preparation of a uniform collection plan for research libraries and the procedure for application for financing the acquisition of research information for research libraries, for the review of applications and for making financing || 2012 || Specifies the principles for the preparation of a uniform collection plan for research libraries and principles of financing. Block funding from the state budget and other sources.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Estonian e-repository programme || 2011 || An integrated e-environment created for long-term preservation and availability of digitized resources of the Estonian cultural heritage institutions: libraries, archives and museums.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Estonian Research Information System || 2006 || Concentrates information on research- and development institutions, researchers, research projects and various research results. The Estonian Research Information System is also an information channel for submitting and processing grant applications.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || The Programme of Electronic Scientific Information || 2009 || The aim is to supply Estonian R&D institutions with scientific information and to acquire access to scientific information and electronic publications for Estonian research libraries and organisations Grant to the Consortium of Estonian Libraries Network

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Cluster development || 2009 || To promote cooperation between companies and between companies and research establishments. Competitive grants. Evaluations following international peer review standards.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Knowledge and technology transfer baseline funding (SPINNO Programme) || 2008 || To improve the quality and volume of application of the intellectual property developed in the Estonian research and development establishments and institutions of applied higher education for commercial purposes. Baseline funding. Evaluations following international peer review standards.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Programme "Start-up Eesti" || 2011 || Start-Up Estonia is a development plan that will speed up the development of innovative start-up companies by covering aspects such as awareness, knowledge, skills, and financing and co-operation with R&D institutions.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || Information Technology Foundation for Education || 2013 || Provides high quality network infrastructure for research, educational and cultural communities.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || State Program 2011-2015 on higher education information and communication technology and research and development activities || 2011 || Cooperation programme between universities, ICT sector and the state to raise the quality of ICT and develop cooperation between the partners.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || Consortium of Estonian Libraries Network (statute renewed in 2011) || 1996 || Have created good access to scientific journals and electronic bases for researchers.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || E-teadusinfo || 2009 || Access to digital research services in other organisations and in other countries is possible via E-teadusinfo

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || eduGAIN || || While a national policy for e-identity has not been identified, for Estonia the Estonian Education and Research Network of Information Technology Foundation for Education is in the process of joining the federation.

Finland

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || || Research and Innovation Policy Guidelines for 2011–2015 || 2011 || The document set out at national level the policy guidelines on the required measures and funding for research policy

More effective national research systems || || Growth through expertise, Action plan for research and innovation policy || 2012 || Key policy document by the Ministry of Education and Culture and Ministry of Employment and the Economy. The action plan details out the actions required for the implementation of the government’s research and innovation policy

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Universities Act 558/2009 and related decrees on the reform of university funding model || 2010 || Institutional funding is allocated based on - inter alia - the research performance of the institution

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Reform of public research institutes (incl. their funding model) || || Reform aims at increasing the effectiveness of PROs through a more competitive funding allocation

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Competitive funding by Academy of Finland || || Competitive allocation of funding based on excellence to research projects

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Competitive funding by TEKES || || Research and innovation funding allocated on a competitive basis (calls for proposals) by TEKES

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || International evaluation of the Academy of Finland || 2013 || This evaluation will address the overall issue of institutional funding vs. project-based funding for the Finnish research system and what would constitute an 'adequate balance'

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || International evaluation of TEKES || 2012 || The evaluation of TEKES will provide an assessment of the extent to which TEKES has supported efficient, high quality and impact R&D

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Peer review process by the Academy of Finland || || Implements the peer review principles for funding allocated by the Academy of Finland

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Research and Innovation Policy Guidelines || 2010 || The 'independence' and 'international' components in the research evaluation mechanism are strengthened

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Research and Innovation Policy Guidelines for 2011–2015 || 2010 || Supports the opening up of programmes for voluntary joint pilot projects of member states

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Joint programmes and bilateral agreements || || TEKES has established cooperation agreements with funding agencies in the USA, Japan, China, Canada, Israel, Singapore and Korea. The Academy of Finland also provides funding for international joint projects often as part of research programmes or bilateral or multilateral agreements with China (Cas Fellowship to China), Estonia, Germany, India, Japan (JSPS Fellowship to Japan) and Russia. Finland is especially active in the Nordic research co-operation, NordFosk.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Research and Innovation Policy Guidelines for 2011–2015 || 2010 || Supports the opening up of programmes, effective principles, procedures and criteria are sought and legislation is harmonised

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Update of the FIRI Committee (Finnish Research Infrastructure Committee) national roadmap for infrastructures in 2013 || 2013 || Updates the Finnish research infrastructures roadmap

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Growth through expertise: Action plan for research and innovation policy || 2012 || Allocation of annual funding for research infrastructures

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Research and Innovation Policy Guidelines for 2011–2015 || 2010 || Setting up of a research infrastructure body in charge of preparing and implementing a national and international infrastructure policy

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Strategy for the Internationalisation of Higher Education Institutions in Finland 2009–2015 || 2009 || Contributes to the implementation by HEIs of the principles for the recruitment of researchers as defined in the Charter and Code

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Research and Innovation Policy Guidelines for 2011–2015 || 2010 || Changes to the recruitment practices of higher education institutions and research institutes in order to attract international researchers and thus contributes to open recruitment

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Finland Distinguished Professor Programme (FiDiPro) || || Contributes to the opening up of recruitment of foreign researchers

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || The Money Follows Researcher (MFR) agreement signed by the Academy of Finland || || Supports portability of grants

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Academy of Finland grants and fellowships || || These grants are portable to other EU countries. However, administrative barriers to their portability persist

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Academy of Finland grants and fellowships || || These grants are open to foreign/non-domestic researchers subject to the research being conducted in the interest of the country

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || EURAXESS Finland || || Contributes to the implementation of the Euraxess services

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Reform of the doctoral training system in line with the principles of innovative doctoral training || || Supports the implementation of doctoral training system in line with the principles of innovative doctoral training

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || National Guidelines for the Development of Doctoral Training || 2011 || Supports the implementation of the principles for innovative doctoral training

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Signature of the European Charter for Researchers’ & the ‘Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers by the Rectors' Council of the Finnish universities and the Academy of Finland || 2009 || Implements the principles of the Charter and Code amongst HEI. Most universities participate in the human resources strategy process.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Steering of HEIs || 2012 || Agreement between national authorities and HEIs that highlights the key priorities to be implemented by HEIs. The latest agreement (2012) focuses on improving research careers

A more open labour market for researchers || Take initiatives to address social security barriers for researchers in the EU and further facilitate the entry and stay of third country national researchers by: – 1)Clarifying in a Communication EU rules on coordination of social security schemes for gr || Strategy for the Internationalisation of Higher Education Institutions in Finland 2009–2015 || 2009 || Facilitates the entry of foreign researchers and their access to research positions

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || The Equality Act || || HEIs and PROs are required by law to draw up and implement equality plans

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Government Action Plan for Gender Equality 2012-2015 || 2012 || Supports gender equality efforts in HEIs, incl. monitoring of gender equality plans

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Academy of Finland 'Criteria for research funding decision' || || Supports female researchers' career and gender equality in science

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Academy of Finland Equality Plan || || Gender equality is taken into consideration when decisions regarding research positions and research funding are made

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Steering of HEIs || 2012 || HEIs are required to report on how they implement gender equality strategies

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Open Data Programme || 2013 || Supports open access to scientific information, incl. open metadata service and related support services

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || National Digital Library || || Supports the availability and use of electronic material of libraries, archives and museums (incl. scientific data)

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Working group on open access to publications and research data as part of the National Research Data Project (TTA) || || Supports research data storage and preservation and use of data

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Strategic Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation (SHOKs) - International evaluation || 2007 || Supports cooperation between academia, research institutes, private sector and funding organisations. Further to the results of the evaluation, the model will be amended

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || Growth through expertise: Action plan for research and innovation policy || 2012 || Support to infrastructure for storing amd managing digital research and innovation data

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || 'Putting data into use', Roadmap for the utilisation of electronic data in research || 2011 || Supports the development of digital research services

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || CSC - IT Centre For Science Ltd || || Provides wide selection of digital research services (scientific software, databases) to academia, research institutes and businesses

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || Member of Edugain || || Finland is member of Edugain through HAKA

France

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || || Act on higher education and research || 2013 || The new Law aims to : a) act to ensure success of all students (success in 1st cycle, professional insertion, training of teachers) b) give a new ambition for research (role in society, economy and worldwide) c) simplify the landscape of higher education and research (visibility and governance)

More effective national research systems || || Research  programme Law || 2006 || Legal part of the governmental programme entitled "Pact for Research". It increased the research budget. It provides a public entity status to the National Funding Agency (ANR) and establish an Evaluation Agency (AERES). It also creates the PRES ("Pôle de recherche et d'enseignement supérieur") statute.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Law on freedoms and responsibilities of universities (LRU) || 2007 || Reform towards Universities' autonomy.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || National Research Agency || 2005 || Research funding organisation to fund research projects, based on competitive schemes, and with a peer review process.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || AERES - Evaluation Agency for Research and Higher education (in 2013 replaced by the new "Haut Conseil de l'évaluation de la Recherche et de l'Enseignement supérieur") || 2006 || Contributes to improving the quality of the French research and higher education system in accordance with the European recommendations and decisions of European ministers in the context of the Bologna Process. The Agency is an independent administrative authority set up in 2007, the AERES is tasked with evaluating research and higher education institutions, research organisations, research units, higher education programmes and degrees and with approving their staff evaluation procedures.

More effective national research systems || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || National strategy for research and innovation || 2009 || National prospective exercise gathering all national stakeholders to define research domain to support according to societal grand challenges for the period 2009-2012.

More effective national research systems || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || New National strategy for research and innovation  and strategic Agenda "France-Europe 2020" || 2013 || The Strategy will complete the new Law on Higher Education and Research by providing research orientations based on a Strategic Agenda by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. It will enable the French research system to better address scientific technological economic and societal grand challenges in the coming years. 1.Affirm the role of state in the national strategy, setting priorities for national programming 2.Optimise the coupling and coordination with European programs through greater consistency and greater involvement 3.Deal with societal, scientific and technological challenges and the challenges of competitiveness 4.Sustainably guide public policy to support research 5.Collectively set the priorities for the advancement of knowledge and technology and bring elements of their implementation.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Investment for the Future || 2009 || The aim is to facilitate research partnerships between research performing Organisations and firms. Supervised by the Ministry of Higher Education and research, managed by ANR. National loan for 5 priorities.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Alliances || 2009 || Contributes to improve coordination between Research Performing Organisations and Higher Education Institutes in given fields.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || PRES clusters for research and innovation || 2006 || Contributes to a more coherent research and education offer adapted to the territorial needs. Allows universities, High Schools and Research Performing Organisations to work together, share their activities and means.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || French-German Agenda 2020 || 2010 || The Agenda 2020 was adopted at the 12th Franco-German Council of Ministers in February 2010. The bilateral work programme lists more than 80 joint projects in various political spheres, including in education, research and innovation.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || DEUFRAKO - French German research programme on surface transport || 1978 || Encourage and promote French-German cooperation through collaborative research projects in the field of surface transport.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || National funding agency- ISO 9001 certification for calls programming, selection and funding, monitoring || 2008 || ANR processes are based on competitive schemes and a two-stage peer review process which received ISO 9001 certification in 2008.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || ANR Lead Agency || 2011 || The ANR acted as Lead Agency in 2011 for the first time.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Bilateral agreements between ANR and BMF/DFG (DE), ESRC (UK), NWO (NL), MICINN (ES), FWF(AT) and ANCS (RO) || 2011 || Contribute to facilatate cross-border research projects.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Research infrastructure roadmap  2012-2020 || 2012 || Establishes a long term strategy concerning National research infrastructure. Confirm the French commitment to international infrastructures.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Establishment of new bodies to supervise and coordinate research infrastructures (Directing Committee and High-level Council) || 2012 || Supervise and decide on the strategy of the research infrastructures on a national and international basis. The High Council is a consultative body grouping pluridiciplinary organizations. The Directing Committee advises the Ministry of Higher Education and Research on the strategy and coordinates the various national infrastructures.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Careers plan 2009-2011 || 2008 || Working contract for Doctoral student,   Improving the remuneration for young university teachers and researchers, Attracting French researchers working abroad with a dedicated programme run by ANR, Improving the process recruitment of researchers-teachers, Implementation of new national software to make more transparent recruitments (GALAXIE).

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Recognition of PhD in the public sector (ongoing) || || Measures will be taken to improve recognition of PhDs in the public sector beyond higher education and research. Discussion undertaken to negociate how to embedd phDs in the professional sectoral collective agreements.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || Support coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through EURAXESS; EURAXESS France portal || 2012 || To facilitate entry of foreign researchers. The French EURAXESS Services network provides information to researchers an their families for their mobility in France. Within it, the Association Bernard Grégory (ABG) provides a data base on employment, while FNAK (the National Foundation Alfred Kastler) provides the French Network with legal expertise and coordination tools to welcome foreign researchers in France.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Act on higher education and research. Art 37 , 50, 53 || || Contributes to gender equality in higher education organisations. Art. 37 Promotion of education on gender equality in all streams of higher education, Art. 50 Preventive actions against violence against women and sexual harassment, Art 53 Support of gender research in priority areas of research programming.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Charter for gender equality between Ministry of Research and Conference of rectors and head of schools of engineers || 2013 || Enhances equality. Nomination of a contact point in each organisation, Production of statistics taking into account the gender dimension, Action encouraging gender-mix and professional equality.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Act on higher education and research. Art 13 || || Introduces Gender equality in governance bodies of universities and other higher education organisation.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Action Plan on equality || 2012 || Contributes to gender equality and mainstreaming in Higher Education and Research Institutes. Equality is embedded in contracts between the Ministry and Higher Education and Research Institutes. Parity is ensured in university committees. Support to research on gender.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Office for promotion of gender equality and fight against discrimination-Ministry of research || || To provide indicators and analysis about gender equality. To coordinate and support policies to fight against discrimination.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Ensure that at least 40% of the under-represented sex participate in committees involved in recruitment/career progression and in establishing and evaluating research programmes || Law of 12 March 2012 on employment in public sector and fight against discrimination || 2012 || The law provides that as of 1st January 2015 at least 40% persons of the same sex in the recruiting and promoting jurys in the public sector. Likewise at least 40% of persons of the same sex should be designed as qualified for elections in the Councils of research organisations as of the second mandate renewal of those organisations.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Action Plan on open access (announced in January 2013) || 2012 || Contributes to the development of open access to publications and open archives: development of green open access, support to gold open access, development of Platinium Road, optimisation of the HAL Platform with institutional archives, national contract model for publication, role of scientific publications in evaluation of research performance, support to publishers at international level.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Memorandum of Understanding for a coordinated approach on a national level to open archiving of scientific output || 2006 || Partnership between Research Institutions, Universities and Grandes Ecoles for the joint development and management of a shared platform for scientific outputs (a shared platform for posting preprints and postprints). Inter-institutional agreement to use the HAL portal.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || HAL - Online Hyper Articles Platform || 2007 || ANR-funded projects will have to be integrated in the HAL open archive platform.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || New policy on technology transfer (presented in November 2012) || || New policy for research knowledge transfer including 15 measures presented at the Ministers' Council in November 2012. Some measures are planned for implementation by end 2013: 'Code de la recherche', training, common public/SMEs labs, 'CIFRE' for SMEs.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Competitiveness Clusters - Third phase 2013-2018 || 2013 || Strategy and activities of the Competitiveness poles will be refocused towards market objectives and dissemination of innovative products or services.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Carnot Institutes || 2006 || The aim is to facilitate research partnerships between Research Performing Organisations and firms. A network of 34 Carnot institutes to develop technology transfer, initiated by the Ministry of higher education and research.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || SATT || 2009 || Structures contributing to the professionalisation of knowledge transfer and reinforcement of university competencies.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || OSEO || 2005 || Facilitates the access of SMEs to research investments, financing by banking partners and equity capital investors. Shares financial risks through partnership conventions signed with regional authorities.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Creation of the Public Investment Bank (BPI) || 2012 || Fusion of OSEO and CdC. Support to SMEs. Improvement of coordination at national level.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || France Brevets || 2010 || First investment and valorisation Fund of patents in Europe.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || eduGAIN || || While a national policy for e-identity has not been identified, for France GIP RENATER is member of the federation.

Germany

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || R&I funding system: project funding || 2006 || The project funding – in particular by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi), the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV) and by the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) – is distributed via funding and special programmes based on applications for fixed-term projects mainly in competitive procedures. Since 2006, the research and innovation policy of the government has been aligned to the principles of the High –Tech Strategy for Germany (HTS). This represents the first comprehensive national innovation strategy with which the existing scientific-technical competences are summarised and specifically expanded. In 2010, the success of this new approach logically led to the development of the follow-on High-Tech Strategy 2020 which focuses on current and future challenges in Germany and  cross the world and identifies five demand fields: climate/energy, health/nutrition, mobility, security and communication. Supporting initiatives and programmes for funding key technologies and optimising framework conditions for research, development and innovation are just as important as the consistent consideration of cross-cutting issues (e.g. funding junior scientists). Via the HTS, new value creation potential for the economy is developed and qualified, future-proof jobs are created in Germany.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || R&U Funding system: institutional funding || || Institutional funding not only refers to individual research projects but also to the overall operation of and investments in research institutes that are funded for longer periods by the federal government or jointly by the federal government and the Länder. This secures the research infrastructure, competence and strategic direction of the German research landscape. Important examples of this are the payments made by the federal government and the Länder as part of the joint research funding pursuant to Art. 91 b of the constitution, e.g. to the research organisations Helmholtz Association, Leibniz Association, Max Planck Society and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Project funding (programmes) || 2006 || The funding of important key technologies is targeted toward progress in the  five demand fields relating to the High Tech Strategy because key technologies such as biotechnology and nanotechnology, microelectronics and nano-electronics, optical technologies, microsystem technology, materials and production technology, energy technologies, efficient drive technologies, aerospace technology and information and communication technology are prime drivers of innovation and form the basis for new products, procedures and services. They also make a decisive contribution to solving global challenges and their usefulness depends on the success of endeavours to transfer them into commercial applications. Therefore, the focus of the funding of key technologies is placed on application fields.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Institutional funding (non-university research institutes) - Helmholtz Association (HFG) || || The Helmholtz Association (HGF), the biggest German research organisation, introduced programme-oriented funding in 2001. It no longer invests resources in individual institutions, but rather funds six centre-embracing research areas that compete with each other for funding. In accordance with the core objectives of the Pact for Research and Innovation, activities now concentrate primarily on achieving top-flight results through cooperation and competition. The scientists and researchers working in the Helmholtz Centres have developed a total of 28 research programmes whose scientific excellence and strategic relevance are evaluated by internationally-renowned experts once every five years. Their reports determine the decision on how much funding will be provided and what the ratio of Federal and Länder funding for programmes will be. In 2011 the Helmholtz Association and the funding authorities developed the procedure of programme-oriented funding further on the basis of a performance review and an analysis of the previous procedure. The aims pursued include streamlining the procedure, consideration of links between centres/programmes and external partners, and a stronger contribution by the Helmholtz Association towards modernising the German research land-scape.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Institutional funding (non-university research institutes) - Fraunhofer Gesellschaft || || By allocating basic institutional funding, the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft (FhG) primarily strengthens the research institutes' cooperation with industry as well as collaborations with other partners in the German and European research communities. Successful cooperation and the successful acquisition of external research funds in competition with other partners are special criteria in the allocation process. Approximately 60% of basic funding is distributed among the Fraunhofer institutes using a formula based on the individual institutes' success in raising private sector funds; 40% of basic Fraunhofer funding is awarded under internal programmes in a competitive procedure or using other evaluation-based processes.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Institutional funding (non-university research institutes) - Max Planck Society (MPG) || 2005 || The Max Planck Society (MPG) has developed diverse funding options under its Strategic Innovation Fund. The Max Planck institutes can apply for such funding in an internal competition which is supported by external experts. The MPG attaches great importance to this internal competition; the amount of funds allocated has almost doubled since 2005.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Institutional funding (non-university research institutes) - Leibniz Assocation (WGL) || 2011 || The institutes of the Leibniz Association (WGL) are evaluated by national and international experts once every seven years in a two-step procedure. The criteria include not only scientific excellence but also networking, knowledge transfer, support for young researchers, and equal opportunities. The provision of basic institutional funding depends on this evaluation; institutions may be closed should the evaluation lead to a negative result. The Federal Government and the Länder restructured the Leibniz Association's basic institutional funding in 2011. A core budget was defined for each individual institution which matches the institution's basic funding requirement for the research it is expected to carry out. These core budgets will be increased annually during the period of the Pact for Research and Innovation. On top of this, individual institutions may receive funding for additional special measures whose implementation was recommended in the process of an evaluation and which were selected in a competitive procedure when drawing up the budget.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Funding procedures of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) || || The funding procedures of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) are a major element of competition between organisations in the German research system both in quantitative and in qualitative terms. Successful university participation in the funding procedures of the DFG is generally seen as an important indicator of the individual university's position in the overall competition; the coordinated funding programmes (collaborative research centres, research centres, research training groups, priority programmes and research units), which involve participation by universities and the research organisations' cooperating with them in projects, are of special importance in this context.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Initiative for Excellence (Excellenzinitiative) || 2012 || With their Initiative for Excellence in higher education, the Federal Government and the Länder want to strengthen academic research in Germany on a lasting basis, enhance its international competitiveness and increase the visibility of cutting-edge research at German universities. The Initiative for Excellence was launched in 2005/2006, its second phase covers the period 2012 to 2017. The Initiative includes the following funding lines: graduate schools (structured training for young researchers in an excellent research environment), clusters of excellence (internationally visible centres with a thematic research focus) and institutional strategies (innovative overall development strategies of universities). Total funds of €2.7 billion are being provided in the second phase to support 45 graduate schools, 43 clusters of excellence and 11 institutional strategies at 39 universities. International networking plays a major role in all these efforts as a cross-cutting, high-level task. Universities are cooperating with regional, national and international partners from academia and industry in all of the three funding lines. More than 6,000 researchers, 25% of them from abroad, were recruited in the first two rounds (first phase).

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Innovation Alliances || 2006 || New competitive instrument for research and innovation policy within the framework of the High- Tech Strategy initiated by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Alliances are arranged with respect to specific application areas or future markets. They exercise a particular economic leverage effect. These strategic collaborations between science and industry focus on specific application areas or future markets. The private and academic sectors established a total of eleven innovation alliances in cooperation with the BMBF. Innovation Alliances exercise a particular economic leverage effect. The Federal Government aims to provide one euro for every five euros paid by industry. It is important that the right priorities are set in this process, for example in the area of climate protection and energy: The Innovation Alliances make a substantial contribution to energy-efficient lighting (OLED initiative), to the use of renewable energy (organic photovoltaics) and to energy storage (lithium-ion battery). Innovation Alliances are the first instrument which involves an executive-level commitment by industry regarding additional investments.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Leading-Edge Cluster Top Cluster Competition || 2007 || Competitive scheme as part of the Federal Government's High-Tech Strategy. Excellent clusters are funded in Germany´s innovation policy to take a leading position in international competition. The regional clusters are to integrate their ideas faster in products, processes and services in order to sustainably improve their added value. The funding of clusters is to secure and create growth and jobs in order to make Germany more attractive. Under the motto of "Strengthening strengths!", the competition is not bound to a certain sector or research direction, but is intended to support the most efficient clusters from science and industry in increasing their international attraction and establishing themselves at the top in international competition. An independent high-level panel selected up to five clusters at intervals of one or two years in each of the competitions' three rounds. The winning clusters are receiving support of up to €40 million each over a maximum period of five years. Overall funding for the 15 leading-edge clusters amounts to up to €600 million. No thematic requirements have been defined: The applicants with the best strategies for future markets in their sectors were selected.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Higher Education Pact (Hochschulpakt) - reform initiative || 2011 || The federal government and the Länder create a needs based range of study programmes thereby ensuring the quantitative expansion of the academic training. Between 2007 and 2010, 185,000 new college places were created, twice as many as originally  agreed. In total, around 320,000 to 335,000 additional college places will be created in the second phase of the programme. The federal government alone will provide at least 4.7 billion euros for this purpose between 2011 and 2015. Record student numbers were reached in Germany in 2011, with almost 516,000 new students and a grand total of 2.4 million. Academic training is gaining in popularity, a fact that the MINT subjects have also profited from.  The federal government and the Länder have also decided to participate in the overhead financing as part of the research funding programme by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Universities that are very active in the research field can further strengthen their strategic manoeuvring capability thanks to the introduction of the DFG programme lump sum, which totals 20 % of the direct project funds. Until 2015, the federal government will continue to bear these costs alone, which total around 1.7 billion euros. The Teaching Quality Pact, which forms the third pillar of the Higher Education Pact, supports 186 universities from all 16 Länder, helping them to improve their study conditions. The federal government will invest a sum of around 2 billion euros for this purpose by the year 2020.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || ZIM - Zentrales Innovationsprogramm Mittelstand || 2008 || The Central Innovation Programme for SMEs (ZIM) is a nationwide, technologically and sectorally unrestricted funding programme for SMEs, including the industry-related research institutions with which they cooperate. In particular it funds cooperative projects between companies and research institutes, but also innovation projects by individual companies. The funding for research and development projects allows companies to directly implement innovative ideas for new products, production procedures or services, thereby realising innovation profits quickly. ZIM managed by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) funds individual projects (corporate R&D projects of individual companies), cooperation projects (involving cooperation between companies and between companies and research institutions) and cooperation networks (combining network management and R&D projects). More than 16,000 notifications of award of funding of over two billion euros have been issued since mid-2008, which triggered R&D investments of €5.8 billion. The programme reached 9,000 companies, cooperation with research institutions has trebled, and 2,000 companies are active in networks. The 2012 federal budget included roughly €500 million for ZIM. This funding triggers additional business expenditure on R&D and produces a positive impact on employment and the market in the medium or long term.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || The Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation - Pakt fuer Forschung und Innovation || 2006 || The Federal Government and the Länder concluded a Pact for Research and Innovation with the science and research organisations (DFG; FhG, HGF, WGL and MPG) in 2005. The Pact was renewed in 2009 to cover the period up to 2015. It is an agreed objective of this joint initiative to launch suitable measures to ensure and optimize the quality, efficiency and performance of science and research institutions which receive institutional funding. The initiative enables scientific and research organisations to pursue strategic goals and investigate new fields. To this end, the Federal Government and the Länder have increased the annual aid provided to the following large scientific and research organisations by 5% from 2011 to 2015: Helmholtz Association (HGF); Max Planck Society (MPG), Fraunhofer Society (FhG), Leibniz Association (WGL) and the German Research Association (DFG). The non-university research institutes (incl. DFG as the funding organisation of university research) can secure their position among the best in the world in the long term. The pact is linked to mutually agreed research policy goals that are laid down in an annual monitoring report by the pact partners and evaluated by the Federal Government and the Länder at the Joint Science Conference. In addition to the early and systematic identification of future-orientated research fields, the promotion of junior scientists and the inter-organisational network and internationalisation (incl. ERA), the main goals of the pact are the transfer of knowledge and technology and the formation of sustainable partnerships with commercial partners. The pact partners have collected a lot of reference data for this field that is included in the monitoring reports as part of a qualitative general overview.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || SME Innovative || 2007 || Special initiative within the thematic R&D programmes to facilitate access to these complex programmes for SMEs, particularly for first-time applications. The BMBF has set up the KMU-innovative funding initiative which offers specific, need-dependent access to the technology fields. The funding triggers additional investment in R&D in companies, which subsequently has a positive effect on the market and jobs in the medium to long-term. By the end of 2011, eight thematic R&D programmes participate in the initiative. Yearly budget of 80 million €. The aim is to support excellence in R&D and innovation in SMEs.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Academic Freedom Act || 2012 || The German Bundestag has adopted the Academic Freedom Act ("Law to increase the flexibility of budgetary provisions governing non-university academic institutions") on 12 December 2012. As a result, non-university research institutions will have more freedom in matters of finance and staffing decisions, the acquisition of shares in companies and in construction projects. Bureaucracy will be minimized, competences will be pooled and authorization procedures will be accelerated. The new legislation grants research institutions more flexibility when allocating their funds, which will lead to greater effectiveness, efficiency, and increased target orientation. Since innovative research seldom adheres to a strict routine, its success hinges on unhindered scope for action. The institutions will therefore dispose of a lump sum budget with which to finance the costs of staffing, physical resources and investment expenditure. The Academic Freedom Act also makes provisions for more autonomy in staffing decisions. Institutions will be allowed to make greater use of third-party private funds in order to attract or keep highly qualified researchers. As concerns the acquisition of shares in companies, the law provides that research institutions will benefit from a simplified authorization procedure which is accelerated by clearly defined deadlines. The process for approving the construction of research buildings will also be accelerated in future. In this context, the research institutions have been granted more autonomy and individual responsibility in so far as they dispose of the necessary expertise for the building project and exercise adequate controlling powers. The Academic Freedom Act is founded on the positive experience gained in the pilot phase of the Academic Freedom Initiative. The greater scope for action in non-university research will go hand in hand with the institutions' assumption of increased individual responsibility. The law stipulates that the institutions' business management system must continue to be transparent and complemented by adequate auditing procedures. The Act applies to non-university science and research institutions that are publicly funded. These include the Max Planck Society, the Fraunhofer Society, the Helmholtz centres, the Leibniz institutions and the German Research Association (DFG). In addition to the Academic Freedom Act, the Federal Government has undertaken measures to create more flexibility for other federal institutions involved in research work, starting with the 2013 budget

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || R&I funding system: general application of international peer review principles || || For science and research funding to be successful, international peer review principles like excellence, objectivity, transparency, confidentiality and ethics of science must not only be applied in the evaluation of project proposals but also in the evaluation of articles in scientific journals, of researchers in appointment procedures and of institutions. These principles are an integral part of the German science and research system. It is an agreed objective of our national Pact for Research and Innovation to launch suitable measures to ensure and optimize the quality, efficiency and performance of science and research institutions which receive institutional funding.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || DFG - German Research Council (Förderverfahren der DFG) || || The core principles of international peer review are firmly established in the German science system. This applies to public research funding and to a large number of financially strong private funders/foundations. Competitive, peer review-based allocation of funds is the main procedure applied at DFG. DFG project funding is best practice in Europe and served as the model for the European Research Council (ERC). In 2012, 26% of DFG expert opinions were prepared by experts abroad.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Non-university research institutes (Außeruniversitäre Forschungseinrichtungen) - HGF, FHG, MPG, WGL || || The evaluation of the German science system has become increasingly international since 2008. Participation by foreign researchers in the evaluation of German scientific performance and research strategies contributes to stronger links with the global scientific community – as does participation by German researchers in the evaluation of the performance of institutes abroad. International science is represented on the permanent advisory boards of the institutes of research organisations as well as on the commissions for institutional and programme evaluation. About 25% of the reviewers involved in the evaluation and competitive procedures at the Leibniz Association (WGL) are of non-German origin.  The scientific excellence and strategic relevance of the research programmes of the Helmholtz Association (HGF) are evaluated by internationally renowned experts at intervals of five years.  80% of the members of the advisory boards of the institutes of the Max Planck Society (MPG) are experts from abroad. 40% of the basic institutional funding of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft (FhG) is allocated in a competitive procedure under internal programmes or though other evaluation-based procedures.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Initiative for excellence (Excellenz Initiative) || 2012 || A majority of European and non-European experts are engaged in the Initiative of Excellence of the Federal Government and the Länder.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Institute for Research Information and Quality Assurance || 2005 || The Institute for Research Information and Quality Assurance (iFQ – Institut für Forschungsinformation und Qualitätssicherung) is a scientific institute, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) as "central research facility". The institute is designed as a scientific institution that will initially concentrate on the evaluation of DFG’s funding programs.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Internationalisation Strategy || 2008 || The federal government’s research and innovation policy objectives, in conjunction with Europe’s declared intention to become the world’s most competitive science-based economy, calls for better exploitation of the opportunities presented by increasing internationalism. The federal government has responded to these challenges in its strategy to internationalise science and research. The combination of the High-Tech Strategy, the Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation and the Initiative for Excellence makes this Strategy of the Federal Government for the Internationalization of Science and Research a core element of German research policy. The Strategy of the Federal Government for the Internationalization of Science and Research has four designated priority fields that form the central theme of the international activities of German science and research: Strengthen cooperation with the world’s best, Developing innovation potential at an international level, Strengthening the cooperation with developing countries in education and research in the long term, Assuming international responsibility and coping with global challenges. EU level instruments are being used for national goals, and there are attempts to influence the European level policy with core ideas as set out in the German “Internationalisation Strategy” and the “High Tech-Strategy”. Triggered by a broadening of R&D policy and innovation policy at EU level, there have been steps towards a more functional “horizontalisation” at national level, i.e. European involvement is becoming part of the strategic thinking and there is a stronger awareness of European issues across all ministries (e.g. visible in ERA-Net participations and a generally strong participation in all new multilateral joint initiatives at the European level). Examples for this commitment can also be seen in the adoption / implementation of Germany’s first Internationalisation Strategy in 2008 and the establishment of the “Initiative on Multilateral Research Funding” under the leadership of the DFG in 2010. Thus, the general importance of international cooperation – especially with regard to solving the “grand challenges” – has been highlighted and reinforced in the High-Tech-Strategy 2020 (revised strategy released in 2010).

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || High-Tech Strategy 2020 || 2010 || To boost Germany’s innovation power, that is the aim of the High-Tech Strategy. Since 2006, the federal government has bundled its research and innovation activities into this national innovation strategy across all political fields, themes and departments. In the High- Tech Strategy, all process steps from basic research through invention to innovation are seen in context. This will strengthen Germany’s position as one of the most attractive and dynamic research and innovation locations in the world. The integrative approach of the High-Tech Strategy has found widespread support from science and business and has also been well received internationally. The High-Tech Strategy has been further developed during this legislation period. It concentrates on global challenges that are highly relevant for human well-being and Germany as an innovation location. Between 2010 and 2013, the federal government intends to invest almost 27 million euros in the five demand fields/grand challenges: climate/energy, health/nutrition, communication, mobility and security, and in the promotion of key technologies. The High-Tech Strategy also aims to create underlying conditions favourable for funding innovation, allowing ideas to become innovations more quickly. This will, for example, facilitate the funding of innovations – in particular for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) – and improve the conditions for setting up innovation-orientated companies. In the forward-looking projects of the High-Tech Strategy, this integrated approach is based on specific goals and is designed based on a cooperation by various specialist  departments with the help of representatives from science and business.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Joint Programming (JP), Joint Programming Initiatives (JPIs) || 2008 || Major progress has been made overall since Joint Programming was introduced five years ago. The Member States have launched ten Joint Programming Initiatives (JPI) in various subject areas. Germany is actively involved in eight of them and is the leading coordinator of the JPI Climate. Bringing together the various national research approaches and objectives pursued by the Member States in a thematic area is a process which takes years due to different national goals and interests. Six JPIs had adopted their Strategic Research Agendas (SRAs) by the end of 2012. Five JPIs launched initial pilot activities in the form of joint trans-border calls for proposals. The Secretariat of the JPI Climate has been set up in Germany and is mainly financed by the German side. In addition, a total of about € 90 million were spent on initial joint activities (calls, fast track activities, knowledge hubs, etc.) under the JPI JPND, FACCE and JPI Climate; approx. € 14 million of this funding was provided by the BMBF.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || ERA-NET ERA-NET+ || 2006 || ERA-Nets and ERA-Nets Plus are a proven instrument for cooperation between countries. Germany has played a major role in 116 of the 140 existing ERA-Nets and ERA-Nets Plus as well as in cross-cutting initiatives such as ERA-Watch and Net-Watch since 2006. Implementing trans-border calls and coordinating national funding at European level has meanwhile become a routine procedure for many research stakeholders in numerous ERA-NETs.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Joint international level research organisations || || Joint international-level research programmes have been part of jointly financed large projects and research facilities such as EMBL, CERN, ESA and telescopes for decades. Germany contributes a substantial share to the required funding. A comparison of the sums spent in 2008 and 2011 shows an increase in most cases.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Participation in Article 185 measures || || E.g. Eurostars programme: The participating Member States inter alia Germany have agreed to coordinate and implement jointly activities aimed at contributing to the Eurostars Joint Programme. Important issue are the central evaluation of proposals by independent experts and the central approvement of the ranking list which is binding for the allocation of funding from the Community contribution and from the national budgets earmarked for Eurostars projects.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Promote Innovation and Research in Germany || 2006 || The initiative launched by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to "Promote Innovation and Research in Germany" has been presenting Germany’s research achievements and opportunities to the international community since November 2006 under the brand "Research in Germany - Land of Ideas". Promotional measures and events aimed at positioning German innovation and research in key international markets have been organised on behalf of BMBF. The initiative additionally sets thematic and regional priorities which each run for a period of 1.5 years, also to strengthen and expand R&D collaboration between Germany and selected target countries. The thematic priorities are in line with the thematic fields of the High-Tech Strategy (so far, the initiative focused on two key thematic fields: Nanotechnologies and Environmental Technologies, the current focus is on Production Technologies).Regional priorities have been South Korea and India.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || FET Flagship "Human Brain Project" || 2012 || The FET Flagship "Human Brain Project", which involves more than 100 European and international institutions working in different disciplines, for example neuroscience, genetics and computer science, shows the complex principles of brain function and simulates the mechanisms involved using novel computer architectures. The Jülich Research Centre and Munich Technical University play a coordinating role on the German side along with Heidelberg University.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Upper Rhine Bi-national Metropolitan Region science programme || 2011 || The German Länder of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate and the French Alsace region initiated the proactive Upper Rhine Trinational Metropolitan Region science programme in November 2011. This joint campaign to promote excellent research helps trans-border beacon projects in the Upper Rhine area to draft and implement research and innovation proposals under the INTERREG initiative by providing technical and financial support. Following the evaluation of 36 project proposals by a transnational expert panel, total funding of €9.75 million (including €1.6 million in regional funds) was made available to support seven beacon projects from July 2012 to June 2015.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Initiative on Multilateral Research Funding (G8 Research Councils) || 2010 || The programme’s medium-term goal is to establish a large pool of multilateral projects which can be supported by the national programmes of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and its partner organisations at any time. This first call for proposals encourages scientists from Germany, France, Japan, Canada, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States to not only collaborate with existing scientific research groups on a bilateral or trilateral basis, but also create entirely new and productive multilateral research constellations. The first call for proposals focuses on the high-performance computing power expected from the world’s fastest supercomputers in the coming decade.  In the pilot phase, the participating organisations will jointly announce a call for proposals with a different thematic focus each year to encourage widespread multilateral collaboration. After submitting a brief preliminary proposal, the review committee may request a full application, which is then peer- reviewed by the organisation in whose country the scientific project coordinator is based.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || French-German Agenda 2020 || 2010 || Agenda 2020 was adopted at the 12th Franco-German Council of Ministers in February 2010. The bilateral work programme lists more than 80 joint projects in various political spheres, including in education, research and innovation. Some specific research fields have been identified for further collaboration.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Ensure mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to international peer-review standards as a basis for national funding decisions || Guidelines for the participation of the BMBF in the preparation and implementation of transnational calls for proposals (Leitfaden des BMBF zur transnationalen Zusammenarbeit) || || The transnational networking of funding programmes is an issue of increasing importance for the Directorates-General of the BMBF. The range of joint calls issued or planned covers the European as well as the bilateral and multilateral level. The central goal of the guidelines is to provide the programme owners and administrators (BMBF and project management organizations) with a basis for the implementation of transnational calls for proposals within existing funding schemes, based on best practice and experience gained in bilateral and joint ERA-Net calls. Experience with previous joint calls for proposals had shown that major differences in the prerequisites for funding due to differing national funding laws and procedures of the participating countries present a central problem in the implementation of such calls. The development of a joint procedure for the publication of a call and the evaluation and funding of proposals within the  framework of a joint call is usually a very complex and lengthy process which leads to individual solutions for specific projects in most cases. For the participants in a joint call this usually means that they must define and implement the administrative requirements of the joint call in addition to familiarizing themselves with the national and FP specific funding procedures. The guidelines were developed to simplify and standardize the process as far as possible. When transnational project funding initiatives (e.g. ERA-NETs, Art. 185 measures) include joint evaluation procedures, the scientific and technical results of such evaluations are usually recognised in Germany. This is based on the BMBF guidelines for transnational cooperation and on procedural rules agreed in individual initiatives. At the same time, formal admissibility of an application for funding must still be reviewed on the basis of the budgetary and funding rules of national or regional funding organisations, ideally before an international peer review is performed.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Ensure mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to international peer-review standards as a basis for national funding decisions || D-A-CH’ agreement (simplification of evaluation) || 2009 || The D-A-CH scheme contributes to simplifying of cross-border funding, especially in terms of evaluation (2003) and Joint Proposal Submission with Austria and Switzerland (D-A-CH) since 2009. Under this scheme, an agreement was concluded between the DFG and its partner organisations FWF (Austrian Science Fund) and SNSF (Swiss National Science Fund) concerning the mutual recognition of evaluation results (Lead Agency procedure) and trans-border funding (Money Follows Cooperation Line) to facilitate researcher mobility and the implementation of trans-border research projects.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Ensure mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to international peer-review standards as a basis for national funding decisions || The G8 Research Councils Initiative on Multilateral Research Funding || 2010 || The programme’s medium-term goal is to establish a large pool of multilateral projects which can be supported by the national programmes of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and its partner organisations at any time. Evaluation of proposals is done in one country but funding of the participating researchers is provided by their respective national funding organisation according to their normal terms and conditions for project funding (i.e. mutual recognition of evaluations). First projects have started in March 2011.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Ensure mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to international peer-review standards as a basis for national funding decisions || Participation in Article 185 measures || 2008 || e.g. Eurostars programme: The participating Member States inter alia Germany have agreed to coordinate and implement jointly activities aimed at contributing to the Eurostars Joint Programme. The programme is managed by the dedicated implementation structure. Proposals are submitted centrally to the dedicated implementation structure by applicants (single entry point), following a central and common yearly call for proposals, with several cut-off dates. Project proposals are evaluated and selected centrally on the basis of transparent and common eligibility and evaluation criteria following a two-step procedure. In the first step, proposals are assessed by at least two independent experts, who review both technical and market aspects of the proposal. The ranking of proposals is performed in the second step, by an international evaluation panel, composed of independent experts. The ranking list, approved centrally, is binding for the allocation of funding from the Community contribution and from the national budgets earmarked for Eurostars projects. The dedicated implementation structure is responsible for monitoring projects and common operational procedures to manage the full project cycle shall be in place. Project participants in selected Eurostars projects are handled administratively by their respective national programmes.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || D-A-CH’ agreement ("Lead Agency" process) - DACH Abkommen || 2009 || Within the scope of D-A-CH collaboration since 2009, an agreement has been signed between the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) and its partner organisations, the FWF (Austrian Science Fund, Austria) and the SNSF (Swiss National Science Foundation, Switzerland), regarding the mutual opening of the respective funding programmes ("Lead Agency" process) and cross-border funding ("Money Follows Cooperation Line") to simplify the mobility of researchers and the execution of cross-border research projects. The aim is to apply the arrangements on a broader scale and test new approaches. The D-A-CH collaboration contributes to the interoperability of national research programmes as envisaged by the ERA Communication. German research stakeholders have gained valuable experience with the Lead Agency principle under the D-A-CH agreement for basic research signed with Austria and Switzerland. This experience can be used in a European learning process. Building confidence between the research stake-holders over time is by no means a matter of course but it is of central importance for success.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || The Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation II: Internationalisation strategies of the science organisations || 2009 || The Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation II calls upon the research organisations to continuously review and develop their internationalisation strategies in terms of their contribution to increasing institutional performance. The internationalisation strategies of the science organisations are expected to increase the international competitiveness of the German science system and generate an added value for both the German research community and the cooperating partner countries. For this purpose, the organisations establish and expand research collaborations on important topics with excellent international partners and strategic countries, gain access to research objects including those abroad and open up their own research infrastructures to foreign researchers, become involved in global knowledge flows and play an active part in shaping the European Research Area. The science organisations have developed their own internationalisation strategies in recent years in keeping with their organisational mission while taking account of the goals and priorities defined in Germany's strategy for the internationalisation of science and research. They described major aspects of this effort in their 2011 Pact Monitoring Report and presented a joint position paper on internationalisation.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Participation in Article 185 measures || || .g. Eurostars programme: The Eurostars Joint Programme is aimed at aligning and synchronising the relevant national research and innovation programmes to establish a joint programme, featuring scientific, management and financial integration, marking an important contribution towards the realisation of the ERA. Scientific integration is achieved through  the common definition and implementation of activities under the Eurostars Joint Programme. Management integration is achieved via the use of the Eureka Secretariat as the dedicated implementation structure. Financial integration implies that the participating Member States and the other participating countries effectively contribute to the financing of  the Eurostars Joint Programme, involving in particular the commitment to fund the participants in selected Eurostars projects from the national budgets earmarked for the Eurostars Joint Programme. In the longer term, this initiative should strive to develop tighter forms of scientific, management and financial integration.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Internationalisation Strategy || || Germany has signed a number of bilateral agreements with EU and non-EU countries in order to launch and/or further intensify cooperations in research and education, thus removing barriers for and/or explicitly permitting joint financing of projects and programmes.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || German contribution to ESFRI || || Germany participates in many of the 48 projects of the ESFRI Roadmap. It hosts the European XFEL in Hamburg and FAIR in Darmstadt as well as INFRAFRONTIER in Munich. SHARE-ERIC, the first ERIC founded in the Netherlands and coordinated by Germany, will soon move its headquarters to Munich. Furthermore, ESFRI has had a German Chair since December 2010: Dr Beatrix-Vierkorn-Rudolph, Director for Large Facilities and Basic Research at the BMBF. Under her leadership, ESFRI has been focusing on implementation tasks necessary to achieve the goal of the Innovation Union, namely to realise 60% of the ESFRI projects by 2015. Germany's partnership agreement with the EU provides for the possibility of spending structural funds on ESFRI projects. The Federal Government called upon the Länder to include ESFRI projects in their operational programmes at Länder level.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || National research infrastructure roadmap 2013 (Roadmap für Forschungsinfrastrukturen – Pilotprojekt des BMBF) || 2013 || The Roadmap of Research Infrastructures – a BMBF pilot project – was presented to the public by Minister Wanka on 29 April 2013. It is the first German overview of priority research infrastructure projects which the BMBF is planning to realise in the coming 10-15 years. In addition to previously prioritised projects on which work has already started, the Roadmap includes three new ESFRI projects: the Cherenkov-Telescope Array, IAGOS and EU-Openscreen. Inclusion in the Roadmap requires a German financial commitment to the project in question. The ESFRI projects which have already been given priority by Germany include: CESSDA, CLARIN, DARIAH, ECRIN, E-ELT, ELI ESS social, ESS spallation and ICOS. Priorities outside of ESFRI are for example: several research vessels, the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing, and W 7-X. An update of the Roadmap is planned so that further projects can be added, including areas for which other government departments are responsible (health, environment, energy).

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to cross-border access to Research Infrastructures || Internationalisation Strategy || 2008 || While the main goal is promoting innovation and research in Germany by internationalising its R&D and innovation landscape. Adopting bi-/multilateral cooperation agreements also contributes to “removing legal and other barriers” to R&D and innovation. The overall idea is joining the forces and resources, using infrastructures more efficiently and to the mutual benefit.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to cross-border access to Research Infrastructures || MERIL project || || The research organisations HGF, MPG, WGL and DFG and the German Council of Science and Humanities contributed to the FP7-funded project "MERIL, Mapping of the European Research Infrastructure Landscape". The MERIL database, which is under construction, currently lists 34 national research infrastructures in Germany which offer transnational access and are therefore relevant for the ERA.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to cross-border access to Research Infrastructures || Implementation EC Regulation on ERIC || 2013 || The legal basis for implementing a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) was adopted in Germany on 7 June 2013. This law provides the basis for future efforts to establish a Germany-based ERIC in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 723/2009 of 25 June 2009 on the Community legal framework for a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC).

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || General Equal Treatment Act (Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungs-gesetz) || 2006 || The legal framework for what is nearly uniform protection against discrimination was created by the General Equal Treatment Act which came into force in 2006. (Guide to the General Equal Treatment Act)

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Principles for appointing research staff by non-university institutions (HGF, FhG, MPG, WGL) || || The principles that apply for the Fraunhofer Society, the Helmholtz Association and the Max Planck Society regarding the appointment of research staff in positions that correspond to the W-salary scale for professors are intended to enable them to recruit top-class staff in the face of international competition – particularly by appointing staff from the private sector, from abroad or from international organisations. Among other things, it is now possible to recognise previous research periods abroad for pension purposes, grant appropriate incentive pay and thus generally ensure competitive salaries. The Helmholtz Association, the Fraunhofer Society and the Max Planck Society are no longer bound by the framework for awarding payment, that is to say the overall sum available for salaries at an institution, when drafting the conditions of employment for senior researchers and recruiting staff from abroad, from international organisations or the private sector or preventing staff from switching to one of the latter. The Federal Government and Länder also allow the Leibniz institutions to appoint top scientists from abroad, from international organisations or the private sector and grant individual salary terms in the face of an increasingly competitive science system.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || International announcements of temporary and permanent positions for researchers || || As indicated in the 2009 and 2010 EU Reports on the Researcher´s Partnership state that the Basic Law and the Länder Higher Education Laws stipulate the public and increasingly also international announcement of professorships. Public announcements of vacancies are also the norm for junior academic staff positions. Certain exceptions are possible and advisable, for example in the case of short-term employment periods or where candidates must satisfy special requirements.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Foreign Skills Approval and Recognition Law || 2012 || Since 1 April 2012, opportunities to have foreign professional qualifications recognized in Germany have improved significantly. The Federal Government's Recognition Act introduces the legal right to have qualifications gained abroad assessed in comparison to the equivalent profession in Germany. The process and criteria for occupational recognition have been standardised, expanded and improved. This makes a sustainable contribution to securing a skilled labour force and facilitates the integration of persons with good foreign qualifications on the job market.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || D-A-CH’ agreement ("Lead Agency Process") || 2009 || Within the scope of D-A-CH collaboration, an agreement has been signed between the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) and its partner organisations, the FWF (Austrian Science Fund, Austria) and the SNSF (Swiss National Science Foundation, Switzerland), regarding the mutual opening of the respective funding programmes ("Lead Agency" process), which contributes to cross-border access to research funds.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || EURAXESS Deutschland website || || The EURAXESS Deutschland website(www.euraxess.de) contains updated information concerning entry regulations, social insurance, administrative support, etc. The higher education institutions and non-university research institutions are endeavouring to recruit foreign researchers at all career levels and offer their research staff opportunities to spend research periods abroad.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Alexander von Humboldt Foundation actions to recruit and welcome foreign students and researchers || || Over the last decade, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has launched several ideas competitions, some of them in association with partners. These competitions follow the principle of “encouraging others to follow suit”. Examples include: 1. The “Prize for the friendliest Foreigners Office“, in association with the Donors' Association for German Science, which involves Foreigners Offices as stakeholders in recruiting foreign students and researchers; 2. The “Welcome Centres”, together with the Donors' Association for German Science and the Deutsche Telekom Foundation, where three rounds of a competition have provided universities with funding to establish structures to support mobile researchers. In the meantime, the name of the competition has become a generic term that is used independently of its original meaning. 3. The “Researcher-Alumni” competition to support alumni work at universities in Germany. The majority of institutions have set up Dual Career Offices und Welcome Centres.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Programmes encouraging excellent foreign scientists to spend research periods in Germany || || Germany considers cross-border access to and portability of grants mainly as a stakeholder responsibility. In general, scholarships are increasingly being advertised internationally. Scholarship-holders in Germany are commonly selected in a procedure involving experts (peer-review process) and the applicant's nationality is thus generally considered irrelevant. There are a number of programmes that encourage excellent foreign scientists to spend research periods in Germany, for example: • Fraunhofer Attract Program (FhG) • German Academic International Network GAIN (DAAD) • Research Scholarships (MPG/ Georg Forster Research Fellowships (AvH) • Humboldt Research Prizes / Bessel Research Prizes (AvH) • Alexander von Humboldt Professorship (AvH) • Sofja Kovalevskaja Prize (AvH) • Helmholtz International Fellow Award for excellent researchers and science managers from abroad • Postdoc positions in all coordinated DFG programmes • Mercator Guest Researchers Module (until 2012 Mercator Programme) • Emmy Noether Programme (DFG) • International Max Planck Research Schools • The Leibniz Association and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) offer excellent postdocs from all over the world the opportunity to conduct research for a year at the currently 81 institutions of the Leibniz Association within the framework of Leibniz-DAAD Research Fellowships. In 2011 and 2012, 17 and 15 postdocs respectively (10 and 6 from Europe) had the opportunity to conduct research for one year at a Leibniz institute of their choice. In almost all cases cooperation between the researchers and the institutions continued after the end of the scholarship. The programme makes a noticeable contribution towards strengthening the international visibility of the Leibniz institutions. A Leibniz Alumni Network of former fellows is currently being established.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Programmes offering financial support to German researchers to spend periods abroad || || It is becoming increasingly the norm in the German science system for German researchers to spend periods abroad. There are a number of programmes offering financial support: • DAAD Postdoctoral Programme (DAAD) • Feodor Lynen Research Fellowships (AvH) • DFG Programmes (DFG) • Otto Hahn Award (MPG) • Helmholtz Young Investigators Groups (HGF) • Prof.x2 Programme (FhG) • Sabbatical Programme (FhG)

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || EURAXESS Germany portal || || The EURAXESS Deutschland website (www.euraxess.de) contains updated information concerning entry regulations, social insurance, administrative support, etc. EURAXESS Germany is run by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, which encourages the individual service centres to implement the declaration of commitment. There is no legal obligation to use EURAXESS. Evidence suggests that - relative to its size as a science location - Germany tends to make little use of the EURAXESS Jobs Portal portal compared with its European partners (in terms number of vacancies entered into the data bank). Reason may be that the homepage of the German Rectors' Conference provides links to the job exchanges of the individual Member States and in addition, the BMBF-funded "Information and Communication Platform for Young Researchers" (KISSWIN) has been operating since 2008. KISSWIN is an online communication and information platform for young researchers. The project aims at making the German research funding system and career opportunities transparent. However, Germany is seeing more recently a strong increase in participation in the EURAXESS network: twenty-one of the 70 EURAXESS service centres in Germany have already signed the declaration of commitment, 15 of them in the course of 2012 and 2013.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || Information and Communication Platform for Young Researchers" (KISSWIN) || 2007 || KISSWIN is an online communication and information platform for young researchers. The project aims at making the German research funding system and career opportunities transparent. The service provides free information, promotion and advice for young researchers (e.g. experts answering questions concerning a scientific career,  workshops dealing with career topics; job databases as well as databases providing information on funding opportunities and funding organisations; current news and announcements; community and forum).

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || DFG Research Schools (DFG Graduierten-kollegs) || || The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft introduced the concept of “postgraduate research groups” as far back as in 1990. This remains an important programme to encourage institutions to provide structured post-graduate training and was complemented by the “Graduate Schools” programme under the Initiative for Excellence in 2006. The German higher education institutions – often in partnership with non-university research institutions – already began reforming the doctoral phase of training around 20 years ago in order to ensure the critical mass of research environment and variety of research methods which a doctoral candidate needs. This has led to the development of programmes for additional qualifications and skills and more structured doctoral training programmes across the board at all universities and at a number of non-university research institutions. At European level, this process was encouraged by the Salzburg II Recommendations of the European University Association (EUA) and its Council of Doctoral Education (EUA-CDE), which serve as a model throughout Europe.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Initiative for Excellence || 2005 || Under the scheme funding is provided for graduate schools, clusters for excellence, forward-looking concepts for universities. On 15 June 2012, the Grants Committee selected a total of 39 universities from 13 Länder including 45 graduate schools. The initiative’s budget is administered by DFG.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Cooperative Doctoral Programme (Baden-Württemberg) || 2010 || Following a competitive procedure, Baden-Württemberg launched eight “Cooperative Doctoral Programmes” at the end of 2010 in which universities and universities of applied sciences conduct doctoral courses together and on an equal footing. Baden-Württemberg is also funding two new doctoral programmes on education research which link teacher training colleges and universities. The funding programmes have the effect of strengthening the structures of all the higher education institutions involved. Other Länder are also offering special programmes.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || BuWin / “Family-Friendly University Audit” / Total E-Quality || || The principles of the Charter & Code are already applied in Germany under observation of national peculiarities and taking into account the reservations expressed by the respective science organisations when the agreements were signed. The self-commitment of the science institutions and organisations and the statutory provisions governing wage agreements of the social partners, the equality standards of the science organisations and quality assurance measures such as the National Report on Junior Scholars (BuWin), the “Family-Friendly University Audit”  or the “Total E-Quality”  award play an important role in this context. Germany has decided in favour of such voluntary advisory services to improve the quality of human resource management in the science institutions.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Report on the Promotion of Young Researchers (BuWin) || 2008 || The National Report on Junior Scholars (BuWiN), which was published for the second time in 2013, provides sound data and the latest findings on qualifications and career pathways as well as on career prospects for doctoral candidates and postdocs in Germany. The report’s sound scientific monitoring is an important basis for the empirically-based steering of political processes, and has thus contributed significantly to improving the situation of young researchers in Germany.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Plan to improve the social security and pension situation of mobile researchers || 2010 || his plan should improving the provision of information in cooperation with insurance carriers, HE and other research organisations and EURAXESS Germany, by (1) organising training events to improve the ability of science institutions to provide counselling; (2) strengthening cooperation with national supplementary insurance funds responsible for researchers with the aim of improving the dissemination of information to mobile scientists, (3) considering private pension insurance for scholarship holders in the post doc phase through research organisations and (4) Extending bilateral social security insurance agreements to include further states where politically and economically feasible.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || General Anti-Discrimination Act - Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz (AGG) || 2006 || Since 2006 the General Equal Treatment Act (Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz, AGG) has provided the legal framework for gender issues in the labour and civil law sectors. It transposes four European anti-discrimination directives into German law. The purpose of this Act is to prevent or to stop discrimination on the grounds of race or ethnic origin, gender, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation (Section 1 AGG).

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Federal Bodies Law (Bundesgremienbesetzungsgesetz) || 1994 || Germany's Federal Bodies Law (Bundesgremienbesetzungsgesetz) of June 1994 (BGremBG) provides a suitable framework for ensuring equal participation by men and women.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Woman at the Top (Frauen an die Spitze) || 2008 || The BMBF programme Frauen an die Spitze (Women at the Top) was launched in 2007 with funding from the European Social Fund (ESF). It studies gender issues and tests new action schemes in Germany as a basis for new approaches towards increasing equal opportunities.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || DFG Funding and „Forschungsorientierte Gleichstellungsstandards" || 2008 || Since 2008, it has been possible to apply for funds for equal opportunities measures in all collaborative projects of the German Research Association (DFG). This ring-fenced funding can be used to increase the number of women researchers at project manager level, support young women researchers involved in the research collaboration in pursuing their research careers, or making researchers’ workplaces more family-friendly. In addition, funds to compensate for the loss of working hours resulting from maternity leave, parental leave or nursing care leave can be applied for in all DFG research projects. The DFG together with its member institutions adopted "Research-oriented standards on gender equality" in 2008. With this self-commitment, the institutions define personnel and structural standards for a sustainable gender equality policy in research and higher education. A working group set up by the DFG General Assembly supports the member institutions in the implementation of the gender equality standards and assesses their gender equality strategies and the progress they have made in increasing female representation. The joint goal is to markedly increase the proportion of women at all scientific career levels in science by 2013 following the "cascade model". This means that the target percentage of women at each career level follows on from the proportion of women at the level immediately below. In this process, the DFG developed a toolbox which contains a collection of equal opportunities measures. This freely accessible, quality-assured information system provides selected practical examples particularly for universities and research institutions. The standards on gender equality have given a clear signal in recent years. As a result, gender equality is now increasingly understood as a horizontal and managerial task, gender mainstreaming activities are being professionalised and concrete measures in member institutions consolidated.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Female professors’ programme || 2007 || The Federal Government and the Länder are providing funding of approx. €150 million under the Female Professors Programme (2007-2012, decision on second phase in 2012) to increase the participation of women at all levels of academic training. On the basis of a positive appraisal of their equality policies, higher education institutions have the opportunity to receive funding for up to three professorships for women. Gender equality has thus soon become an important competitive factor in higher education. The Female Professors Programme has met with great acceptance: 77% of all universities, almost 40% of the universities of applied sciences and more than 25% of the colleges of art and music are participating. The percentage of women professors almost doubled between 2002 and 2010 from 8% to 15% (She figures 2012).

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Higher Education Laws in the German Länder (Hochschulgesetze der Länder) || || The goal of realising equal opportunities for men and women and removing existing disadvantages at universities is firmly established in the Higher Education Laws of the Länder. Germany is planning to actively remedy the underrepresentation of women in academia by means of various recruitment efforts and target quotas. Special attention is given to the problem of balancing research and family life. For example, Section 2 para 5 of the Academic Fixed-Term Contract Law (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz) of April 2007 provides that fixed-term contracts may be extended where leave is granted for the purpose of caring for one or several children under the age of 18 or other relatives in need of long-term care or where there is an entitlement to statutory parental leave.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Targets for gender balance set by Joint Science Conference (GWK) || 2011 || A decision of the Joint Science Conference (GWK) of 7 November 2011 calls upon all research institutions and universities to introduce flexible target quotas for the recruitment of young female researchers and managerial staff.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Target quota set for gender balance by independent science organisations (HGF, FhG, MPG, WGL) || 2012 || The Federal Government and the Länder expect the research organisations to implement the GWK decision by establishing flexible target quotas in keeping with the "cascade model" of the DFG's research-oriented standards on gender equality. The organisations are expected to agree targets at management level to ensure that the quotas are achieved. The four research organisations HGF, FhG, MPG and WGL developed their own specific procedures for the application of the "cascade model" and established target quotas in 2012.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Programmes at Länder level to enhance equal opportunities at universities || || The Länder have their own programmes to enhance equal opportunities at universities. North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) launched a programme for equal opportunities at universities in 2012. This programme is provided with annual funding of up to €5.4 million and includes three strands: Under the equal opportunities strand, universities in NRW receive a basic sum of approx. €3 million. The young researchers strand provides annual funding of €1.5 million for 25 posts for young academics on their way to a professorship. The gender research strand supports 14 research projects on the big social challenges with annual funding of €900,000. In addition, equal opportunities at NRW universities are also promoted by close relations with the Women's & Gender Research Network NRW and the Conference of Equal Opportunities Officers at Universities and Teaching Hospitals in NRW (Landeskonferenz der Gleichstellungsbeauftragten der Hochschulen und Universitätsklinika des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen). Bavaria (BY) supports professorial careers for women with funds from a special budget for the promotion of equal opportunities for women in research and teaching. The aim is to encourage even more women to choose a professorial career so that female candidates are available for professorial vacancies. Funding is provided for example in the form of fellowships for post-docs and professorial candidates at universities, advanced training grants and a special teaching assignment programme at universities of applied sciences as well as grants for advanced training at colleges of art. Funding of approximately €3 million has been made available for this purpose in 2013. Baden-Württemberg (BW) has been supporting cross-mentoring at universities and teaching hospitals under the COMENT programme since 2011. The aim is to increase the proportion of women in leadership positions in academia and industry, for example by means of coaching programmes which provide career-related support to female students, doctoral candidates and post-docs. Between 2007 and 2012, the Margarete von Wrangell programme supported 64 female professorial candidates in Baden-Württemberg by financing their employment by a university.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Center of Excellence Women and Science (CEWS) || 2000 || Center of Excellence Women and Science (CEWS) aims to increase the number of women in leading positions at universities and research institutions, to raise the efficiency of political measures aimed at equality and to introduce gender mainstreaming in all areas of science and research. The FemConsult database, which contains current profiles of several thousand women academics, is a central instrument for increasing the number of women in leading positions. Moreover, for instance with regard to HEI, the CEWS has issued rankings of institutions of higher education based on equality aspects every two years since 2003, and this has become an established instrument of equal opportunities quality control within the higher education system. Since 2009, the rankings have also been offered in relation to other equal opportunity evaluations, such as those of the Federal and State Programme for Women Professors, the Total-E-Quality Advisory Service (established in 2001), and the Family Friendly University Audit (established in 1998).

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Nationalen Pakt für Forschung und Innovation || 2007 || The 2007 German Pact for Research and Innovation firmly established the requirement that research organisations should develop strategies to ensure that women's research potential is fully used. The organisations are expected to effect significant changes in the quantitative representation of women in the research system, particularly in leading positions. The research organisations report on the progress made at the individual levels in clear terms and explaining their actions as part of the annual monitoring exercise under the Pact.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Excellenz initiative evaluation criteria || 2006 || Gender equity is also an integral part of the Initiative for Excellence of the Federal Government and the Länder. The experts evaluating the proposals also consider whether the proposed measures can promote equal opportunities for men and women in research.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Campaign to promote equal opportunities for men and women in research (Offensive für Chancengleichheit von Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern) || 2006 || In 2006 the organisations of the Research Alliance (DFG, HRK, HGF, FhG, MPG, WGL, AvH, DAAD, Leopoldina, Wissenschaftsrat) launched a campaign to promote equal opportunities for men and women in research (Offensive für Chancengleichheit von Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern) (reviewed in May 2012) with the aim of markedly increasing the proportion of women in leading academic positions within the following five years. In 2010 women accounted for 21% of the members of university bodies and 12% of senior management positions at universities were held by women (She figures 2012

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || National Pact for Woman in MINT careers || 2008 || Numerous partners from academia, research, industry, politics, associations, labour and management and the media concluded the National Pact for Women in MINT Careers in 2008 in order to increase the percentage of women in mathematics, informatics, natural science and technology. Efforts are being made to attract young women to studies and careers in science and technology, to encourage female university graduates to opt for careers in industry, and to increase the number of study places offered in natural science and technology disciplines. The project map currently contains some 750 projects and provides a nationwide overview of activities, introduction days grants, mentorships and competitions for schoolgirls, female students and those working in MINT careers. With the success of the project map, a total of 90,000 girls and young women have participated in the activities offered to date.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Leitlinien für die Ausgestaltung befristeter Beschäftigungsverhältnisse || 2012 || Die Hochschulen haben sich in ihren „Leitlinien für die Ausgestaltung befristeter Beschäftigungsverhältnisse“ von April 2012 zum Ziel gesetzt, eine höhere Beteiligung von Frauen an der wissenschaftlichen, karriererelevanten Qualifizierung auch bei befristeten Arbeitsverträgen zu gewährleisten und familienbezogene Fördermöglichkeiten in jedem Einzelfall zu nutzen. Außerdem wird die Gleichstellungspolitik zur Leitungsaufgabe erklärt. An vielen Hochschulen ist das Ziel der gleichberechtigten Teilhabe von Männern und Frauen Gegenstand des institutionellen Leitbildes. In den letzten Jahren haben z.B. viele technische Universitäten in Kooperation mit Forschungseinrichtungen und Unternehmen der Privat-wirtschaft landesgeförderte Coaching- und Mentoring-Programme zur Förderung hochqualifizierter Nachwuchswissenschaftlerinnen entwickelt. Flexible Arbeitszeiten und Maßnahmen zur Kinderbetreuung werden von fast allen Hochschulen angeboten. Sie bauen ihre Angebote an eigenen Kindergärten und –tagesstätten aus, um Frauen das Verfolgen einer Karriere in der Wissenschaft zu erleichtern. Daneben existieren weitere Initiativen, wie z.B. das Audit „familiengerechte Hochschule“ der Gemeinnützigen Hertie Stiftung, in dessen Rahmen Universitäten und Fachhochschulen für die familienfreundliche Gestaltung ihrer Arbeits- und Studienbedingungen ausgezeichnet werden. Bis zum 14. März 2013 wurden bereits über 134 Hochschulen zertifiziert.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities || 2003 || Im Oktober 2003 veröffentlichten die deutschen Wissenschaftsorganisationen sowie zwölf weitere nationale und internationale Unterzeichner die „Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities“, die Anfang 2013 fast 400 institutionelle Unterzeichner hatte. Zu den Erstunterzeichnern gehörten unter anderem der Deutsche Wissenschaftsrat, HRK, DFG, MPG, FhG, WGL und HGF. Ziel der Deklaration ist es, die Verbreitung von Wissen (wissenschaftliche Forschungs¬ergebnisse, Ursprungsdaten, Quellenmaterial, digitales Bild- und Grafikmaterial, wissenschaftliches Material in multimedialer Form) über das Internet nach den Prinzipien des offenen Zugangs zu fördern. Die Unterzeichner der Berliner Erklärung verpflichten sich, den Übergang zum Open Access-Paradigma mit Hilfe verschiedener Aktivitäten zu unterstützen.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Clause on open access to the auxiliary terms and conditions governing its project funding [to check witch German authorities] || || The Federal Government has initiated a number of activities to promote open access such as a dialogue between science organizations and scientific publishing companies. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research also plans to add a clause on open access to the auxiliary terms and conditions governing its project funding. The players in German research organizations are actively promoting open access, for example through the Priority Initiative "Digital Information".

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Dialogue between German government and German science organisations on Open Access / repositories and Open Access journals || || Die Bundesregierung hat verschiedene Maßnahmen zur Förderung eines offenen Zugangs initiiert, und u.a. einen Dialog zwischen Wissenschaftsorganisationen und Wissenschaftsverlagen durchgeführt. In Deutschland hat das Thema des offenen Zugangs zu wissenschaftlichen Informationen einen hohen Stellenwert. Die Akteure der deutschen Forschungsorganisationen sind im Bereich Open Access zu Publikationen und Forschungsdaten äußerst aktiv, z.B. in der „Schwerpunktinitiative Digitale Information“. Deutschland verfügt über eine gut aufgestellte Landschaft von Repositorien und Open Access Journals. Als zentrale Informationsplattform zum Themenfeld Open Access hat sich in Deutschland www.open-access.net etabliert. Darüber hinaus existieren in Deutschland derzeit insgesamt 220 Repositorien, 52 sind Volltextrepositorien im Europäischen Repositoriennetzwerk DRIVER (Digital Repository Infrastructure Vision for European Research, http://www.driver-repository.eu/), 5 Repositorien sind in OpenAIRE (Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe, http://www.openaire.eu) vernetzt. 259 Open-Access-Zeitschriften werden derzeit in Deutschland verlegt (vgl. Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), http://www.doaj.org). Die Bundesregierung hat verschiedene Maßnahmen zur Förderung eines offenen Zugangs initiiert, und u.a. einen Dialog zwischen Wissenschaftsorganisationen und Wissenschaftsverlagen durchgeführt.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Clause on open access to the auxiliary terms and conditions governing its project funding (planned) || || Weiterhin beabsichtigt das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, in die Nebenbestimmungen zu seiner Projektförderung eine Open Access-Klausel aufzunehmen.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || TechnologieAllianz network || 2001 || 2001 startete die Deutschland die Verwertungsoffensive, um Forschungsergebnisse aus den Hochschulen verstärkt wirtschaftlich zu nutzen. Den Notwendigkeiten regionaler Innovationsstrategien folgend, haben Bund und Länder mehr als 20 Patent- und Verwertungsagenturen (PVA) eingerichtet. Die PVA arbeiten in unterschiedlichen Rechtsformen. Zum Teil sind die Hochschulen Gesellschafter. Mit ihren etwa 100 Innovationsmanagern betreuen sie mit ausgewiesener Fach- und Branchenexpertise nahezu alle deutschen Hochschulen sowie diverse außeruniversitäre Forschungseinrichtungen. Die PVAs sind zusammen mit weiteren Technologietransferstellen in der TechnologieAllianz, einem bundesweiten Netzwerk, vereinigt (http://www.technologieallianz.de/home.php). Die TechnologieAllianz ist damit auch eine der zentralen Ansprechstellen für Unternehmen, die auf der Suche nach innovativen, bereits schutzrechtlich gesicherten Forschungsergebnissen aus Deutschland sind. Darüber hinaus verfügen viele Hochschulen und Forschungseinrichtungen über eigene Wissens- oder Technologietransferbüros.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Fostering the innovation dimension of research: SIGNO, EXIST || || Mit der Maßnahme „Innovationsorientierung der Forschung“ (2011-2014) werden gezielt neue Methoden und Instrumente entwickelt, um den Wissenstransfer der außeruniversitären Forschungseinrichtungen zu stärken. Seitens des BMWi wird dies unterstützt über Programme wie beispielsweise „EXIST- Existenzgründer aus Hochschulen“ (2007) und die Förderinitiative „SIGNO – Schutz von Idee für die gewerbliche Nutzung“ (2008) für Hochschulen, Unternehmer und Erfinder.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || National strategy to implement the Commission Recommendation on management of intellectual property in knowledge transfer activities and on a Code of practice for universities and other public research organisations (IP Charter) by the Joint Science Conference (GWK) || 2010 || Im Jahr 2010 hat die Gemeinsame Wissenschaftskonferenz (GWK) in Deutschland die Umsetzung der Empfehlung der Kommission zum Umgang mit geistigem Eigentum bei Wissenstransfertätigkeiten und für einen Praxiskodex für Hochschulen und andere öffentliche Forschungsorganisationen („IP-Charta“), dessen Implementierung der WBF-Rat am 30.05.2008 beschlossen hat, als Priorität in die strategische Agenda aufgenommen. Damit ist die Umsetzung der IP-Charta in Deutschland bereits nationale Strategie, die das föderale Prinzip und die regionalen und institutionellen Bedürfnisse angemessen berücksichtigt, weil sie den Bundesländern und Institutionen den notwendigen Freiraum in der Frage des „Wie“ der Umsetzung überlässt. So haben z.B. die Länder Hessen, Niedersachsen, Nordrhein-Westfalen und Thüringen die Entwicklung einer Strategie zu geistigem Eigentum in die Ziel- und Leistungsvereinbarungen mit den Hochschulen aufgenommen. Nordrhein-Westfalen hat die Fördermaßnahme „PatentScouts der NRW Hochschulen“ gestartet, die unter anderem die Beratung zu IPR vorsieht.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Networks of Competence || 1999 || Stimulating the establishment of sectoral networks to promote cluster building and international awareness of industrial networks in Germany.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Regional laws on knowledge and technology transfer as a task for German institutions of Higher Education || || Die Hochschulgesetze aller 16 Länder in Deutschland nennen inzwischen den Wissens- und Technologietransfer als eine Aufgabe der Hochschulen. Zudem haben Länder wie Hessen, Niedersachsen, Nordrhein-Westfalen (NRW) und Thüringen die Entwicklung einer Strategie zu geistigem Eigentum in die Ziel- und Leistungsvereinbarungen mit den Hochschulen aufgenommen. Nordrhein-Westfalen hat darüber hinaus in einem eigenen Kapitel zum "Wissens- und Technologietransfer" in den Ziel- und Leistungsvereinbarungen konkrete Vorgaben zur "intensiveren Kooperation mit Unternehmen", zur "Steigerungen der Patent- und Verwertungsaktivitäten" und zu einer "Kultur der Selbstständigkeit an Hochschulen" mit ihren Hochschulen vereinbart. The Higher Education Laws in all of Germany's 16 Länder have now identified knowledge and technology transfer as a task for institutions of higher education. Moreover, the Länder Hesse, Lower Saxony, North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW) and Thuringia have taken up the development of an intellectual property strategy in the target and performance agreements between the Länder and the universities.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || IGF -Promotion of Joint Industrial Research and Initiative Programme Future Technologies for SMEs (ZUTECH) || 1954 || Support to R&D projects which are jointly and pre-competitively organised by research associations that represent companies of a sector or a technology field. Orientation knowledge is to be compiled and technological platforms are to be developed for whole sectors or for interindustrial use through joint industrial research and development. In this way, sustainable research cooperations are to be supported in sector-wide and/or inter-sector networks and, in particular, SMEs are to be provided with access to practically oriented research results.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Research Campus: public-private Partnership for Innovation || 2011 || The Research Campus programme contributes to Knowledge Circulation by enhancing partnerships which are aiming to develop new technologies in areas with high technological complexity and a great potential for radical innovation.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || EXIST - Start-ups from Science (also: EXIST - University-based business Start-ups) || 1999 || Improving the entrepreneurial environment at universities and research institutions and increasing the number of technology and knowledge based business start-ups. The EXIST program is part of the German government’s “Hightech Strategy for Germany”.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || ERP Start-up Fund || 1995 || The objective is to leveraging access to finance for start ups via venture capital. The focus is on technology-based company foundations. The structures for funding advisory services have been streamlined: the Federal States alone are now responsible for funding advisory services in the pre-founding stage. The Federal Government is in charge of funding advisory services for up to five years after the company foundation. These services are offered by KfW Mittelstandsbank. A number of Internet portals offer company founders advice and decision-making aids.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Validation of Innovation Potentials - VIP || 2010 || Part of High-Tech Strategy 2020: Stimulating Knowledge Transfer (contract research, licences, research and IPR issues in public/academic/non-profit institutes). The programme, with a last call in 2012, was targeted at public research organisations to improve their knowledge transfer abilities.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || go-innovativ’ -Vouchers for Innovation Consulting and Management || 2010 || This programme (with a budget of 15 million € yearly) provides vouchers to companies for consultancy services on innovation management in order to enhance learning from successful innovators.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || National Agency for Women Start-ups Activities and Services || 2004 || While this scheme aims to mobilise the potential of women start-ups in industry and on the market, it can also be considered as an action within the ERA action towards knowledge transfer.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || High-tech Start-up Fund || 2005 || Joint initiative of the federal government, the industrial companies BASF, Deutsche Telekom and Siemens as well as KfW Mittelstandsbank within the framework of "Partners for Innovation". In total, € 262 million will be provided over the next five years. € 240 million alone comes from the federal budget. The initiative invests equity capital in newly established technological companies, whose core is a research and development project. With the aid of a "seed investment", the start-ups should lead the R&D project until a prototype or a "proof of concept" is developed or the product is introduced onto the market.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Research at Universities of Applied Sciences || 2005 || Im Rahmen des Programms "Forschung an Fachhochschulen" fördert das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung in mehreren Förderlinien die anwendungsorientierte Forschung an Fachhochschulen in den Ingenieur-, Natur- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften sowie im Bereich der Sozialen Arbeit, Pflege- und Gesundheitswissenschaften. Im Mittelpunkt des Programms stehen die anwendungsorientierte Forschung und die forschungsnahe Qualifizierung des Ingenieurnachwuchses. Die Förderlinie "FHprofUnt" fördert speziell FuE-Kooperationen zwischen Fachhochschulen und Unternehmen. Der Haushaltsansatz für dieses Programm wurde seit 2005 von 10,5 Millionen auf 40,7 Millionen im Jahr 2012 nahezu vervierfacht. Von 2006 bis 2011 haben 110 Fachhochschulen mit weit über 800 Forschungsvorhaben und insgesamt 175 Millionen Euro davon profitiert

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Innovation Alliances || 2007 || Innovation Alliances represent a new instrument for research and innovation policy within the framework of the High- Tech Strategy initiated by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Alliances are arranged with respect to specific application areas or future markets. They exercise a particular economic leverage effect. Currently, there are nine Innovation Alliances and a large number of “strategic partnerships” created by the BMBF, the scientific community and industry.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || Digital Germany 2015 || 2010 || With the implementation of the ICT strategy, Digital Germany 2015, the Federal Government is seeking to contribute to promoting sustainable economic growth, help create new jobs and bring about social benefits. The ICT strategy, which also deals with R&D and Education aspects, will be carried out in close interaction among policymakers, industry and scientists. The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, BMWi, is in charge of coordinating the implementation under the specific purviews of the various ministries. A major role here is played by the National IT Summit, which has already provided a key impetus and will continue to perform a function in future strategy implementation. Die Bundesregierung hat 2010 unter Federführung des BMWi eine IKT-Strategie für die digitale Zukunft Deutschlands mit dem Titel "Deutschland Digital 2015" verabschiedet. Vorrangiges Ziel ist es, die großen Potenziale der IKT für Wachstum und Beschäftigung in Deutschland besser zu erschließen. Die Umsetzung der IKT-Strategie soll im engen Zusammenwirken von Politik, Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft erfolgen. Die IKT-Strategie der Bundesregierung orientiert sich an den Zielstellungen der "Digitalen Agenda für Europa". Schwerpunkte der nationalen IKT-Strategie sind u.a.: Ausbau der Infrastrukturen, Gewährleistung der Schutz- und Individualrechte der Nutzer, Ausbau von Forschung und Entwicklung im IKT-Bereich und schnellere Umsetzung von F&E-Ergebnissen in Innovationen, Stärkung von Aus- und Weiterbildung für die Nutzung von IKT und Nutzung der IKT bei der Lösung gesellschaftlicher Herausforderungen wie Klimaschutz, Gesundheit, Mobilität. Eine Maßnahme der Strategie ist der Aufbau der Deutschen Digitalen Bibliothek (DDB) ist eine digitale Bibliothek, die 30.000 deutsche Kultur- und Wissenschaftseinrichtungen vernetzen und über eine gemeinsame Plattform öffentlich zugänglich machen soll. Eine Beta-Version des Portals ging am 28. November 2012 online. Derzeit sind 1.990 Einrichtungen bei der DBB registriert, langfristig sollen alle deutschen Kultur- und Wissenschaftseinrichtungen ihre Inhalte einbringen. Die DDB soll auf europäischer Ebene in die Europeana integriert werden.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || Advice and federal working group with the German Länder on scientific information infrastructures (on-going) || 2012 || Der deutsche Wissenschaftsrat (WR) hat im Juli 2012 Empfehlungen zur Weiterentwicklung der wissenschaftlichen Informationsinfrastrukturen abgegeben. Bund und Länder haben eine Arbeitsgruppe zur Ausgestaltung der Umsetzung der Wissenschaftsratsempfehlungen eingerichtet.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || Initiatives towards e-identity (DFN-AAI, eduGAIN, ORCID) || || Es gibt verschiedene Aktivitäten von Seiten der Wissenschaft, Verlage und der Forschungsorganisationen auf dem Gebiet der elektronischen Identität (z.B. eduGAIN, Teilnahme über DFN-AAI, ORCID). In der Max Planck Digital Library (MPG) werden in Zusammenarbeit mit den Max-Planck-Instituten Konzepte und Lösungen für die Anforderungen netzbasierten wissenschaftlichen Arbeitens in den verschiedenen Disziplinen erarbeitet. Das Helmholtz Open Access Koordinationsbüro (HGF) hat enge Kontakte zu ORCID. 2012 hat das Helmholtz Open Access Koordinationsbüro den ersten Workshop in Deutschland zu ORCID organisiert.  Das Netzwerk Knowledge Exchange, an dem die DFG beteiligt ist, hat Empfehlungen zur digitalen Autorenidentifikation erarbeitet, die über die Deutsche Initiative für Netzwerkinformation (DINI e.V.) auch in der einschlägigen deutschen Diskussion bekannt sind. While a national policy for e-identity has not been identified, for Germany the organisation DFN is member of the eduGAIN federation, which works towards the trustworthy exchange of information related to identity, authentication and authorisation between the GÉANT (GN3plus) Partners' federations.

Greece

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || || A legislative act  on the elaboration of the restructuring of the research system and creation of a flexible organization structure for research and technology organizations (ongoing) || || The federated scheme envisaged will lead to synergies and economies of scale, structural networking and increased mobility of researchers as well a better utilization of public infrastructure and resources (through a bottom up approach). Act being drafted by the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT).

More effective national research systems || || Strategic Development Plan for Research, Technology and Innovation under the 2007-2013 National Strategic Reference Programme || 2007 || It presents the objectives, priorities and strategy of the research and innovation policy of Greece.  Furthermore, it provides  the axis and actions that this policy will be based on, that will be included in all Regional Operational Programmes and the Operational Programme 'Entrepreneurship and Innovation' of the Ministry of Development  of the following programming period.

More effective national research systems || || New administrative management system on RDI for the new programming period 2014-2020 (in preparation) Structural Funds || || Simplification of the management system (reduction of the number of the administrative units with clear allocation of jurisdictions) GSRT proposes the formulation of a single National Multi-Fund Operational Program on RDI. Coordination will be ensured with other Operational Programs (sectoral or regional) with RDI dimensions.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Presidential Decree 274/2000 on “Terms, conditions and process of funding (subsidy or aid) of projects and programs submitted by industrial or other production units”, as amended by Law 3777/2009, Article 18 “Amendment of Presidential Decree 274/2000” ( title of Presidential Decree 274/2000: “Terms, conditions and process of funding of projects, programs and activities submitted by companies, research and other organizations for conducting research, technological development and innovation”). || 2009 || The law sets the principles for competitive funding acknowledging the right of both national and foreign research institutions to participate in calls for proposals.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || New bilateral R&D agreements (on-going) || || Reinforcement of the cooperation of Greek research teams through bilateral and multilateral country agreements on R&D. In this context new agreements are being implemented or expected to be launched with Israel and Cyprus. Agreements have already been launched with China and Germany.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || National strategy for research infrastructures (on-going) || 2013 || The Strategy aims to support the decision making process and to enhance the effectiveness of investment in RIs at national and regional level, as well as to support the development of an evidence-based national strategy in the framework of international negotiations linked to EU priorities and, where appropriate, ESFRI.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || National Roadmap of Research Infrastructures || 2013 || Creation of a National Roadmap of Research Infrastructures (Multi-Annual Action Plan 2014-2020). The roadmap aims to upgrade the existing medium-scale Ris to infrastructures of national importance, to identify the need for international cooperation in Ris and direct or indirect participation in projects related to ESFRI and cope with the strategic R&I priorities in relation to R&I Strategies for Smart Specialisation.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || New measures within the new programming period 2014-2020 || || Aim to secure new recruitments of research staff and to facilitate the mobility of researchers between research centres and universities.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Presidential Degree 128/2008  Adaptation of Greek Legislation to Council Directive 2005/71/EC of 12 October 2005 on a specific procedure for admitting third-country nationals for the purposes of conducting scientific research. || 2008 || National framework to encourage foreign researchers to come and work in Greece.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Support of Postdoctoral Researchers || 2010 || Provides research grants for Greeks or non-nationals that have acquired their PhD from a non-Greek university in order to conduct research in Greece. It also supports Greeks with a PhD from a Greek university to conduct research in another (not the university where they obtained their degree) Greek or a foreign research organisation.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Call for Request for Proposals for participation in the Pilot Programme for the mobility of young researchers of the Mediterranean Office for Youth (MOY) . || 2012 || Contributes to enhancing inward mobility. Aims to develop joint higher educational programmes, with the participation of at least two higher educational institutions from participating countries, at a postgraduate or at doctorate level.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || Euraxess in Greece || || The EURAXESS services are increasingly used by the authorities and the education institutions. There are 12 EURAXESS Services Centres in 8 different cities in Greece. In 2011, the number of researcher posts advertised through the EURAXESS Jobs portal per thousands of researchers in the public sector was 32 in Greece.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Law 4009/2011 -Structure, operation, quality assurance of academic studies and internationalisation of HEIs || 2011 || The Law prescribes the rules for the recruitment, promotion of academic staff and non academic staff of HEIs, the operation of various regulating bodies and regulated salaries. The Law also promotes the ‘Charter & Code’ principles on excellence and innovation.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Specific Actions in the framework of the NSRF (2007-2013) || 2007 || ARISTEIA (Excellence) I&II, Supporting post doctoral researchers-(POSTDOCs), Financing research proposals which were positively evaluated in Calls of ERC Grants Schemes, Heraclitus II, Archimedes III, Thales (ongoing) aiming at fostering the human R&D potential. Excellence II- emphasis is given to supporting new researchers being at the beginning of their research career so as to produce high quality research and gain autonomy in their work.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || National Programme for Gender Equality 2010-2013 || 2010 || Enhances gender equality. The programme aims to create a legal framework for the provision of equal opportunities to women in the workplace and in everyday life. The programme acknowledges amendments to legislation, specific project actions undertaken by the General Secretariat of Gender Equality and interventions in other Ministries and public authorities (gender mainstreaming)

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Law 3488/2006, Implementation of the principle of equal treatment of men and women in their access to employment, professional training and promotion, in employment terms and conditions and other related provisions || 2006 || Safeguard of employment conditions of pregnant women and new mothers. The Law stipulates that pregnant women must return in the same position after their pregnancy, taking also advantage of any salary increases that might have occurred since they left. The same law allows working mothers to work one hour less for 30 months following the end of their pregnancy leave or two hours less for the first 12 months and 1 hour less for another 6 months, while maintaining the same salary.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Law 2839/2000, Provisions related to issues of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Public Administration and Decentralisation and other provisions || 2000 || Addresses gender imbalances in the decision making process. The Law introduced provisions for the balanced participation of men and women in the Public Sector, Public and Private Law entities, as well as in municipalities.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Law 3996/2011, Reform of the labor inspectorate, arrangements for social security and other provisions || 2011 || Safeguards of employment of pregnant women and new mothers. The Law forbids employers to dismiss a woman while pregnant and 18 months after she gives birth, as well as if she is away for a longer period of time due to illness attributed to birth or pregnancy.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || PD176/1997, Measures for the enhancement of security and health of pregnant women and new mothers  in the workplace, in accordance with 92/85/EC || 1997 || Enhancement of working conditions of women while pregnant. The decree provides for the transfer of pregnant women to day positions during their pregnancy and one year after they give birth (if they work nightshifts), forbids their exposure to risk

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Ensure that at least 40% of the under-represented sex participate in committees involved in recruitment/career progression and in establishing and evaluating research programmes || Law 3653/2008 (article 57) || 2008 || Establishment of minimum 1/3 quota for each sex for scientists’ recruitment to national agencies and committees for Research and Technology on the “Institutional framework for research and other provisions”. A requirement for the implementation of this quota is that the candidates must have all necessary qualifications for the respective posts.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || National policy framework for open access to scientific publications and research data, on preservation and re-use of scientific information, and their implementation and monitoring on related e-infrastructures (on-going) || 2013 || GSRT has been established as the National Point of Reference for Open access in January 2013 and elaborates the national policy framework. GRST will make open access mandatory – under conditions which might exclude “close to market” IPR rights – for scientific publications resulting from publicly funded research. Relevant changes to the legislative framework of funding terms are under progress.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || New measures to support enterprises in the new programming period 2014-2020 || 2013 || Contributes to - Stimulating R&D investments of the private sector in sectors where the country has a comparative advantage (according to national/regional Smart Specialisation Strategies). - Creating new enterprises with research orientation. - Drafting new financial instruments for R&D and innovation.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || New measures to support research and innovation activities || 2014 || Based on the results of the study financed by the GSRT «Proposals to remove obstacles to the commercial exploitation of firm’s innovation”(completed in 2012) simplification of procedures taking additional legal or administrative measures to remove obstacles for research and innovation activities.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Action “Supporting enterprises for recruiting high level scientific personnel” || || Aims at improving the access of researchers to the labour market and boosting demand for high-level skills in enterprises.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || PAVET 2013 in the framework of NSRF (2007-2013) || 2013 || Aims to support R&D activities conducted by dynamic enterprises that will lead to added-value products and services. The Action puts emphasis on R&D activities on specific thematic priorities where the country has a competitive advantage such as Agriculture, Food, ICT, Pharmaceuticals, Environment.. Collaboration between enterprises and research organizations is also promoted.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Clusters Programme (Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship Operational Programme- 2007-2013) || || The Clusters Programme is designed to create public-private partnerships amongst companies, universities, research organisations, associations, chambers of commerce and crafts in order to boost competitiveness, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || COOPERATION 2011 – Partnerships between businesses and research bodies in specific research and technological sectors (on-going) || || The objectives of the Cooperation 2011 Programme are to: - enhance collaboration between businesses and research bodies through common implementation of research and technological projects; - foster green development, competitiveness and outward orientation of Greek businesses; - improve Greek citizens' quality of life; - strengthen and upgrade the skills of the research workforce; - establish international cooperation through networking and collaboration with entities from European and other countries.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Innovation Vouchers for SMEs (2009-2015) || 2009 || The scheme fosters exchange of expertise and consultant services between ‘innovation agents’ (i.e. universities, research centres) and companies. It targets SMEs active in the manufacturing sector, software industry and research and development firms; public laboratories of universities, technological colleges, research centres and institutes, and sectoral companies as suppliers of services of high added value and knowledge intensity.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || CREATION – Support to new innovative (notably highly knowledge-intensive) enterprises  (spin-offs and spin-outs) (2007-2013) || 2007 || The CREATION initiative supports companies established (for no more than six years) or in the course of being established by researchers from Greece and abroad, or established by companies with technological innovation activities, as well as small innovative firms.  Applications have to contain an agreement on the Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) between the organisation producing the knowledge and the organisation exploiting it.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Operational Program for Research and Innovation in the new programming period 2014-2020 (Structural Funds) || || Inclusion of new measures with an emphasis on promoting investments on RDI from the private sector

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || Greek Open Knowledge Foundation Network (OKFN) || 2013 || Promotion of open access and  sustainable e-infrastructure models, including public data availability. OKFN was created, following an initiative from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The Greek OKFN will focus on open linked data and aims to enhance governance of local research procedures, improve transparency and access to research, cultural and financial data.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || eduGAIN || || While a national policy for e-identity has not been identified, for Greece GRNET is member of the federation.

Hungary

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

General || || Action Plan of the Innovation Strategy || || A first two years Action Plan of the innovation strategy is under preparation. It envisages the setting up of new policy coordination mechanism, consisting of an advisory board for forward planning and inter-ministerial coordination, an S&T Observatory in charge with data collection for monitoring the implementation of the strategy and preparing regular reports, and a new chief scientist position for integrating S&T topics more often into ministerial work.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || "National Research and Development and Innovation Strategy 2020" || 2013 || The National Research and Development and Innovation Strategy 2020 is expected to be approved in the first half of 2013. The strategy has three pillars: globally competitive knowledge bases, intensive flows of knowledge and an efficient knowledge utilisation.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Research and development and innovation support scheme || || A research and development and innovation support scheme is expected to be approved in 2014. The objective of the scheme is to provide solutions for achieving the objectives laid down in the RDI Strategy, evaluating the R&D qualification system, drawing up tax proposals for promoting R&D and setting up the related regulatory environment, as well as drawing up the details of the direct support system.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Science Policy Strategy || 2013 || A Science Policy Strategy is expected to be approved by the first half of 2013 and will be in line with the Research-development and Innovation Strategy. The strategy will provide a general framework for research and for the financing of the academic sector.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Support to RTDI umbrella projects || 2012 || 153,2 million euro are provided as financial support to RTDI umbrella projects, the recipients being business with RTDI activities in Hungary.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Support to innovation and technology parks || 2007 || 21,4 million euro are dedicated to financial support to the establishment of innovation and technology parks (research and innovation service centres).

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Competitive funding : Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA) Research and Technological Innovation Fund (KTIA) || 1990 || The largest funds are the Research and Technological Innovation Fund (KTIA), and the various Operational Programmes of the New Hungary Development Plan, while for bottom-up funding is provided by a smaller one, called Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA). OTKA objective is to improve the public research base and to facilitate the international transfer of knowledge by providing independent support to scientific research and research infrastructure, financial assistance for young researchers and promoting the achievement of scientific results that meet international standards.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || EEA Financial Mechanism 2009-2014, Norway Grants || 2009 || The EEA Financial Mechanism 2009-2014, Norway Grants provides competitive funding to joint research activities and to young researchers, with an allocation of 24.3 million euro between 2013-2014.

More effective national research systems || Support through the Smart Specialisation Platform Member States and regions in using Structural Funds to develop research capacity and smart specialisation strategies, including support to joint research programmes, in line with Cohesion Policy objectives || Hungarian smart specialization strategy || || The Hungarian smart specialization strategy, expected to be adopted in 2013, will be in line with the national research and development and innovation strategy. The strategy will focus on key national/regional priorities, challenges and needs; building on the strengths, competitive advantages and potential for excellence of the individual regions; promoting innovation based on technology and practice, and making efforts to stimulate investments by private capital; and providing reliable monitoring and assessment systems.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Support for fundamental and applied research projects to be implemented in international collaboration || 2007 || Financial support for fundamental and applied research projects to be implemented in international collaboration is provided with a financial allocation of 96.4 million euro between 2012-2015.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Hungarian Academy of Sciences joined the initiative of Teaming for Excellence || 2013 || The Hungarian Academy of Sciences has joined the initiative "Teaming for Excellence" elaborated by the Max Planck Society (MPG) and eight other leading Western-European scientific organisations, an initiative meant to enhance and even out the development of the European Research Area.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Visiting scholars programme || || The Visiting scholars programme aims at attracting outstanding foreign researchers. It consists of invitations to prominent foreign scientists to join activities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA).

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || "Invitation 13" competition || 2013 || In 2013 four internationally recognised scientists will take part in the Hungarian Academy of Science's workshops as part of the "Invitation 13" competition and they will spend 3 to 10 months in Hungary.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || National Research Infrastructure Survey and Roadmap || 2008 || The National Research Infrastructure Survey and Roadmap of 2012 provides an assessment of the Hungarian research infrastructures, and a unified national report and programme for the development of research infrastructures.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Participation in ELI (Extreme Light Infrastructure) laser research centre || 2009 || The Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) project is an integral part of the European plan to build the next generation of large research facilities identified and selected by the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI).

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to cross-border access to Research Infrastructures || National Research Infrastructure register || 2012 || A National Research Infrastructure register is a searchable database providing information on major RI's in Hungary.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Momentum programme || 2009 || The Momentum program aims to halt the emigration of young researchers, provides a new supply of talented researchers, extends career possibilities, and increases the competitiveness of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences' research institutes and participating universities. Currently 28 young scientists conduct internationally competitive research projects with a total funding of HUF 1.1 bn.  And a new call is open, with a financial allocation of HUF 600 million, and will allow for approximately 12-15 new Lendület or Momentum research teams.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || “National Excellence Programme - establishment and operation of a domestic system providing support to students and researchers” || 2012 || The National Excellence Programme,  with a budget of one billion HUF, has the objective of ensuring the establishment of a domestic system providing support to students and researchers, in the belief that in order to have a talented pool of scientists it is necessary to reward students for outstanding research or academic performance.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || "Bolyai Janos" Research Scholarship || 1997 || "Bolyai Janos" will provide 180 research scholarships to young (under the age of 45 years) researchers for the duration of one, two or three years.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || EURAXESS Hungary - Hungarian Mobility Centre || 2008 || EURAXESS Hungary or the Hungarian Mobility Centre facilitates the entry of foreign researchers, but Hungarian research institutes advertise very few vacancies for researcher positions on the Euraxess website.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Hungarian Rectors Conference || || The Hungarian Rectors Conference called the attention of the rectors by mail in January 2013 to join to the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers that aims to improve recruitment, to make selection procedures fairer and more transparent and proposes different means of judging merit.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || New Labour Code || 2012 || The new Labour Code in effect from 1 July 2012 changed significantly the rules of employment. The restoration of the same position after maternity leave is no longer safeguarded by the general provisions of the Labour Code. The employer can quit the employee in case the previous position terminated, the employer cannot offer similar position to the person coming back from maternity leave and the person rejects the offered new position.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Framework programme for equal opportunities from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) || 2012 || The MTA has a framework programme for equal opportunities that allow for female researchers with children under 10 years old to apply for grants over two years of age limit compared to male researchers.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Economic Development Operational Programme || 2013 || The Economic Development Operational Programme aims at creating work place environments that ensure equal opportunities for efficient work for female employees or employees who return to the labour market after a period of receiving child care fees (GYED) or child care benefits (GYES), and help integrate these groups into the labour market.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || L’ORÉAL-UNESCO Hungarian Grant for Women and Science || 2003 || The L’ORÉAL-UNESCO Hungarian Grant for Women and Science provides financial support to young female scientists in the field of natural sciences. The financial allocation is 11,000 euro per year.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Prize from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) for female researchers || || The Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) has a special prize for female researchers that is handed over at the main event of the annually celebrated “Week of Hungarian Science”.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Open Access Mandate || 2012 || The President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) issued an Open Access Mandate with its decree 26/2012 (IX. 24). The researchers and employees of the MTA - including researchers of the subsidized research units and Momentum research groups - should make their scientific publications Open Access.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Open Access Mandate || 2013 || The Open Access Mandate is obligatory for all scientific publications submitted for publication after 1st January 2013. The researchers and employees of the MTA - including researchers of the subsidized research units and Momentum research groups - should make their scientific publications Open Access.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || National Programme for Electronic Information Provision || || 5.1 million euro in 2013 will be dedicated to the purchase a national licence for access to electronic information content for HEIs and research centres in Hungary.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Hungarian National Scientific Bibliography || 2010 || The Hungarian National Scientific Bibliography is an online portal that provides bibliography information about Hungarian researchers.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || REAL - Repository of the Hungarian Academy of Science's Library || || The REAL or Repository of the Hungarian Academy of Science's Library is an online portal that provides open access to full-text publications of research projects funded by MTA and/or OTKA.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Hungarian Open Access Journals || || The Hungarian Open Access Journals is an online portal that promotes open access to scientific journals.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Regulation on protecting and managing intellectual property || 2012 || The regulation on protecting and managing intellectual property ensures that the patent rights of institutional and employee inventions created in the research centres (or research institutes) belong to the given institutions' sphere of competence. The new patents and types can be registered on behalf of the research centre (or research institute), which can decide about the sale of property rights.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || National Research and Development and Innovation Strategy 2020 (RDI Strategy) || 2013 || One of the three priority axes of the National Research and Development and Innovation Strategy 2020 (RDI Strategy) addresses supporting of efficient knowledge and technology transfer collaborations.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Discussions with key stakeholders in order to formulate a national policy to promote knowledge transfer || 2013 || Initiated by the National Innovation Office in early 2013, discussions started with key stakeholders in order to formulate a national policy to promote knowledge transfer, although currently no specific funding is available for technology transfer offices that are operated at major Hungarian universities.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || University technology transfer offices || 2013 || University technology transfer offices work with intellectual property regulations approved by their Senates that were based on model contracts provided by the fore-runner of the National Innovation Office. These units work closely with the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office (SZTNH) and regularly exchange their experiences with each other.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || National Information Infrastructure Development (NIIF) || 1990 || The National Information Infrastructure Development (NIIF) provides the framework for the development and operation of the research network in Hungary.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || eduGAIN || || Hungary is member of eduGAIN through EduId.hu.

Ireland

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Science Foundation Ireland Act || 2003 || Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) acts as funding agency for academic researchers and research teams. It fosters the generation of new knowledge, of leading edge technologies and of competitive enterprises in the fields of science and engineering.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || National Research Prioritisation Strategy Actions Plans for 14 priority areas || 2012 || It prioritises the allocation of competitive government funding in 14 priority areas that will become the focus of future State investment in research and innovation.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 || 2012 || Establishes a new performance framework within which publicly funded higher education institutions will be held accountable to the Government for their performance against defined national priorities.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || New Landscape for Higher Education || 2013 || In May 2013, the Minister for Education and Skills announced the "New Landscape for Higher Education", setting out a new configuration for the higher education system. This provides for a major programme of structural reform including institutional mergers and much greater levels of institutional collaboration, with the creation of a series of regional clusters of institutions. The Minister has also announced his approval for three groups of institutes of technology to proceed towards detailed planning for a formal application for designation as technological universities.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || National Research Prioritisation Strategy || 2012 || The allocation of competitive government funding is based on the outcome of peer review.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Industrial Development (Science Foundation Ireland) (Amendment) Bill 2012 || 2013 || The Bill will provide SFI with the legal power to fund on a wider geographical basis, including supporting research teams and institutions in Northern Ireland, and participate in collaborative funding programmes with countries of the European Economic Area or other countries. It will ensure that the strategic focus of SFI is aligned with the 14 areas of priority identified in the report of the National Research Prioritisation Steering Group.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || National research infrastructure roadmap || 2007 || The strategy was published in 2007.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (fifth cycle) Research Infrastructure Call 2012 programme || 2010 || One specific aim of the Programme is to build the physical research infrastructure.  The 2012 Call supports the research community in building and sustaining the required infrastructural capacity to accomplish high quality, high impact and innovative research.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to cross-border access to Research Infrastructures || Draft Consultation Paper on Access by Researchers to Large-Scale Research Infrastructures and Facilities in Ireland || 2012 || The consultation for a set of national guidelines for Access to Large Items of Research Equipment and Research Infrastructures/Facilities (RIs/facilities) which are exclusively or predominantly funded by Exchequer within the Irish Higher Education system.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Employment equality legislative framework || || It ensures that job opportunities are open to all researchers, nationals and from abroad, and prohibits discrimination on nine grounds, including gender and race.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || National research and innovation programmes || || Individual foreign researchers can participate in the majority of national research and innovation programmes.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || Irish EURAXESS Office || 2004 || The Irish EURAXESS Office provides free advice and guidance to researchers moving to or from Ireland to develop their research career. Since 2013 EURAXESS includes a portal for business, detailing R&D funding opportunities and jobs, including for the industrial sector.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || National strategy for higher education to 2030 || 2011 || The strategy seeks to ensure that higher education connects more effectively with wider social, economic and enterprise needs.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (fifth cycle) || 2010 || The Programme funds initiatives aimed at developing the entrepreneurial and management skills of doctoral training programmes.

A more open labour market for researchers || Take initiatives to address social security barriers for researchers in the EU and further facilitate the entry and stay of third country national researchers by: – 1)Clarifying in a Communication EU rules on coordination of social security schemes for gr || Researcher hosting agreement scheme || 2007 || The scheme enables approved research active organisations to recruit researchers from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) to carry out research in Ireland without the need for a Green Card or Work Permit. However, an employment contract must be in place before a Hosting Agreement can be obtained.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Employment equality legislative framework || || It ensures that job opportunities are open to all researchers, nationals and from abroad, and prohibits discrimination on nine grounds, including gender and race.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || SFI principal investigator career advancement (PICA) SFI Investigator career advancement (ICA) || 2005 || The pilot programme encouraged the entry of women into science and technology and to resume their careers after family care breaks. The ICA supports outstanding researchers returning to active research after either a prolonged absence or those within early consolidating stages of their indepenent research careeer.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Institute Planning Grant Institute Development Award || || The grants provided higher education institutions with the opportunity to conduct a self-assessment of women's participation in science and engineering research activities and research management and to enhance the participation of women in science and engineering research activities and research management. These support measures are no longer provided by SFI.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Ensure that at least 40% of the under-represented sex participate in committees involved in recruitment/career progression and in establishing and evaluating research programmes || Government decision S21590E || 1995 || Government decision S21590E introduced a requirement for a minimum of 40% of women and men appointed to all State boards.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || National Principles for Open Access Policy Statement || 2012 || Adopted by the National Digital Learning Resources, it provides the basis for an overarching policy framework for individual research organisations policies on open access.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Intellectual Property Protocol || 2012 || A key recommendation of the Protocol focuses on the development of a central Technology Transfer Office (cTTO), that would act as a ‘one-stop shop’ for industry engagement with the research system to find all research opportunities and IP that have been generated across the entire publicly funded research system.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || DARIAH consortium || || The DARIAH consortium conceptualises and builds up infrastructure in support of ICT-based research practices in the arts and humanities and also to support researchers in the creation and use of research data and tools.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI) || 2006 || It focuses on the development of data infrastructures, particularly in the humanities and social sciences. One PRTLI-funded project, e-INIS, the Irish National e-Infrastructure, provides the Irish research community with access to computational, networking and support infrastructure.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || Eduroam || 2009 || Eduroam seeks to facilitates roaming educational users to gain Internet access at other member sites by authenticating against a server hosted at their own institution.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || EDUGAIN || || Ireland is candidate to join eduGAIN through EduGate.

Italy

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || || Horizon Italia 2020 (HIT2020) || || Horizon Italia 2020 (HIT2020) published by the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MUIR) is the key document outlining Italy’s research and innovation strategy between 2014 and 2020 in line with Europe2020 goals

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Law on the organisation of the university, on the academic personnel and on recruitment.  Government delegation to promote quality and efficiency of the university system (Law 240/2010 and enacting Legislative decree 19/2012) || 2010 || A share of institutional funding for universities is allocated based on assessments (research outputs and international attractiveness)

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Legislative decree 31 December 2009, no. 213, Reorganisation of public research organisations || 2010 || Reorganisation of public research organisations; a share of institutional funding is allocated based on the performance of the RPOs

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Law on urgent measures for growth of the country (Law 7 August 2012 n. 134) - Art. 63 peer review || 2012 || Sets up the legal basis for the introduction of 'peer review' as a standard method of evaluation. It is not clear however whether the peer review standards are in line with the principles of international peer review

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Horizon  2020 Italy HIT2020 Research & Innovation || 2013 || Fosters peer review as an evaluation standard. However, it is not clear whether this measure details out the peer review process and its specific content

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Ministry of Education, University and Research competitive calls (FIRB, PRIN, CLUSTER, SMART CITIES) || 2012 || Project-based funding for these competitive calls is based on peer review with increased participation of foreign experts

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Joint programmes and bilateral agreements || || Italy has several bilateral agreements and takes part to several multilateral agreements.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Ensure mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to international peer-review standards as a basis for national funding decisions || Law on urgent measures for simplification and growth (Law 4 April 2012 n. 35) || 2012 || Creates the legal basis for the domestic recognition of evaluation of international research projects selected by EU programmes

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Ensure mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to international peer-review standards as a basis for national funding decisions || Law on urgent measures for growth of the country (Law 7 August 2012 n. 134) || 2012 || Creates the legal basis for the domestic recognition of evaluation of international research projects selected by EU programmes

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Ensure mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to international peer-review standards as a basis for national funding decisions || Operational procedures for evaluation and financing of projects selected in international programmes and initiatives Prot. 556 28/03/2013 || 2013 || Changes to the ex-ante and interim evaluation of projects selected in international programmes. However, it is not clear whether this allows the mutual recognition of evaluations based on international peer review

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Law on urgent measures for simplification and growth (Law 4 April 2012 n. 35);  Art 30 & 39: cost eligibility || 2012 || Supports the simplification of rules of research projects; changes eligibility definitions and eligibility of costs in line with EU legislation

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Italian roadmap of Research Infrastructures of Pan European interest || 2010 || Updates the national roadmap for research infrastructures

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Horizon  2020 Italy HIT2020 Research & Innovation || 2012 || Provides guidelines to select strategic research infrastructures in line with ESFRI criteria; announces the definition of a national plan for research infrastructures

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Horizon  2020 Italy HIT2020 Research & Innovation || 2012 || Foresees the setting up of a specific fund for financing research infrastructures. However, it is not clear whether a timeframe and budget have been identified

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Measures to strengthen research infrastructures in the convergence regions - Cohesion Action Plan || 2013 || Supports digital infrastructures for the dissemination of research results

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Law 1/2009 || 2009 || Changes the recruitment rules for permanent academic staff in order to promote open recruitment

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Law on the organisation of the university, on the academic personnel and on recruitment.  Government delegation to incentivise quality and efficiency of the university system (Law 240/2010) || 2010 || Changes to the recruitment rules for researchers in order to make them open, transparent and merit-based

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Law on urgent measures for simplification and growth (Law 4 April 2012 n. 35) || 2012 || Removes legal barriers to grant portability. Researchers holding a grant can leave their employer to spend a maximum period of five years abroad in a public, private or international organisation

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Programme' Rita Levi Montalcini' || || Aims at attracting foreign researchers to Italy by providing them with access to grants

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || Euraxess Italy website || 2004 || Provides Euraxess services to researchers

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Law on urgent measures for simplification and growth (Law 4 April 2012 n. 35) - Doctoral courses Gran Sasso Science Institute || 2012 || Supports the development of attractive doctoral training

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Regulation on modalities of acknowledgment of doctoral schools and criteria for the establishment of courses by acknowledged schools D.M. 8 February 2013 n.94 || 2013 || The reform is based on the principles of innovative doctoral training

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Law on the organisation of the university, on the academic personnel and on recruitment.  Government delegation to incentivate quality and efficiency of the university system (Law 240/2010) || || Supports the development of an attractive doctoral training system. This measure meets some of the principles of innovative doctoral training

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Horizon  2020 Italy HIT2020 Research & Innovation || 2013 || Supports the reform of the doctoral training system

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Regional Programmes – envelope dedicated to human resources || || Supports the development of research doctoral schools

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Law on the organization of the university, on the academic personnel and on recruitment.  Government delegation to incentivise quality and efficiency of the university system (Law 240/2010) || 2010 || Supports the inclusion of the principles of the Charter and Code into statutory regulations

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Government Decree D.lgs 2013/2009 || 2009 || Acknowledgment of the Charter and Code principles at national level

A more open labour market for researchers || Develop and implement structured programmes to increase mobility between industry and academia || Project 'Messengers' || || Supports mobility of researchers

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Ensure that at least 40% of the under-represented sex participate in committees involved in recruitment/career progression and in establishing and evaluating research programmes || Horizon 2020 Italy HIT2020 Research & Innovation & Law 215/2012 || 2013 || Peer review selection panels should be gender balanced

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Measures to strengthen research infrastructures in the convergence regions - Cohesion Action Plan || 2013 || Supports the setting up of infrastructures and open access system for dissemination of research results

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || CRUI  WG Open Access || 2006 || Provides guidelines for the implementation of the Berlin declaration principles

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Measures to support public-private cooperation as part of the Stability Law 2013 || 2013 || Supports cooperation between SMEs and PhD candidates from key universities

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Funding programme for start-ups in the convergence regions || 2013 || Supports cooperation between SMEs and universities/research organisations

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Ministerial decree for the exchange of professors and researchers between universities and public research organisations || || Supports professors' and researchers' mobility

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Agreement between Centro Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) e Confindustria || || Support to technology clusters and knowledge transfer instruments

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Decree Law 69/2013 on urgent measures to relaunch the economy || 2013 || Resources are dedicated to the support, among others, of research, the creation of innovative start-ups and university spin-off, crowdfunding and social innovation projects.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || Measures to strengthen research infrastructures in the convergence regions - Cohesion Action Plan || 2013 || Supports digital infrastructures for the dissemination of research results

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || Funding programme for start-ups in the convergence regions, 'Big Data' || 2013 || Support to digital technologies for universities and public research organisations

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || Member of eduGAIN || || Italy is member of eduGAIN through IDEM

Latvia

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Regulation on support for science and research || 2009 || It sets the conditions to provide support (grants) for applied research projects that would facilitate the integration of science and industry and industrial application of research results, in line with the national thematic research priorities.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Procedures for the allocation of Institutional funding to State Scientific Institutions, State Institutions of HE and the Scientific Institutes of State Institutions of HE || 2005 || Regulations related to the Law on Research Activity which first introduced institutional funding in 2005.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Procedure for evaluation, financing and management of fundamental and applied research projects || || This action contributes to fostering the use of peer review for competitive funding in the national research system.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Methodology and criteria for international assessment of public and private scientific institutions || 2013 || The methodology is being used by scientific institutions to prepare self-assessments which have been translated into English and included in the single information system.  The Final Quality Assessment Report is expected to be prepared by September 30, 2013.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Rules of the Latvian Council of Science Competitive research grants || 2006 || It sets out the conditions for the organisation and operation of the Council of Science. The grants provide competitive funding for basic research to national top level researchers teams.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Establishment of national research centres || 2012 || The research centres have been established to ensure the promotion and strengthening of national scientific excellence and concentration of scientific resources.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Guidelines on Research, Technology Development and Innovation for 2014-2020 || 2013 || They identify the main challenges to scientific activity, defining government policy objectives, key principles and priorities for development of research, technology and innovation. The financing to be allocated for fundamental research through a tender procedure is granted within two programmes – state research programmes and fundamental and applied research (grant) projects through a tender procedure. Evaluations by independent international experts is expected.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Procedures for the Provision of State aid for participation in international collaborative programmes in research and technology || 2008 || Procedures by which state co-funding is made for participating in international programmes.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Bilateral cooperation programmes with Belarus and France Trilateral cooperation programmes with Lithuania and Taiwan || 2009 || The aim of these programmes is to support the cooperation of scientists and researchers in different fields of research and technology development, promoting research, development and introduction of innovative civil technology mainly in small and medium-sized enterprises.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Regulations on development of the research infrastructure || 2010 || The goal of this programme is the development of national research centres.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Science in Latvia || 2010 || This document presents the results of the assessment carried out by the Ministry of Education and Science in terms of spatial development strategy for scientific institutions and determined the research centres of national importance.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Development of the European level research infrastructure Baltic Infrastructure of Research, Technology and Innovation (BIRTI) platform || 2013 || The development of the proposal for the BIRTI platform is on-going. The Memorandum of understanding with Lithuania and Estonia has been signed. It is expected to be implemented from 2014 until 2020.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Regulation "Attraction of highly qualified workforce" of the OP Human Resources and Employment || 2008 || It determines the procedure for researchers’ mobility from state research institutions to private business.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Procedure to be followed by scientific institutions at signing and ending employment contracts with foreign researchers || 2008 || This action clarifies the conditions for hiring foreign researchers. The aim is to enhance attractiveness of Latvian research organisations.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || Euraxess Latvia || 2009 || Euraxess Latvia (the former Latvian Researchers Mobility Centre and Portal (2005-2008)) provides services for national and foreign researchers.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Regulation on support to the implementation of doctoral programmes and postdoctoral research || 2009 || The activity aims to provide support (grants) for applied research projects that would facilitate the integration of science and industry and industrial application of research results, in line with the national thematic research priorities.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Law on Research Activity || 2005 || The Law defines the status of researchers, their right to carry out research and to choose the fields and methods of research in accordance with their scientific interests and competence.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Regulations on Attraction of Human Resources to Science || 2008 || It promotes the attraction of additional human resources to science in the public sector. The programme provides funding from the European Social Fund for supporting the work of young researchers at public research organisations and promoting the return from abroad of Latvian researchers.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Labour Law || 2001 || The Labour Law includes provisions against discrimination of several grounds, including gender. The non-discriminatory principle is enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia (Chapter VIII).

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Concept paper on Gender Equality implementation Plan for Gender Equality implementation in 2012-2014 || 2012 || The plan envisages four lines of action and implementation activities: 1. reduction of gender roles and stereotypes; 2. promotion of healthy and environmentally-friendly lifestyles for women and men; 3. promotion of economic independence of women and men and of their equal opportunities on the labour market and 4. supervision and assessment of the gender equality policy aimed at integrating the gender aspect in industry policy.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Competitive VEGA grants || 2012 || Projects must have a website with free access to project's scientific publications and/or submit them for publication in the national repository.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || National open access archive of research information (MIDAS) || 2011 || It sets up a data repository at national level to provide infrastructure for preservation and open access to research data.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Programme for Technology transfer contact points || 2009 || Support is provided for the purpose of ensuring activities of technology transfer units established in 8 higher education institutions of Latvia within the Programme for Technology transfer contact points.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || eduGAIN || || Latvia is member of eduGAIN through LAIFE.

Lithuania

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Law on higher education and research || 2012 || The new Law on Higher Education and Research (adopted in 2009) and accompanying bylaws led to considerable increase in the share funds that are allocated through competitive procedures. The reforms had the largest impact on two streams of funding for public higher education institutions (HEIs) and research institutes: basic funding, grants for research projects (allocated through competitive procedure by Research Council of Lithuania (LMT)).

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Strategies relevant for research and innovation || 2012 || In 2012 a number of new strategic documents with relevance for research and innovations were published: the National Progress Programme for Lithuania for the period 2014-2020; the Concept of the Establishment and Development of Integrated Science, Studies and Business Centers (Valleys); the State Studies and R&D Programme for 2013-2020 which addresses the knowledge triangle, adding to existing strategies and programmes: the Lithuanian Innovation Strategy for 2010-2020 (adopted in 2010), the General National Research and Science and Business Cooperation Programme (adopted in 2008).

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Support for Research Activities of Scientists and Other Researchers (Global Grant) || || In 2012, funding was allocated for 35 research projects of high international level (14 humanitarian and social sciences projects and 21 project of physical, biomedical, technological and agricultural science) amounting to LTL 41 million, the implementation thereof was started. Also, the third global grant tender was announced, for which the amount of LTL 30 million was allocated.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Government decision on the method for allocation of budgetary appropriations for R&D and artistic activities in public  research and higher education institutions || 2012 || The 2009 Decision (as amended in 2010 and 2012) established that 40% in 2010 and 50% in 2011 and subsequent years of basic funding will be allocated to public HEIs and research institutions on the basis of results of assessment of R&D activities. The “competitive” half of basic funding from 2012 onwards will be reallocated every three years taking into consideration the results of assessment of R&D activities, based on four criteria: a) funding received from participation in international research projects; b) funding received from R&D contracts with private establishments; c) public funding from participation in joint R&D projects with private establishments; d) results of evaluation of research production, focussing on publications and patents and is annually carried out in accordance with the principles of international peer review.The remaining 50% as of 2011 are allocated on the basis of “normative number of staff”. Evaluation of R&D activities and outputs should be in line with international peer review standards.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Promotion of High-Level International Scientific Research || 2012 || One of the goals of the measure is to promote the execution of high-level international research directed towards the priority areas of economy that will determine the future prosperity and competitiveness of Lithuania provided for in the Lithuanian Innovation Strategy for 2010–2020. Applications for the execution of 25 projects in the amount of LTL 41.41 million were received in 2012. Currently, there are 15 agreements signed for the total of LTL 25.71 million.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Decision of the Research Council of Lithuania on methods and procedures governing competitive funding of research. || 2011 || The peer-review process is organized and managed by Research Council of Lithuania (LMT).  The peer review in 2012 was applied for a) Competitive calls for proposals for national and international research grants and b) Evaluation of research production. The results of evaluation have an impact on basic funding of research carried out in public HEIs and research institutions. The first evaluation was completed in 2010. In principle participation of international peers is not limited, but in practice a majority of grant proposals are submitted in Lithuanian language, which could pose linguistic barriers to participation of international reviewers.There are no publicly available data on the extent to which the peer review involves international scholars.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Lituathian contributions to the implementation of joint research agendas || 2010 || Overall, since 2010 Lithuania stepped up efforts to implement joint research agendas through Joint Programming Initiatives, international programmes, and bilateral programmes. Financial commitments to joint research agendas are rather limited and national research programmes are only implicitly aligned with research priorities pursued at ERA.  Since 2010 Lithuania participates in the following two Joint Programming Initiatives: Cultural heritage & global change and Healthy & productive seas and oceans. Lithuania together with partner countries also contributes to six international programmes: -  Joint Baltic Sea Research and Development Programme (BON US); -  ERA-NET action „BiodivERsA2” (contribution since 2011; indicative budget for 2011-2012 call was €0.2m); -  ERA-NE T action „EuroNanoMed” -  ERA-NE T action „M-era.NE T” (contribution since 2012; indicative budget for 2012 call was €0.2m); -  HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area) Network Programme on Cultural Encounters (contribution to 2nd calls for proposals launched in 2012) -  LILAN: Nordic Baltic Programme on Living Labs (contribution since 2010; indicative budget is €0.1m);

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Bilateral and trilateral programmes for research cooperation || 2011 || Five bilateral or trilateral programmes (with Belarus, Latvia and Taiwan, France, Ukraine and Switzerland) in 2011 funded 39 collaborative research projects with the total budget of €0.2m. The objectives of these programmes are however not explicitly aligned with broader grand challenges and the funded projects covered a wide range of research areas.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || EU strategy for Baltic Sea Region / BONUS, BIRTI || || Lithuania was also involved in the drafting and adoption of the European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, which is the first macro-regional strategy in Europe, adopted by the European Council in 2009. It aims at reinforcing cooperation within the Baltic Sea region in order to face several challenges by working together as well as promoting a more balanced development in the area. Lithuania also participates in the Joint Baltic Sea Research and Development Programme (BONUS). The main aim of this article 185 programme is to generate and disseminate knowledge and provide necessary know-how in order to resolve successfully major challenges facing the Baltic Sea region in the coming decade and beyond on adapting to the climate change and its effects; restoring good environmental status of the Baltic Sea and its coasts; achieving sustainable and safe use of the exploited coastal and marine ecosystem goods and services; creating a cost-efficient environmental information system; evaluating and developing relevant policies and collective governance and adapting to a sustainable way of living. The country continues developing the proposal for the BIRTI platform, whose aim is to create favourable conditions for the innovation process, scientists, engineers, designers and contractors, working together on a competitive knowledge-based world-class product development and manufacturing. The Memorandum of Understanding between ministries of Education and Science of the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania and the Republic of Estonia has been signed.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Ensure mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to international peer-review standards as a basis for national funding decisions || Evaluations in the context of European (joint) programmes || || Evaluations of research projects carried out within the framework of European (joint) programmes, bilateral and trilateral programmes are recognized in Lithuania. Recognition of evaluations typically results in funding of the projects within the limits of financial commitments made for the programmes.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Decree of the Minister of Education and Science on participation in international research infrastructures || 2012 || The decree established that Lithuanian research institutions can submit applications for joining international IRs on a continuous basis and the Roadmap should be subject to major revision every 5 years. The applications will be regularly assessed by the Research Council of Lithuania (LMT). The latter in December 2012 approved internal Guidelines regulating the assessment and selection procedures.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Roadmap for Research Infrastructures of Lithuania || || The Roadmap for Research Infrastructures of Lithuania was approved in 2011. An international group of experts reviewed 20 project proposals submitted by consortia of Lithuanian HEIs and research institutes and identified 15 mature or promising projects. The Roadmap also presented the selected list of the European Research Infrastructures to be considered attractive for some national Ris. No financial commitments for construction and operation of the global, national or regional Ris has been made yet (March 2013). On the basis of ‘Lithuania 2030’, on 28 November 2012 the Government approved the National Progress Programme for Lithuania for the period 2014-2020, providing a basis for the European Structural Funds support for the next programming period. It is projected that 14.23% of funds will be invested in education, culture and basic research (e.g. mobility, research infrastructures, competitive research funding, etc.). The operational programmes for 2014-2020 will be finalised by 2014.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to cross-border access to Research Infrastructures || Regulation on "Management of Open Access Centres" || 2011 || Research infrastructure in Lithuania operates on the principle of open access - research infrastructures are available either for business (SMEs included), students, researchers from other institutions or abroad.  A regulation on “Open Access Centres” – R&D infrastructures in higher education and research institutions or in other public and private entities in the Republic of Lithuania - was approved by the Minister of Education and Science in 2011. The Open Access Centres are to be registered by MITA.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to cross-border access to Research Infrastructures || Decision of the Research Council of Lithuania on procedures for initiation of participation in international RIS || 2012 || The Guidelines approved by the Minister of Education and Science in 2012 and the Guidelines adopted by LMT stipulate the procedures that regulate Lithuanian research institutions’ involvement in the international Ris.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Law on higher education and research || 2012 || Public Higher Education Institutions and research institutes are legally obliged to: publish information on vacancies, establish selection panel, publish selection criteria, provide adequate time period (three months) between vacancy publication and submission of applications, offer the right of appeal, etc. Furthermore, there is an internet portal that should include all vacancy publications.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Cross-border access to grants administered by LMT || || Researchers from EU and non-EU countries can apply for grants administered by LMT. However, the number of participating foreign researchers remains limited. There is a legal requirement that beneficiaries of grants have to be employed in a Lithuanian institution. This poses considerable barrier due to low level of salaries and careers (contractual agreements) elsewhere.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || Lithuanian national EURAXESS centres || || The EURAXESS portal should provide accurate and relevant background information on Lithuanian higher education and research landscape, social insurance, work permits, etc. In 2011, LMT took over from the Centre of Quality Assessment in Higher Education the functions of the coordinator of the Lithuanian national EURAXESS centres. There seems to be scope for improvement in relevance and quality of its services, notably in terms of posting notices of recent job vacancies (situation in 2012).

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Decree of the Minister of Education and Science on procedures for establishing the right to offer phd studies || 2011 || The decree stipulates that institutions willing to register new PhD programmes have to comply with considerably more stringent requirements in terms of excellence of research, relevance of proposed research programmes, human and physical resources, etc. As a result, an increasing number of Lithuanian institutions establish joint PhD programmes, with the view of pooling intellectual resources and research infrastructure. Furthermore, several universities have started Joint international PhD programmes, (some of them funded by Erasmus Mundus). The use of the principles for Innovative Doctoral Training has not been identified.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Lithuanian Strategy Ensuring Equal Opportunities for male and female in sciences || 2008 || The strategy provides legal foundations for introduction of “Gender equity and gender mainstreaming” as a horizontal principles in other strategies and programmes (for e.g, Researchers Career Programme). The Lithuanian Strategy Ensuring Equal Opportunities for male and female in sciences was approved by the Lithuanian Minister of Science and Education in 2008.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Promotion of gender equality in sciences || 2011 || With the view of tackling practical issues related to gender equality project the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and its partners implement the national project “Promotion of gender equality in sciences” (LYMOS). The project started in 2011 and runs until beginning of 2013. It has issued several analytical reports, provided recommendations for updating the Strategy on Equal Opportunities, to research and higher education institutions of Lithuania on measures helping to ensure gender equality in science and its management and provided grants to researchers after maternity (paternity) leave (budget for 2011-2012 was €0.09m).

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || LYMOS project || || The LYMOS project, coordinated by the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and partners that included: LMT, association, BASNET Forumas” and the National Union of Student Representations of Lithuania, is an example of a partnership related to gender issues.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || National open access archive of research information (MIDAS) || 2011 || The allocation of €4.3m in 2011 to Vilnius University for implementation of the project “National open access archive of research information (MIDAS)” seeks to provide infrastructure for preservation and open access to research data. It is planned to integrate it with other databases.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || State Studies and R&D Programme for 2013-2020 || 2012 || Provides strategic framework (at the level of specific objectives) for science-business collaboration and the knowledge triangle at large.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Law on Higher Education and Research || 2009 || The Law on Higher Education and Research (adopted in 2009) stipulates that “the results of all research works carried out in State higher education and research institutions must be announced publicly (in the Internet or any other way) <…> The results of research conducted in non-State higher education and research institutions with funds of the State budget shall be announced publicly (in the Internet or any other way) <…>”.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || National Progress Programme for Lithuania for the period 2014-2020 and other strategic documents || 2012 || The year 2012 witnessed proliferation of new strategic documents with relevance for innovation and knowledge transfer between public research and private enterprises: the National Progress Programme for Lithuania for the period 2014-2020; the Concept of the Establishment and Development of Integrated Science, Studies and Business Centers (Valleys); the State Studies and R&D Programme for 2013-2020, adding to existing strategies and programmes: the Lithuanian Innovation Strategy for 2010-2020 (adopted in 2010), the General National Research and Science and Business Cooperation Programme (adopted in 2008).

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Measure for promoting the commercialization process of certain innovative products, technologies or services as well as its entry into the market. || 2012 || Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology (MITA) announced a call for applications for the funding of commercialization projects of scientific research and development results. 13 projects were financed (LTL 431.59 thousand), 13 companies established for commercialization of R&D results.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Concept of the Establishment and Development of Integrated Science, Studies and Business Centers (Valleys) || 2012 || Investments in five so called “integrated science, studies and business centres – valleys” constitute the most important instrument (worth around € 597 mln) for fostering open innovation and transfer of knowledge between public research and private enterprises. The initial idea behind the “valleys” projects was to establish state-of-art business-science collaboration centres/clusters with respective research infrastructure and supporting services (knowledge and IPR transfer services, commercialization units, etc.). However, systemic and legal obstacles prevented business from entering R&D collaboration with universities (and vice versa). The updated Concept of the Establishment and Development of Integrated Science, Studies and Business Centres – Valleys (adopted in October 2012) seeks to address some of the drawbacks. It provides the basis for continuation of investments into five science ‘valleys’, but also defines steps on setting the priorities for investments into research and innovation in the context of smart specialisation and should launch a specific programme for funding the ‘joint projects’ in defined priority areas. The Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology (MITA) receives a mandate to coordinate the implementation of ‘joint projects’ and a new coordinating body – the Strategic Council for Research, Development and Innovation under the Prime Minister’s Office will be set up.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Promotion of High-Level International Scientific Research || 2012 || One of the goals of the measure is to promote the execution of high-level international research directed towards the priority areas of economy that will determine the future prosperity and competitiveness of Lithuania provided for in the Lithuanian Innovation Strategy for 2010–2020. Applications for the execution of 25 projects in the amount of LTL 41.41 million were received in 2012. Currently, there are 15 agreements signed for the total of LTL 25.71 million.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Intellect LT - Joint science and business projects aimed at commercialization of research results || 2013 || The Ministry of Economy has prepared and announced a draft description of conditions for financing under the measure “Intellect LT”. In accordance with this description the activities of the commercialization of research results will be financed. Currently there are 15 applications for projects funded by the Ministry of Education and Science that have been assessed by the European Social Fund Agency; also, contracts on project funding and administration are being concluded. The implementation of the projects is scheduled to start in 2013.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || “Science and Technology for Innovative Businesses” || 2012 || In order to promote more active business-science cooperation and technology transfer processes, the implementation of the project “Science and Technology for Innovative Businesses” aimed at the provision of innovation-related services for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) was started. The funding in the amount of LTL 6.2 million was allocated for the project.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Direct support measures for public-private cooperation || 2007 || Measures foreseen for 2007-2013 and aimed at direct support for fostering public-private cooperation are allocated around €100m and include: “PRO LT”, “Inoklaster LT”, “Inogeb LT-1”, “Inogeb LT-2”, “Inogeb LT-3”, “Advanced technologies development programme”, “Biotechnologies development programme”, „Innovation vouchers”, “Eurostars” and “Eureka”. Funding for the implementation of the projects of innovative business clusters was allocated under the EU structural assistance measures “InoklasterLT” and “Inoklaster LT+”. LTL 4.34 million was allocated for the projects under the measure “Inoklaster LT” and LTL 28.16 million under the measure “Inoklaster LT+”.The implementation of the programme “BSR Stars” and the project “StarDust” aimed at the development of innovations, clusters and small and medium-sized enterprise networks was being continued in 2012. 11 new clusters, 3 of which were international, were created during the implementation of the “BSR Starts” programme and “Inoklaster” as well as other measures for the promotion of clusterization and 9 arts incubator development projects were launched. The country continues developing the proposal for the BIRTI platform, whose aim is to create favourable conditions for the innovation process, scientists, engineers, designers and contractors, working together on a competitive knowledge-based world-class product development and manufacturing. The Memorandum of Understanding between ministries of Education and Science of the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania and the Republic of Estonia has been signed.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Programme for Development of Lithuanian Research and Studies Informational Infrastructure 2013-2016 || 2012 || With the view addressing the insufficient incentives for institutions and researchers to ensure open access to research results, and the fragmented public support, the Minister of Education and Science in 2012 this programme (total budget €18m). It seeks better integration of previously developed databases and increased accessibility of research outputs (publications, etc.) and data. The target is that 40% of publications and at least 10% of collected data should be publicly available free of charge by 2016

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || Implementation of the Lithuanian Virtual University Programme for 2007–2012 || 2012 || 47 Lithuanian research and higher education institutions were provided with a possibility to use the information system of the Lithuanian academic e-library in 2012. The Lithuanian e-learning infrastructure was created and ensured. The Lithuanian Distance Education Network (LieDM) supported distance learning (e-learning) in Lithuania in 2012. The implementation of the Lithuanian Virtual University Programme for 2007–2012 was completed; its continuation in 2013–2016 was approved.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || Implementation of the project “Creation of Open Access Centres of Information Technologies”, || 2012 || The open access centre provides services necessary for the performance of scientific research and (or) experiments. The following new open access centres were created: the Competence Centre of Food Science and Technology, Civil Engineering Centre of the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, and the Centre of Animal Health and Quality of Raw Materials of Animal Origin.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || Access to publicly funded e-infrastructures || || There is no national policy in this respect. However, as a general rule publicly funded e-infrastructures are accessible to researchers from public and private sectors without major restrictions. In late 2012 there have been discussions to set up a portal that could provide e-services to public research institutions and private enterprises. The overall objective of the initiative is to facilitate commercialisation of ideas generated in research institutions and foster cooperation between public and private sectors. [to update with concrete results]

Luxembourg

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || || Revision of the Law of 9 March 1987 on the organisation of the public research centres and on the establishment of the public research centres LIST, Santé and CEPS (to be adopted). || || Contributes to the consolidation of the research funding system (autonomy of the PRO, enhancement of knowledge transfer and cooperation, governance 4-year pluriannual contract with the State, epersonel carreer management and recruitment). Grouping of the CRP-Henri Tudor and Gabriel Lippmann as well as integration of the IBBL in the CRP-Santé.

More effective national research systems || || Revision of the Law of the revised Law of 31 May 1999 on the establishment of the National Research Fund in the public sector (not yet adopted) || || Contributes to the  consolidation of the research funding system (implementation of the govenment policy, enhancement of research exploitation, governance, support to doctoral school)

More effective national research systems || || Strategy Luxembourg 2020 || 2011 || National Reform Program for the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg under the Europe 2020 Strategy.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Law of 12 August 2003 on the establishment of the University of Luxembourg || 2003 || The evaluation of research actors receiving public funding is mandatory. The evaluations are published.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || INTER Programme || 2006 || INTER funds Luxembourg researchers to participate in international projects under bi-lateral and multi-lateral agreements. Regular calls are organised.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Performance contracts 2011-2013 between the Ministry of Higher Education and Research and Public Research Organisations Santé, Gabriel Lippmann, Henri Tudor, CEPS, FNR and Luxinnovation Agency. Second contract 2010-2013 between the Ministry of Higher Education and Research and the Luxemburg University. || 2011 || Performance contracts support the Annual evaluations of the Public Research Centres and increased amount of competitive, project-based funding. They include research performance targets such as numbers of publications, patents, spin-offs and doctoral students trained, as well as financial benchmarks.  Annual evaluations of PROs by international experts are required in performance contracts.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || CORE Programme || 2008 || It is the main competitive funding programme raised around five thematic domains. Annuals calls are organised.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Implementation of the pilot-Programme  OPEN || || OPEN supports excellent quality research projects outside the CORE programme priorities.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || PEARL Programme || 2008 || PEARL provides the institutions with a proactive means to attract internationally recognised senior researchers who will transfer and establish their research programme in Luxembourg. Calls open all year with international peer review.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || ATTRACT Programme || 2006 || ATTRACT aims to support the Luxembourgish research institutions to expand their competences in strategic research areas by attracting outstanding young researchers with high potential to Luxembourg. Annual calls with international peer review.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || National Research Fund programmes || || NRF programmes apply the core principles of international peer review.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Ensure mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to international peer-review standards as a basis for national funding decisions || Bi-lateral agreements (NRF) || || Contribute to the interoperability of programmes. Bi-lateral agreements have been signed with the German DFG, Swiss SNF, Polish NCBR, Belgium FWO, Austrian FWF and French CNRS.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Human resources policies for researchers of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research || || The Ministry's policies contribute to the implementation of the principles of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || AFR doctoral and post-doctoral scheme || || The scheme can be awarded to both residents and non-residents.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || EURAXESS Portal || || EURAXESS portal contains extensive information about being a researcher in Luxembourg, including posting of all open positions

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || AFR Programme of PhDs and post-docs || 2008 || The programme applies the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || NRF || || The NRF encourages Public Research Organisations  to support female candidates for ATTRACT and PEARL grants.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || AFR doctoral and post doctoral grant programme || || The programme is supportive of female candidates.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Open Access intitiative at the University of Luxembourg || 2013 || Contributes to open access "Green Road". It includes also a cooperation agreement with University of Liège.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Creation of the National Open Acess Desk (NOAD) || 2013 || The University Library, besides its own digital repository, will act as national help-desk to contribute to enhance open access. The National Library offers free digital access to all residents.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Law of 5 June 2009 relating to the promotion of research, development and innovation || 2009 || The Law foresees the secondment of researchers to SMEs to carry out research and provide support to project.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Linkage between NRF and Luxinnovation || 2013 || Each CORE funded project is assessed by NRF and Luxinnovation to assess its potential economic impact and invited to collaborate with Luxinnovation if appropriate.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Performance Contracts || 2011 || Performance Contracts contributes to the valorisation of research. They define targets such as  revenues from private contracts, number of patent and spin offs.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || City of sciences || 2008 || The City of science is the major reserach infrastructure. It will provide facilities for the University, PRCs Henri Tudor and Gabriel Lippmann, CEPS/INSTEAD, quarters for public-private partnerships and a business incubator.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || « Luxembourg cluster initiative » || 2012 || The initiative will contribute to bringing together ressources and means to reach critical mass and enhance knowledge transfer.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Creation of the new incubator Technoport S.A. || 2012 || Integrates existing incubators of Henri Tudor and ecostart

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || National Library digital resources access || || Residents can access online to the National Library's digital resources.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || National Library access || || While there is no national strategy for researcher e-identity, the National Library offers digital access for e-cardholders.

Malta

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || || Draft National Research and Innovation Strategy (2011-2020) || 2013 || The draft strategy is due to be adopted by September 2013

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || National Research and Innovation (R&I) Programme || 2004 || The National R&I Programme provides project-based funding for collaborative projects. The size of the programme has more than doubled since 2010

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || National Research and Innovation Programme || || Acknowledges the concept of 'peer review' in the evaluation process. However, there are no specific provisions detailing the peer review process and its exact content

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Draft National R&I Strategy 2011 - 2020: Recommendation 42: the preparation of a national strategy on research infrastructures || || Constitutes the first steps towards the development of a national strategy on research infrastructures. However, there is no timeframe or financial target specified in the recommendation

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to cross-border access to Research Infrastructures || Draft National R&I Strategy 2011 - 2020: Recommendation 44: Ensure that Maltese researchers have the possibility to use research facilities open to European researchers || || Supports Maltese researchers' access to research infrastructures of interest outside Malta

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Public PhD scholarship schemes managed by the Ministry of Education and Employment || || Portability of these grants is allowed

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || Euraxess Malta || || Contributes to the implementation of Euraxess services

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || STEPS scheme || 2009 || Although not clearly linked to the principles of innovative doctoral training, this measure contributes to creating an attractive and competitive research environment for PhD candidates

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || The Malta Government Scholarship Scheme (MGSS) || 2006 || Although not clearly linked to the principles of innovative doctoral training, this measure contributes to shaping a competitive research environment for PhD candidates

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Setting up of a post-doctoral scheme and community at the University of Malta (part of Malta's 2011-2015 NRP) || || The government recognised the need to establish a community of post-doctoral researchers which is currently lacking at the university. It is envisaged that this will be addressed in the coming years through the setting up of a post-doctoral scheme at the University of Malta, as detailed in Malta's 2011-2015 NRP

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Endorsement of the Charter by the Office of the Prime Minister || 2005 || Acknowledges the importance of the Charter at national level, however it does not provide specific guidance on its implementation

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Draft National R&I Strategy 2011 - 2020: Recommendation 19: Encourage public employers of researchers to officially endorse the European Charter for Researchers & the Code of Conduct || || Encourages research organisations to apply the Charter and Code principles

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Post-doctorate Research Fellowship Scheme || || Although not clearly linked to the principles of the Charter and Code and the HR strategy, this measure contributes to creating a competitive research environment for researchers at the University of Malta

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Draft National R&I Strategy (2011-2020), Recommendation 47 || || Recommends that academic institutions adopt an open access policy and set up their own open access repository

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Rules for participation in the National Research and Innovation Programme || 2012 || Supports to some extent open access to publications

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || National R&I Programme || 2012 || Promotes knowledge transfer by allocating project-based funding to industry-academia consortia

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Malta Enterprise R&D incentives schemes (e.g. Loan for Highly Qualified Personnel, Royalty Income from Patents, Support Scheme for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises) || || Support public-private cooperation, mainly in the field of industrial and experimental development

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Technology Transfer Office at the University of Malta and University Trust Fund || 2009 || Supports cooperation between industry and academia

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Life Sciences Centre / BioMalta Campus || || Support to the development of a life sciences and bio-medical cluster involving the University of Malta, Mater Dei Hospital and the life sciences industry

Netherlands

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Strategies towards R&D target || 2012 || The Dutch government will pursue its ambitious target of achieving 2.5% of GDP by implementing its new policy for the business sector ("Naar de Top") in 2012 and the Quality in Diversity strategic agenda ("Kwaliteit in verscheidenheid"), which presents a long-term scenario for higher education, research and science. The Top Sectors should promote synergy and coherence of research and innovation activities on economic and social priorities, and foster public-private cooperation and leverage private investments. The reforms of the Dutch Higher Education institutions will also have impact on research, knowledge transfer and cooperation with industry, aligned with the Top Sectors, but the performance agreements under this strategy will mainly focus on setting more distinct profiles for the HEIs.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Competitive funding programs for research and innovation (N.W.O., KNAW and Agentschap NL) || || The main actors and institutions responsible for allocating competitive funds for research and innovation in the Netherlands are the responsible ministries (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) and the Ministry of Economic Affairs (EZ)) and a group of main bodies the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (N.W.O. with sub-organisations STW and ZonMW), the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), and NL Agency (an agency of EZ). The individual initiatives taken by the different bodies regarding R&D funding are revised by international independent experts (e.g. the Chinese-Dutch research cooperation grants).

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || N.W.O. grants || || N.W.O. grants are intended for excellent research groups in the research domains under the different N.W.O.’s Divisions. There are four different types of N.W.O. research grants: Big facilities, Cooperation and Exchange, Individual Investments, Open Access, Programmatic. The N.W.O. research grants are broad in terms of applicants and topics. The calls have international peer review by default. Foreseen contributions of a structural nature in the 2013 new budget agreement are (1) N.W.O. research for major infrastructure facilities for the implementation of projects on the basis of the results of the national roadmap committee selected. (2) N.W.O. to carry out an integrated program for personal talent alongside the «Innovational scheme». (3) STW N.W.O. budget will be increased by € 10 million per year to improve the enhancement of technological and technical-scientific research.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Additional funds for fundamental research || 2013 || The CSR 2012 for the Netherlands was, inter alia, to preserve fundamental research. Of the increased budget for research announced by the new 2012 coalition agreement, the government will invest 100 million euro a year in research via N.W.O. to provide a boost for fundamental research, both independent research and the research carried out in the joint programmes with the Top Sectors. This increased spending will start at 25 million euro in 2014, rising to 75 million euro in 2015, 2016 and 2017 and reaching 100 million from 2018. In addition, the government will devote a lump sum of 50 million euro from the additional annual funds for the Top Consortiums for Knowledge and Innovation (TKIs) to further stimulate public-private partnerships in the area of fundamental research via N.W.O. The sum will be spent in instalments of 25 million euro in 2014, 15 million euro in 2015 and 10 million euro in 2016. The effect of the Top Sector policy on fundamental research will be closely monitored by the Dutch Royal Academy for Science (KNAW), which will issue by the of 2014 a second report.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Improving the quality and profiles of Higher Education institutions || 2012 || The main recent reform of Dutch Higher Education relevant for research is the implementation of the report by the Veerman Committee, which urged for better profiles of HE institutions, which impact on education as well as research. As the institutions are autonomous,  performance agreements have been agreed in the autumn of The main recent reform of Dutch Higher Education relevant for research is the implementation of the report by the Veerman Committee, which urged for better profiles of HE institutions, which impact on education as well as research. As the institutions are autonomous, performance agreements have been agreed in the autumn of 2012, with a financial sanction mechanism.  As of 2013, additional resources are available for quality and profile, representing about 7% of education funding. Of this 5% for quality (conditional funding) and 2% for profile (selective budget). The funds in the period 2013 - 2016 will be awarded on the basis of the performance agreements with individual universities and colleges. For education and academic achievement (quality) an amount of € 200 million will be available in 2013 rising to € 245 million in 2016.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Standard Evaluation Protocol 2009-2015 || 2009 || The Dutch Science System has as a basis for its evaluation the national Standard Evaluation Protocol 2009-2015. This lays down four main assessment criteria: quality, productivity, feasibility/vitality and societal relevance. A separate committee is appointed to evaluate each institute, working on the basis of a self-evaluation report from the institute and a site visit. The most recent evaluations were conducted in 2011. Additionally, three panels of experts have elaborated three advisory reports on quality assessment in three different research areas: design and engineering disciplines; quality indicators in humanities research, and, quality assessment of social science research. ERiC, a joint project involving the Rathenau Institute, KNAW, VSNU, NWO and the HBO-raad resulted in 2010 in guidance for evaluating the societal relevance of research.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Participation in Joint Programming, article 185 initiative, ERA NET+ || || The Netherlands participates in Joint Programming. Netherlands participates as a member in 10 initiatives, and coordinates Healthy Diet for Healthy Life. The country also participates in 5 Article 185 initiative(s) and leads 1 of them. The Netherlands participated in 12 ERA net + projects.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Top Sectors: 2013 update of innovation contracts || 2013 || The top teams of representatives of the Top Sectors will update in 2013 the innovation contracts and will align these with the EU flagship initiatives which serve as catalysts for the Europe 2020 objectives: "Innovation Union", "A resource efficient Europe", a "Digital Agenda for Europe" and "An Industrial Policy for the Globalisation ERA". Also, alignment will be sought with Smart Specialisation strategies at regional level.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || N.W.O. cooperation in research themes || || N.W.O. research funds and actions cover broad research and action themes that relate to national and international agendas for the period 2011-14. The themes are agro-food and horticulture; healthy living; water and climate; high tech systems and materials, cultural and societal dynamics; sustainable energy and connecting sustainable cities. Via its own themes, N.W.O. is actively contributing to joint research agendas at global and European level.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Co-funding for participation in European research programmes || 2013 || The Dutch government has announced that 150 million euro will be provided to strengthen fundamental research. A substantial portion of this sum could be used to facilitate participation in European research programmes, such as ‘Horizon 2020’, EUREKA and Joint Programming Initiatives. Also, a TKI surcharge will be available as from 2013, which will be increased by 2014 to 200 million euro. These funds will partially become available for co-financing of EU projects as well.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Joint Research Projects Bio-based Economy || || This call is to strengthen research cooperation between State of São Paulo, Brazil and the Netherlands by funding joint research projects in the field of bio-based economy. Brazil and the Netherlands have a strong history in this research field. While this bilateral programme is relatively small in size, it will contribute to the further enhancement of bilateral innovative research on the topic bio-based economy and sustainable solutions for societal challenges.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Max Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics || || Grant by Dutch government to this cross-border branch of the German Max Planck Foundation, that has as a goal to understand how our minds and brains process language, how language interacts with other aspects of mind, and how we can learn languages of quite different types. It could be considered as example of a cross-border initiative to address a joint research agenda.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Ensure mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to international peer-review standards as a basis for national funding decisions || N.W.O. programmes involving mutual recognition of evaluations || || Regarding mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to international peer review, it can be noted that N.W.O. has several programmes supporting international collaboration, researchers mobility and  international exchanges, which involve Memoranda of Understanding between N.W.O. with other research councils, and co-ordinated and joint evaluation procedures following international peer review standards. N.W.O. also experiments with the Lead Agency approach, for example in the ORA-Programme. N.W.O. has prioritised working with China (working closely together with KNAW), India and Brazil. In all of these countries the policy is regularly discussed in a joint committee with the main players both nationally and in the partner countries concerned. Also KNAW has two major international collaboration programmes, with China and Indonesia

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Ensure mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to international peer-review standards as a basis for national funding decisions || Cooperation China (NSFC) || 2009 || This is an example of the experience which The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (N.W.O.) has in common selection with other research councils, in this case with third countries. N.W.O. and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) are long-term partners in international research co-operation. In 2009, NOW and NSFC decided to expand their existing agreement focusing on exchange of researchers with an additional component focusing on funding joint research projects. This funding instrument (Dutch contribution 1.9 million euros; an equivalent by the Chinese counterpart) offers funding opportunities for bilateral research co-operation between Dutch and Chinese research groups. The programme is jointly facilitated by N.W.O.and NSFC. A Call for Proposals is published annually, calling for Sino-Dutch research proposals in thematic areas. The Call features a different thematic priority every year (2102: Urban Transport).

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Dutch roadmap for large scale research facilities || 2012 || The Netherlands has a national roadmap for large scale research facilities. The Dutch national roadmap contains 28 facilities which are of interest for Dutch science. These are for a large part connected to the ESFRI roadmap. Based on the 2011 Strategic Agenda for Higher Education and Research, additional funds have become available for N.W.O. for universities to compete for support in national and European facilities. Each year, for the 28 facilities there will be 40 million euro available via N.W.O. In 2012, based on an advice by a Committee (Meijer), 5 projects received financing (in total 80 million euro) from this budget, relating to cancer research, proteins, nuclear magnetic resonance, space research, a High Field Magnet, Arts and Humanities, Bio-banking and a database for social science. The Dutch roadmap will be updated every 4 years to give new initiatives a change. The intention is to better align the Dutch roadmap with the research programming based on the innovation contracts of the Top Sectors, as prepared by government, knowledge institutes and industry.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Investment Grant N.W.O. Medium programme || || With this scheme, Investment Grant NWO Medium (total investment is € 6.5 million), the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (N.W.O.) wants to encourage and support investments in the research infrastructure. N.W.O. pays a maximum of 75% of the investment costs. The institution where the research will be realised contributes at least 25% of the costs.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Investment Grant NWO Large programme || || The aim of the programme Investment Grant NWO Large is to stimulate investments in innovative scientific equipment or data collections of national or international importance. The National roadmap for large scale research facilities is designed to strengthen the promotion of development and construction of large-scale research  facilities. There are 3 ESFRI initiatives currently being implemented with the Netherlands as hosting country.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || CLARIN-ERIC Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure || || Facilitates the access for researchers across Europe to multilingual and multicultural content, in all disciplines, in particular humanities and social sciences. It is one of the ESFRI initiatives currently in period of implementation that have the Netherlands as a hosting country.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || SHARE-ERIC Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe || 2001 || In March 2011, the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) became the first European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). SHARE-ERIC is a data infrastructure for the socio-economic analysis of on-going changes due to population ageing. SHARE-ERIC is the upgrade into a long term research infrastructure of a multidisciplinary and cross-national database of micro-data of about 45,000 Europeans aged 50 or over. Although SHARE-ERIC is hosted by Tilburg University/Netspar in the Netherlands, SHARE is centrally coordinated at MEA (Munich Centre for the Economics of Aging), Max-Planck-Institute for Social Law and Social Policy, Germany. The project aims to help researchers understand the impact of population ageing on European societies and thus to help policy makers make decisions on health, social and economic policy.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || EATRIS - European Advanced Translational Research Infrastructure in Medicine || || EATRIS will allow a faster and more efficient translation of research discoveries into new products to prevent diagnose or treat diseases. It is one of the ESFRI initiatives currently in period of implementation that have the Netherlands as a hosting country.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Biomedical Primate Research Centre (BPRC) || || BPRC is a scientific biomedical research institute that exists to perform vital research that contributes to the identification and development of new medicines and vaccines for diseases such as AIDS, malaria, hepatitis, multiple sclerosis and tuberculosis.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Dutch center for bio-diversity (NCB) || || World's fifth largest specimen collection which can be considered as a research infrastructure. The NCB Naturalis mission is to be an open archive of Life’s Diversity dedicated to reconstruct and understand the Tree of Life, to educate people about our natural world, and to raise awareness for the sustainable use of Earth’s living resources. By further developing novel molecular and digital techniques, and by working intensively together with Dutch and foreign partners, including those from well‐established European networks, NCB Naturalis aims to grow to become a major force of biodiversity research.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Contribution to major research organisations (ESA, ESO, CERN, EMBL and EMBC) || || The Dutch government gives grants to a number of European intergovernmental organisations which are exploiting large research infrastructures, in order to provide researchers in the Netherlands with access to the large-scale facilities and related international networks of researchers.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to cross-border access to Research Infrastructures || Access to large research facilities for non-resident researchers based on excellence || || Access to large research facilities in the Netherlands is based on excellence only, as explained during the Country Visit European Semester on 30 January 2013 by the ministry of OCW. Normally, access conditions are however defined by the facilities themselves.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Measures to develop ERA in relation to HR Strategy for Researchers || || Given the autonomy of the research institutions in the Netherlands, notably in the area of human resource management, the Dutch government will take further steps to develop the ERA in consultation and collaboration with the institutions (and, where relevant, the private sector). 15 Dutch organisations are actively engaged in the Commission’s Human Resources Strategy for Researchers of which 2 have received the "HR Excellence in Research" logo for their progress in implementing the Charter & Code.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || N.W.O. Talent Scheme (Vernieuwingsimpuls) and other individual grant schemes || || The Talent Scheme programme and other individual grant schemes are open for researchers from abroad but the research must be carried out at a research institute in the Netherlands. The Veni grant covers the salary costs of the PI and costs for research while the Vidi and Vici grant may cover the salary cost of the PI but is, for a large part, used for salary costs of additional personnel (PhD students and Postdoc) and research costs. In the case of mobility the remainder of the grant may be transferred to the new institute. The laureate however must seek approval of N.W.O. Transfer of the remainder of the grant is more applicable for Veni laureates as the grant always covers the salary costs of the PI and no other personnel is involved.  PhD students and Postdocs that work on the project mostly stay in the Netherlands meaning that most of the grant is fixed. Usually an agreement is set-up in which the PI that leaves the Netherlands remains to be responsible for carrying out the research project and for guiding the PhD students and Postdocs that are involved. The project may then be finalized successfully while the PI's mobility is not hindered. Each situation is handled "case by case". N.W.O. is currently looking into the possibility of renewing its commitment towards the "Money Follows Researcher" scheme, in the context of Science Europe´s work towards a Grant Union.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || NWO mobility grants - Rubicon || 2011 || The Netherlands encourages international mobility of researchers via a range of grants and fellowships designed to promote international cooperation between Dutch researchers and researchers of different nationalities. These include NWO mobility grants. The Rubicon scheme, since 2010 co-funded by the 7th Framework Programme Marie Curie COFUND scheme, gives for example postdoctoral researchers the chance to gain experience at top research institutions in other countries. The scheme, like all N.W.O. grants including the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme (Vernieuwingsimpuls), is open to talented foreign applicants.  The research funded by most schemes must however be carried out at a research institute in the Netherlands.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || Academic Transfer / Euraxess || || All vacancies in the Dutch academic world are published on the international website Academic Transfer. The Netherlands provides support to take part in EURAXESS initiatives, which provides personalised information and services to researchers and Phd. students who want to study and/or work in the Netherlands or in another related country. The Dutch organisation NUFFIC delivers specific expertise to Euraxess on immigration procedures, health insurance, social security and taxation; the University of Tilburg on  social security and taxation and the agency AgentschapNL on the FP7 Marie Curie programme and research funding opportunities in general.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || N.W.O. Graduate Programme || || The aim of the Graduate Programme is to create an excellent educational and research environment for highly talented young researchers. The programme intends to strengthen the PhD system by incorporating parts of the methods used at American Graduate Schools. Interuniversity and local research schools can apply for funding to appoint four PhD students. The research school must offer a coherent educational and research programme covering both the master’s and PhD period. The educational and research environment must also be top level. The aim is: to give future PhD students more freedom: they can choose their own research topic and supervisor, and write their own research proposal to attract talented researchers from within the Netherlands and abroad;  to offer PhD positions to the most talented students by means of selection; to provide undergraduate and PhD students with the best possible supervision.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || N.W.O. Doctoral Grant for Teachers || || The Doctoral Grant for Teachers aims to increase the number of teachers holding a doctorate. It is open to teachers in primary, secondary, vocational and special education. Increasing the number of teachers holding a doctorate who are employed in the classroom increases the quality of education and strengthens the ties between universities and schools. A separate aim of the programme is that the acquired expertise and research skills will be of benefit to the educational practice. Applicants can be qualified teachers from primary, secondary, vocational and special education who have a permanent contract. Female teachers are particularly encouraged to submit proposals.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Funding and accreditation of doctoral schools || || Doctoral education is under development in the Netherlands. The Dutch HE-system contains an accreditation system by the Dutch Higher Education and Research Act (WHW, since 1997). However, PhD programmes are the responsibility of the individual universities outside the scope of the overall accreditation process. The Dutch Royal Academy for Science (KNAW) has set up in 1992 a Research School Accreditation Committee (ECOS), which assesses teaching and research at Dutch research schools against specific quality criteria. Research school are accredited by the ECOS. Transferable skills are considered important, as 75% of researchers will not reach the level of excellence needed and should ultimately find a job outside research. Doctoral schools in the Netherlands are well aligned with the European principles for innovative doctoral training. The funding of Dutch research schools have been a sensitive issue over the years, given their unclear status in relation to the lump sums HEIs receive. In May 2013, the Minister of Education, Culture and Science promised to the Dutch parliament to look for a structural solution. TA next wave of top research schools may be funded in the near future. The NOW programme Zwaartekracht, aiming to select the best research consortia in the Netherlands, is also open to Research Schools, with calls in 2013 and 2016.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Emancipation policy 2013-2016 || 2013 || The Dutch government wants to promote the emancipation: the empowerment of girls and women, and the emancipation of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT). The Minister of Education, Culture and Science is responsible for this policy and has as instruments laws and regulations, subsidies to institutions for women's and LGBT emancipation and project grants to civil society and communication actions. On 10 May 2013, the Minister presented her policy for the period 2013-2016 to Dutch parliament. The participation of women in science was not addressed in this policy letter, but the need for gender balance in health care and health research was addressed, and a number of measures for this policy area announced.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || FOM bridging grants || || The Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) promotes, co-ordinates and finances fundamental physics research in the Netherlands. It is an autonomous foundation responsible to the physics division of the national research council NWO. Its annual budget is 99,2 million euros. FOM supports the appointment of a woman in permanent employment in physics, for example after having worked in an university abroad or to bridge the wage difference between a lector and professor position. FOM can subsidize up to five years.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Fom/v Network  / Minerva Prize || || The Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) encourages with this scheme the visibility of women in physics in order to encourage more women physicists to remain in the scientific community. The Minerva-Prize is one of the activities under the Fom/v-stimuleringsprogramme to promote female scientists.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || N.W.O. Athena program for female researchers in chemistry || || The NWO programme Athena encourages the appointment of female researchers in chemistry at the university and research institutes (assistant professor, associate professors, professors). The target groups are female researchers who have received a Veni grant from NOW Chemical Sciences and a permanent position as during the term of the Veni project at a university, or equivalent permanent position at a research institute.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || N.W.O. Aspasia Programme || || Aspasia is linked to the Vidi and Vici competitions of the NWO Talent Scheme. Eligible candidates are female applicants who have received a Vidi or Vici grant; female applicants who were not granted a Vidi or Vici, but were assessed as very good or excellent. The grant is intended to encourage the promotion of female Vidi grant candidates to an associate professorship and female Vici grant candidates to a full professorship. The scheme was set up by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Association of Universities in the Netherlands and N.W.O. To note that several universities have their own chairs and fellowships exclusively for top female researchers (e.g. VU University:  Fenna Diemer Lindeboom chairs, Groningen University: Rosalind Franklin Fellowships).

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Excellence Initiative || 2005 || Auch in der Exzellenzinitiative des Bundes und der Länder ist die Gleichstellung von Männern und Frauen in der Wissenschaft verankert. Bei der Begutachtung der eingereichten Konzepte ist beispielsweise die Eignung der Maßnahmen zur Förderung der Gleichstellung von Männern und Frauen in der Wissenschaft ein Kriterium.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || N.W.O. programme Plural (Meervoud) for female researchers in Earch and Life Sciences || 2013 || The N.W.O. programme Plural aims to move more women at Dutch universities to a position as a lecturer, in the area of Earth and Life Sciences (ALW). The applicant can apply for a temporary assistant professor position of a minimum of 0,8 FTE of which NWO will finance 0,6 FTE. This temporary position should be for a minimum of 2 years and a maximum of 4 years.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Charter ‘Talent to the Top’ Foundation || 2008 || The Charter was developed in 2008 under the leadership of former minister Sybilla Dekker in close consultation with the business sector, public bodies and the Ministries of Economic Affairs and Education, Culture & Science, with financing by the latter two. The aim is to achieve a higher intake, promotion and retention of female talent in top jobs, and thus to promote gender diversity in the senior ranks of companies, organisations and institutions. The Dutch government has recently announced to initiate a dialogue with those sectors which do not show improvements. Relevant in this context is that the signatories of the Charter must indicate their baseline, objectives and strategy regarding gender diversity, and will be subject to annual monitoring. Almost all Dutch universities and public research institutes have signed the Charter.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Dutch network of women professors || 2010 || The Dutch network of women professors aims to promote proportionate representation of women within the university community. It is supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in the period 2010-2014 and by the research council N.W.O. in order to professionalise itself and to adequately pursue its mission.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Girls' day || 2013 || Girls' day is an annual event since 2006 organised by VHTO, the Dutch National Expert Organisation on Girls/Women and Science/Technology, with indirect support by the government (Platform BètaTechniek).  The Girls' day aims at awakening the interest of young girls aged 10-15 years in science and technology. The days have become more and more embedded in the curriculum of the school and is part of the career guidance activities. More and more companies are aware of the need to start at an early stage to awake and retain interest amongst girls' science, technology and ITC.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Ensure that at least 40% of the under-represented sex participate in committees involved in recruitment/career progression and in establishing and evaluating research programmes || N.W.O. internal targets for gender balance || || N.W.O. has defined targets for the gender balance of its own board and committees.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Green open access || || The scientific community and libraries are very active at national (and international) level despite severe budget cuts.  All Dutch universities have a green open access policy, although not all have the same policy and they do not make open access compulsory. The government supports the principles of access to and dissemination of scientific information, but does not have a clear policy on scienitific informaton yet nor does it invest substantially in the furthering of open access and preservation. A strategy for Open Access to publications has been announced recently, to be publised before the summer 2013.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || DANS - Data Archiving and Networked Services || || DANS encourages researchers to archive and reuse data in a sustained manner, e.g. through the online archiving system EASY. DANS also provides access, via NARCIS.nl, to thousands of scientific datasets, e-publications and other research information in the Netherlands. In addition, the institute provides training and advice, and performs research into sustained access to digital information. DANS ensures that access to digital research data keeps improving.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Scientific library of the TUD || || The library of the Technological University Delft (TUD) has a national, cross-institutional task with respect to technological-scientific literature, for students, companies and citizens. The TUD receives a special subsidy for this task. Together with the Royal Library and the e-Science research centre, TUD works on Open Access and digitalising of scientific literature and an electronic documentation system (e-depot). One of the national tasks concerns support on scientific information management to companies. In June 2013, the government announced to cut the budget for this national task, expressing the hope for continuity of the activities funded by the regular budget for universities.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || NARCIS - National Academic Research and Collaborations Information System || || NARCIS provides access to scientific information, including (open access) publications from the repositories of all the Dutch universities, KNAW, NWO and a number of research institutes, datasets from some data archives as well as descriptions of research.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Incentive Funds Open Access / OAPEN project || || The national research council of the Netherlands (NWO) encourages that research results acquired with NWO funding are accessible to the public. The “Incentive Fund Open Access” is a pilot in the humanities for starting open access journals, and has launched a call for proposals for all disciplines served by NWO for starting open access journals. NWO also co-finances OAPEN (Open Access Publishing in European Networks) focusing on open access publishing of books.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || N.W.O. policy stimulating Open Access to data || 2013 || A new N.W.O. policy stimulating Open Access to data is currently being implemented, coordinated with N.W.O. own institutes, different disciplines and other organisations like Surf.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Top sector approach || || The country specific recommendation 2012 for the Netherlands was to promote innovation, private R&D investment and closer science-business links, as well as foster industrial renewal by providing suitable incentives in the context of the enterprise policy, while safeguarding accessibility beyond the strict definition of top sectors and preserving fundamental research. With its "Top sectors" strategy and related funding, the government is implementing the CSR 2012 recommendation in association with the business sector, knowledge institutes and regional and local authorities.  The government will promote private spending on research and development (R&D) and fundamental research and the annual public funding for research and innovation will increase by more than 0.7 billion euro to around 6.4 billion euro in the period 2008-2016. In 2012, 19 Top Consortia for Knowledge and Innovation (TKIs) have been established, who started to implement the research agendas as agreed in innovation agreements.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || TKI surcharge || 2013 || TKI-surcharge should promote synergy and coherence of research and innovation activities on economic and social priorities, by fostering public-private cooperation. The surcharge should also enhance private investments. The government makes for 2014, € 110 million free for Top-consortia for Knowledge and Innovation (TKIs). The previous government has €90 million for the TKI-charge (a contribution in addition to the contribution that businesses make to the study of the TKIs). In total the budget for 2014 will be raised with € 200 million. The funds will partially be available for cofinancing of EU research projects.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Valorisation and knowledge transfer by Higher Education institutions and N.W.O. || 2012 || A large scheme (budget around 65 million euro) has supported in recent years a wide range of knowledge transfer related activities, including education which encourages entrepreneurial attitudes, protection of knowledge, feasibility studies, spin-off companies, networking between companies and knowledge institutes. Last grants were awarded in 2012, the projects will run until end of 2018. Knowledge transfer - or more broadly valorisation - is considered after the ending of this programme as an integral part of the mission of Dutch Higher Education institutions as laid down in Dutch law ("third mission"). This is illustrated by the increased number of staff working in related activities, and knowledge transfer capacities which are increasingly acknowledged and rewarded in the human resources policies of the institutions. Furthermore, in the performance agreements between the government and the Higher Education institutions as agreed in autumn 2012, valorisation is one of the priorities.In each call for proposals, NWO asks researchers to state the contribution their research will make to society. This could be economic, social, administrative, cultural, technological, medical or democratic in nature. NWO facilitates the societal contribution of research in various ways. Examples are start-up funding for researchers who want to put their ideas into practice, the organisation of matchmaking events, and giving researchers who have completed their research the opportunity to still make the results suitable for knowledge utilisation by third parties.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || MKB Innovation Scheme for Top Sectors (MIT) || 2013 || The Dutch government will make additional funding available in 2013 (22 million euro) in order to increase the connection between SMEs and the Top Sectors. SMEs can fund feasibility studies, implement joint R&D projects or hire temporary staff.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || High Tech start up Fund || 2011 || Der High-tech-Gründerfond, an dem die Bundesregierung als Investorin beteiligt ist, finanziert seit 2005 junge Technologieunternehmen, die aufgrund ihrer frühen Entwicklungsphase noch mit hohen Risiken behaftet sind. 2011 startete der High-tech Gründerfonds II mit weiteren Investoren aus der Industrie an Bord. Das Fondsvolumen beträgt nun 301,5 Mio. Euro. Die Hightech-Strategie forciert damit konkret die Modernisierung und Stärkung des Wissenschaftssystems in ihrer Innovationsorientierung und Kooperation mit der Wirtschaft. Dies stärkt die langfristige strategische Zusammenarbeit zwischen Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft zu beiderseitigem Nutzen.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || "Technology Pact" to address skills shortages in technology || 2013 || Knowledge transfer and innovation in the Netherlands may benefit from this multi-annual strategy as agreed on 13 May 2013 between a large range of stakeholders from industry, education, employers, regional authorities supported by additional funding by the Dutch government, in order to guarantee the availability of sufficient number of technology skilled people. An investment fund will be established by contributions by the government, employers and regional authorities of each 100 million euro, for investments in technology education. Industry will make available 1000 scholarships yearly. Government will reserve 600 million euro for education and training of employees in technology and invest 100 million euro in additional teachers in secondary education.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || N.W.O. grants - evaluation on the basis of the use of the research results || || In the submission of grants for N.W.O., applicants need to indicate the use of the research results. Some of the N.W.O. branches (STW, ZonMw, WOTRO) evaluate the proposals on this basis. Broad application of this assessment is under preparation (foreseen per October 2013). This may lead to involvement of the potential users of the results in an early stage of the research projects.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || National Science and Technology Platform || || The National Platform Science & Technology has been commissioned by the Dutch government, the education and the business sectors to ensure sufficient availability of people who have a background in scientific or technical education to meet the expected demand. This approach has been formulated in the Deltaplan Science & Technology, a policy document on how to prevent shortages in the technology sector. The aims: (1) to achieve a structural increase of pupils and students in scientific and technical education, and (2) to use existing talent more effectively in businesses and research institutes. The goal is not only making careers in science more appealing, but also to introduce educational innovations that will inspire and challenge young people. Therefore, the National Platform facilitates mutual contact between schools, universities, businesses, ministries, municipalities, regions and sectors.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || MBO Centres for Innovative craftmanship, HBO Centers of Expertise, RAAK programme || 2011 || In MBO (Vocational education institutions) Centres for Innovative craftmanship and HBO (High Schools) Centres of expertise entepreneurs, scientists, lecturers and student cooperate to raise the quality of technology education. The first 4 Centres for Innovative craftmanship Centres and 3 Centres of expertise started in 2011. These public-private cooperation structures will liaise with the regional knowledge infrastructure, by alignment with the relevant Top Sector(s). Education, applied research and vocational training are framed in this context to develop an unique education and knowledge profile. People from industry and education institutions will give added value to education, research and human capital, based on investments by all parties involved via a public-private cooperation. The Centres should be independent after 5 years. The RAAK programme is a competitive funding scheme for applied research in HBO institutions. Recently, budget cuts on this programme were prevented, but the ministry of Education, Culture and Science agreed with employers, partners of the Innovation Alliance and with the research council N.W.O. that the latter would implement the RAAK scheme as from 2014.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || N.W.O. Added Value programme (Meerwaarde) || 2011 || With the Added Value programme, NWO encouraged in 2011-2012 researchers to make their scientific results suitable for and accessible to third parties outside of academia. The Added Value programme is a one-off initiative to encourage the utilisation of knowledge in the earth and life sciences, humanities and social and behavioural sciences. An Added Value grant gives teams of researchers, partners or potential users the opportunity to develop activities or products that encourage the use of knowledge from scientific research. Examples are workshops, documentaries, expositions or internships. Collaboration with knowledge intermediaries such as the Netherlands Bureau for Policy Analysis or trade organisations is also possible. NWO has made 500,000 euros available for each of its ten scientific divisions. The divisions are free to choose how they use this budget to support knowledge utilisation. The divisions Social Sciences, Earth and Life Sciences, and the Humanities have chosen to provide support through the Added Value grant.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || SURF || 2008 || SURF is a Foundation for groundbreaking innovations in ICT allowing researchers and higher education institutions to make optimal use of the potential of ICT and improve their quality. The Funds are made available in accordance with the government's response to the advice by ICTRegie on ICT research infrastructure in the Netherlands to strengthen the ICT research infrastructure such as computer networks (SURFnet, GigaPort), E-Science and High Performance Computing.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || eduGAIN membership status || || While a national policy for e-identity has not been identified, for the Netherlands SURFfederatie is member of of the eduGAIN network which works towards the trustworthy exchange of information related to identity, authentication and authorisation between the GÉANT (GN3plus) Partners' federations.

Poland

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || The Strategy for the Innovation and Effectiveness of the Economy for the years 2012-2020 “Dynamic Poland” || 2013 || Poland has multi-annual RDI plan - The Strategy for the Innovation and Effectiveness of the Economy for the years 2012-2020 “Dynamic Poland” – coordinated by the Ministry of Economy. The strategy is the highest level policy document related to RDI in Poland and was officially adopted by the Council of Ministers in January 2013.  It lists the target of 1.70% GERD to GDP in 2020 and is reflected in other policy documents, including plans for public support for enterprises and future allocations of the EU Structural Funds. It also set indicators to measure the fulfilment of objectives and delegates specific tasks to different governmental institutions. Among the R&D objectives listed: - adjust the structure and increase effectiveness of public research expenditure in RDI; - development of international scientific and educational co-operation; - development of infrastructure for research and knowledge transfer; - support researchers’ mobility in science and economy sectors; - create a culture of innovative academic entrepreneurship; - strengthen links between business and academia; - effectively use intellectual property rights, patent and scientific information.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || National Research Program “Foundations for the science and technology policy and innovation policy of the state” || 2011 || The Council of Ministers issued in 2011 another major policy document, the National Research Program “Foundations for the science and technology policy and innovation policy of the state” (NRP), which has set all-encompassing national R&D priorities, taking into account the long-term needs of the economy, existing scientific and technological competencies and business potential. Two foresights were carried out by MNiSW  in 2008 - National Foresight Program Poland 2020 - and by Ministry of Economy  in 2011 - Technological Foresight of Industry – InSight 2030 - www.fortech2030.pl - in order to determine future priorities for research, technological development and innovation.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Act on principles of science financing || 2010 || The Act on principles of science financing (2010): - delegated the responsibility for setting the National Research Program to the Council of Ministers; - established financing modalities for NCN and NCBiR, assuring gradual increases in the allocated funding; - strengthened the importance of open and formalised competitions for R&D funding; - established the legal framework for joint financing of R&D with international partners, including eligibility of costs and reporting requirements; - establishing open competitive calls for large R&D infrastructure investments; - stipulates that research funds are primarily awarded to organisations; - facilitates funding for joint initiatives between scientific organisations and business enterprises. Article 5 (Act on the Principles of Financing Science) states that Science funding shall be allocated to: 1) strategic research and development work programmes and other tasks financed by the National Centre for Research and Development, hereinafter referred to as the “Development Centre”; 3) basic research and other tasks financed by the National Science Centre, hereinafter referred to as the “Science Centre”; 4) the activities set forth in scientific unit Charters; 5) activities of scientific units of higher education institutions, scientific units of the Polish Academy of Sciences, research institutes and international scientific institutes consisting of conducting research or development work and related tasks that serve the development of young researchers and doctoral programme participants and are financed by way of internal competitions; 7) scientific collaboration with other countries; 9) science dissemination activities; 10) programmes and undertakings established by the Minister; 11) awards for outstanding scientific or scientific and technological achievements and scholarships for outstanding young researchers; 12) financing the activities of the Scientific Unit Evaluation Committee and the Scientific Policy Committee, teams, reviewers, experts and audit activities; 13) financing scientific libraries not included in the scientific units referred to in Article 2 Item 9 Letters a to c with respect to their scientific activities and science dissemination activities

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Act on National Science Centre (NCN) || 2010 || The Act on National Science Centre (NCN) (2010) established the funding agency for basic research. The agency is independent from any direct government influences, with a governing body consisting of scientists and stakeholders. Minister’s ordinances regulate the operation of the Centre. The Council of NCN prepares the strategic research programs with medium-term objectives and assigns funds on the basis of the long-term objectives identified in the National Research Programme (NRP). The National Science Centre funds research projects carried out by scientists, academics, national and international research teams, as well as doctoral scholarships and post-doctoral internships. Competitions are announced by the Disciplines' Coordinators based on the Act on NCN and the specifications of call regulations provided by NCN Council.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Act on National Research & Development Centre (NCBiR) || 2010 || The Act on National Research & Development Centre (NCBiR) (2010) widened the scope of activities of the applied research agency. The agency is independent from any direct government influences, with a governing body consisting of scientists and stakeholders, with equal representation of experts from business, science and government. The Council of NCBiR prepares the strategic research programs with medium-term objectives and assigned funds on the basis of the long-term objectives identified in the National Research Programme (NRP). In 2011 NCBiR was also tasked with management of R&D-related programs financed from EU Structural Funds.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || NCN, NCBiR, Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW), the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) and Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP) programmes || || In 2012, the eight programmes managed by NCN and the 19 programmes managed by NCBiR were distributing 52.67% of the science budget through open competitive calls. Besides those agencies, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW), the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) and the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP) run each of them four research programmes. Funds earmarked by the NCBiR for the implementation of programmes in the field of applied research on the basis of the National Research Programme in 2013–2014 amount to PLN 40 million and PLN 280 million, respectively. Some programmes have been evaluated, but the result of evaluation is not always publicly available. NCBiR published evaluation results on its website and announced further evaluations in 2013 and NCN conducted an extensive survey among the applicants of NCN’s first grant and used the findings to improve the program.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Ordinance of the Minister of Regional Development concerning the award of financial support based on the Operating Program Innovative Economy, 2007-2013, by the Polish Agency of Enterprise Development (PARP) || 2012 || The Ordinance establishes the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP) as the agency of the Ministry of Economy (MG) which funds R&I in business enterprises.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Ordinance of the Minister of Science and Higher Education concerning the conditions and modes of applying for the status of KNOW (National Leading Scientific Institution) Communication of the Minister of Science and Higher Education concerning the call for submisions in competition for KNOWs || 2011 || The ordinance sets general criteria, application rules and procedures for institutional assessment of leading research institutions. The Communication is the annual call and sets rules for selecting the leading research institutions in each scientific discipline.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Ordinance of the Minister of Science and Higher Education concerning conditions of program assessment and institutional assessment || 2011 || The Ordinance defined criteria for institutional assessment. These criteria include research performance, teaching and research infrastructure, co-operation with business. In 2012, MNiSW amended the standards for the institutional assessment of public R&D organisations to improve assessment of public research institutions, promoting internationally significant research (based on bibliometric indicators) and successful commercialisation of research results (measured by values of technology transfer transactions) and providing that evaluation is carried out by independent committees based on transparent criteria and procedures. Evaluation is carried out by conducted by the Committee for Evaluation of Scientific Research Institutions (KEJN). A planned amendment of the ordinance of the MNiSW concerning the criteria and modes of awarding scientific ranks to scientific organizations (2013) enhances the use of bibliometric indicators in institutional assessments.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Institutional assessment by the Committee for Evaluation of Scientific Research Institutions (KEJN) || || Institutional funding is partly statutory (based on number of researchers) and partly the result of an evaluation. As such organisations are divided in different categories and funding is not available to organisations in the lowest ranks. Over 100 public higher education institutions (PHEIs) and over 200 public research organisations (PROs) undergo regular nation-wide performance evaluations.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Development of online system POL-ON || 2011 || The Ministry develops a nation-wide online system POL-ON, which will make the results of institutional assessments publicly available alongside specific bibliometric data, which were used as the basis of rankings. The first institutional evaluation using the new criteria was performed in 2013 and its results are due to be published.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Peer-review in national programmes || 2011 || National peer review is used by all funders NCN, NCBiR, MNiSW, FNP and PARP and peer-review rules are defined by publicly available procedures and compliant with international standards for peer-reviews. For NCN proposals have to be submitted both in Polish and English and foreign reviewers are involved in the evaluation of selected proposal.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Ordinance of the Director of NCBiR concerning the principles of selection and compensation of experts at NCBiR Resolution of the NCN Counil concerning establishment and modalities of work of the panel of experts || 2013 || The NCBiR Ordinance provides for the inclusion of foreign experts in peer-review processes and for individual negotiations of compensation with international experts. The NCN Resolution contains measure to forster international peer review for the allocation of funding.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Ordinance of the Minister of Science and Higher Education concerning the criteria and mode of award and settlement of funds for financing international scientific co-operation || 2011 || There are standard procedures for co-funding of Polish researchers to participate in international initiatives and using international peer review in national funding decisions.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Ordinance of the Minister of Science and Higher Education concerning the conditions and modes of awarding public support for financing international scientific co-operation || 2011 || The Ordinance defines standard procedures for co-funding of Polish researchers from business enterprises to participate in international initiatives and using international peer review in national funding decisions while ensuring the compliance with the European regulations concerning the public support for enterprises.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Amendment to Ordinance of the Minister of Economy amending the ordinance concerning financial support offered by the Polish Agency of Enterprise Development linked to operational programs || 2011 || Amendment of public support rules, enabling Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP) to co-finance participation of Polish SMEs in international R&D programs.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Participation in JPIs, ESA, EUREKA, EUROSTARS, Artile 185, JTIs || || An annex of the Ordinance of the Minister of Science and Higher Education concerning the criteria and mode of award and settlement of funds for financing international scientific co-operation contains a detailed list of initiatives with corresponding budgets in which Poland participates through NCBiR and NCN, including ERA-nets, ERA-nets+, EUREKA, EUROSTARS, ESA but also in five JPIs. Poland also participates in BONUS as well as ENIAC and ARTEMIS.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Draft Operational Program "Smart Growth" (POIR) || 2013 || The currently drafted Operational Program "Smart Growth" (POIR), which will define the rules for distribution of the EU Structural Funds in years 2014-2020, includes a measure Internationalisation of Polish science through support for creation of international research agendas and measure 3.3.10 Support for enterprises and scientific organisations in preparation to participate in international programs. It supports the internationalisation of Polish science through support for the creation of international research agendas, stimulating cross-border R&D by both enterprises and scientific organisations by helping them to prepare participation in international programs and co-funding Polish research teams participating in international R&D programs.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Resolution of the Council of NCN concerning priority areas for fundamental research The Strategic Research and Development Programs of NCBiR || 2012 || The Resolution of the Council of NCN concerning priority areas for fundamental research and the Strategic Research and Development Programs of NCBiR reflect the priorities set in the National Research Program contains and partially coincide with the grand challenges set at the European level. In 2013 a dedicated inter-disciplinary committee was set up to make recommendations concerning funds for international research co-operation distributed directly by the MNiSW, while R&D funding agencies NCN and NCBiR have corresponding institutional arrangements since 2010.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Polish participation in LIFE+ || 2008 || The European program LIFE+ is supported in Poland by the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFOŚiGW), and R&D programs for business enterprises, including CIP and ESA are managed locally by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP).

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Ensure mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to international peer-review standards as a basis for national funding decisions || Communication of the Minister of Science and Higher Education concerning the establishment of Program "Ideas Plus" || 2010 || MNiSW established in 2010 the program "Ideas Plus", supporting the participants of the European Research Council competition "IDEAS", who did not qualify for funding from ERC.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Ensure mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to international peer-review standards as a basis for national funding decisions || NCN's program "HARMONIA" || 2010 || NCN offers dedicated funding for international fundamental research projects. HARMONIA is a funding opportunity designed for scientists wanting to carry out research in the following forms: - in cooperation with foreign partners, - within the framework of international programmes or initiatives announced under bi- or multilateral cooperation, - utilising large-scale international research infrastructure. These projects are not co-financed from other sources.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Act on principles of science financing || 2010 || The Act on principles of science financing (2010) established the legal framework for joint financing of R&D with international partners, including eligibility of costs and reporting requirements, compliant with regulations on public finance. Article 23. 1. The financing of scientific collaboration with foreign partners shall cover:  1) projects implemented in collaboration with foreign partners including research, development work or science dissemination activities undertaken within the framework of international programmes, initiatives or research undertakings, co-financed with non-repayable foreign funds;  2) activities supporting the participation of scientific units and other entities in the programmes, initiatives or research undertakings referred to in Item 1;  3) the payment of membership fees to international institutions or organisations under international agreements concluded, excluding membership fees from natural persons;  4) the making of the national contribution to a joint international programme or undertaking within the framework of which research or development work is financed. 2. The minister responsible for science shall determine, by way of a regulation, the criteria and procedure for the granting and settlement of funds for the purposes set forth in Section 1, including:  1) the manner of evaluating the applications concerning the tasks to be financed;  2) the manner of evaluating the performance of the tasks financed;  3) the manner of settlement of the funds granted, including the forgiveness or postponement of repayment and the payment of amounts due in instalments;  4) specimen applications for financing scientific collaboration with foreign partners, reports including information on the implementation of the tasks financed and financial settlements of the costs incurred as well as other required documents – taking into account the significance of financing scientific collaboration with foreign partners for the pursuit of state scientific, scientific and technological and innovation policies, the need to increase the activity of scientific units in the international arena, the evaluation of activities of the scientific unit or another authorised entity in question to date and the correct utilisation of the science funding previously granted. 3. The minister responsible for science shall determine, by way of a regulation, the terms and procedure for granting public aid for the purposes set forth in Section 1, including: 1) the purpose of aid;  2) the types of costs eligible for aid; 3) the manner in which aid is cumulated; 4) maximum aid amounts – taking into account the objectives of state scientific policy.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Bilateral agreements || || Poland maintains also bilateral cooperation programs with Norway, Czech Republic, Israel, Luxemburg, Germany, Singapore and Taiwan (with co-funding managed by NCBiR). The Polish-German Foundation for Science, and the Polish-Norwegian Research Fund, Pollux (Polish-Luxembourg) programme function in the framework of the above mentioned bilateral agreements. The aim of the Polish-Norwegian Research Programme is to reduce economic and social differences and to promote bilateral cooperation through popularisation and support of scientific research. The Programme will prioritise funding for research and development in the following areas: environment, climate change including polar research, health, social sciences and bilateral relations, including the issues of migration, social cohesion, the role of minorities and the social dimension of sustainable development, gender equality and work-life balance. In the frame of the POLLUX programme aims to facilitate the collaboration between Polish and Luxembourgish researchers in the field of “Innovation in Services”. The NCBiR and the FNR (Fonds National de la Recherche) launched joint pilot calls for project proposals in 2012 and 2013. Based on the results of these joint pilot calls, the NCBiR and the FNR will evaluate the potential of future joint calls, possibly extending to other research fields. The current collaboration will allow for: • joint pilot calls in the field of “Innovation in Services”, • a joint evaluation process based on international best practice, • an increasing impact of Polish and Luxembourgish research activities. Polish German Foundation for Science was launched in 2011 with the first joint call for proposals by the BMBF and the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education in the field of sustainability. The following funding was proposed: Polish-Norwegian Research Fund: 2,294 million euros for Poland, Polish-German Foundation for Science: 10 million euros, POLLUX: 1 million in 2013.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || The Visegrad Fund || || The Visegrad fund promotes research cooperation with the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Republic of Poland, and the Slovak Republic. It provides research grants from a common pot contribution of all countries involved. Funding from the International Visegrad Fund has been 6 million euros in 2010.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Polish Roadmap of Research Infrastructure (PMDIB) || 2011 || In 2011, the Ministry published the Polish Roadmap of Research Infrastructure (PMDIB), compliant with ESFRI standards and including 33 investment projects, selected in a nation-wide competition, which are considered unique, key for specific R&D projects. PMDIB consolidates the scientific potential, stimulates rational decision making about investments, encouraging cooperation and joint use of the funded RI by multiple research organisations. Inclusion in PMDIB was set as a pre-condition for future funding from the EU Structural Funds for large infrastructure. The Ministry of Science and Higher Education supports the following participation to EFSRI projects: Euro Bio Imaging; ICOS; Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe; European Synchrotron radiation facility; European Free Electron Laser; EPOS; CLARIN; SPIRAL2; EURO-ARGO; COPAL; ELIXIR; Cherenkov Telescope Array.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Update to the Polish Roadmap of Research Infrastructure (PMDIB) || 2013 || In 2013, a call for updates to the Roadmap was announced.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Ordinances of the Minister of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW) (2010-2011) || 2010 || Several ordinances of the Minister of Science and Higher Education (2010-2011) earmarked parts of science budget for RI, defined investment criteria, selection modes involving peer-reviews, and opened up the competitions to business enterprises as well.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Draft Operational Program "Smart Growth" (POIR) measure 3.2.2 || 2013 || The Strategy for the Innovation and Effectiveness of the Economy for the years 2012-2020 (2013) listed as one of objectives the further development of RI based on the PMDIB. In the draft of the future Operational Program "Smart Growth" (POIR), which will structure the use of the EU Structural Funds for 2014-2020, several measures address infrastructure investments, including dedicated funding for projects from the PMDIB. Future focus on RI investments is gradually shifting towards optimal use of the existing infrastructure, and enhancing support for projects capitalising on the existing investments, often in cooperation with business enterprises.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Development of online system POL-ON || 2011 || The Ministry of Science and Higher Education continues the development of an online system POL-ON, which will publish detailed information about scientific organisations, including the availability of research infrastructures with dedicated registers of infrastructure, laboratories and research instruments.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to cross-border access to Research Infrastructures || Operational Program "Innovative Economy" (POIG), measure 3.2.2 || 2007 || The Ministry of Regional Development defined the principles of cost eligibility in Operational Program "Innovative Economy", 2007-2013, which is the main source of RI investments, based on the EU Structural Funds. It includes measures which help optimise the use of existing Ris for applied research and development, especially jointly with business enterprises and international partners.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Act on higher education (including amendments from 2011) Act on research institutes Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences || 2010 || The Act on higher education (including amendments from 2011) strengthened the autonomy of universities, with independent recruitment processes, eliminating direct influences from government bodies, but at the same time elaborating general principles, promoting the openness and competitiveness of recruitment. Job offers at the public higher education institutes have to be published online on websites of the university, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and "websites maintained by European Commission - European portal for mobile researchers, dedicated for the publication of job offers for researchers". Recruitment procedures should be based on a formal procedure, adopted by the university in its statute, which is to be issued with the involvement of labor unions. The maximum length of each employment contract is 8 years, tenures are reserved only for the most experienced professors. The Act prohibited employment of relatives as direct subordinates and enforced the requirement of filling all positions in higher education institutions through open competitions. Corresponding regulations were included in the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences (2010), and the Act on research institutes (2010) which aslo calls for job offers to be published online, and recruitment procedures to be based on a formal procedure, adopted in the statute of the institute.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Scientific Visa package || || Poland has implemented the measures of the EU Scientific Visa package.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Ordinance of the Minister of Science and Higher Education concerning recognition of foreign scientific degrees, and titles in the area of arts || 2011 || The Ordinance defined modalities for recognizing foreign academic degrees (Ph.D., habilitation, professor), and simplified procedures for degrees awarded by countries-members of the Lisbon Recognition Convention. It allows researchers with good careers records within foreign research systems to be promoted to professors without the need to satisfy the formal requirement of holding a Polish post-doctoral degree (habilitation).

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Act on principles of science financing || 2010 || The Act on principles of science financing (2010) stipulates the award of funds for science primarily to organisations (and thus, can also be used by foreign researchers working at the organisations). Most grants are also available to foreigners, providing that the beneficiary institution is in Poland. Natural persons can apply for projects at NCN and NCBiR without the need to be currently employed by a specific organisation. For grant programs, applicants can prepare “conditional” applications, including commitments of an organisation to offer future employment and access to its infrastructure, once the application is successful. Publicly funded R&D projects can be ported to institutions in other countries within dedicated funding programs supporting international cooperation.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Ideas for Poland || || The objective of the program aimed at foreign researchers is to encourage young, brilliant researchers from all over the world to choose Poland as the place to carry out their research projects submitted for the ERC competition. The program is designed for people whose previous scientific record demonstrates they are highly independent as researchers and warrants they will conduct world-class quality research.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || Establishment of EURAXESS POLAND portal || 2009 || EURAXESS POLAND portal operates since 2009, with English-language online services, information portal, regular publication of job offers in Poland and calls for proposals for grants, scholarships and fellowships in Poland. Share of research posts advertised on the EURAXESS Jobs portal per thousand researchers in public sector in 2011 was 2.5% (Deloitte, 2012: 51).

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || Operations of 10 EURAXESS Service Points in 10 different cities in Poland || 2011 || EURAXESS published in 2011 "Foreign Researchers’ Guide to Poland" as printed and electronic documents, and currently maintains 10 EURAXESS Service Points in 10 different academic cities in Poland.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Act on higher education (including amendments from 2011) || 2011 || Modalities and procedures for doctoral studies in Poland went through significant changes in 2011, based on several new legal measures. The Act on higher education (including amendments from 2011) set general conditions for offering doctoral studies, with requirements similar to other study cycles. Doctoral candidates were defined as students not employees, thus acquiring certain rights and obligations.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Ordinance of the Minister of Science and Higher Education concerning doctoral studies and doctoral scholarships || 2011 || Based on the Ordinance of 2011, doctoral studies are required to have formal programs, with learning outcomes defined for specific study modules. Procedures for quality assurance and award of doctoral scholarships.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Act on scientific degrees and scientific title and titles in the area of arts (including amendments from 2011) || 2011 || The Act on scientific degrees and scientific title and titles in the area of arts (including amendments from 2011) implemented excellence, interdisciplinary and transparent procedures related to the award of PhDs, as well as  internationalisation allowing doctoral theses to be prepared in English and/or prepared and defended jointly at two institutions, including foreign universities.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || The Ordinance of the Minister of Science and Higher Education concerning the documentation of studies (2011); Ordinance of the Minister of Science and Higher Education concerning conditions of program assessment and institutional assessment (2011) || 2011 || The Ordinances provided for documentation and quality assurance in doctoral awards and study programmes. The Polish Accreditation Committee conducts assessment of study programs.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Act on higher education (including amendments from 2011) Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences (2010) Act on Research Institutes (2010) || 2010 || The Act on higher education (including amendments from 2011) introduced numerous regulations, which are consistent with the Charter & Code, strengthening the HR policies of higher education institutions and empowering their employees. Researchers working for public research institutes benefit from corresponding regulations, defined by the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences (2010) and the Act on research institutes (2010). Career tracks in scientific organisations are defined by hard laws, with precisely defined criteria for promotion and award of scientific degrees and titles. There are regular performance reviews for all researchers.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Endorsement of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers by Polish Academy of Sciences || 2008 || The endorsement for the Charter & Code and acceptance for general directions related to the HR Strategy for Researchers are wide-spread in Poland. Declarations of endorsement of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers were issued among others by the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland (KRASP). As of 2013 the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology declared the implementation of the HRS4R. The Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) was awarded the HR Excellence in Research for the implementation of HRS4R.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Operational Programme "Human Capital " || || The Human Capital Operational Programme operated under the Structural Funds includes among the objectives of Priority 4: Improving staff qualifications in the R&D sector.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Polish Labour Code Act on the implementation of some regulations of the European Union concerning equal treatment (2010) Act on financial benefits from social insurance in the case of sickness and maternity (2013) || 2010 || General legislative acts prohibit discrimination and protect women during the pregnancy and maternity leave period: the Polish Labour Code and Act on the implementation of some regulations of the European Union concerning equal treatment (2010). Recently, the government published a proposal to amend the Labour Code and the Act on financial benefits from social insurance in the case of sickness and maternity (2013). Also in 2013 it introduced measures on flexitime, paid parental leave, child care facilities and return to work after bringing-up a child and support and financially contributed to projects promoting equal opportunities for working men and women.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || The Act on Polish Academy of Sciences (2010) Act on higher education (including amendments from 2011) Ordinance of the Minister of Science and Higher Education concerning doctoral studies and doctoral scholarships || 2011 || The Act on Polish Academy of Sciences (2010) facilitates the upbringing of children by extending the duration of fixed term contracts by the periods of maternity leave and additional leaves to raise children. The Act on higher education specifies that employees who are pregnant or raising children up to 1 year of age cannot work overtime, unless they specifically agree to the offer.  Based on the ordinance of the Minister of Science and Higher Education concerning doctoral studies and doctoral scholarships (2011), length of doctoral studies is also extended in a similar manner (doctoral candidates in Poland are not regarded as employees but students, so were not covered by the nation-wide employment regulations).

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Ordinance of the Minister of Science and Higher Education concerning conditions for work remuneration and award of other work-related benefits for employees of public higher education institutes || 2011 || Maternity leave and an additional leave to raise children reduce the annual workloads of researchers employed at public higher education institutes.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Act on National Science Centre (NCN) NCBiR Programme LIDER || 2010 || The Act on National Science Centre (NCN) (2010) stipulates that periods of maternity leave and leave for taking care of children are not included in the calculation of maximum age for grants for young researchers. Corresponding regulations are introduced for NCBiR's program LIDER, dedicated for young researchers.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Program "BRIDGE" || 2010 || The Foundation for Polish Science runs a program “BRIDGE” (“POMOST”), with grants for researchers-young parents, returning after maternity leaves and leaves for taking care of children, including mothers of children of up to 4 years of age. Grants are offered to establish new research teams and conduct own, original projects. In 2013, all 17 beneficiaries were women. The programme provides for two types of support: 1. Return grant – for projects carried out by researchers of either sex raising young children; 2. Support for women conducting research projects during pregnancy, where the nature of the work could affect their pregnancy, by funding a researcher to whom the work which would affect the pregnancy can be delegated.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Polish-Norwegian Research Programme || || Polish-Norwegian Research Programme: EUR 3 529 412 for research projects in the domain of mainstreaming gender equality and promoting work-life balance.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Program "Girls on technical universities" || 2008 || The Conference of Rectors of Polish Technical Universities manages a program "Girls on technical universities", compiling lists of "women-friendly" technical universities and establishing dedicated contact points for women.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Awards "Girls of the future" || 2009 || The Ministry of Science and Higher Education offers financial awards "Girls of the future" for outstanding female researchers, in a cooperation with the magazine "ELLE", with the intention to promote gender equality in research, based on the example of Marie Curie-Skłodowska, patron of the competition,

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || L`Oreal Polska Grants || || International company L’Oréal with the support of UNESCO offers scholarships for women-scientists.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Ensure that at least 40% of the under-represented sex participate in committees involved in recruitment/career progression and in establishing and evaluating research programmes || Act on higher education (including amendments from 2011) The Act on scientific degrees and scientific title and titles in the area of arts (amendments from 2011) || 2011 || The 2011 amendment of the Act on Higher Education provides that: nominees from the science and higher education institutions to the Main Council of Science and Higher Education, which has advisory functions to the MNiSW should attempt " to balance the share of women and men in the work of the Council" and that 30% of the Polish Accreditation Committee appointed by the same MNiSW should be women. The Act on scientific degrees and scientific title and titles in the area of arts (amendments from 2011) stipulates that the Central Committee for Scientific Degrees and Titles is obliged to incorporate in its actions "attempts to balance the share of women and men in its work".

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Act on Industrial Property Rights || 2000 || The Act on Industrial Property Rights (2000) guarantees the rights to use patented inventions for scientific, non-commercial research without the need to license the invention or pay royalties.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Draft guidelines of the Act on open public resources || || In 2012, Ministry of Administration and Digitization published draft guidelines of the Act on open public resources. Contents generated by government institutions (including public R&D organisations) are supposed to be available through open access. In particular this concerns: scientific journals financed from the science budget and scientific publications from publicly funded projects. The guidelines outlined planned amendments concerning the Act on principles of science financing, the Act on public procurement, and the Act on access to public information.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Draft guidelines of the amendments to the Act on science financing (2012) || || MNiSW has put forward draft guidelines of the amendments to the Act on science financing (2012), to facilitate the integration of ICT systems, with the purpose of supporting open access to publicly funded research results, in line with the Commission Recommendation from 17 July 2012 on access to and preservation of scientific information (2012/417/UE).

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Draft Operational Program "Smart Growth" (POIR) || || The draft Operational Program "Smart Growth" (POIR) includes support to adjustments of ICT infrastructure, necessary to enable open access to scientific publications in Poland.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Virtual Library of Science || 2010 || Since 2010 MNiSW licensed the Virtual Library of Science, which aggregates commercial publication databases into a common platform, so that researchers and students of all universities can use it.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Springer's open choice program || 2010 || Since 2010, the Ministry covers fees for open access publications in Springer's journals (gold open access model).

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Ordinance of the Minister of Science and Higher Education establishing program „Index Plus” || 2011 || The Ministerial program „Index Plus” (2011) funds the digitisation of scientific journals and their electronic distribution. Examples of bottom-up initiatives, supporting open access in Poland, are: Federation of Digital Libraries (managed by Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Centre, digitising contents from Polish libraries, including scanned scientific publications)

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Model agreement for applied research project, funded by National Research & Development Centre (NCBiR) || 2011 || A model agreement for applied R&D projects, funded by National Research & Development Centre (NCBiR) contains provisions, concerning "information and promotion" (§14), requires beneficiaries to distribute the results of the project by means of scientific conferences, academic journals, widely available databases guaranteeing open access to publications, and free or open source software.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || SYNAT - Interdisciplinary System for Interactive Scientific and Scientific Technical Information || || The strategic programme entitled Interdisciplinary System for Interactive Scientific and Scientific Technical Information encompasses a research activity with the purpose of creating a universal, open and repository-like hosting platform which will provide access to web resources of knowledge to scientists, scholars and open knowledge society. This task has been carried out by a scientific network composed of 16 best research units specialising in this field, headed by the University of Warsaw’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling. Its implementation is scheduled for 36 months (from August 2010 to August 2013). The National Centre for Research and Development (NCBiR) shall spend about PLN 60 MM on this activity. The research activity is expected to bring about the following results: • integrated IT system which enables knowledge acquisition from various dispersed and heterogeneous databases, • multifunctional repository of raw data dedicated to safe, long-term storage and distribution of digital initial objects, • universal, open, repository-like hosting and communication platform which enables the exploitation of individual application software and sharing of information and services available from the servers of hosting organisation

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Communication of the Minister of Science and Higher Education concerning the establishment of National Program for the Development of Humanities || 2010 || In 2010 the National Program for the Development of Humanities was established, and the grant program includes a dedicated funding stream for electronic publications in foreign languages, implemented through regular, open calls for proposals.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || DRIVER initiative || || Poland participates in DRIVER - Digital Repositories Infrastructure Vision for European Research – initiative.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Centre of Open Science CeON || 2012 || Centre of Open Science CeON is an examples of bottom-up initiatives, supporting open access in Poland, It is managed by University of Warsaw, aggregating free online publication databases and open access journals, offering legal advice, and maintaining open access repositories including CEON Repository and "Open the Book" repository of electronic books),

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Index Copernicus || 2006 || Examples of bottom-up initiatives, supporting open access in Poland, include the Index Copernicus, which is the Polish counterpart of commercial bibliographic databases such as Web of Science and Scopus, offering basic access to data free of charge as well as paid options, maintained by a stock-exchange listed company IDH S.A..

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || The Strategy for the Innovation and Effectiveness of the Economy for the years 2012-2020 || 2013 || The Strategy for the Innovation and Effectiveness of the Economy for the years 2012-2020 (2013) stresses the importance of knowledge transfer and co-operation between scientific institutions and industry, and includes the declaration of support for open innovations.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Act on higher education (including amendments from 2011) || 2011 || The Act on higher education (including amendments from 2011) encouraged public higher education institutes to co-operate with business enterprises and obliged universities to form special purpose companies, dealing with technology transfer, to start spin-offs and to define IPR management rules and possibilities to commercialise IPR. Universities are also expected to co-operate with external stakeholders, including business, when defining programs of study.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Act on research institutes || 2010 || The Act on research institutes (2010) set relevant IPR rules and obliged them to co-operate with business enterprises, sell products, services and technologies, and form R&D consortia.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Act on principles of science financing || 2010 || The Act on principles of science financing (2010) facilitated funding for joint initiatives between scientific organisations and business enterprises, especially the formation of research consortia.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || The Ordinance of the Minister of Science and Higher Education concerning the criteria and modes of awarding scientific ranks to scientific organisations || 2012 || The Ordinance includes measurement of performance in commercial knowledge transfer (including licensing and sale of technologies, products and services) as part of institutional assessments of R&D organisations.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Enterprises Development Programme || 2013 || In January 2013, the Ministry of Economy published a draft of the Enterprise Development Program (PRP). This programme proposes measures to foster industry-academia partnership such as building of mixt consortia and internships/secondments from business to academia; centralising funds for enterprises in a single agency and changes in the application and evaluation procedure of grants.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Act on National Research & Development Centre (NCBiR) || 2010 || The Act on National Research & Development Centre (NCBiR) (2010) facilitated access to public funds for applied R&D granted to business enterprises, also based on consortium agreements with scientific organisations, and confirmed that IPRs to publicly funded inventions rest with the creators.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Draft Operational Program "Smart Growth" (POIR) || || The draft Operational Program "Smart Growth" (POIR) will guide the distribution of the EU Structural Funds in years 2014-2020. It includes under measure 3.2.4 funding instruments, intended to stimulate the cooperation between business and scientific organisations, as well as explicit requirements to form business-science consortia and support for open innovations. Specific funds will also be dedicated to launch awareness campaigns, promotion and training, focused on encouraging the cooperation between business enterprises and scientific institutions.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || INNOTECH programme IniTech programme || 2013 || The INNOTECH programme supports the transfer of R&D into the economy while supporting undertakings carried out in different fields of science and different branches of industry. The IniTech programme supports the co-operation between science and industry by funding joint applied R&D projects.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || The NCBiR Innovation Creator Programme || 2008 || The Innovation Creator Programme motivates financially researchers to raise their qualifications in the areas of enterprise, intellectual property management and commercialisation of research results. Its purpose is to stimulate actions taken by public research organisations and businesses in order to commercialise scientific knowledge and know-how through: intensifying information, educational and training activity related to the commercialisation of scientific knowledge and know-how, promoting and propagating entrepreneurship among students, graduates, university staff and researchers. It also encourages the establishment of a dialogue and improved standards of communication between the science and commercial sector. The Program is expected to contribute to the increase in number of commercialised technologies and solutions and to develop a network of units aimed at supporting entrepreneurship among scientists. It offers support for technology transfer efforts and creation of enabling environments.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || The NCBiR Programme "SPIN-TECH" || 2012 || The "SPIN-TECH" programme supports the launch of special-purpose companies, established by universities to commercialise research results.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || The  NCBiR Programme "BRIdge VC" || 2013 || The BRIdge VC programme supports innovative technology ventures from public sources with co-funding from VC funds, including foreign VCs. Some of NCBiR programs are co-funded by technological platforms or business enterprises, and business are directly involved in an oversight of these initiatives.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || The GRAF-TECH Programme The BLUE – GAS POLISH SHALE Gas Programme || 2011 || The GRAF-TECH programme is addressed to the scientific consortia (a consortium has to consist of at least one scientific unit and at least one entrepreneur) and industrial-scientific centres undertaking research activities and preparatory work connected with implementation and aimed at elaborating innovative graphene-based products. The main aim of the GRAF-TECH Programme is increasing the innovativeness of Polish economy through practical use of results of research on graphene aimed at elaboration and implementation of innovative solutions based on the use of this material. The BLUE-– GAS POLISH SHALE GAS Programme is a joint undertaking of National Centre for Research and Development (NCBiR) and Industrial Development Agency. It is focused on supporting integrated large R&D projects, testing results in pilot scale and commercialization of innovative technologies in the area of shale gas extraction. Main aim of the programme: development of technologies related to shale gas extraction in Poland and their implementation by companies operating in Poland. Specific aim of programme: encouraging entrepreneurs to invest in R&D activity. Programme addressees: research-industrial consortia.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Program "Top 500 Innovators Science - Management - Commercialisation" || 2011 || The Ministry of Science and Higher Education manages the program "Top 500 Innovators Science - Management - Commercialisation", which involves 9-weeks training sessions for 500 young researchers and employees of technology transfer centers of universities, helping acquire competences that support commercialisation of research results, and the program covers the period of 2011-2015.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Program "Innovation Brokers" || 2013 || The programme "Innovation Brokers" relies on an innovative use of public funds to cover costs of hiring technology brokers by public universities in order to help them commercialise selected research results. Part of the funding is conditional on the outcomes of commercialisation processes, additionally increasing motivation to close the sales or licensing deals.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || The NCBiR Programmes: LIDER Programme; KadTech Programme; DEMONSTRATOR+ Programme || || The purpose of the LIDER Programme is to help young scientists learn how to plan research on their own, manage and lead their own research team while carrying out projects likely to be implemented on the market. The LIDER Programme is also aimed at encouraging scientists to cooperate with businesses while performing economically valuable and implementable studies and research and enhancing mobility and exchange between research sectors, universities and research units. The KadTech Programme supports the secondments of scientists in business enterprises The DEMONSTRATOR+ Programme supports demonstration of R&D results to support effective transfer from science to industry.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || Draft Operational Program "Smart Growth" (POIR), measure 3.3.5 || 2013 || In the next programming period of the EU Structural Funds, the Operational Program "Smart Growth" (POIR) intends to fund the development of ICT infrastructure, needed for open access to scientific publications as well as measures to allow better use of Ris.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (PSNC) affiliated with the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry at the Polish Academy of Sciences || 1993 || The Centre's mission is to integrate and develop the information infrastructure for science. PSNC is the leader in implementing innovative technologies for the national scientific network POL-34/155/622, at present in the network PIONIER – Polish Optical Internet.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || Virtual Library of Science || 2010 || The electronic identity of researchers is implemented by Virtual Library of Science, which is available to all universities in Poland and helps log into multiple publication databases by means of institutional or individual authentication. The Virtual Library of Science (VLS) has over 10 thousand full text articles downloaded daily.

Portugal

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Planned reform of the System of Fiscal Incentives to R&I in the Industry || 2013 || A planned reform of the System of Fiscal Incentives to R&I in the Industry in 2013 intends to make public funding to the industry's R&D more rigorous, positively discriminating projects that imply cooperation with other entities and international cooperation, and open access to the results.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || R&D Units || 2007 || R&D Units is a system of incentives for the creation of R&D units in business firms. It gives support to projects aimed at enhancing the productivity, competitiveness and integration into the global market through the creation of R&D units in firms.  A call for the evaluation and competitive funding for research units will be launched soon, after a public consultation to the scientific community. It aims ultimately at promoting more effective models of organization of the national science and technology system, a more rational use of resources and of infrastructures and improved synergies between the production and use of knowledge.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || R&D projects - Projects of Scientic and Technological Development Research || || The R&D Projects of Scientic and Technological Development Research provide funding to reasearch by  HEI (high education institutions) , public labs and the research non-profit sector.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || R&D projects - Projects of Scientic and Technological Development Research || || The allocation of funding of the R&D projects is based on evaluations following international peer review standards. The evaluation of applications for research projects is carried out by panels of independent evaluators, involving national and foreign experts.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Creation of the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) || 2005 || The International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) is the first fully international research organisation in Europe in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Several countries are interested in cooperating (China and Brazil, for instance).

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Design of the National Roadmap for Research Infrastructures || 2013 || Portugal is analysing the possible alignment of national research infrastructures with ESFRI's Roadmap, and a national consultation was launched recently. Ris of strategic interest will be identified in the first semester of 2013 through a public competition and it is foreseen to have the roadmap ready in the second semester of 2013.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Statute of University Teaching Career || 1979 || The Statute of University Teaching Career, adopted in 1979 and amended in 2009, regulates the academic career at the universities. According to its Article 37, the competitions for the recruitment of full professors, associate professors and assistant professors should be open to foreigners.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Programme 'FCT Researcher' || 2013 || The Programme 'FCT Researcher' provides funding to a pool of researchers selected annually by means of competitions open to researchers internationally. The aim of this programme is to invest in human capital, ensure that the best researchers in Portugal remain in the country and attract researchers from abroad. In 2012, 155 researchers were selected and it is foreseen that around 1600 researchers will benefit from this programme by 2016. However, there is no open call in 2013 yet.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Regulation for Grants awarded by the Foundation for Science and Technology || 2012 || The Regulation for Grants awarded by the Foundation for Science and Technology, amended in 2012, regulates the selection, hiring and legal regime applicable to all research fellows, funded directly or indirectly by the Science and Technology Foundation (FCT). Article 14 foresees that candidates applying for the grants awarded by the Science and Technology Foundation can be nationals, EU citizens or non-EU citizens but holders of permanent residence or beneficiaries of the status of long-term residents in Portugal.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || Euraxess in Portugal || || EURAXESS Portugal, operated by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), provides information and support to researchers moving to and from Portugal and publishes research job vacancies.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Programme of Applied Research and Technology Transfer to the Industry || 2012 || The Programme of Applied Research and Technology Transfer to the Industry provides support to doctoral training, funding for post-docs in the industry and foresees national competitions to provide scholarships for PhD's in the areas defined in the R&D Strategy for Smart Specialisation.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || FCT PhD Programmes || 2012 || FCT PhD Programs provide funding to PhD programs, including courses, laboratory rotations or other types of field work that may be necessary to achieve the scientific aims of the PhD programs in question. The funding of the selected PhD programmes is limited to four years. FCT’s current call for Doctoral Programs, which corresponds to the creation of structured doctoral training programs, is in line to the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || New typology and diversity of doctoral programs || 2012 || Regarding doctoral education, a new typology and diversity of doctoral programs is applicable since 2012, with an increased scope of grants' typologies.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Fourth National Plan for Equality, Gender, Citizenship and Non-discrimination (2011-2013) || 2011 || The Fourth National Plan for Equality, Gender, Citizenship and Non-discrimination (2011-2013) aims at promoting equality as a trigger for competitiveness and development.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || L’Oréal Portugal Medals of Honor for Women in Science || || Portugal hosts annually the L’Oréal Portugal Medals of Honor for Women in Science, intended for the study of advanced scientific research at post-doctoral level, in Portuguese universities or other institutions of recognised merit in the field of Health Sciences and Environmental Sciences.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Strategy for Intellectual Property in R&D projects || || The Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) is developing in coordination with the main Intellectual Property stakeholder an intellectual property policy for R&D projects financed through the main science funding agency.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP) || 2008 || The Scientific Open Access Repository of Portugal (RCAAP) is an online portal that gives access to thousands of scientific and scholarly publications, namely journal articles, conference papers, thesis and dissertations, which are provided by several Portuguese repositories.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || DeGóis Curricula Platform || 2008 || The DeGóis Curricula Platform is a portal where researchers can upload information on their profile, academic activities, prizes and awards, scientific productions and projects.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || b-on - Online Knowledge Library || 2005 || b-on or the Online Knowledge Library  allows for unlimited access of researchers and research organisations to over 16,750 scientific international publications through subscriptions initially negotiated  by the Portuguese government with 16 publishers.


Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || GAIN - Global Innovation Acceleration Network || 2013 || GAIN - Global Innovation Acceleration Network is a national structure for innovation acceleration and technology transfer. It results from a partnership between the Ministry of the Economy and the Ministry of Education and Science. The programme will extend the work and scope of the existing UTEN (University Technology Enterprise Network, a network of professional Technology Transfer Offices focused on the commercialization and internationalization of Portuguese S&T).

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || eduGAIN || || Portugal has signed the policy to join eduGAIN through RCTSaai.

Romania

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || || Draft National Strategy for Research, Technological Development and Innovation (2014-2020) || || Romanian authorities are currently in the process of elaborating the National Strategy. The finalisation is due for October 2013.

More effective national research systems || || Draft National Plan for Research, Development and Innovation 2014-2020 || || Romanian authorities are currently in the process of elaborating the national plan. The finalisation is due for October 2013.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Education Law no. 1/5 January 2011 || 2011 || Allocation of institutional funding to universities should be based on the results of institutional classification and ranking. However, the current reform has not be finalised and changes to institutional funding for universities have not been enacted yet.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Governmental Decision no. 789/2011, Methodology for classification of universities and ranking of programme studies, according to the provision of the Law on National Education no. 1/ 5 January 2011 || 2011 || Sets up the methodology for the classification of universities and ranking of programme studies which determines allocation of institutional funding. However, the changes to institutional funding have not been enacted yet.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Governmental Decision no. 1062 /19 October 2011 regarding the methodology for the evaluation in view of classification of the units and organisations of the national R&D system || 2011 || Evaluation and classification of national R&D institutes and changes to institutional funding. The evaluators should include at least 50% foreign experts selected from EU/OECD countries. Only certified RDI units can benefit of a new system of basic institutional financing. However, this reform has not resulted in the reduction of the number of R&D units which qualify for funding. It is not clear to how extent this reform will introduce competitive allocation of institutional funding.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || National Plan for Research Development and Innovation (2007-2013) || 2007 || Project-based funding is allocated based on evaluation in line with the principle of international peer review.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Government Decision no. 133/2011 || 2007 || Projects within the National Plan for Research Development and Innovation (2007-2013) are funded based on evaluation following the core principle of international peer review.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Joint programmes and bilateral agreements || || Romania has research programmes and bilateral agreements inter alia with France, Switzerland, Norway, Island and Liechtenstein and actively participates to the International Centre for Advanced Studies Danube-Danube Delta-Black Sea.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Ensure mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to international peer-review standards as a basis for national funding decisions || Joint programmes and bilateral agreements || || Romania routinely implements this mechanism as part of its joint programmes or bilateral agreements. By way of example, projects financed under the Swiss-Romanian cooperation programme are entirely evaluated in Switzerland.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Ensure mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to international peer-review standards as a basis for national funding decisions || ERA-like projects || || The ERA-like grant scheme provides grants to researchers who have obtained excellent results in the ERC competition but have not secured ERC funding.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || National Roadmap for Research Infrastructures || 2007 || Defines a national roadmap for research infrastructures

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || Euraxess Romania || || Contributes to the implementation of Euraxess services

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Education Law no. 1/ 5 January 2011 || 2011 || Introduces changes to the organisation of doctoral research programmes with the creation of doctoral schools and supports researchers' mobility.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Governmental Decision 681/2011 regarding the Code for university doctoral studies || 2011 || Provide a reference framework for the organisation of doctoral schools and common principles for ensuring proper quality of doctoral studies.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Government Ordinance 92/ 18.12.2012 regarding some measures in higher education and research || 2012 || Changes to the doctoral training system.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Provision of the Law of National Education (Law 1/2011) regarding the post-doctoral research studies || 2011 || Reform of postdoctoral advanced studies.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Measures supporting doctoral and post-doctoral schools of excellence || || Supports the development of an attractive doctoral training system.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Sectoral Operational Programme "Development of Human Resources", Doctoral and post-doctoral schools || 2009 || Supports the development of an attractive doctoral training system.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Governmental Ordinance 111/2010 regarding the leave and monthly financial support for child raising || 2011 || Supports career breaks for PhD candidates.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || ANCS Decision no. 9039/01 March 2012 and no. 9038/01 March 2012 (information package and minimis aid scheme for innovation vouchers) || || Supports knowledge transfer between research institutes and SMEs.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Funding for research universities/institutes – enterprises partnerships through the National RDI Plan 2007-2013 & SOP Increase of Economic Competitiveness || || Supports public-private linkages. Financing of partnerships between research universities/institutes and enterprises.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || National RDI Plan (2007-2013) and the SOP Increase of Economic Competitiveness: support to public-private partnerships || || Support to companies involved in public private partnerships with universities and research institutes.

Slovakia

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || The Fenix Strategy: Update of the Long-Term Objective of the State Science and Technology Policy up to 2015 (adopted by Government Resolution 461/2011) Minerva 2.0 for the knowledge-based economy || 2011 || Between 2010-2011 MESRS drafted the “The Fenix Strategy: Update of the Long-Term Objective of the State Science and Technology Policy up to 2015”  and the Ministry of Finance “Minerva 2.0 for the knowledge-based economy”. The documents tried to integrate research and innovation policies, and suggest a range of institutional reforms for increasing quality of higher education and research, notably: reforming some key research performer institutions (the Research and Development Agency –RDA -and the SAS); implementing more efficient and transparent evaluation techniques; internationalisation of the Slovak R&D system; defining national priorities in building large-scale R&D infrastructures compatible with the ESFRI roadmap; creating a national system for technology transfers; introducing new programmes supporting new technology-based firms and innovation-oriented research and re-allocating finance provided by the Operational Programme Research and Development towards large-scale projects with strategic importance and removing administrative hurdles related to calls and projects supported by the Structural Funds. The MESRS and the ME started preparatory works on the respective R&D and Innovation Strategies for planning period 2014-2020. The strategies should be ready in 2013. The

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || New Model of Financing Science and Technology in the Slovak Republic || 2010 || The support is primarily channelled to infrastructure building, applied research, and international scientific-technical cooperation.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Strategy for excellent science, research and development || 2013 || The Slovak Republic will focus on the development of excellent science, research and development to resolve society-wide problems, and address problems of the industry sector, and industry-initiated research and development. Via amendments to different legislative acts (among others the Act on Research and Development Incentives and the Act on the Organisation of State Support for Research and Development) Slovakia envisages to provide long-term, effective, predictable and stable funding; increase private funding in research and innovation; set in place clear and transparent criteria for the funding of projects; link institutional assessment to cooperation with the private sector and quality recruitment; foster mobility between the public and the private research sector; focus on excellence and prioritise the societal challenges fields and applied research for industry needs.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Competitive grants || 2000 || There are two types of national research grants, managed by the Scientific Grant Agency (VEGA) and the Research and Development Agency (RDA) with money from the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sports (MESRS) and the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS). The VEGA grants support basic research in HEIs and the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS). The RDA grants are allocated for basic and applied research in all HEIs, SAS and private research bodies. Competitive funding accounted for 17.5% in 2011. (The 2005-2011 annual reports on R&D, the 2006-2012 VEGA reports and the 2005-2013 State Budget Laws.)

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Institutional funding || || Institutional funding supports basic research in HEIs and is provided directly (via block grants) from the state budget divisions. Block transfers acconted for 82.5% of the total HEIs funding in 2011. Total volume of institutional funding from state budget was €145.02m in 2012.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Evaluation procedures and criteria for the 2010-2012 general call || 2010 || All national public competitive funding is subject to peer review. The rules for the VEGA and RDA grants require that one peer should be a foreign researcher. The Structural Funds' projects are evaluated by domestic evaluators only.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Rules of evaluation by the Accreditation Commission for the HEIs and the Slovak Academy of Sciences Act 131/2002 on Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) || 2007 || The higher education institutions (HEIs) are evaluated every six years by the Accreditation Commission of MESRS. The composition and responsibilities of the Commission are set by the 131/2002 Law on Higher Education. The Accreditation Commission evaluated 20 public, four private and three state HEIs in 2009-2010. MESRS plans to have new criteria for HEI accreditation including excellence starting with 2014. The institutes of the Slovak Academy of Sciences have been evaluated regularly by their own Accreditation Commission from 1992 onwards. The latest evaluation has been taking place in 2012 based on indicators prepared by the independent Academic Ranking and Rating Agency which were used for the first time. The SAS may re-distribute only 5% of total wage budget based on the evaluation result. Foreign experts sit in both Accreditation Commissions.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Joint Programming Initiatives, Article 185 COST, EUREKA || 2010 || Slovakia participates as a member in three JPIs, among those the Joint Programming on Combating Neurodegenerative Diseases, in particular Alzheimer's. The challenge is mentioned in the 2010 New Model of Financing Science and Technology in the Slovak Republic. The ‘New Model’ sets the MESRS responsible for participation in this cross-border initiative and budget €1m. Slovakia also participates in two Article 185 initiatives and continues supporting a limited number of projects within COST and EUREKA programmes. Total cost of multilateral co-operation was €11.16, of which membership fees €9.90m and project costs €1.26m in 2011.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Information on International Co-operation in Science and Technology in 2011 (MESRS 2012) || 2012 || The document contains some policy recommendations on multilateral co-operation in S&T: (a) Slovakia should maintain its membership in multilateral S&T joint research agendas despite high membership cost; (b) Slovakia should consider joining the European Space Agency; c) Slovakia must increase intensity of co-operation under EUREKA, European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC) and ESFRI

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Bilateral co-operation in science and technology || 1980 || The Information on International Co-operation in Science and Technology in 2011 (MESRS 2012) summarises bilateral and multilateral schemes in S&T co-operation managed by the Research and Development Agency.  The bilateral schemes supported 159 projects (€0.31m) with eight ERA countries (Austria, Romania, the Czech Republic, France, Poland, Italy, Portugal and Slovenia) and 43 projects (€0.12m) with three other countries (China, Ukraine, Serbia) in 2011.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || The Visegrad fund || 2000 || The Visegrad fund promotes research cooperation with the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Republic of Poland, and the Slovak Republic. It provides research grants from a common pot contribution of all countries involved.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Participation in ESFRI Activities Participation in infrastructures of European interest || || By 2012 Slovakia participated through MESRS and its agencies in nine ESFRI projects (CLARIN, ESS Survey, EPOS, Erinha, INSTRUCT, ESRF Upgrade, European XFEL, ILL 20/20). It also participates in six out of eight largest inter-governmental scientific research organisations that are responsible for infrastructures and laboratories (CERN, EFDA-JET, EMBL, ESA, ESO, ESRF, European XFEL and ILL). The most important initiatives related to the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN, €5.53m) and the European X-Ray Laser Project (XFEL, €3.18). The most important agreements outside the ERA referred to Slovakia’s participation in the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna (Russia). Infrastructure projects are funded from the Structural Funds.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Infrastructure of Research and Development - strategy and draft roadmap || 2011 || "The Fenix Strategy: Update of the Long-Term Objective of the State Science and Technology Policy up to 2015” lists RI among the main priorities. In 2010 MESRS drafted the ‘National Research Infrastructures Roadmap’. The Structural Funds provide over 95% of total support to R&D infrastructure in Slovakia till 2015.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Centre of Excellence Programme || 2007 || RDA launched the Centre of Excellence Programme in science and engineering in 2007. The programme supported investments to R&D infrastructure up to 70% of total costs. Seven Centres of Excellence received total support €4.3m, of which capital expenditure €1.3m.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || The Cyclotron Centre || 1999 || The Cyclotron Centre probably is the largest national research infrastructure project. The Centre was established by the Slovak Government Resolution No. 659/99 of 4 April 1999. The Slovak Office of Standards, Metrology and Testing (SOSMT) has been building the centre and co-operating with the Ministries of Education, Economy and Defence.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to cross-border access to Research Infrastructures || Bilateral and multilateral co-operation in science and technology || || Access to Slovak research infrastructure is provided for foreign researchers under bilateral and multilateral schemes in S&T co-operation.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Act 131/2002 on Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) Act 133/2002 on the Slovak Acedemy of Sciences (SAS) || 2002 || The law entails that Slovak HEIs are self-governing institutions and can recruit researchers according to their needs, regardless of their nationality. Foreign researchers may apply for permanent jobs (including managerial) with SAS, HEIs and public research institutions. Candidates for directors of the SAS institutes are elected by the academic staff and appointed by the SAS presidium. Many institutions require candidate to be fluent in Slovak. HEI teachers and research workers are considered civil servants, therefore civil servant laws apply.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Amendment of Act 131/2002 on Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) || 2012 || Candidate and assistant professors should meet more stringent (bibliometric-based) criteria. Excellent scholars who comply with the said criteria should encounter as little obstacles as possible when applying for positions of a professor or assistant professor.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || General labour market measures The 404/2001 Law on Residence by Foreigners The Decree of the Government of the Slovak Republic No. 391/2004 Draft amendment of Law on Qualification Degree Documents || 2011 || The Slovak Republic already adopted a number of initiatives promoting an open labour market for researchers. The Decree of the Government of the Slovak Republic No. 391/2004 enables access to Slovak labour market to citizens of all EU member states without any restrictions. The 404/2001 Law on Residence by Foreigners entered into force on 1st January 2012 and replaced the outdated 48/2002 Law on Residence by Foreigners. The law incorporated regulations of two Council Directives: the 2009/50/EC Directive of 25 May 2009 ‘The Blue Card Directive’ enabling for easier access by highly skilled third-country nationals to Slovak labour market and the 2009/52/EC Directive of 18 June 2009 sanctioning illegal employment by the third country nationals. It included the ‘research and development permit’. The MESRS drafted in October 2012 an amendment of Law on Qualification Degree Documents which makes mutual recognition of degrees easier for citizens of Slovakia, and European and third country nationals.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Fenix Strategy, Update of the Long-term Objective of the State S&T Policy up to 2015 || 2011 || The Fenix strategy (update of The 2007 Long-term Objective of the State S&T Policy up to 2015 (Phoenix Strategy) includes Measure 3.8: ‘Internationalisation in the area of R&D’. The measure supports attracting prominent foreign scientists and foreign research institutions to Slovakia.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Human Resources in Research and Development and Popularisation (2006-2010) || 2006 || The programme aimed at increasing the R&D job opportunities and improving researchers’ working conditions at a post-doc level while promoting the international collaborations between the national and foreign R&D institutions.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || The 172/2005 Law on Organisation of State support to R&D || 2005 || The 172/2005 Law on Organisation of State support to R&D enables the participation by foreign researchers in Slovak research programmes. National funding for R&D is reserved for the Slovak nationals and/or HEIs and research bodies established in the Slovak Republic, except for the bilateral and multilateral co-operation programmes.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || EURAXESS Slovakia || 2004 || The Slovak Academic and Information Agency manages the Slovak version of the EURAXESS webpage. The EURAXESS offers its services in Bratislava and four other regional capitals. All services of the EURAXESS Network are free of charge. Job vacancies in HEIs and the SAS have been published only in Slovakia so far. The Slovak public authorities plan to publish job vacancies in Slovakia and other countries on relevant Europe-wide online platforms (including EURAXESS) and use the English language (Deloitte 2012). EURAXESS already published job vacancies outside Slovakia in 2012. For Slovak nationals wishing to work abroad,  EURAXESS organised a number of seminars and workshops on mobility by the PhD students and research workers. For foreign nationals wishing to work in Slovakia EURAXESS published practical information on entry conditions and legal stay, health insurance, social security, taxation, recognition of diplomas and qualifications, and daily life

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || The European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers || 2011 || Two national research organisations signed the Charter for Researchers in Slovakia, the Rectors of the Slovak Higher Education Institutions and the Slovak Academy of Sciences. These two bodies represent about 80% of the total researchers in Slovakia. The Slovak Republic participated in the ERA-SGHRM Working Group on "Human Resources issues, including the HRS4R’ (European Commission).

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || The Slovak Constitution (2001) The Labour Code Law (Law No. 311/2001) The 365/2004 Antidiscrimination Law || 2004 || The Slovak Republic adopted a number of legislative measures to ensure gender equality. Gender equality is mentioned in the Slovak Constitution (2001), the Labour Code Law (2001) and the 365/2004 Antidiscrimination Law. All women in Slovakia are entitled up to the 3 years maternity leave and the law guarantees return to the same type of work after that. The only exception from this rule is the fixed-term contract, which does not guarantee right for returning to the same type of work after the maternity leave.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Central Information Portal for Science and Technology || 2004 || The Central Information Portal for Science and Technology publishes information of Slovak female scientists: success stories, interviews and profiles of excellent Slovak female researchers. The information is part of the Popularisation of Science Strategy. The portal encompasses information on (i) Slovak R&D funding agencies (RDA, VEGA, KEGA), (ii) European finance for R&D (Operational Programme Research and Development, FP7, COST, EUREKA, European Science Foundation), (iii) European Institute of Technology and Innovation, (iv) EURAXESS, (v) international co-operation in science and technology.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Operational Programme Research and Development projects: National information system supporting research and development in Slovakia Infrastructure for research and development - Data centre for research and development || 2009 || The Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information (SCST) is the national information centre and specialised scientific library of the Slovak Republic. It implements two projects financed from Structural Funds through the Operational Programme Research and Development. The first one is the ‘National information system supporting research and development in Slovakia’ invests €19.9m in the period 2009-2014. It collects, stores and maintains data on research projects funded from public sources, data on research project outputs and a register of R&D organisations and database of research personnel.  Since 2010 theses and dissertations are included and those submitted after 1.9.2011 are publicly accessible (according to amendment of Act on Higher Education). A new research information system SK CRIS (CRIS = Current Research Information System) will become operational shortly and contain a publications repository. The second one is the Data Centre for Research and Development a €33m project for period 2008-2014. It will store and process the complex information essential for R&D in Slovakia and provide auxiliary services. An infrastructure for electronic communications on R&D will also be included in these services and most probably also an infrastructure for instant access to these services and safety of the operation. These projects provide access to the scientific community, university students and businesses

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Establishment conditions to foster cooperation between academy and industry Reassessment of IP rules || 2013 || IP rules are set by Act 435/2001 about patents and supplementary protection certificates and Act 618/2003 on copyright and acts related to copyright. Institutional arrangements and legislative conditions will be created to improve public private sector research cooperation (financial and organisational arrangements and human capital) by means of partnerships, joint ventures and long-term contracts. Moreover, IPR rules and procedures will be reassessed to increase their effectiveness and predictability, drawing on the conditions created by a single EU patent. A stable system environment will be provided to encourage the transfer of knowledge to practice. Workplaces must manage administrative contacts and exchange of information between R&D facilities and businesses.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Strategy to create a national technology transfer system || 2013 || There is a strategy to create a national technology transfer system, by creating a National Technology Transfer Centre at SCST, with technology transfer centres at universities, research institutes and the SAS as well as locally and a National Patent Fund to finance IPR protection. This strategy should be financed via Structural Funds and the State Budget.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Operational Programme Research and Development project: Transfer of knowledge and technology from research and development into practice || 2008 || The Slovak Government implemented two national projects promoting knowledge transfer: The ‘Transfer of knowledge and technology from research and development into practice'  project invests €226.9m in period 2008-2013 and supports (i) building University science parks and research centres with Slovak HEIs and the Slovak Academy of Sciences; (ii) applied research projects; and (iii) R&D co-operation projects. The ‘National infrastructure supporting technology transfer in Slovakia’ project implemented via SCST, invests €8.2m in period 2010-2014 to support for RTD results application in social and economic praxis by the establishment of technology transfer centres in Slovak Universities and public research organisations. It aims to establish a National Portal for Technology Transfer.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || MESRS call supporting five clusters initiatives || 2012 || The 2011 Innovation Policy suggested several new policy measures, amongst those the ‘Support to the Industrial Cluster Organisations’ scheme. The MESRS launched a ‘tailor-made’ call supporting five incumbent clusters in October 2012. Support is designed for the five most important clusters in following areas: industrial production lines (€80,000), information technologies (€60,000), robotics and automation systems (€60,000), biodegradable plastics (€30,000), and construction, mining and wood processing machinery (€20,000). The applicants have to prove co-operation with the Slovak Universities and the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || Slovak Academic Network (SANET). || 1992 || The policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services are implemented by the Slovak Academic Network (SANET). SANET is the NREN GÉANT project partner for Slovakia. It is an independent civil association (non-profit body), members of which agreed with conditions to provide each other with Internet services. By 2013 the SANET had 322 members (including all Slovak Universities, institutes of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, scientific libraries, 170 primary and secondary schools and several state institutions and municipalities). The SANET is self-managed, but the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sports subsidises SANET services for high schools and universities. The SANET implemented four important projects in 2012: (a) ‘‘SANET2’ project aimed at building high-speed (100 gigabyte) network for Slovak academic community. The network became a member of GEANT trans-European network and the Internet (assigned through resolution N° 383/2001 of the Slovakian Government); (b) Implementing the Eduroam services. The Eduroam (education roaming) is the secure, world-wide roaming access service developed for the international research and education community. Eduroam allows students, researchers and staff from participating institutions to obtain Internet connectivity across campus, and when visiting other participating institutions by simply opening their laptop. © Issuing TERENA Certificate Service (TCS). (d) SANET for Schools’ project aimed at extending infrastructure of the e-services from higher education and academic institutions to public authorities and secondary schools in 77 Slovak cities

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || Membership of the TERENA network TLS/SSL server certificates via SANET TCS Server || 2011 || Slovakia is a member of the TERENA network and is represented via the SANET (Slovak Academic Network). In 2011 the SANET joined the TERENA Certificate Service (TCS) and started provision of TLS/SSL server certificates issued by Comodo CA Limited. The 2012 TERENA compendium states that there were some 38 HEIs, 20 research institutes, 7 institutes of further education, 250 secondary schools, 100 primary schools and 6 libraries connected to TERENA in 2012 in Slovakia.

Slovenia

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Law on Research and Development || 2011 || This framework law provides a basis for national publicly funded R&D activities. It provides the basis for main funding instruments and defines executive agencies for funding research and technological development activities.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Research and Innovation Strategy of Slovenia || 2011 || The Strategy (2011-2020) provides for effective governance of the Research and Development system; high-quality research in the public sector; establishment of adequate research infrastructures for stimulating the development of Research and Development; further linkage of science and markets by turning innovative products into marketable products; and enhancement and promotion of a knowledge-based society.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || National Reform Programme || 2013 || It proposes more efficient governance structures. It suggests enhanced cooperation between universities and public research institutes with increased mobility between sectors, and further integration of universities and complementary institutes.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Research and Innovation Strategy of Slovenia || 2011 || It supports further development and internationalisation of the peer review system. It stimulates cooperation between national and international funding organisations to harmonise evaluation procedures (e.g. lead agency principle).

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Methodology for evaluating applications, adopted by the Slovenian Research Agency to calls for proposals || 2008 || The key objective is to set the methodologies for the evaluation of all proposals applying to competitive calls. The system is constantly improved, in line with societal demands.

More effective national research systems || Support through the Smart Specialisation Platform Member States and regions in using Structural Funds to develop research capacity and smart specialisation strategies, including support to joint research programmes, in line with Cohesion Policy objectives || National smart specialisation strategy || 2013 || The preparation of the RIS3 strategy is in a stage of public consultation. In line with EC guidelines the documents shall be the result of broad public consultation and define priority areas for further investments in the field of R&D.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Research and Innovation Strategy of Slovenia || 2011 || The activities identified in this section of the strategy are already implemented. International co-operation is increasing.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Research and Innovation Strategy of Slovenia Research Infrastructure Roadmap || 2011 || These measures make provisions for funding mechanisms for the operation, management, maintenance and systematic support of research infrastructure consortia to enable their successful operation. The Strategy indicates that Slovenia should establish its own RI, should co-operate in international RI projects, and "bring home" one of the key EU research infrastructure head office.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || National Reform Programme || 2013 || The Research Infrastructure Plan is being implemented. Slovenia is joining to at least five ESFRI projects in 2013.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to cross-border access to Research Infrastructures || Research and Innovation Strategy of Slovenia || 2011 || It proposes to open up the use of all publicly funded Research and Development infrastructures, in order to attract interested researchers. Overview of publicly funded research infrastructure is available in Slovenian Current Research Information System (SICRIS). A joint portal is not yet implemented.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Research and Innovation Strategy of Slovenia || 2011 || It presents framework conditions to enhance researchers' mobility as for example, by eliminating administrative, technical and tax barriers for international mobility in both directions; establishing systematic measures to encourage international mobility in both directions, inter alia; and supporting international compatibility of researchers' qualifications recognition mechanisms. It also requires more systematic public calls for new job openings. The Ministry supports the building of the Slovene network of partners to the EURAXESS project and takes part in the activities of the ERA SGHRM Working Groups. At national level the Ministry has provided support to several amendments to the national regulation which covers the entry conditions for foreign researchers and the conditions for their stay and employment in the country.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Research and Innovation Strategy of Slovenia || 2011 || It proposes to remove the barriers hindering cross-border access of national grants and opening of tenders to participants from EU and third countries. The Slovenian Research Agency and Ad Futura-Public fund publish calls open for foreign researchers. The National Young Researchers Programme is to a certain degree compatible with foreign scholarships, as for instance Marie S. Curie donations, and enables short stays of young Slovenian researchers abroad.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || Euraxess SI || || Euraxess SI provides services for national and foreign researchers. The services are provided by the Center of the Republic of Slovenia for mobility and European educational and training programmes.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Co-financing of PhD training programme || 2010 || Co-financing of PhD studies in various fields, with special emphasis in the field of research-business collaboration and current issues of modern society.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Research and Innovation Strategy of Slovenia || 2011 || It seeks to establish a strategy for the rejuvenation of HR in Research and Development based on merit, and to elaborate the ethical code of conduct of the Research and Development activities. Universities from Slovenia and several other research institutions have joined the process of implementing the principles arising from the European Charter for Researchers and from the Code of Conduct for the Employment of Researchers. They have acquired the acknowledgement for Excellence in Human Resources, which means that they implement their institutional strategies for the development of human resources in science.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Principle of Equal Treatment Act || 2004 || Its principles include gender among the grounds.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Research and Innovation Strategy of Slovenia || 2011 || A section in the strategy is devoted to the improvement of career opportunities for researchers, and inclusion of the gender equality principle in the HR Research and Development system.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || GENDER-NET (ERA-NET project) || 2013 || In order to become an active partner in the Partnership to foster cultural and institutional change on gender, the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport has become partner in GENDER-NET which will start in autumn 2013.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Ensure that at least 40% of the under-represented sex participate in committees involved in recruitment/career progression and in establishing and evaluating research programmes || Normative act of Slovenian Research Agency (SRA) || 2008 || Rules for the composition of committees involved in project/programme evaluation (Expert system) at Slovenian Research Agency state that each thematic committee should be composed of at least one third of each gender with the exception of committee for technical sciences in which they should be one fifth.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Development centres Centres of excellence Competence centres || 2010 || Development centres of the Slovenian economy at sectoral and regional level are projects of the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology. The projects combine the critical mass of knowledge from individual fields and infrastructure for the further development and formation of new companies. Centres of excellence (CoE) aim at strengthening quality and co-operation, building critical mass and linking up to top centres abroad through partnerships between industrial partners and academia. Competence centres (CCs) link science and industry and give a strong role to industrial partners, applied research and industrial networks.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || Research and Innovation Strategy of Slovenia Research Infrastructure Roadmap || 2011 || A national repository of scientific information should be established and  the dLib system - currently focusing mostly the preservation of cultural heritage- should be expanded to all scientific fields. The RISS proposes to link two already established systems: dLib and COBISS and to create a new database, which will be used as a repository for scientific and research information, outcomes etc.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || eduGAIN || || Slovenia is candidate to join eduGAIN through ArnesAAI,

Spain

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Law of Science, Technology and Innovation (LCTI 2011) || 2011 || The Law of Science, Technology and Innovation (LCTI 2011) is the general framework around which the general lines for the promotion and overall coordination of scientific and technical research are established.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Spanish Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation (EESTI) (2013-2020) || 2013 || The Spanish Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation (EESTI) (2013-2020) presents the conceptual framework for the design of R&D&i policies in Spain, agreed by the Spain goverment and Regional Communities, and secures coordination with the R&D&i European Union policies.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Spanish State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation (PECTI) (2013-2016) || 2013 || The new Spanish State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation or PECTI (2013-2016), as it implements the Spanish Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation, aims at increasing the role of competitive funding. Most of the funds will be allocated through competitive mechanisms. It promotes competitive funding through calls for proposals as the main mode of allocating public funds to R&D. PECTI establishes a short-term and medium-term planning for R&D&i activities from the Spanish goverment, financed by competitive funding including grants and loans.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || Spanish State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation” (PECTI) (2013-2016) || 2013 || The new Plan implementing the Spanish Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation 2013-2020 foresees increasing international peer review through its programmes of support to R&D Centers of Excellence. . Evaluations are still usually done by domestic experts. The Plan aims at increasing the role of international peers in the evaluation exercises mainly concerning basic science. In the last four years, international peer review has been implemented mainly within the context of research excellence programmes such as Ramón y  Cajal, Consolider y Severo Ochoa.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Joint Programming Initiatives Article 185 initiatives || || Spain coordinates one Joint Programming Initiative (Water Challenges for a Changing World), is member in eight others initiatives and is an observer in (Urban Europe - Global Challenges, Local Solutions). Spain is also involved in 3 articles 185, with one participant leading one of them.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions including cooperation with non-EU countries where relevant || Bilateral and multilateral agreements in research || || Spain has several bilateral and multilateral agreements with various countries’ research funding agencies and organisms (i.e. US, Japan, Canada, Brazil), in different research areas. Spain also belongs to certain international scientific organizations, like the International Council for Science (ICSU).

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || National research infrastructure roadmap || || Published in 2010 and currently in the process of revision.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to cross-border access to Research Infrastructures || Law of Science, Technology and Innovation - LCTI 2011 || 2011 || The Law of Science, Technology and Innovation from 2011 includes a provision (additional provision number 17) to remove legal barriers to access research infrastructures, in conformity with EU provisions. This issue is addressed as a critical dimension for fostering technology transfer. In 2013, scientific research infrastructures in Spain are being evaluated including reforms to remove existing barriers.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Work with ESFRI to set priorities for implementing the Roadmap and to provide advice and guidance to Member States on overcoming legal, financial or technical obstacles to implementation || Law of Science, Technology and Innovation - LCTI 2011 || 2011 || Spain considers the ESFRI, to be an important initiative and contributes significantly to a broad range of these facilities. Spain will host at least three large ESFRI installations:  the construction in Catalonia of one of the five supercomputers in Europe of the Partnership for Advanced Computing; the solar research infrastructure (EU-SOLARIS) at the Advanced Technological Centre for Renewable Energy in Almeria; and the European Spallation Source (ESS) in the Basque Country, an advanced centre for researching the atomic and molecular arrangement for materials.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Work with e-IRG to promote the alignment of EU and national approaches to eRI development and use || RECOLECTA || 2007 || RECOLECTA is a national joint programme of the Spanish Public Universities and Research Libraries Network (REBIUN) and the FECYT to create an e-infrastructure for repositories in Spain and its integration with international repositories. It provides a free open access platform and support to Spanish repositories so that they comply with international standards of interoperability and sustainability.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Blueprint of a Law to support entrepreneurs and their internationalisation || 2013 || The blueprint of a law to support entrepreneurs and their internationalisation, foreseen to be passed in 2013, provides a new regime of residence permits to foreigners that invest, amongst other, in projects of significant relevance to scientific or technological innovation.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Sub-programme for research stays of foreign lecturers and researchers in Spanish higher educational institutes and research organisations || 2008 || The Sub-programme for research stays of foreign lecturers and researchers in Spanish higher educational institutes and research organisations provides funding in order to facilitate the visiting stays of well experienced foreign researchers in the research groups of Spanish research organisations, higher educational institutes (universities) or other public research bodies.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Human resources training programme "Salvador de Madariaga" || || Training programme "Salvador de Madariaga" provides scholarships to eight PhD students from the EU in History, Economy, Law, and Social Sciences to conduct their PhDs at the European University Institute in Florence. The scholarship provides a monthly allocation for maximum 48 months.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || Euraxess in Spain || 2004 || Spain joined Euraxess in 2004 and the FECYT (Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology) acts as national bridgehead organisation for general inquires.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Spanish Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation (EESTI) (2013-2020) || 2013 || The Spanish Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation (EESTI) (2013-2020) aims to promote "Industrial PhD programmes", through the exposure to industry and other relevant employment sectors in PhD training.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Law of Science, Technology and Innovation - LCTI 2011 || 2011 || The Spanish government requires all universities that present applications to obtain public support from tenders for Human Resources to accept and comply with the Charter. Notably, the Law sets up the conditions to ensure openness of the recruitment process. However, only nationals can be recruited in public universities.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Statute for Research Interns || 2006 || The Statute for Research Interns sets the rights and obligation for young researchers.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Juan de la Cierva Programme || 2004 || The Juan de la Cierva Programme provides five-year funding to the recruitment of young postdoctoral researchers by public or private R&D Centres.

A more open labour market for researchers || Create an enabling framework for the implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers incorporating the Charter & Code || Ramon y Cajal Programme (RyC) posdoctoral senior grants || 2005 || The Ramon y Cajal Programme finances part of researchers' remuneration in the National Public Research System.

A more open labour market for researchers || Develop and implement structured programmes to increase mobility between industry and academia || Law of Science, Technology and Innovation (LCTI, 2011) || 2011 || The Law of Science, Technology and Innovation introduces measures to improve the mobility of researchers between sectors and to facilitate access to a research career. Spain supports the link between industry and academia and the LCTI includes a chapter on the purposes of this collaboration, including the training of staff.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Law of Science, Technology and Innovation - LCTI 2011 || 2011 || The Law of Science, Technology and Innovation (LCTI 2011) establishes in its additional disposition number 13 that any sex will account for neither more than 60% nor less than 40% of the total; and that the EESTI and PECTI should “include the gender dimension in research programmes in all the process, including definition of priorities in research, research problems, theoretical frameworks, methods, collection and interpretation of data, conclusions, technological development and future research. EESTI and PECTI mention gender equality and the gender dimension of research, but there is no specific programme to address these issues. In spite of it, gender equality represents a basic principle in the design and implementation of the specific R&D measures for both national and regional governments.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Law of Science, Technology and Innovation - LCTI 2011 || 2011 || The Law of Science, Technology and Innovation (LCTI 2011) establishes in its additional provison number 13 that “Public Research Bodies should adopt within 2 years “gender balance Plans” that will be yearly monitored.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Ensure that at least 40% of the under-represented sex participate in committees involved in recruitment/career progression and in establishing and evaluating research programmes || Law of Science, Technology and Innovation - LCTI 2011 || 2011 || The Law of Science, Technology and Innovation (LCTI 2011)  establishes the need to comply with a range of 40-60% of under-represented sex in committees involved in recruitment/career progression and in project/program evaluation.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Law of Science, Technology and Innovation - LCTI 2011 || 2011 || The Law of Science, Technology and Innovation (LCTI 2011) in its article 37 states that public research organisations should promote the development of open access archives of the publications of researchers, including the access to other similar initiatives at national and international level; researchers should publish a digital version of their results (publications) of publicly funded research no later than 12 months after their publication; these should be uploaded in open access archives; and the Ministry should facilitate central access to these archives and to promote links with international archives.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Digital Agenda for Spain || 2013 || A Digital Agenda for Spain was adopted in February 2013, providing a framework reference and roadmap for the Digital Agenda strategy for 2013-2015 in order to develop the digital economy and society. One of its main objectives is to increase the efficiency of information technology investments in R&D&I.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Alhambra Declaration on Open Access || 2010 || The Alhambra Declaration was signed on May 2010 by a group of open access’ stakeholders (e.g. editors, librarians, funding agencies, university rectors and authors) from the South European countries (Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Greece and Turkey), whose main languages are different from English, to promote open access to scientific productions.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Spanish State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation” (PECTI) (2013-2016) || 2013 || The Spanish State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation” (PECTI) (2013-2016) foresees a sub-programme for the development of new technologies (AEESD2.2). This programme includes the promotion of “Open Access” through technological forums and platforms. Open access is mandatory both concerning results and scientific output for calls under the plan financed by the public sector

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || RECOLECTA || 2007 || The national joint programme called RECOLECTA provides a free open access platform and support to Spanish repositories so that they comply with international standards of interoperability and sustainability. There is another initiative by the Spanish Centre for Sociological Research to create a public repository of scientific data about sociological research financed with State Plan public funds.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Law of Science, Technology and Innovation (LCTI 2011) || 2011 || The Law of Science, Technology and Innovation (LCTI 2011) introduced changes to improve the mechanisms of knowledge transfer.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || INNPACTO subprogramme || 2010 || The INNPACTO programme finances public-private partnership between research organisations and enterprises, promoting knowledge transfer. In the previous Plan there was a call for public-private collaborative and the Cenit Programme. In PECTI, a subprogramme for collaborative R&D exists, oriented to the demands of the production network, and the Challenges Programme.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Subprogramme of Institutional Strengthening in the PECTI || 2008 || INNPLANTA has been replaced by the new State Subprogramme of Institutional Strengthening in the PECTI. This subprogramme, addressed to technological centers, will foster its push effects towards other agents in the private sector. It will also promote the equipment of technological parks.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || eduGAIN || || Spain is member of eduGAIN through SIR.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || IRIS Network || 1988 || Eduroam ES is a project coordinated by RedIRIS, that supports a common roaming environment between Spanish research organizations. Allowing individual researchers to access network services in other research public organisations.

Sweden

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || 2008 Research Bill || 2009 || The 2008 Research bill made parts of institutional block grants for academic R&D subject to competitive allocation. The Swedish public sector R&D system is dominated by the higher education institutions, whose research income from governmental sources is split almost equally between institutional block grants and competitive project funding. The development in the past three years has been a steady increase on both accounts, with an especially notable growth in the institutional block grant research funding to the academic sector of almost 17% between 2009 and 2010 (as a result of the policies of the 2008 research bill). A corresponding increase in competitive funding (also resulting from the 2008 research bill) of almost 20% between 2008 and 2009 makes the long-term development of the ratio between institutional block grants and competitive funding largely unchanged in the past five year period (with a slight relative overall increase of the share of competitive funding from 50.9% in 2007 to 52.5% in 2011).

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Government Bill 2012/13:30 Research and innovation || 2012 || Taking into account the 2012 CSR on research and innovation to implement measures to improve excellence in research, commercialisation of innovative products and the development of new technologies, the Swedish Government presented in October 2012 a bill on research and innovation. The bill presents several measures to improve research excellence, utilisation of research results and innovation. This includes increased funds aimed at the allocation and reallocation of appropriations to universities and colleges, as wel as a new instrument for solving societal challenges through strategic innovation areas. The bill entails a substantial increase in funding to strengthen Sweden’s position as a prominent research nation. The total increase amounts to SEK 4 billion for 2016.The bill presents several measures to improve research excellence and utilisation of research results and innovation. This includes increased funds aimed at universities, colleges, research funders and research institutes, as well as a new instrument for solving societal challenges through strategic innovation areas. Effective from 2014, an additional 10 percentage points, or a total of 20 percent of the appropriations, will be subject to reallocation based on assessment of quality and performance.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Funding scheme aimed at most prominent researchers in Sweden || 2013 || The Swedish Research Council has funds for international uitment of researchers for seven to ten years, enabling high-risk, high-potential research.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Government Bill 2012/13:30 Research and innovation || 2012 || For future allocation, the Swedish Research Council will, in consultation with other research funders, develop a resource allocation system that includes international peer assessment of universities and colleges’ research quality and performance.  This task will incorporate findings from the task Vinnova is leading in setting up system for assessing the universities collaboration with the surrounding society and impact of research results, and which is described under the KT-section. The new system can be introduced in 2018 at the earliest.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Strategic Research Areas || 2008 || The policy measures taken are designed partly taking into account the policies of other European countries, and the almost 30 Strategic Research Areas, identified in the 2008 research bill and 6 further in the 2013 research bill. These programmes were funded with a specific funding program allocating a total of €370 million. These programmes have been identified as highly relevant also in broader European perspective.  Further, Vinnova began in 2011 launching calls aimed at solutions to grand challenges. The role of the Swedish research and innovation system in strengthening the long-term common European competitiveness is further strengthened in the latest research and innovation bill with a new coordination function for European partnership programmes. This function is placed at Vinnova and involves all Swedish research funding agencies. An additional 220 million funding per year has been allocated to this function to meet the increased number of European partnership programmes.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Nordic Cooperation / Nordforsk / Top-level Research Initiative || 2008 || Nordic cooperation involves Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden as well as the three autonomous areas, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and the Åland Islands. The organisation of Nordic collaboration in research and innovation rests on two main pillars, one for research, NordForsk, and one for innovation, Nordic Innovation (formerly The Nordic Innovation Centre, NICE). In 2008 the Nordic Prime Ministers initiated the Top-level Research Initiative (TRI) and it is to date the largest joint Nordic research and innovation initiative that has a research focus within climate, environment and energy.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Ensure mutual recognition of evaluations that conform to international peer-review standards as a basis for national funding decisions || Excellence’ funding programs: 2006 and 2008 Linnaeus Grants and the 2009 Strategic Research Areas grants || 2006 || The allocation of competitive public R&D funding in Sweden (mainly executed within the framework of the research councils) typically follows the procedure of internal peer review assessment boards with predominantly Swedish and Scandinavian members. However, the 2006 and 2008 Linnaeus Grants, Berzellii Centres and Vinn Excellence Centres, and the 2009 Strategic Research Areas grants (allocating in total €30 million and €300 million, respectively) involved the use of international peer reviewers.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || National research infrastructure roadmap || || 3rd edition published in 2011

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Financial commitments to European Spallation Source (ESS), MAX IV || 2009 || The Swedish national policy for research infrastructures has resulted in significant investments in research infrastructures. Given its relatively small size a, Sweden has been exceptionally strong in science and not least big science in the second half of the 20th century, as seen in its record of contributions and participation in European collaborations in research, e.g. CERN, the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), and many others. But Sweden had, up until a decade ago, not been actively seeking to become host of any of these collaborations. This changed radically in 2007 when it was decided to fund an initiative to build and operate the European Spallation Source and upgrade the synchotron Max IV, two world-leading research infrastructures in materials sciences. Several billions euros are related to these infrastructures. Those comparably large investments being made in research infrastructure (also the Science for Life Laboratory, SciLifeLab, in Stockholm/Uppsala) are certainly of European interest. ESS has recently completed the pre-construction phase and is ready to move into construction phase as soon as sufficient funding can be allocated to the project.  Sweden and Denmark, offer to host the facility and Sweden guarantees that 50 % of the construction costs will be funded from the Nordic rgion. MAX IV is currently being constructed in Lund and its opening is planned in 2015.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to cross-border access to Research Infrastructures || Access to MAX IV, ESS and SciFiLab || || The room for assessment of details of access to large research infrastructures in Sweden is dependent on decisions to be made with regard to the organization and legal status of MAX IV, ESS and SciLifeLab. The legal framework of ESS will be a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). The facility will provide effective access for European researchers based on scientific excellence. The existing MAX-lab facility in Lund is a member and active voice in the ERF – European Association of National Research Facilities, an organization with a mission which includes the removal of barriers to access for researchers.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Universities autonomy reform || 2010 || This reform gave universities greater autonomy in determining their own organisation and HR policies, including liberties to change the procedures for hiring and promotion of academic staff. This autonomy reform does undoubtedly impact recruitment and mobility on almost all levels and in almost all instances. However, since the reform did not explicitly change the procedures in any direction, it is difficult to assess the effects.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Incentivize HEI to make international recruitment of prominent researchers || 2013 || New legal provisions and a funding programme for the international recruitment of researchers who conduct research of the highest quality. In the bill, the annual governmental grant to the Swedish Research Council is increased with an earmarked amount of 150 million SEK (€ 18 million) in 2013, followed by increases of 50 million SEK (€ 6 million) in 2014 and further 50 million SEK in 2016 to be spent on a program – designed and launched by the Council – “for the international recruitment of researchers who conduct research of the highest quality.”  The programme was launched in Spring 2013. Vinnova also has programmes for promoting mobility of researchers, such as the Vinnmer and later the Mobility for Growth programme.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Universities autonomy reform || 2010 || Swedish HEIs have been required by the Employment Ordinance since 1994 to announce all job vacancies (both permanent or for a fixed period) for academic staff (including teachers and researchers) and advertise all relevant information on e.g. the EURAXESS portal (Researchers Report 2012). The University reform in 2010 allows Higher Education institutions to call individuals to specific posts, allowing to compete internationally for talent. The impact of this provision is not clear yet.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || Euraxess web portal || 2011 || The EURAXESS network is not subject to a national coordinated policy effort but rather administered and sustained by research councils and the participating institutions. There is no mentioning of EURAXESS in the two most recent governmental research bills (20098 and 2012) or in other governmental policy documents.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Measures to improved competitiveness of doctoral studies || 2013 || The 2012 research and innovation bill announces improved conditions for doctoral students, to strengthen the competitiveness of doctoral studies. Doctoral students should be employed at an earlier stage, and those on scholarships covered by insurance. The use of the principles for Innovative Doctoral Training has not been identified.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Grant for practical equality research during 2013-2014 to Vinnova || || There are few or no legislative barriers to gender equality in the public Swedish R&D system. The Swedish Government  leaves the work to achieve gender balance in the academic sector largely to the institutions themselves. There are specific targets for all universities and university colleges regarding gender balance in new recruitment of professors. In the latest R&I bill, 32 million SEK per year was allocated to Vinnova for practical equality research during 2013-2014.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Vinnmer programme || || Vinnmer was intended for the underrepresented gender in the scientific field of application and towards researchers who have a PhD and who have completed their Post Doc qualification. It granted 50% of wages and relocation costs for women who build on their career by moving to another institution.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Delegation for Gender Equality in the Higher Education Sector || 2010 || This initiative by the government, the Swedish Agency for Higher Education and the academic sector, issued reports on various aspects of gender equality in the academic sector. Their work, while not yet having been directly translated into governmental policy, has become the focus of national debate and arguably raised key issues in connection with gender (in)equality in the public R&D system. The Delegation was active between 2009-2010 but a few projects are still running. From 1 January 2013, the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education has ceased to exist as a public authority. Its operations has been transferred to two new public authorities: the Swedish Higher Education Authority (Universitetskanslersämbetet) and the Swedish Council for Higher Education (Universitets- och högskolerådet). The latter will work against discrimination and in other ways encourage equal rights and opportunities regardless of gender, gender transcending identification or expression, ethnic background, religion or other belief system, disability, sexual orientation or age.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Ensure that at least 40% of the under-represented sex participate in committees involved in recruitment/career progression and in establishing and evaluating research programmes || Law on gender balance and government instruction to the Swedish Research Council || 2010 || The general instruction (regulation) to the Swedish Research Council is to establish and sustain equal gender representation in discipline-councils and peer review assessment boards and committees. The committees involved in the recruitment of academic staff in the Swedish academic sector are also, by law, required to have gender balance. This regulation has remained in place also after the implementation of the aforementioned 2010 so-called Autonomy Reform which otherwise deregulated several similar procedures within academic institutions. The panels assessing grant applications at the Swedish Research Council are supposed to have a balanced composition with respect to gender; the government’s instruction to the council is that the council shall “promote gender equality within its area of work” but nothing more specific; the council has, on basis of this instruction, adopted its own gender equality strategy.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Government bill 2012:13:30 Research and Innovation (research data) || 2013 || Instruction to the Swedish Research Council and the National Library of Sweden to develop a national policy for open access to scientific information - research data and publications. The work will be carried out in cooperation with research funding bodies, universities and higher education institutions. The initiatives on EU level to build up research infrastructures for facilitating dissemination of data and results (e.g. European Social Survey, CESSDA, SHARE) are supported by the Swedish government who take active part as members in these initiatives and thus secure the access for Swedish researchers to them.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Swedish support to and participation in European research infrastructures facilitating dissemination of data and research results || || Support and active participation in European Social Survey, CESSDA, SHARE.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Government bill 2012:13:30 Research and Innovation (Scientific publications) || 2013 || Instruction to the Swedish Research Council and the National Library of Sweden to develop a national policy for open access to scientific information - research data and publications. The work will be carried out in cooperation with research funding bodies, universities and higher education institutions.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Government bill 2012:13:30 Research and Innovation || 2013 || The research and innovation bill presented several measures of importance for increased commercialisation and utilisation of research results, including funding and relevant instructions to governmental agencies. The research policy target was broadened for research to contribute to the development of society and industry’s competitiveness, resulting in an overarching focus on utilisation. The measures for instance include a new instrument focussing on societal challenges and further strengthening of industrial research institutes, as well as new innovation offices at universities. It also includes measures and initiatives to strengthen the universities and colleges’ assignment to work together with external society and work for research results to be of benefit, with the aim of including lessons learned from this into the future performance based resource allocation systems from 2018 that the science council is tasked to propose.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Innovation strategy || 2012 || In parallel with the 2012 Research and Innovation bill, the Government adopted an innovation strategy aimed at strengthening the innovative climate. The innovation strategy takes a holistic view with the purpose of enhancing innovative capacity and meeting social challenges. The strategy emphasises, for example, the importance of all relevant actors being involved, the lowering of thresholds and the creation of incentives to advance different actors’ capacity for growth and innovation. The innovation strategy includes several different areas of policy and affects a number of government bills over the period up until 2020.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || SwePub database, OpenAccess.org || 2010 || The SwePub database is run by the National Library of Sweden and makes it possible to search among articles, conference papers and doctoral dissertations published by researchers at Swedish universities and higher education institutions (all institutions except the Stockholm School of Economics are part of SwePub). The OpenAccess.se project, run and funded by the National Library of Sweden in collaboration with the Association of Swedish Higher Education, the Swedish Research Council, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish foundation for humanities and social sciences and the Knowledge Foundation (a public research foundation). Within this project, the collaborators work with information and counseling, infrastructure and services, and policy development regarding open access publishing.

United Kingdom

ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth || 2011 || The Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth published in December 2011 remains the reference policy document.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || Research Councils grants and support || || It provides competitive funding for basic research to researchers (individuals or groups) in national HEIs and PSREs. Allocation of funding is based on peer review assessment (following international peer review standards). RCUK Cross-Research Council programmes provide funding through all standard Research Council mechanisms but organised on a multiple research council basis.

More effective national research systems || Introduce or enhance competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments as the main modes of allocating public funds to research and innovation, introducing legislative reforms if necessary || UK Higher Education Funding Bodies || || It allocates block funding for research via the Research Evaluation Framework (REF), a peer-review-based mechanism.  HEIs' evaluations are carried out every four years.

More effective national research systems || Ensure that all public bodies responsible for allocating research funds apply the core principles of international peer review || UK Higher Education Funding Bodies Research Councils || || Allocate funding based on peer-reviews.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Joint Programming Initiatives || 2008 || UK Research Councils are involved in all ten JPIs. These were introduced in 2008 and are intended to tackle the challenges which cannot be solved solely at the national level. JPIs encourage MS to combine aspects of their national research programmes and their strategic planning to address global challenges.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || ERA-nets || || Research Councils are partners in many ERA-nets, which co-ordinate national research programmes, e.g. the New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Cooperation in Europe (NORFACE) ERA-net, ERASynBio in Synthetic Biology, HERA-net (Humanities), and  ERA CAPS (Co-ordination Action in Plant Sciences). Working together as networks has allowed valuable exchange of practice and shared problem solving in the development of collaborative approaches.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Open Research Area in Europe for the Social Sciences (ORA) || 2009 || ESRC is a partner in ORA, which currently involves 4 European countries (UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands) and is bringing in third countries (India and the United States). In the third and most recent joint call, the programme will fund integrated projects realised by researchers from three or more of the five participating countries, in any combination. Co-ordinated peer review and a single common selection process is conducted by the partner funding agencies.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Step up efforts to implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in agreed priority areas, ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and strategically aligned at European level in these areas || Several bi-lateral science and technology agreements with third countries || || For example, in 2010 the UK signed an MoU with Russia on Space to include collaboration between their respective space industries and research institutions. In April 2012 BIS and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) signed an MOU on Innovation Cooperation and at the same time Research Councils UK also signed an MOU with MoST on “Global Partnerships” which launched a pilot joint call worth £2 million (£1m from each side) aimed at supporting high quality joint research projects in healthy ageing populations, smart grids and food security.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || RCUK Strategic Framework for Capital Investment || 2012 || It outlines where capital investment is important to ensure sustainability of the research base in the medium to long term. The Framework includes large facilities as previously described in the "Large Facilities Roadmap", but has broadened to include other significant capital priorities.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Large Facilities Capital Fund || 2002 || It supports the establishment of new, or the improvement of existing, large scientific facilities via Research Councils' investments in large research facilities and infrastructure with capital funding in order to support the excellence of the UK science base.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Research Partnerships Investment Fund 2012-2015 || 2012 || It supports large-scale projects able to leverage substantial co-investment from private sources to enhance the research facilities of higher education institutions undertaking world-leading research. It will secure £1 billion investment in university research infrastructure.

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Confirm financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, global, national and regional RIs of pan-European interest, particularly when developing national roadmaps and the next Structural Fund programmes || Budget 2013 || 2013 || The Budget 2013 allocates £600 million in Research Council infrastructure and facilities for applied research and development (Research and Development).

Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Remove legal and other barriers to cross-border access to Research Infrastructures || UK research infrastructures || || Access to UK research infrastructures is open to all UK and non-UK nationals who are registered as UK academics; Postdoctoral researchers from UK universities; those applying via EU transnational access arrangements; and overseas organisations that have contractual access agreements with the relevant facilities. In addition, applications from overseas (non-EU or without prior contractual access arrangement) are considered.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers to the application of open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || The Concordat to Support the Career development of Researchers || 2008 || Agreement between the funders and employers of researchers in the UK, setting out the expectations and responsibilities of each stakeholder in research careers – researchers themselves, their managers, employers and funders. It aligns to the EU Charter and Code and the HR Excellence in Research Award.

A more open labour market for researchers || Remove legal and other barriers which hamper cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Money follows Researcher scheme || || All UK Research Councils are members of the scheme, which has been taken on by Science Europe following the disbandment of EUROHORCs. It allows researchers relocating to a new country to take with them the remainder of a current research grant to a new research institution where it can continue within the original terms and objectives.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support implementation of the Declaration of Commitment to provide coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through the pan-European EURAXESS network || EURAXESS-UK || 2011 || It provides information on research funding and research careers to UK and overseas researchers.

A more open labour market for researchers || Support the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training || Terms and Conditions of Research Council Training Grants || || The practices and principles espoused by the Research Councils for the recruitment and training of researchers collectively address most of the ERA Communication’s principles for innovative doctoral training.

A more open labour market for researchers || Take initiatives to address social security barriers for researchers in the EU and further facilitate the entry and stay of third country national researchers by: – 1)Clarifying in a Communication EU rules on coordination of social security schemes for gr || Private pension agreements for researchers || || Researchers in the UK have access to private pension arrangements and may transfer their pensions to another pension arrangement abroad, subject to tax requirements.

A more open labour market for researchers || Take initiatives to address social security barriers for researchers in the EU and further facilitate the entry and stay of third country national researchers by: – 1)Clarifying in a Communication EU rules on coordination of social security schemes for gr || Tier 5 (Temporary worker - government authorised exchange) || 2013 || Higher education institution are able to sponsor researchers to obtain this specific type of visa. Sponsored researchers can possibly apply to switch into Tier 1 (Exceptional talent) category.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || RCUK Statement of Expectations for Equality and Diversity || 2013 || It places expectations on universities receiving Research Council funding to promote and lead cultural change in relation to equalities and diversities, to engage staff at all levels, ensure researchers are trained and supported to address inequalities and to evidence of this.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Equality Act 2010 || 2010 || It provides a legislative framework to advance equality of opportunities for all.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Public Sector Equality Duty || || It places a responsibility on public bodies, including universities and research councils, to consider gender issues in shaping policies, delivering services and employing staff.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Research Excellence Framework Equality and Diversity Panel || 2010 || The Research Excellence Framework was developed taking account of equality issues and a REF Equality and Diversity Panel has been established to advise on implementing the REF diversity and equality measures.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Create a legal and policy environment and provide incentives in order to: –  remove legal and other barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers while fully complying with EU law on gender equality –  address gender || Children and Families Bill || 2013 || It will be introduced in 2013 to create a system of flexible parental leave.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Athena Swan Charter || 2005 || The Charter tackles the unequal representation of women in science by fostering changing cultures and attitudes across the organisation.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Engage in partnerships with funding agencies, research organisations and universities to foster cultural and institutional change on gender - charters, performance agreements, awards || Royal Society and Royal Academy of engineering joint programme to tackle diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) National Academies and their academic fellowships RCUKs PHD and fellowship awards STEMNET and STEM Ambassadors || || All these programmes addres diversity in STEM subjects.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || RCUK Policy on Open Access || 2013 || RCUK published its updated policy on Open Access in May 2013 which supports both ‘Gold’  and ‘Green’  routes to Open Access, though RCUK has a preference for immediate Open Access with the maximum opportunity for reuse.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Research Councils Repositories || || The UK is at the forefront of advancing this topic within Europe. The UK Research Councils have already invested in a number of successful repositories.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Gateway to Research || 2012 || It provides infrastructure for preservation and open access to UK Research Council funded research data and outputs

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || RCUK Common Principles on Data Policy || 2011 || The RCUK common principles on data policy provide an overarching framework for individual Research Council policies on data policy. Making research data available to users is a core part of the Research Councils’ remit and is undertaken in a variety of ways.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Define and coordinate their policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || National Reform Programme || 2013 || Arrangements are being put in place to make publicly funded scientific research available for anyone to read for free. Around 45% of such research will be available in 2013-14, increasing to over 50% in the following year.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Knowledge Transfer Partnerships || 1975 || Developing links between the academic and industry sectors and enhancing the flow of knowledge.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Knowledge Transfer Networks || 2004 || The Technology Strategy Board set up the Knowledge Transfer Networks, hosted by "on-connect", a powerful networking platform, to facilitate open innovation and allow people to network, share information and work together.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Catapult Centres || 2011 || They seek to develop links between the academic and industry sectors and enhance the flow of knowledge.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Technology Strategy Board Concept to Commercialisation || 2011 || It is the UK’s principal innovation agency, facilitating networking to enable knowledge transfer through a variety of mechanisms. The "Concept to Commercialisation - A Strategy for Business Innovation" presents the strategy for 2011-2015.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Cooperative Awards for Science and Engineering (CASE) || 1994 || They seek to develop links between the academic and industry sectors and enhance the flow of knowledge.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Smart Cymru: R&D and innovation grant support to business || 2012 || Wales launched an enhanced KTP in partnership with the Technology Strategy Board, which will allow key companies in Wales, particularly the anchor companies and their associated supply chains, to engage at high level with their international offices and overseas academic institutions.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Ensure that public research contributes to Open Innovation and foster knowledge transfer between public and private sectors through national knowledge transfer strategies || Higher Education Innovation Fund UK Research Partnership Investment Fund National Centre for Universities and Business || || These initiatives support knowledge exchange activities in universities and encourage universities to secure and accelerate business and charity c0-investment into long term strategic partnerships. The National Centre will make collaboration between universities and business more systematic acting as a repository of best practice.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || E-infrastructure Leadership Council || 2012 || The ELC is responsible for developing a strategy to provide a world class e-infrastructure and High Performance Computing (HPC) capability for the UK. It works in partnership with stakeholders across the academic community, industry, government and society.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise access and usage policies for research and education-related public e-infrastructures and for associated digital research services enabling consortia of different types of public and private partners || UK e-Science Programme || 2002 || The e‑Science Core Programme has supported the development of generic technologies, such as the software known as middleware that is needed to enable very different resources to work together seamlessly across networks and create computing grids. Each Research Council has funded its own e-Science activities to develop techniques and demonstrate their use across a broad range of research and applications. In December 2009, RCUK undertook a review of the UK Research Councils’ e-Science Programme.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || EDUGAIN || || UK has signed the policy to join eduGAIN through UK federation.

Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Adopt and implement national strategies for electronic identity for researchers giving them transnational access to digital research services || Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier (ORCID) || 2012 || The Joint Infrastructure Systems Committee (JISC) has concluded that the Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier (ORCID), offers the best solution even if its implementation would require certain challenges to be addressed, such as personal data security, scope of personal data use, identity validation and identity tracking.

Iceland

|| ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

|| More effective national research systems || Competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments || Act N. 2/2003 on the Science and Technology Policy Council Act N. 3/2003 on Public Support for Scientific Research || 2003 || Provides legal basis for the national R&I system. It also defines the operational modalities of the Icelandic Centre for Research (RANNIS),  under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture.

|| More effective national research systems || Competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments || Act N. 75/2007 on Government Support for Technology, Research and Industry Development || 2007 || Provides legal basis for the national R&I system. It also defines the operational modalities of the Innovation Centre Iceland,  under the auspices of the Ministry of Industries and Innovation.

|| More effective national research systems || Competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments || Higher Education Institutions Act N.63/2006 || 2006 || The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture has the overall responsibility for higher education on Iceland. This legal act applies to all educational institutions providing higher education leading to a degree and which have been accredited by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, according to rules on accreditation no. 1067/2006. Each higher education institution is accredited in particular fields of study and subdivisions therein.

|| More effective national research systems || Competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments || Act on Public Higher Education Institutions N. 85/2008 || 2008 || All higher education institutions receive state funding. The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture concludes performance-related contracts with all higher education institutions under its administration.

|| More effective national research systems || Competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments || National Qualification Framework for Higher Education no. 530/2011 || 2011 || All higher education institutions in Iceland, accredited by the Minister of Education, Science and Culture according to the Higher Education Act no. 63/2006, shall follow this framework

|| More effective national research systems || Competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments || Rules on Accreditation of HE - No 1067/2006 || 2006 || Accreditation of HEIs is afforded according to an international standards and is set in place to guarantee that Icelandic Higher Education Institutions fulfil all the necessary standards of quality assurance and can withstand international comparison.

|| More effective national research systems || Competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments || National Policy on Science and Research 2010-2012 || 2010 || The policy for 2010-2012 was dedicated to the importance of fostering and strengthening research and innovation in Iceland under the guiding principles of cooperation and sharing; quality and rewards and international research and innovation. The Science and Technology Policy Council (STPC) is currently drafting a new research and technology policy for the period 2013-2015.

|| More effective national research systems || Competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments || Investment Plan for Iceland 2013-2015. || 2013 || Increase in funding for competitive funds.

|| More effective national research systems || Competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments || Policy on public universities || 2010 || The objective is threefold: First, to promote university teaching, research and innovation to strengthen the future development of Icelandic society. Second, to optimise the financial administration of the universities to maximise the efficiency of financial resources. And third, to maintain strong and varied higher education nationwide.

|| More effective national research systems || Competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments || "Building on solid foundations" - Science and technology policy for Iceland || 2010 || Enhance the achievements assessments at universities, industry, research institutions and competitive funds. External reviews sought outside of Iceland

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges || Participation in Joint Research Initiatives || || Iceland is participating in one JPI (Healthy and productive seas and oceans) and is also an active partner in 9 ERA-NETs (M-era.net, EraSME, CORNET, EuroNanoMed, HERA, NORFACE, MARIFISH, MATERA+, SEAS-ERA).

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Cross-border interoperability of national programmes || Nordic Top-level Research Initiative || || NORIA, the Nordic Research and Innovation Area, is responsible for Nordic R&D cooperation in the fields of research and innovation. This involves Nordic research funding institutions, fixed-term research programmes, Nordic Centres of Excellence, the Top-level Research Initiative (the largest joint Nordic research and innovation initiative to involve the very best agencies and institutions in the Nordic region, and promote research and innovation), grant schemes, and the coordination and planning of major infrastructure investments among the Nordic countries

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, national, regional Research infrastructures of pan-European interest || The Strategic Research Programme || 2012 || Increase investment in infrastructure.

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, national, regional Research infrastructures of pan-European interest || Participation in ESFRI || || Iceland  participates in the following ESFRI infrastructures : CLARIN, ESSurvey, EPOS, LIFEWATCH, BBMRI, ECRIN, ELIXIR, ESSneutrons.

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, national, regional Research infrastructures of pan-European interest || Membership in other international RI || || Iceland also is a member of other international infrastructures such as EMBL, GBIF, GEANT, ICDP, IODP, NOT

|| A more open labour market for researchers || Open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Act on Public Universities (Act no. 85/2008) || 2008 || The act introduces a new management structure for university councils in public universities, with the majority of members coming from external bodies. The Rector of each university is appointed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture based on a recommendation from the University Council, and for a limited period of time, normally four or five years. These institutions (both public and private) have private boards and they have a significant degree of autonomy. They can for example decide on such matters as admission requirements, progression of students from one year to the next, certification, etc.

|| A more open labour market for researchers || Cross-border access to and portability of national grants || START Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme || || The START programme targets career development of early post doctoral researchers and promotes international mobility for researchers. The  START programme is open to researchers from all fields of research who have completed their PhD within the last five years.

|| A more open labour market for researchers || Cross-border access to and portability of national grants || The Icelandic Research Fund for Graduate Students || || The objective of the Icelandic Research Fund for Graduate Students is to allocate grants to research-related graduate studies undertaken at a university, or in collaboration with research institutions or companies, under the responsibility of the university. This applies both to studies in Iceland and abroad.

|| A more open labour market for researchers || Cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Centre of Excellence Programme || 2009 || In Iceland, the Centre of Excellence Programme (2009) was established to create better cooperation and circulation of knowledge between the university, Public Research Organisation (PRO) and business sectors, such as the Centre for artificial intelligence and simulation technologies, the Centre for geothermal research or the Centre for gender/equality research.

|| A more open labour market for researchers || Cross-border access to and portability of national grants || ABEL Extraordinary Chair || 2009 || The initiative is created as part of the project on ‘Improving student, researchers’ and artist’s mobility and cooperation between Spain, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein’. The programme aims to promote the temporary incorporation of high level researchers from Spain in research centres in Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

|| A more open labour market for researchers || Support coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through EURAXESS || EURAXESS Iceland || || Iceland’s EURAXESS webpage provides information for researchers on social security access and health insurance.

|| A more open labour market for researchers || Implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers || Implementation of the 'European Charter for Researchers’ & ‘Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers’ || || All seven Icelandic universities have signed up to the ‘Charter & Code’: - Agricultural University of Iceland; - Bifröst University; - Hólar University College; - Iceland Academy of the Arts; - Reykjavík University; - University of Akureyri; - University of Iceland.

|| Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers || Act on Equal Status and Equal Rights of Women and Men No. 10/2008 || 2008 || The aim of the act is to establish and maintain equal status and equal opportunities for women and men, and thus promote gender equality in all spheres of society. It focuses on: Gender mainstreaming in all spheres of the society; Increasing education and awareness-raising on gender equality; Working towards equal influence of women and men in decision-making and policy-making in the society; Analysing statistics according to gender; Increasing research in gender studies; Working against wage discrimination and other forms of gender-based discrimination on the employment market; Working against gender-based violence and harassment; Enabling both women and men to reconcile their work and family life; Changing traditional gender images and working against negative stereotypes regarding the roles of women and men. The Government has highlighted gender mainstreaming as a key method within the governmental sector in accordance to the act on gender equality (No. 10/2008, art. 17).

|| Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers || Parliamentary resolution on a four year gender equality action programme (2011-2014) || 2009 || Government action plan on gender equality. Access of women and men to funding for scientific research. Funds under the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture that operate on the basis of the Act on public support for scientific research should systematically collect information on the gender composition of expert councils, applicants and grantees, and grant amounts in all categories for the year 2012. Thus, in 2013 it will be possible to assess how the activities of the funds benefit both sexes. If an uneven distribution is found between the grantees of either sex it should be examined whether action should be taken to correct this inequality, for example, by making grant applications more accessible, or reviewing the allocation rules. Information and appropriate action should also extend to projects that Rannis (The Icelandic Centre for Research) finances for reallocation.

|| Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers || Access of women and men to funding for scientific research || 2012 || Funds and public support for scientific research should systematically collect information on the gender composition of expert councils, applicants and grantees, and grant amounts. If an uneven distribution is found between the grantees of either sex it should be examined whether action should be taken to correct this inequality, for example, by making grant applications more accessible, or reviewing the allocation rules.

|| Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers || Nordic report on gender balance in academia || 2012 || In 2012 the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture took part in a Nordic project on gender balance in academia. The aim of the project was to compare the developments in gender equality legislation, statistics and policy in the Nordic countries and find good examples of successful instruments and measures that have improved the gender balance in academia in these countries.

|| Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || At least 40% of the under-represented sex in committees || The act on gender equality no 10/2008     Parliamentary resolution on a four year gender equality action programme, 2011-2014 || 2012 || To correct eventual inequality if either sex is less than 40% of committee members if members are more than 3.

|| Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Open access || 2013 || All research and scientific findings funded by RANNIS (the government) shall be available in open access.

Norway

|| ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

|| More effective national research systems || Competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments || Research Council of Norway || 2009 || Approximately 30 per cent of public funding for research is channelled through the Research Council of Norway (RCN). The remaining is mostly allocated directly to the research institutions (universities, hospitals, research institutes) and to cover Norwegian participation in the EU Framework Programmes for Research. RCN is the Government’s key instrument for implementing national research policy priorities. RCN answers to sixteen ministries and has a broad set of system-wide responsibilities to ensure that, for example, allocations of research funding apply to the core principle of international peer review. In 2011, 77 per cent of the overall budget of RCN was allocated to project-based funding based on international peer review.

|| More effective national research systems || Competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments || Meld. St. 18 (2012–2013) Long-term perspectives – knowledge provides opportunity || 2013 || This White paper proposes that priority is given to: "assessing whether the overall funding of universities and university colleges is suitable for fostering high quality in research and education and encouraging institutions to focus on fields in which they have special advantages" (p.21)

|| More effective national research systems || Competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments || Performance-based reallocation of institutional basic funding || || In addition to the Research Council of Norway – which is the main arena for competitive funding through calls of proposal, the Norwegian government has introduced performance-based funding systems with the purpose to reallocate significant parts of institutional core funding in the higher education sector (introduced in 2002), the research institute sector (in 2009) and in the health trusts (university hospitals and other hospitals)(in 2004). Funding is reallocated from research institutions with low performance to institutions with high performance. These reallocation systems of core R&D-funds are based on a predefined set of performance indicators which are well-known to all institutional actors.

|| More effective national research systems || Competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments || Revision of the performance-based funding system for the Norwegian research institutes || || In 2012 the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research commissioned an independent evaluation of the performance-based system for the reallocation of core funding to the Norwegian research institutes, which is in action since December 2008. On the basis of the findings and recommendations from this evaluation the Norwegian Government is revising in 2013 the indicators used in the system and their relative weights.

|| More effective national research systems || Apply the core principles of international peer review || Research Council of Norway || 1993 || RCN has a broad set of system-wide responsibilities to ensure that, for example, allocations of research funding apply to the core principle of international peer review.The main conclusion from the evaluation of RCN in 2012 was that the Research Council functions satisfactorily and its services are generally considered by users as relevant and of high quality.  A large part of the available funding through the RCN is open for competitive funding and in the evaluation of RCN in 2012 the evaluators find that the evaluation processes for allocation of funds in RCN are of good quality and trustworthiness.

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges || Meld. St. 18 (2012–2013) Long-term perspectives – knowledge provides opportunity (chap. 4) || 2013 || The strategy stipulates to "increase internationalisation in parts of the research system and ensure more effective coordination in the use of national and international policy and funding instruments" (p.5). For these reasons, the Norwegian Government will develop a national strategy for participation in Horizon 2020 and for ERA with clearly defined goals and priorities.

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges || The Norwegian RD&D CCS programme (CLIMIT) || 2012 || CLIMIT is primarily a national programme. A smaller share of its funds is allocated to joint research activities concerning testing/demonstration of technology that incorporates carbon capture and storage, between United Kingdom, Greece, Poland and Norway. CLIMIT is only one example of how a large number of national R&D programmes facilitate and fund joint research agendas addressing grand challenges.

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges || Allocation of funding from the RCN to transnational cooperation activities || || Through the RCN, in close cooperation with six ministries, Norway is participating in all ten common Joint Programming Initiatives (JPIs) and the SET-plan. Norway is, together with Spain and Belgium, the coordinator of the JPI on healthy and productive seas and oceans. Norway is also an active partner in ERA-NETs. Today, approximately two percent of the overall funding from the RCN is allocated to transnational cooperation activities supported by the EU Framework Programme (ERA-NET, ERA-NET plus, Joint Programming Initiatives, Article 185 initiatives). Current focus in the national JPI work is to establish and prepare implementation of joint research agendas. Both the RCN and the Government are in process to address how the structure of JPIs and other transnational cooperation activities should find its place as an integrated part of the Norwegian research system.

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges || International cooperation Strategy 2010-2020 of the Research Council in Norway || 2009 || Based on this strategy, the Norwegian Council of Norway shall work for facilitating participation in transnational joint research programmes when these address grand challenges or if these are expected to strengthen the Norwegian research or the knowledge-based business sector.

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Cross-border interoperability of national programmes || Taking away barriers to allow joint financing of projects (ongoing process) || || The RCN in cooperation with relevant ministries are in process to address whether there are legal or other barriers to the cross-border interoperability of national programmes to permit joint financing of actions. We are also participating in initiatives to develop new models for cross-border cooperation, e.g. the Lead-Agency model.

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, national, regional Research infrastructures of pan-European interest || National Financing Initiative for Research Infrastructures || 2009 || The National Financing Initiative for Research Infrastructure was launched as part of the follow-up to the government white paper on research, Climate for Research (2009), and Norway’s national strategy for research infrastructure, Tools for Research (2008-2017). The strategy document establishes a clear division of responsibility for investment in research infrastructure, distinguishing between basic equipment and nationally-oriented research infrastructure. Under the infrastructure initiative, funding may be sought for nationally oriented research infrastructure with investment costs of more than NOK 2 million (260k euro). The maximum amount of funding that may be sought from the Research Council is NOK 200 million.  Funding for Norwegian participation in Nordic, European and other international cooperation on research infrastructure, including Norwegian participation in the implementation phase of projects on the ESFRI Roadmap, is provided under The National Financing Initiative for Research Infrastructure. Norway is currently participating in 12 different ESFRI projects and is hosting three of the projects (ECCSEL, CESSDA and SIOS). All 12 projects have received funding from the national financing initiative for research infrastructure. In addition, Norway takes part or participates in 11 other preparatory phase projects on the ESFRI Roadmap. Decisions on Norway’s commitments to these ESFRI projects will be taken based on the outcome of open, competitive calls in the National Financing Initiative for Research Infrastructure.

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, national, regional Research infrastructures of pan-European interest || Meld. St. 18 (2012–2013) Long-term perspectives – knowledge provides opportunity (chap. 4) || 2013 || The White paper announces a long term planning for the entire public funding of Norwegian research and will influence the budgets for the establishment of research infrastructures and development of systems.

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, national, regional Research infrastructures of pan-European interest || Tools for Research – Norway’s national strategy for research infrastructure 2012-2017 || 2012 || The strategy should ensure that the Norwegian research community and trade and industry have access to relevant, up-to-date infrastructure that facilitates high-calibre research, which in turn will help to solve major knowledge challenges facing society (p.5). This strategy is a revision of the first version of Tools for Research published in 2008. The revised edition was published in 2012.

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, national, regional Research infrastructures of pan-European interest || Research Infrastructure (INFRASTRUKTUR) || 2008 || Supports Norwegian participation in establishing research infrastructure on the ESFRI Roadmap.

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, national, regional Research infrastructures of pan-European interest || National research infrastructure roadmap || 2010 || The first edition of the Norwegian National research infrastructure roadmap was published in 2010, and a revised second edition was published in 2012.

|| A more open labour market for researchers || Open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || LOV 2005-04-01 nr 15 Law relating to universities and university colleges || 2005 || Law regulates the common principles of recruitment. Universities and colleges should active and systematically work towards equal recruitment.

|| A more open labour market for researchers || Cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Research Council of Norway Top-fund scheme || 2008 || The objective of this funding scheme is to provide compensation to Norwegian host institutions for additional costs incurred when employing (foreign) Marie Curie fellows at applicable salary levels in Norway. From 2013 this scheme will also fund outgoing mobility for researchers from Norway with grants from the Marie Curie Actions Intra-European Fellowships for Career Development (IEF) and International Outgoing Fellowships (IOF). For these Norwegian researchers the scheme will top up the difference between mobility allowance covered by the Marie Curie scheme and the RCN’s own mobility allowance rates.

|| A more open labour market for researchers || Cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Rules for applicants for research funding from abroad || 2008 || Applicants from abroad must as a rule have a formal affiliation with a Norwegian institution to be eligible to seek Norwegian funding. However, some financing opportunities are specifically designed for foreign researchers and partners.

|| A more open labour market for researchers || Support coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through EURAXESS || Web portal EURAXESS Norway || || All higher education institutions have received two invitation letters to become members of the EURAXESS Service Network and to implement the Declaration of Commitment. RCN coordinates the network and offers network members to take part in national and European working groups, to bring up typical problems hampering researchers´ mobility, to take part in training activities and to take part in mutual learning seminars and exchange of experiences. Several stakeholders are informed about the EURAXESS Service Network and the network is an active dialogue partner with the Immigration Directorate, Social Security Administration, tax offices, municipalities, private relocation organisations, chambers of commerce and umbrella organisations.

|| A more open labour market for researchers || Support structured innovative doctoral training programmes || Meld. St. 18 (2012–2013) Long-term perspectives – knowledge provides opportunity (chap. 4) || 2013 || The strategy introduces a scheme to increase the number of doctoral degrees in public institutions similar to the existing Industrial Ph.D. Scheme. The objective is also to raise the number of Phd Candidates in public institutions.

|| A more open labour market for researchers || Implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers || Implementation of the Charter and Code || 2008 || To support the implementation of the Charter and Code, the RCN has sent personalised invitations to universities and university colleges to endorse the Charter and Code principles. RCN has also discussed implementation strategies with institutions on a bilateral basis and with the national group mirroring the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R) mutual learning seminars, as well as in relevant seminars were HR-policy is taken up. RCN has together with the Association of Norwegian Research Institutes (FFA), taken the initiative to carry out a national gap analysis for the independent research institute sector on the Charter and Code principles. The analysis looks into relevant national legislation and common practises among the institutes. RCN has through its action plan for the Charter and Code 2010-2013 incorporated the Charter and Code into its funding instruments. RCN has thus included a reference to the Charter and Code in information to applicants under 'General requirements for applications', saying that RCN wants the principles of the Charter and Code to be followed up in projects funded by the Council. It has also been agreed to include a statement in the RCN calls for applications that projects headed by women are given priority in cases where professional quality and relevance are rated equal. As part of the RCN Charter and Code action plan 2013-2015, RCN will consider whether to include a requirement for the portability of funding in contracts with institutions. On the Norwegian Charter and Code web page (part of EURAXESS NORWAY), it is indicated which research institution signed the charter and code and are then responsible for implementation.

|| Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers || General legislation on gender equality in boards, panels and committees || || Gender equality is implemented in legislation, including a minimum of 40 per cent of each gender in boards, panels and committees. This is also valid for higher education and research institutions. Practicing gender balance as a standard requirement has successfully brought Norway and other Nordic countries to a European lead position of the share of women on scientific boards and in management positions. However, Norway is at the European average when it comes to the total share of women faculty and women in grade A positions.

|| Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers || Committee for Gender Balance in Research || 2004 || A primary task of the committee is to provide recommendations on national and local measures to promote the integration of gender equality work in the institutions in the university and university college sector and the research sector gender balance in research. Another task is to raise awareness about relevant issues related to gender equality. The committee is required to provide input and support to all research institutions, ministries and the Research Council of Norway.

|| Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers || Gender Balance in top academic positions and research management (BALANCE) || 2013 || The program will support the cultural and structural changes in order to improve the gender balance at senior level in the Norwegian research sector through new knowledge, mutual learning between different parts of the research system (both public and private) and innovative measures. This new program will fund innovative measures and support mutual learning, both in the public sector and in private industry. A first call of 15 million NOK was launched in 2013.

|| Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers || Incentive scheme to encourage the institutions to appoint women to permanent academic positions || 2010 || Norway’s incentive scheme encouraging HEI institutions to appoint women to permanent top academic positions (associate professor and professor) in mathematics, natural sciences and technology runs from 2010 to 2014. The scheme  was evaluated in the spring 2013. The evaluation shows that the measure helped to strengthen gender equality work at the institutions’ central level, but it does not contribute to any significant increase of appointed women in top academic positions. On this ground, the evaluator does not recommend the continuation of the measure after 2013. The Ministry of Education and Research has not decided yet what future actions to take on this matter.

|| Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers || In the Vanguard of Research Strategy for the Research Conucil of Norway || 2009 || Increases the participation of women in research, especially in high-level positions, by following up the measures set out in the Research Council’s Policy for Gender Equality and Gender Perspectives in Research.

|| Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Partnerships to foster cultural and institutional change on gender || Gender equality Award || 2007 || In order to improve gender balance in academia, this gender equality prize was established by the Ministry and is awarded to the higher education institution or the research institute with best results on improving gender balance within the institution.

|| Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Partnerships to foster cultural and institutional change on gender || KILDEN - information centre for gender research || || Regarding the gender dimension in research programmes, an information centre for gender research in Norway, KILDEN, is affiliated under the RCN. KILDEN has the national responsibility for promotion and information about Norwegian gender research nationally and abroad and promotes the documentation of resources and activities within gender research in Norway. KILDEN’s target groups are gender researchers, the academic communities in general, journalists, politicians, public administrators, students and the public in general.

|| Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Partnerships to foster cultural and institutional change on gender || Binding action plans for gender equality || || All state higher education institutions are expected to adopt binding action plans for gender equality.

|| Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || At least 40% of the under-represented sex in committees || MORE entrepreneurship (research program) || 2008 || The Government's overall objective is that the proportion of women among new entrepreneurs should be at least 40% by 2013. This project should accumulate the knowledge for the achievement of this goal. On the basis of the action plan the Research Council of Norway will work for a significant increase in the proportion of women in their business-oriented applications. Ideas Bank contains ideas for how to develop new instruments and measures to achieve the goal of a more equitable gender balance in the Research Council programs.

|| Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Meld. St. 18 (2012–2013) Long-term perspectives – knowledge provides opportunity (chap. 4) || 2013 || In principle, it is the Government’s view that all research that is wholly or partially funded through public allocations must be made openly available. The Government will require that all scientific articles that are wholly or partially publicly funded must either be published as open access articles or self-archived as agreed on with the publisher. There is on-going work in the RCN to implement these policy goals and to develop national policies on both open access to publication and to scientific data.

|| Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Norwegian Open research Archives || 2004 || The system, an online digital archive, aims to increase the proportion of publicly available scientific articles in Norway.

|| Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Current Research Information System In Norway  (CRIStin) || || CRIStin is a research information system for hospitals, research institutes, and universities and university colleges. One of the primary purposes of the system is to collect all the registration and reporting of research activities of institutions within the three R&D sectors in a common system. CRIStin shall also demonstrate, present, and make publicly available quality-assured data for scientific publication in a national database as a basis for the performance-based financing systems in universities and colleges, research institutes and the health trusts. CRIStin is a national point of reference for open access policies, and coordinates the negotiation of agreements around the procurement of electronic research resources.

|| Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Open innovation (OI) and knowledge transfer (KT) between public and private sectors through national strategies || Meld. St. 18 (2012–2013) Long-term perspectives – knowledge provides opportunity (chap. 4) || 2013 || Open research and innovations instruments are the priority of Norwegian Government. Further development of policies that facilitate knowledge transfer will be prioritised in the coming period.

|| Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Open innovation (OI) and knowledge transfer (KT) between public and private sectors through national strategies || University Act and the Employee Invention Act as basis for knowledge transfer || 2003 || Since the change of the University Act and the Employee Invention Act in 2003, Norway has undertaken a great number of activities promoting knowledge transfer, like coordinating IP policy measures for universities, launching several research programs aimed at commercialization, innovation and co-operation between research communities and actors within the business sectors, NGOs and public sector. There has also been an increased awareness within policy development of phenomena like open innovation, digital infrastructure developments and harmonization of policies.

|| Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise policies for public e-infrastructures and associated digital research services || eInfrastructure (part of eScience - Infrastructure, Theory and Application (eVITA)) || 2008 || Programme designed to address computing- and data-intensive challenges in science, technology and medicine. Develops the scientific case foreInfrastructure that can best serve Norwegian research groups and operions.

|| Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Harmonise policies for public e-infrastructures and associated digital research services || Research Infrastructure (INFRASTRUKTUR) || 2008 || These scheme of 37,5 mln euro supports the Norwegian participation in establishing research infrastructure on the ESFRI Roadmap. It also allows for advanced solutions for the large datasets, and making those available for all researchers.

Switzerland

|| ERA Priority || ERA Action || National Measure contributing to ERA || Year Adoption || How the measure contributes to ERA

|| More effective national research systems || Competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments || Financial message on the promotion of education, research and innovation for 2013-2016 || 2012 || Increases the amount of grant funding awarded on a competitive basis for research and innovation.The Federal Council aims for a growth rate of expenditures for education, research and innovation of 3.7% per year. Total planned federal expenditure for ERI over the 2013-2016 period stands at around CHF 26 billion

|| More effective national research systems || Competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments || Competitive funding as core principle throughout the promotion system for research and innovation || || Assures the high level of excellence in the selection of projects. Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) funds basic research on a competitive basis and is evaluated by independent experts. Furthermore its high quality of operation is assured through institutional international peer reviews. Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI) funding applied research and innovation on a competitive basis evaluated by independent experts and its institution process is peer-reviewed.

|| More effective national research systems || Competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments || Institutional evaluation involving international experts (SNSF, CTI) || || Increases the efficiency and effectivity of the institutional funding

|| More effective national research systems || Competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments || National Centres of Competence in Research (NCCRs) promote long-term research projects in areas of vital strategic importance for the development of science in Switzerland || || Increases the level of scientific based knowledge

|| More effective national research systems || Competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments || National Research Programmes (NRPs) generate scientific knowledge aimed at solving Switzerland’s most pressing problems. || || Increases the level of scientific based knowledge

|| More effective national research systems || Competitive funding through calls for proposals and institutional assessments || Financial supplement message on the promotion of energy research 2013-2016 || 2013 || Increases the amount of grant funding specifically awarded for energy research, however still on a competitive basis

|| More effective national research systems || Apply the core principles of international peer review || International independent peer review as default for research project evaluation (SNSF: majority of foreign experts, English proposal forms, international peer panels, co-evaluation with other countries.) || || Maintains an independent evaluation up to international standards

|| More effective national research systems || Apply the core principles of international peer review || Evaluation of innovation projects with independent experts embedded in national science and industry community. || || Maintains an independent evaluation up to real needs of the Swiss economy and promotes high innovation potential in the industry

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges || Participation in Joint Research Initiatives || || Switzerland participates in 5 Joint Programming Initiatives and 20 ERA-NETs . Switzerland contributes considerable amount of co-funding for FET-Flagships and Art. 185 initiatives (e.g. Eurostars and AAL).

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges || Participation in COST actions || || COST contributes to reducing the fragmentation in European research investments and opening the European Research Area to cooperation worldwide. The State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation SERI provides and manages funding opportunities for collaborations within COST Actions

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges || Participation in EUREKA || 1985 || EUREKA contributes to synchronizing national innovation promotion funds for trans-national cooperation of companies within ERA with the goal to increase their competitiveness. The State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation SERI provides access to national funding instruments for EUREKA projects and access to funding for Eurostars projects

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges || Other joint research initiatives || || The SNSF also manages European Science Foundation (ESF) initiatives such as Eurocores and Research Networking Programmes.  (e.g.SNSF/ International short visits, SNSF /International exploratory workshops).

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges || Swiss Programme for Research on Global Issues for Development (r4d programme) || || The joint SNSF-SDC programme for research on global issues in and with developing and emerging countries will support projects generating knowledge and innovative solutions in Africa, Asia and Latin America as of 2012

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges || Scientific Exchange Programme Sciex-NMS || || The Scientific Exchange Programme between Switzerland and the New Member States of the European Union (Sciex-NMSch) run by the CRUS offers fellowships to researchers. Doctoral Candidates and Post Docs are able to develop a research project for a period of 6 to 24 months under the joint supervision of the Mentor at their own institution and the Mentor at the Swiss institution. The Fellows will develop part of their research at a Swiss institution

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges || Bilateral research programmes with new Member States || || Bilateral research programmes with Poland: Joint research projects (implemented by at least one Polish and one Swiss research institution) in the fields of Information and Communication Technologies, Renewable energy sources, Nanotechnologies, Health, Environment. Budget: CHF 27 Moi Bilateral research programmes with Hungary: Research topics: Joint research projects in the fields of environmental technology (including energy), health and life science; institutional partnerships in applied research, as well as sabbatical and academic exchange in social science. Budget: CHF 5,8 Moi Bilateral research programmes with Romania: Joint research projects in the field of civilisatory diseases, impact of waste and pollutants on environment and climate, sustainable energy, economic growth and social disparities. Budget: CHF 9,750 Moi Bilateral research programmes with Bulgaria: Joint research projects in the field of social sciences and natural sciences Budget: CHF 4 Moi

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges || SCOPES 2013-2016 || 2013 || SCOPES is a programme for research collaboration with Eastern European Countries and the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union. SCOPES 2013–2016 (of budget of CHF 16 million) includes  Joint Research Projects (JRPs) providing funding for researchers from partner countries to carry out innovative projects at the Eastern European and Swiss research facilities involved, and Institutional Partnerships (IPs), which contribute to the development and modernisation of institutional aspects of research and teaching institutions in Eastern Europe and the NIS.

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Implement joint research agendas addressing grand challenges || Transnational cooperation and building of network with EU and non-EU countries || || Switzerland pursues bilateral relations and programmes with selected partner countries outside of Europe such as China, India, Russia, Japan, Brazil, South Africa and South Korea.  Swiss science and technology network of counsellors, who are stationed in strategically important regions around the world; swissnex, Swiss houses for scientific and technological exchange abroad, that help raise the level of awareness of Switzerland as a location for expertise and know-how

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Cross-border interoperability of national programmes || Improvement of the federal law for R&I for a more efficient process to conclude an agreement for transnational joint programming based on international binding laws || 2014 || Enables a more efficient process for transnational research and innovation cooperation’

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Cross-border interoperability of national programmes || Improved legal basis for internationalization regarding: the direct funding of industry in international programmes. More efficient federal process to take part in international contracts based on like PPP’s, JTI, AAL, Eurostars II || 2014 || Allows a more compatible federal legal basis for cooperation in transnational European projects

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Lead-Agency, Money-Follows-Cooperation Line, Money-Follows-Researcher and other models for cross-border cooperation || Lead Agency agreements || 2008 || The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) has signed two Lead Agency Agreements: a trilateral agreement with the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and a bilateral, agreement with the Fonds National de la Recherche du Luxembourg (FNR).

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, national, regional Research infrastructures of pan-European interest || Message on the promotion of education, research and innovation for 2013-2016 || 2012 || Identification of research infrastructures to be supported for the programming period.

|| Optimal levels of transnational co-operation and competition || Financial commitments for the construction and operation of ESFRI, national, regional Research infrastructures of pan-European interest || Swiss Roadmap for Research Infrastructures || 2011 || Switzerland is a member in all the eight EIROforum intergovernmental research organisations. It also invests funds in national Top Research infrastructures accessible to foreign partners such as Swissfel, Swiss Light source, CSCS and others.

|| A more open labour market for researchers || Open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Implementation of Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers and European Charter for Researchers || 2005 || All universities and most of the other research institutions have signed the Charter for Researchers and the Code on Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. There are no recruitment procedures that may hinder the openness or discourage participation of non-national applicants.

|| A more open labour market for researchers || Open, transparent and merit based recruitment of researchers || Ambizione Programme || || The Ambizione Programme is aimed at qualified researchers from Switzerland who are spending time abroad or have returned from a stay abroad, e.g. as part of a fellowship for advanced researchers. The Programme also aims to attract the best, next-generation foreign talents to carry out research work in Switzerland. During 2008-10, more than 50% of the beneficiaries were “returning”, i.e. they received their doctorate in Switzerland or had an SNSF grant earlier in their career. More than 40% were incoming, i.e. without earlier research activities in Switzerland (though they might still be Swiss citizens or residents).

|| A more open labour market for researchers || Cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Money-follows-the-researcher || || With respect to the portability of grants, the main principle is money-follows-the-researcher: researchers who move abroad can ask for on-going SNSF funding to continue. In some cases, continuation of the project is possible even in countries outside Europe. The SNSF decides on a case-by-case basis on how the funding may be used.

|| A more open labour market for researchers || Cross-border access to and portability of national grants || Sinergia || || Supports small networks where a synergetic approach is needed to tackle complex research questions

|| A more open labour market for researchers || Cross-border access to and portability of national grants || SNSF Schemes || || SNSF Professorship: enable returning researchers to resume their careers at a Swiss higher education institution upon return from a stay abroad. Applicants need to have a Swiss university degree or at least two years’ activity at a Swiss university. The proportion of researchers returning with an SNSF professorship in 2011 was 33%. SNSF Fellowships support prospective and advanced researchers in spending some time abroad. The funding includes personal subsistence, a fixed sum for travel expenses and support for research and conference expenses. The funding scheme is open to advanced doctoral candidates and to postdoctoral researchers (for up to five years after they have received their doctorate). The SNSF Fellowship funding scheme was evaluated in 2010. SNSF Short Visits Initiative allows researchers working in Switzerland to go abroad or third-country researchers to come to Switzerland. The visits can last between one week and three months. The main aim of this funding instrument, which is open to all fields of research, is to initiate or to consolidate international collaboration. There are no geographic limitations.

|| A more open labour market for researchers || Support coordinated personalised information and services to researchers through EURAXESS || Euraxess Switzerland: Strategies 2012/2013 || 2011 || Consists of consolidation and expansion of the network; further development of the website; increasing the visibility of EURAXESS.

|| A more open labour market for researchers || Support structured innovative doctoral training programmes || Excellence through research || 2011 || Represents the official position of the Rectors' Conference of the Swiss Universities (CRUS) on the setting up and running of structured innovative doctoral training programmes. There are no national policies, initiatives or pieces of legislation aimed at applying the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training.

|| A more open labour market for researchers || Implementation of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers || HR Strategy for Researchers || || Three universities have been granted with the HR logo.

|| Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers || National Platform for Gender equality, gender studies and the promotion of gender-sensitive careers in higher education Gender Campus.ch || || Lists all national institutions, programmes, statistics, training offers and offers in the respective research fields. Network Swiss Gender Studies (Universities Basel, Bern, Fribourg, Genève, Lausanne, Neuchâtel, St. Gallen and Zurich)

|| Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers || SNSF - funding schemes 120% support grant SNSF Mobility fellowships SNSF professorships || || Flexible age limit in all career funding instruments of the SNSF. 120% support grant - The aim of the 120% support grant is to help researchers achieve a balance between their academic career and family life and thus make a career in academia more appealing for young scientists. This measure was initiated for the benefit of postdoctoral researchers who need to look after children during an important stage in their careers and who therefore need more flexibility for a limited period. To be eligible for the scheme, researchers must have at least an 80% job in the project and assume family care duties. The 120% support grant will enable them to reduce their work-time percentage for a limited period and hire a support person at the same time. SNSF Mobility fellowships/Doc.mobility; EarlyPostdocMobility Advanced PostdocMobility: The amount of the fellowship is based on the applicant family status and family obligations as well as cost of living in the host countries SNSF professorships: From the beginning of the funding the target of 30% women scientist was set for the SNSF professorship. This target has been reached over the last years. The proportion can vary, like in 2013 (23%). The SNSF will continue its efforts to increase the proportion of female scientists.

|| Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers || Equal Opportunity of women and men at universities and universities of applied science 2013-2016: gender action plans || || Federal government provides funding for gender equality actions on the basis of the universities’ individual action plans, which must address the issue of gender equality on a structural level in all key areas of activity: teaching, research and community service. The aim is institutional and cultural change.

|| Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers || Marie Heim-Vögtlin MHV grant by the Swiss National Science Foundation || || Specific SNSF grant for women returning after a career break. Grants are aimed at doctoral students and postdocs with excellent qualifications.

|| Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers || Gender objectives are part of all performance agreements with ETH, KTI and SNSF || 2013 || Equal opportunities is one of the core issues of the ETH-Board. The Leistungsvereinbarung (performance agreement) of the Swiss Confederation demands to enhance the participation of women on all levels. (Ziel 10, Unterziel 2), as well as to promote flexible working schemes to improve work-life balance of researchers.

|| Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers || FEMDAT.ch || || Data collection of women experts and platform for women’s career since 2005; (financing: public private)

|| Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research || Recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers || Diversity@CTI || 2009 || Aims to increase the number of female experts and coaches used by the CTI; introduces mentoring and networking; establishment of best practices and benchmarking.

|| Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || Common strategy on Open access (under preparation) || || Swiss R&I stakeholders work towards a common strategy on Open access; project related competitive funding for open access is being considered. Some Universities are running an institutional repository. Swiss universities fund a common e-Library.

|| Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Policies on access to and preservation of scientific information || The ARAMIS Ordinance || 1999 || Creates a database with detailed information on federally funded or run research projects. The Federal Statistical Office (FSO) and the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) are able to use this detailed information for statistical and other assessment purposes.

|| Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Open innovation (OI) and knowledge transfer (KT) between public and private sectors through national strategies || Federal Law on the Promotion of Research and Innovation || 2012 || The Law specifies that research institutions must take care that their research results are available for the public. They also must support analysis and utilisation of research work.

|| Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Open innovation (OI) and knowledge transfer (KT) between public and private sectors through national strategies || Innovation Parks: Adaption of Federal Law on the Promotion of Research and Innovation || 2014 || In 2014 the new Federal Law on the Promotion of Research and Innovation shall provide the legal basis to support the establishment of Swiss Innovation parks with the aim to support to develop a common adapted strategy on how to link research partners between academia and industry and vice versa.

|| Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Open innovation (OI) and knowledge transfer (KT) between public and private sectors through national strategies || Promotion of cooperative research between higher education institutions and private companies || || National Centres of Competence in Research (NCCR) and National Research Programmes (NRP) involve a variable amount of private public research projects and give rise to a number of spin-off companies. Market-oriented research projects of private companies (in particular SMEs) conducted in universities are co-financed by the CTI. In 2013, the CTI launched KTT programs including national thematic networks between businesses and public research institutes in different areas of innovation, the services of eight innovation mentors' in additional to regional and cantonal technology advisors as well as web-based platforms

|| Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Open innovation (OI) and knowledge transfer (KT) between public and private sectors through national strategies || Regional promotion of innovation has been harmonized with national KTT strategy of CTI || 2012 || Seemless and taylor made support from regional to national and finally to international cooperation of potentially innovative industry mainly targeted on SME’s. Mandated cantonal organisations like i-net, AGIRE supporting this strategy.

|| Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || Open innovation (OI) and knowledge transfer (KT) between public and private sectors through national strategies || BREF Programme (Gebert Rüf Foundation + KFH) || || The BREF Programme promotes collaboration between Switzerland’s business sector and the Universities of Applied Sciences

|| Optimal circulation and transfer of scientific knowledge, including through digital ERA || National strategies for e-identity for researchers and transnational access to digital research services || Federal law on the certification services in the e-signature domain. || 2008 || Extends the applicability of electronic signatures to a wider range of contracts.