§ Mr. BluntTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list the 10 most successful commercial applications of research programmes funded by the European Union's first five framework programmes for research and development. [74915]
§ Ms HewittBusiness, large and small, competes fiercely to take part in EU Framework programmes and derive wider benefits from participation: for example in increasing research skills, helping to access international collaboration, alliances or markets, sharing project risks and costs, or helping to develop key industry standards.
However, the research carried out in the EU Framework Programmes focuses primarily on longer term pre-competitive, collaborative research rather than leading directly to commercial products.
The UK is strongly encouraging the Commission in its work to develop better ways to track and assess the impact of the Framework programmes. However, successful commercial applications often depend on bringing together a number of technological innovations from different sources (which might include, among other sources, elements drawn from the wide range of outputs from successive Framework Programmes) with the aim of meeting a particular user need. Under these circumstances, it is very difficult to compile a restrictive, ranked list of commercial successes.
Nevertheless, it is possible to give some general examples where Framework programmes have contributed significantly to subsequent successful commercial applications: for example, underpinning development of GSM telephony (mobile phones), production of new generations of microchips, competitiveness of European Aerospace industry, improved energy technologies, and a much-improved understanding of life sciences and global climate change.
The Commission provides details of all projects funded under FP4 and FP5 on its website www.CORDIS.lu together with a range of technology brokering services to assist with the further exploitation of EU funded research.