1. COMPETITIVE AND SUSTAINABLE GROWTH Directorate General Research EUROPEAN COMMISSION 3/17/2016 - 1 Virtual institutes Market oriented networks to facilitate rapid transfer and exploitation of RTD results 28 September 2000

2. COMPETITIVE AND SUSTAINABLE GROWTH Directorate General Research EUROPEAN COMMISSION 3/17/2016 - 2 Setting up of virtual institutes Part of the “Support for Research Infrastructures” of the GROWTH programme Implemented through Expressions of interest / Dedicated call Setting-up costs covered (network-type allowable costs) - RTD-funding not included

3. COMPETITIVE AND SUSTAINABLE GROWTH Directorate General Research EUROPEAN COMMISSION 3/17/2016 - 3 Virtual institutes – draft business plan – strong management structure – legal structure foreseen General requirement: Self financing beyond the period of EC funding: Additional characteristics: – extensive use of information technology tools – low access threshold for interested parties

4. COMPETITIVE AND SUSTAINABLE GROWTH Directorate General Research EUROPEAN COMMISSION 3/17/2016 - 4 The Mechanism EoI is a structured description of research infrastructures’ related needs Any interested party (incl. Commission services) can submit an EoI Received EoIs (continuously open call) are periodically evaluated Expressions of interest (EoI) Dedicated calls Dedicated calls, i.e. lists of topics resulting from EoI evaluations, are published periodically Supporting documents (modified & anonymous EoIs) for all published topics are available on the web Any eligible consortium may submit a proposal for any of the published topics

5. COMPETITIVE AND SUSTAINABLE GROWTH Directorate General Research EUROPEAN COMMISSION 3/17/2016 - 5 Virtual institutes Topics published so far : – The European recycling virtual centre – The European tribology virtual institute – The European maritime virtual institute – The European virtual institute for gas-turbine instrumentation 9 topics proposed for publication on 15 October 2000 – Precision engineering, micro engineering and nanotechnology – Design and product development – Product oriented simulation – Laser technology