Views from the Small Players FP7 Project BalkanGEONet Balkan GEO Network – Towards Inclusion of Balkan Countries into Global Earth Observation Initiatives Prof. Vesna Crnojevic-Bengin Project co-coordinator University of Novi Sad Serbia 5 th GEPW, London February 2011

EU Enlargement Countries Constituted by the EU Candidate Countries and Potential Candidate Countries Associated countries in FP7 Initiative to manifest their Joint Position on the next Research and Technology Development (RTD) Framework Programme of the European Union – 13 January 2011

Background FP7 Interim Evaluation Report (12 November 2010): – Low success rates and low participation in FP7 of some countries compared to others – EU Enlargement Countries are very much affected from this situation due to shortcomings about human capital, infrastructure capacities, limited financial resources, their very recent involvement in FP compared to the EU Member States.

Recommendations Excellence – Inclusive strategies for capacity building and cohesion – A particular proposal for regionally designed grants Grand challenges – May tend to abolish the thematic focus – Small scale cooperative thematically oriented projects are crucial for the enlargement countries Innovation – Calls for stronger links among research and the industry – Most of Enlargement countries are lagging behind with respect to industry involvement – Special measures should be introduced in the future RTD programme