Marine research seeks to reorganise under new ERA-NET project
3 Oct 08
MarinERA, the European ERA-NET in the field of marine research, is set to reorganise in a search for new directions in 2009. “European research funding agencies have been informed of the Commission’s view that marine research should be networked through one single ERA-NET. This means that at least three ERA-NETs in the marine field could be merged in future,” says Senior Science Adviser Jaana Roos from the Academy of Finland. These three ERA-NETs are MARIFISH, AMPERA and MarinERA.
In future, other programmes that will be linked up with the new ERA-NET in the marine field include BONUS ERA-NET, which is focused on Baltic Sea research, and the related programmes BONUS+ and BONUS-169.
Baltic Sea research is important to Finland
The Academy has been closely involved in MarinERA cooperation and has coordinated BONUS cooperation. The only other Nordic partner involved in the MarinERA project is Norway.
“Baltic Sea research will continue to remain a priority area for the Academy also in the new marine ERA-NET,” Roos points out.
The Commission has pledged funding worth up to two million euros for the new ERA-NET. These funds will be used towards improving cooperation between European marine research and its funding agencies
Regional research consortia: the way forward?
MarinERA has been working to coordinate the activities of 15 partners in the marine field since 2004 and has run its course. Over the past four years, the project has spent some 80 million euros a year on networking nationally funded marine research.
“With different funding agencies and research institutes involved in one and the same ERA-NET, we’ve seen many differences in both practices and areas of interest,” Roos says. While national funding agencies are in the position to open competitive calls in which research projects are selected on the basis of scientific peer reviews, research institutes rarely have the opportunity to do this.
It cannot be taken for granted that the new ERA-NET in the marine field will succeed in creating European research consortia or identifying common research themes. “One possible way forward might be to set up regional research consortia,” Roos says. This is the approach that has been taken for instance in ERA-NET CIRCLE, which coordinates research on the impacts of climate change.
Marine research is expensive
Major EU members have their own strong interests in the field of marine research, depending on the sea areas they control. Research concerned with the Baltic Sea or the Atlantic, for instance, may be grounded in very different premises. At the same time, there is a strong drive within the EU towards a unified marine policy and more integrated marine research. Also, the multidisciplinary nature of marine research sets its own special requirements.
“Even though the research interests are national, it’s important that scientists are aware of one another’s’ work. Marine research vessels and other research infrastructure in this field is extremely expensive, and more could be done to promote the sharing of that infrastructure in Europe,” Roos says.
The latter question has already been discussed at MarinERA forums.
Evaluation methods reviewed by Finland
One of the assignments given to Finland and the Academy in the context of MarinERA has been to review the evaluation methods and programme outcome indicators used by the funding agencies involved in the project.
Based on this review, a proposal was submitted on how a jointly funded research programme could be conducted, and its results were used in designing the first MarinERA call for project applications. This call was issued in the spring.
Text: Tiina Ruulio
More information:
ERA-NETs
www.marinera.net
Other news