EU Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)

The Academy of Finland’s Biosciences and Environment Research Unit is responsible for the Environment and Climate Change programme of the EU FP7. Together with the Academy’s International Relations Unit, the Unit is also responsible for the People specific programme.

Environment and Climate Change programme

Director Laura Raaska from the Biosciences and Environment Research Unit is the Finnish committee member of the Environment and Climate Change programme of the FP7. Science Adviser Jaana Lehtimäki from the same Unit is the national contact point (NCP) for the programme.

The environment and its natural resources are increasingly under natural and man-made pressure from factors such as growing population, greenhouse gases, exploitation of natural resources. This poses challenges that we must respond to and that call for coordinated actions on a pan-European and global level. The programme primarily focuses on the development of actions that help prevent and mitigate climate change, but the coordination of national programmes and dissemination of information on research results are also considered important.

Within the programme, funding is provided to research that focuses on the risk management of natural hazards or the conservation and sustainable management of natural and manmade resources. Topics of research interest may also include the climate and the ecosystem or connections between environmental risk factors and human health. Research focusing on marine environments, technology assessment, verification and testing, earth observation/remote sensing and assessment tools could also receive funding from the Environment and Climate Change programme.

People specific programme

Senior Science Adviser Tiina Petänen from the Biosciences and Environment Research Unit is the Finnish committee member of the People specific programme.

The People programme focuses on funding Marie Curie actions that promote researcher training and mobility. The programme provides researchers with the opportunity to receive funding for training, career development, mobility between universities and different countries, and for some support actions promoting the research career. In addition to researchers, funding is also available for business companies and other organisations.