MARINERA

Basic Information

Description

The European Union has set out a ten-year strategy (Lisbon 2000) to make the EU the world's most dynamic and competititve knowledge-based economy by 2010. A key element of this strategy is the European Research Area (ERA) initiative.The ERA, a central pillar of this strategy, aims to :
-Create an internal market in Research
- Restructure the European research fabric
-Develop a European research policy.
An ERA-NET Scheme has been established, within the 6th Framework Programme, to catalyse the mobilisation of the European Research and Development sector to the Lisbon challenge. The MarinERA proposal represents the positive response of the European marine science community to this challenge. MarinERA is a partnership of the leading Marine RTD Funding Organisations in 13 European Member and Accession States, supported by the European Science Foundation Marien Board (ESF-MB). Together, these Funding Agencies represent an investment of circa 100 million / annum in marine research. In addition, amongst a range of Oberver Groups, six international networks of research organisation (BONUS, EFARO, EuroGOOS, European Polar Board, IACMST, ICES) a further Member State funding agency have associated themselves with the project.The MarinERA project will
-Map European marine RTD programmes and specialised infrastructures to contribute towards the development of the marine element of the European Research Area, facilitating the creation of an internal market and quatifying the existing European marine research capacity;
-Facilitate the networking of Marine RTD Funding Agencies in the European Union, leading to a more cost effective and efficient use of Member State resources including scientific personnel, specialist infrastructures and planned investments.
-Contribute to the development of a European Marine Research Policy, identifying future challenges and opportunities and the priority research programes that need to be put in place to address / benefit from them;- provide a b