The European Commission has unveiled a plan to simplify the procedures for taking part in EU-funded research projects. The overall aim is to make participation transparent and attractive to the best researchers and innovative companies in Europe and beyond.

Ensuring European research realises its full potential is crucial to the EU's Europe 2020 Strategy, given the need to consolidate economic recovery and develop new sources of growth and jobs to replace those lost in the crisis. Complementing the proposals on simplification, the Commission has also appointed a group of independent experts to review all aspects of the current Seventh Framework Programme.

• The first part of the Commission's strategy will make improvements possible under the current legal and regulatory framework, some of which are already underway. These involve, for example, better IT systems, more consistent application of rules, in particular on auditing, and improving the structure and content of the "calls for proposals" in response to which research organisations bid for funding.
• The second part involves changing the existing financial rules to allow more radical simplification while maintaining effective control. The Commission also aims to allow projects to use the same accounting methods for EU funding as they are required to use for national research funding. These proposals require a decision of the European Parliament and the Council.
• The third type of change envisaged will be considered for implementation under future Research Framework Programmes. Among the options presented is a move towards "payment by results", which would mean that beneficiaries were paid lump sums to undertake specific scientific tasks and would need to demonstrate that they have done so effectively and efficiently, rather than to report individual cost items.

In the meantime, the Commission has launched the interim evaluation of the current Programme (FP7). A group of independent experts has been appointed to undertake this review and present their report this autumn.

FP7 has proved very attractive to the research community with more than 33,000 proposals received since 2007, almost 7000 projects funded. Nearly all European universities participate. Several concrete steps have already been taken towards simplification of procedures both in setting up FP 7 and since it has been in progress.