The European Commission has published its annual Report on research and technological development activities of the European Union in 2007 with the main resultos of the implementation of the FP7 in Europe during 2007.

2007 was the first year of the implementation of FP7. More than 23,000 proposals were received in response to 54 calls, with a high number of participants (110,101). After the selection procedure, 2,854 of them were retained for funding (involving some 19,541 participants).

The ten Themes identified in the Cooperation programme reflect the key fields of knowledge and technology in which research excellence is particularly important to improve Europe's ability to address the social, economic, public health, environmental and industrial challenges for the future. In total, 8,030 proposals have been submitted in 2007 and more than 1,000 retained for funding.
In the Ideas Programme, the first year of the ERC formal operation was characterised by the creation of management and organisational structures as well as the organisation of the first call of proposals, the "Starting Grants", designed to support researchers in the early stage of their careers. For this first call 9,167 proposals were submitted, showing the big interest to this new initiative. Almost 300 of them were retained for funding.

The People programme supports a range of actions to foster the training and networking of researchers, career development, life-long learning and industry-academia partnership. In 2007, 4,195 proposals were submitted and more than 1,000 retained.
The Capacities programme aims at developing the best possible resources and conditions for Europe's research community. In total, 1,753 proposals were submitted for the different activities of the programme, and approximately 300 were retained.
Regarding the Euratom FP7, 57 proposals were submitted on nuclear fission and radiation protection and 15 of them were retained for funding.

Finally, concerning the FP6 implementation, even though FP6 was concluded at the end of 2006, 975 contracts were signed during the course of 2007.

What is the Framework Programme

The 7th Framework Programme, with a total budget of over € 50 billion (Euratom FP7 € 2.7 billion for 5 years), constitutes a key tool to respond to Europe's needs in terms of jobs, competitiveness, sustainable development, to meet the research needs of other Community policies, and to maintain leadership in the global knowledge economy.

FP7 represents a substantial increase compared with the previous Framework Programme (63% at 2007 prices), thus reflecting the high priority of research at EU level.