MATERA+ · ERA-NET Plus on Materials Research

The objective of MATERA+ is the launching, management and follow-up of a Joint Call in the field of materials. The project is a direct outcome of the coordination work initiated within ERA-NET on Materials (MATERA 016102) in FP6. MATERA+ takes advantage of the experience gained along the last 3 years in the previous transnational calls carried out in MATERA (MATERA Calls 2006, 2007 and 2008).Materials research is one of the cornerstones of the European economy, being of high importance for the development of such fields as energy, environment, health and safety. The importance of materials can also be seen in many national and regional programmes and strategic activities where materials are one of the main focus areas. To combine these national and regional interests and to reduce the fragmentation of materials research in Europe the cooperation between the funding agencies in the ERA-NET scheme has been found very useful. There are 20 European funding agencies participating in MATERA+ with a total amount of 17 million euros of national/regional funding.The project consists of four Work packages: WP1 Coordination and Management, WP2 Preparation of the Joint Call, WP3 Implementation of the Joint Call, WP4 Monitoring and Impact assessment. The Call will be opened in the spring 2009. It will have two steps, Stage 1 for pre-proposals and Stage two for full proposals. The national and regional funding agencies will jointly select the pre-proposals for the second step. The evaluation and ranking of the full proposals will be carried out by external experts in complience with the EC rules. Funding agencies are committed to do the final funding decisions according to the selection list arising from the external panel meeting. Funding agencies are committed to cover most of the coordination costs by themselves.