R&D
This article was originally published in RAJ Devices
Executive Summary
European Parliament votes to raise research funding
European Parliament votes to raise research funding
The European Parliament has voted to adopt the European Commission's report on the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) for research and development from 2007 to 2013. While the commission's original proposal of €72 billion was rejected, the programme's budget was increased to €50 billion from the previous framework programme's budget of €16 billion.
The commission's report proposed activities centred around nine thematic areas of research, including health; food, agriculture and biotechnology; and nanosciences, nanotechnologies, materials and new production technologies1. Parliament named health as a particular priority2.
Part of FP7 involved funding for stem cell research, which ran into opposition from representatives of countries such as Germany, Italy, Poland and Austria. These countries wanted to deny funding for stem cell research across the EU, even in countries where the research is legal, but the funding was approved.
Opponents of stem cell research also proposed that FP7 should only finance research on stem cell lines created before 31 December 2003, but this was also narrowly defeated. However, Parliament ruled that FP7 may not finance research into human cloning for reproductive purposes, or in which human embryos are created solely for research purposes or the harvesting of stem cells.
Reference
1. The Regulatory Affairs Journal - Devices, 2005, 13(3), 166-167
2. European Parliament press release, 17 June 2006, www.europarl.europa.eu/news/public/story_page/057-9077-163-06-24-909-20060615STO09076-2006-12-06-2006/default_en.htm
(c) Informa UK Ltd 2006