Division I OBJECTIVES

In today’s global economy, metrology makes a significant contribution to the technological and economic development of many nations in the world. Metrology research is needed to solve societal problems, and examples of such research affect areas such as space including satellite navigation, security, healthcare, the semiconductor industry and climate change. Metrology research has strong public benefits and is the main supporting activity for government regulation and standardisation. Metrology is hidden from public view yet it is essential for the facilitation of modern trade and communications. Access to markets can be hampered by the lack of uniform and accurate weights and measures. All major economic powers in the world have recognised that technology R & D in metrology is critical to an advanced nation’s long term economic growth.

Metrology research has traditionally been a high national priority in many countries. However European countries are operating their national metrology research programmes in full isolation and EU Member States have been unable to create on their own a single and truly integrated EMRP. National Metrology Institutes (NMI), supported by Designated Institutes (DI) are in charge of implementing the national metrology research programmes on the basis of institutional funding from central government agencies or ministries. The European metrology research community is a specialised community only loosely linked to research organisations or academia. It is largely fragmented and comprises a few centres of global excellence which would benefit from wide competition on an international scale. Duplication of research clearly exists.

The right for the Community to act in this field is set out in several Articles of the Treaty providing for research coordination and cooperation between Member States and the Community. Article 165 stipulates that ‘the Community and the Member States shall coordinate their research and technological development activities so as to ensure that national policies and Community policy are mutually consistent’. Article 169 invites the Community to make provision for participation in R & D programmes undertaken by several Member States. Community action seems highly justified, as Member States acting alone are unlikely to be able to address these problems.

The EMRP will integrate the national programmes of 22 participating States into a single joint research programme and support, in particular, the objectives of the European National Measurement Systems. The objectives of the EMRP are to accelerate the development, validation and exploitation of new measuring techniques, standards, processes, instruments, reference materials and knowledge aimed at driving innovative developments in industry and commerce, improving the quality of data for science, industry and policymaking and supporting the development and implementation of directives and regulations.

The EMRP will achieve these objectives in the following ways:

1. (a)

   pooling excellence in metrology research — by creating competitive joint research projects, namely EMRP projects, marshalling the capability of a sufficient critical mass from the networks of NMI and DI from the participating States to tackle major metrology challenges faced at European level;

2. (b)

   opening of the system to the best science — by increasing participation from the wider European research community through researcher grants;

3. (c)

   capacity building — by increasing the capability of the European metrology researcher community through researcher mobility grants targeting those EURAMET Member Countries with limited metrology research capability.

The EMRP shall complement ongoing national programmes and activities aimed at addressing purely national priorities.

The EMRP initiative is aimed at aligning and integrating relevant national metrology research activities to establish a joint research programme featuring scientific, management and financial integration, making a major contribution to the European Research Area and underpinning the concepts in the Lisbon agenda of Europe as ‘the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-driven economy’. Scientific integration is achieved through the common definition and implementation of activities under the EMRP. Management integration is achieved through the use of EURAMET e.V., a non-profit association under German law, as the dedicated implementation structure subject to the detailed arrangements contained in Annex II.

Financial integration implies that the participating States effectively commit to contribute to the financing of the EMRP by providing national funding to all eligible participants in selected EMRP projects from the national earmarked EMRP budgets, if necessary by drawing on the reserve funding capability amounting to 50 % of such budgets, and by providing a ‘cash’ contribution to a common pot to fund researcher excellence and mobility grants, whilst fully funding the running costs of the EMRP. A further element of financial integration shall be the unified approach towards eligible costs, based on the rules of the Seventh Framework Programme.