European Conference GEO welcomes FP7 Constanta, Romania, 15 th September 2006 ERA ENV – Integration of Associated Candidate Countries and New EU Member States in European Research Area by Environmental approaches A Specific Support Action financed by the European Commission through the 6 th Framework Programme for RTD – “Global change and ecosystems” sub-priority, focusing on two objectives.

European Conference GEO welcomes FP7 Constanta, Romania, 15 th September 2006 Objectives: - encourage and facilitate the participation of research organisations and SMEs from ACC and NMS in environment related activities; - advertise the RTD Framework Programme in participating ACC and NMS in order to raise the awareness of FP6 and support the building of consortia with partners from the above mentioned area.

European Conference GEO welcomes FP7 Constanta, Romania, 15 th September 2006 The ERA ENV consortium comprises of 11 organisations from 7 European Countries: - 2 New Member States (Hungary and Slovakia); -3 Associated Candidate Countries (Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey); -2 Member States (Austria and Germany); The project had recorded significant benefits for all the participating countries.

European Conference GEO welcomes FP7 Constanta, Romania, 15 th September 2006 Benefits for ROMANIA: - Raising awareness process about FP6 and for the next coming FP7 in Romania; - Personal contacts to NMS and ACC researchers and SMEs; - Excellent training materials from experienced organizarions/experts (Austria and Germany); - Opportunity to disseminate high quality level materials (leaflets, brochures, CDs) to Romanian organisations; - Very efficient IT tools development (ERA ENV website, E- newsletter, database for registration and match-making); - Promotion of the reliable Romanian clients for research projects; - Significant improvement of the succes rate for the proposals with Romanian organisations participating in (Call: Global 4)

European Conference GEO welcomes FP7 Constanta, Romania, 15 th September 2006 Benefits for SLOVAKIA - Networking and match-making and initiation of establishing partnerships and consortia seeds across relevant institutions, both domestic and European; - Increased awareness of opportunities existing within the European research area among clients previously uninformed or incompletely uninformed; - Boosted interest in participating in EC Framework programmes manifested by taking part in the information dissemination and training events; - Developing consortia-building opportunities towards FP7.

European Conference GEO welcomes FP7 Constanta, Romania, 15 th September 2006 Benefits for BULGARIA: - A wide contacts network concerning 6.3. priority “Global change and ecosystems” of 6th FP were established in Bulgaria. The network could be used in advertising and promotion of every kind of environmental programs and projects; - Several researcher/research organisations were trained and consulted in the ways of joining the European Research Area (partner search; consortium organisation; project elaboration and project management).

European Conference GEO welcomes FP7 Constanta, Romania, 15 th September 2006 Benefits for TURKEY: - ERAENV created platforms and means to meet organizations and researchers from other ACC, to learn about their research interests, capacities and potentials in the field of environment; - The extensive awareness campaign developed for the related research community encouraged them to participate in EU projects; - Successful project proposals submitted to EU; - Profiles of researchers, institutes and SMEs registered to ERAENV platform to benefit from matchmaking process; - Building consortiums; - Assembling the researchers who work on Earth Observation, a more specific research area and information on GEO.

European Conference GEO welcomes FP7 Constanta, Romania, 15 th September 2006 Benefits for HUNGARY: - Useful information provided for the clients for building international consortia, preparing proposals and managing projects; - Improved awareness for SMEs and also research organisations in the environmental fields of financing proposals supported by the EU (trainings, info materials, promotion); - Building useful person-to-person contacts for organising consortia in the relevant environmental fields through the organised international events; - Database of potential partners in FP 6/7 environmental field – helpful in partner search not only within the database but only in a large circle by promoting the database.

European Conference GEO welcomes FP7 Constanta, Romania, 15 th September 2006 Benefits for AUSTRIA: - Numerous replies on all Austrian partner searches; - Several partner searches from Austria resulted in acquiring new partners from New Member States and Candidate Countries in the consortium; - International contact database for the benefit of Austrian clients; - Very good information material; - Excellent networking opportunities during Training Sessions and Thematic Networking Event; - Profiles acquired will be used by FFG even after the project.

European Conference GEO welcomes FP7 Constanta, Romania, 15 th September 2006 Benefits for GERMANY - Raising awareness in Germany about: ▪ EU programmes; ▪ Expertise and activities of R&D in NMS and ACC. - Establishing personal contacts to NMS and ACC researchers, which could be useful for joint projects in the future; - ERAENV as an “Entry point” for contacts with researchers and SMEs from NMS and ACC; - Finding partners for EU proposals and projects; - Building contacts also within Germany.

Thank you! Ariana NASTASEANU NCP for Sustainable development, global change and ecosystems