Retrospective analysis of partnership types in EU framework programmes for research and innovation

Abstract

Conducting high-quality research on current problems in the EU Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation requires the involvement of scientists capable of conducting research independently, universities with an appropriate laboratory, etc. Various resources are considered, including foreign, to fulfill it. One of the options for their cooperation is partnership in various forms provided by the EU Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation. However, the types of partnerships have evolved, changed and improved since 1984 to the present. The article attempts to conduct a retrospective analysis of all types of partnerships that were and are valid in the EU Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation. The author identified seven stages of this phenomenon and formulated their features, advantages and disadvantages, taking into account the action of these programmes: 1 stage) the period 1984-1991 and the existing framework programmes during this period: the birth of a partnership. The very concept of «partnership» or its types are still missing, but there are specific provisions about cooperation in these documents; 2 stage) in the period 1990-1994, the concept of «partnership» appeared for the first time without a definition or explanation at the EU legislative level; 3 stage) covers the period 1994-1998, when partnerships between universities, research institutes and industry, including partnerships with industry, were typical; 4 stage) the period 1998-2002, where the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership is present without disclosing its content or explaining at the EU legislative level; 5 stage) the period 2002-2006, when the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities, contributing to the creation of the European Research Area and to innovation, refused to establish a specific type of partnership; 6 stage) іn the period 20072013, there were initial attempts to define some types of partnerships: long term public private partnership, industry-academia partnerships, international partnerships with third country organisations in scientific society; 7 stage) since 2014 and to the present, when new types of partnerships appear or the existing types of partnerships are improved as well as almost all the proposed types of partnerships have definitions, specifics of application, etc. It was found that none of the nine specified programmes contain a definition of the term «partnership», the types of partnerships vary depending on many factors.