30/05/2006 - Financial Personnel with little or no knowledge of the financial benefits of participating in the Framework Program are blocking their organisations – mostly SMEs - from joining proposals from an ill-informed purely financial perspective.

The Finance-NMS-IST project have produced a report based on an assessment of the influence of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) or other financial personnel within the New Member States on their organisation’s participation in FP6 IST Proposals

Until this report, the influence of CFOs and financial personnel on their organisation’s participation in IST proposals within the different NMS was largely unknown.

The financial person in an organisation holds a very responsible position and exerts a considerable influence, particularly in SMEs, where the running of the company is very much dependent on its finance and cash flow management. It is therefore a matter of importance for the Commission to understand the issues and influences of such people.

The study reports in detail the influence of the CFO and other financial personnel within the IST priority of FP6.  It determines the different levels of influence in all the targeted countries, within two different organisation types (SMEs and Universities / Research Institutes), and whether organisations that choose not to participate in FP6 IST proposals did so due to perceived funding problems. The report further elaborates the results in order to better understand the problems encountered by these organisations - public and private - in the process of being involved in EU FP6 projects.

To view the report please press here.