Practical Guide to EU funding opportunities for Research and Innovation

At the Community level, the Union possesses three key funding instruments to support research and innovation: Cohesion policy which is funded through the Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund; the Research Framework Programme and the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme.1

This Practical Guide was conceived in order to help potential beneficiaries of our programmes find their way through the three funding instruments and identify the most appropriate funding scheme for them. It provides a concise description of the three funding sources, explains how they can in practice be combined and provides policy makers with advice on setting up mechanisms at the national and regional levels to foster co-ordinated access to them.