EUROPEAN RESEARCH commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn has taken steps to make it easier for small and medium-sized companies to draw research funding from the EU’s labyrinthine bureaucracy, saying she wants to replace Kafka with common sense.
Three measures to simplify access to funding “will save millions of euro” and they will take effect immediately, Ms Geoghegan-Quinn told reporters yesterday.
They are designed to make it easier to deal with “complex” procedural systems and to bridge the gap between EU-specific rules and accounting rules used generally by business and research bodies.
“We want to attract even more and better applicants, including dynamic small businesses which can’t cope with reams of red tape. This is only the start,” the commissioner said.
The first change will allow more flexibility in the calculation of personnel costs so EU research grant recipients can apply their “usual accounting methods” when requesting reimbursement for personnel costs.
The second will enable owners of small and medium-sized companies to be reimbursed for research work through flat-rate payments if their salaries are not registered in their company accounts.
The third measure will see the establishment of a new steering group to “remove inconsistencies” in the application of the rules on research funding.
At a summit in Brussels next week, Ms Geoghegan-Quinn wants EU leaders to pledge their backing for a new drive to boost investment in research and innovation.
