As a result of the 2007 stakeholder consultation on the European Research Area (ERA), the European Commission published five follow-up ERA initiatives to speed up its implementation:
- a Recommendation on knowledge sharing:
With this recommendation, the European Commission aims at improving the knowledge and intellectual property transfer between public research organisations and private companies.
- a Communication on better careers and more mobility – A European partnership for researchers:
This Communication sets the basis for an improvement of the working conditions (salaries, benefits, social security) of researchers.
- a Communication on Joint Programming in research:
In this Communication, the European Commission proposes a novel mechanism to pool the funding resources of Member States by defining common challenges for research in Europe.
- a new legal framework for European Research Infrastructures (ERI):
This proposal stipulates the creation of a special legal status for research infrastructures of pan-European importance. This status would allow these infrastructures to benefit from specific taxation and employment rules.
- a Communication on international science and technology (S&T) cooperation:
To streamline the plethora of international S&T cooperation activities of the member States, the European Commission proposes a framework for those activities that should act as a platform for better coordination.