OREANDA-NEWS. On 27 July 2009 was announced, that a report about EU-Russian cooperation in the framework of the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) is published.

The report contains the outcomes of a new report from the EU-funded RUSERA EXE (“Expanding ERA over Russia”) project, which was realized in the framework of the FP6. The aim of the project was to boost EU-Russia research cooperation by creating and supporting links between individual researchers in the two regions.

The report is based on a survey and interviews with researchers and other stakeholders involved in EU-Russia cooperation. The results highlight the high esteem in which Russian researchers are held by EU project coordinators, who praise Russian researchers' scientific competence and personal reliability, as well as their keenness to deliver top-quality research results. Furthermore, both EU and Russian researchers believe that the Russian contribution to research projects is “essential”.

However, the report uncovers a number of hurdles stymieing greater and better EU-Russia research collaboration.

These problems are serious language problem, challenges in the hierarchical structure, a lack of funding on the Russian side, etc.

The report sets out a number of tips and measures to overcome these problems. For example, it calls for the further development of FP7 (Seventh Framework Programme) support structures in Russia, especially in the regions, to ensure that all researchers can easily find out about the EU's research programmes.