In its resolution of 10 March 2005 on science and technology — Guidelines for future European Union policy to support research (5) — the European Parliament encouraged the Member States to adopt fiscal and other incentives for promoting industrial innovation, including links with Eureka, especially with reference to SMEs, and stressed that the ERA would be possible only if an increasing proportion of funding for research were allocated by the Union with a view to coordinating European, national and regional research policies more closely as regards both their substance and their funding, and if this funding were additional to research policy in and between the ...[+++]Member States.

On the initiative of Commissioners Busquin and Barnier, in October 2001 the Commission adopted a communication on the regional dimension of the European Research Area[26] which analysed the role which regions can play in research and innovation in Europe and presented a strategy aimed at integrating research policy and regional policy and building research capacity in the regions.

Research policy territorialisation addresses two main issues : first, increasing regional awareness of national research and innovation policies and tuning them towards the socio-economic needs of the regions; and second, directing these policies to build research and innovation capacity in the regions, enhancing their ability to act as drivers for economic and technological development.

Action largely needs to be taken by those who are involved in research and innovation and research policies, namely researchers, high-ranking officials and administrators, in particular the younger ones among them, who should be given access to the EU's best scientific research policy knowledge and expertise.

Research policy territorialisation addresses two main issues : first, increasing regional awareness of national research and innovation policies and tuning them towards the socio-economic needs of the regions; and second, directing these policies to build research and innovation capacity in the regions, enhancing their ability to act as drivers for economic and technological development.

The 7th Framework Programme for Research, covering the period 2007 to 2013, is an opportunity for the EU to match its research policy to its ambitions in terms of economic and social policy by consolidating the European Research Area (ERA).