The EU's seventh framework programme: opportunities for Russian academic institutions

Russia’s transition to a new economic system was accompanied by a very broad range of problems in all the spheres of society. Although the first stage in the development of market economy has been passed, its difficulties still linger. It is possible to talk about the creation of the basis for the country’s further development, which can be achieved only by increasing human capital and enhancing the quality of life. The implementation of social innovations becomes an important aspect in theoretical and methodological approaches to studying the issues of life quality enhancement. This aspect, however, has not been developed comprehensively so far. Social innovations can be developed by involving people in public innovation projects implemented on the basis of public-private partnership, leading to greater social consolidation and seeking to smooth the consequences of excessive inequality in society.

We consider that the development and implementation of social innovations should be preceded by a comprehensive research into their origin and development, as well as competent elaboration of the strategy for their implementation. Moreover, the more extensive the theoretical and practical material that is put in its basis, the more reliable the formed strategy. As for the practical aspect, social innovations in a number of developed countries (Western Europe, Scandinavia) have been implemented purposefully for several decades already.

With the support from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Institute of Socio-Economic Development of Territories of RAS (ISEDT RAS) is developing theoretical and methodological foundations for the study of social innovation. This experience has allowed ISEDT RAS to take part in a major international research project in this field.

It is also necessary to note that, although research organizations in some countries are carrying out theoretical research in this field, the nature of the phenomenon “social innovations”, the economic and other conditions of their emergence have been studied insufficiently. The authors of theoretical concepts are, as a rule, foreign researchers. However, even their works do not cover the following subjects: the differences between technology-based social innovations and non-technological social innovations; the reasons stimulating and hampering their emergence; interaction between authorities and administration, enterprises, public organizations, the “target audience” of the initiatives for creating successful socialinnovation projects.

Thus, the following conclusion seems logical: the catalyst for the growth of scientific and practical knowledge on the development of social innovations can be found in the exchange of researchers’ experience at the international level, pulling their efforts together in the study of these issues, including joint research works. The latter can focus on the specifics of scientific principles and practical recommendations on the examples of different regions of the world.

Research support programs are one of the main tools that provide opportunities for the emergence of these practices and development of international cooperation in innovation activities in Europe.

The key place among these programs belongs to the so-called framework programs of the European Union on the development of scientific research and technology. The main purpose of these programs is to implement R&D funding for the establishment and development of the European Research Area (ERA). The programs successively replace each other; the implementation of each subsequent one is carried out for several years and seeks to achieve specific goals of the next stage of ERA formation.

The first EU’s framework program was implemented in 1984–1988; currently, the Seventh Program (FP7) covering 2007–2013

Table 1. Budgets of the EU’s framework programs for promotion of research and technology, billion euros

Framework program	Period of validity	Budget
First	1984–1988	3.75
Second	1987–1991	5.40
Third	1990–1994	6.60
Fourth	1994–1998	13.22
Fifth	1998–2002	14.96
Sixth	2002–2006	17.88
Seventh	2007–2013	50.52
Source: Artis M.J., Nixson F. The Economics of the European Union: Policy and Analysis. 4th ed. Oxford University Press, 2007.

Table 2. The results of the EU’s Seventh Framework Program for 2007–2011

Indicator	Year
	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	Total
Number of supported projects	3132	2720	4037	3399	2813	16101
Number of participating organizations	22077	14112	19471	13710	12932	-
Total funding, billion euros	6.52	4.43	5.66	5.31	3.69	25.60
Average amount of funding for one project, thousand euros	2080.19	1629.34	1401.65	1561.35	1310.42	1589.88
Average amount of funding for one organization, thousand euros	295.11	314.05	290.61	387.09	285.05	-

Source: Fifth FP7 Monitoring Report. Monitoring Report 2011. Available at:

is coming to its end. The total budget of about 53.2 billion euros makes it one of the largest initiatives for research support in the world.

The success of this tool for the promotion of research and technology led to a significant increase in the budget of each subsequent stage. We can conclude that in the European Commission’s estimates the innovation cooperation issues are becoming increasingly important, because the budget of the Seventh Framework Program several times exceeds that of the First Program (tab. 1) .

Over the period of five years, the number of participants of research projects financed from the program’s budget accounted for more than 82 thousand organizations (tab. 2) .

– access to foreign markets with high-tech product;

– exchange of experience with foreign partners working in related fields;

– improve its employees’ qualification;

– attract the attention and funds from other donors;

– substantially enhance its reputation and branding.

For 2007–2012 the funding of projects in the area “Socio-Economic Sciences and Humanities” increased by 33% (fig. 2) .

Nonetheless, the share of Russian organizations’ participation in the FP7 projects of this direction is insignificant. 199 projects received support during the analyzed period¹. Russian organizations were represented only in nine supported projects² (information on the projects is given in tab. 3 ).

At present, the current volume of funding allocated to Russian organizations in this area is also low. The total amount of funding of supported projects was 475 million euros (199 projects). Due to participation in nine supported projects, Russian organizations received funding in the amount of 1.31 million euros, that is only 0.28% of the total volume of allocated funds.

In general, over this period, the projects with Russian participation received 73.67 million euros from the FP7 budget; the projects without Russian participation received 401.33 million euros.

In general, Russian organizations have little experience of participating in FP7 sociohumanitarian direction (for example, in 2010 only seven applications for participation were filed). In addition, it should be noted that most of the Russian participants of FP7 contests are enterprises, universities and research organizations from Moscow and

Saint Petersburg. Participation activity of other regions is much lower; few territories have the relevant experience.

As for the Vologda Oblast, the only organization that submitted applications for receiving support to research projects under FP7 is the Institute of Socio-Economic Development of Territories of RAS.

ISEDT RAS considers the development of scientific ties with foreign colleagues to be an important direction of activity of the research organization. As a result, the number of international events, held by the Institute, and with its participation, has increased significantly in recent years. In 2011–2012, research associates at the Innovation Economics Department carried out thorough work to find foreign partners for the Institute’s international projects; and in early 2012 it took part in the competitions of the European Framework Programs, which is a valuable research experience.

The work for the preparation of international projects is very labor intensive due to the fact that it requires solving several additional tasks along with the execution of research itself; these tasks include:

• 1.    Monitoring of the most suitable opportunities, taking into account all the necessary conditions for participation, which, as a rule, in full form are available only through foreign resources.

• 2.    Involvement of experienced scientists in participation in the project to enhance the competitiveness of the work.

• 3.    Search for international partners that have the necessary competence (participation in the international competition often requires involvement of more than two countries).

• 4.    Negotiating with partners, business correspondence in English during the preparation of the application, which, along with the search for partners, is a significant part of the whole work.

  Figure 1. The FP7 budget on priority thematic areas, billion euros

  
  
  

  Figure 2. Funding of projects in the FP7 area “Socio-Economic Sciences and Humanities”, million euros

  

  
  

• 5.    High-quality translation of working materials and the final version into English during the whole process of work on the project (for sharing information with partners). The above requires good command of the English language from participants themselves.

When working over the projects, ISEDT RAS received significant assistance from international research-to-practice seminars. The negotiations held in the course of these seminars resulted in the concepts of joint projects, joint work plans.

Active encouragement and continuous support from the Institute’s leadership became the key criteria of successful work on the FP7 projects. The information on the preparation of applications was regularly presented at the meetings; issues that required decision-making were submitted for discussion; participation in FP7 was given special attention at the Academic Council sessions.

In addition, the work in this direction was carried out by young professi-onals, who performed most of these tasks, in particular, the translation of the project materials.

On this basis, in 2012 the cooperation aimed at the preparation of an application for FP7 was expanded between ISEDT RAS and the Social Research Center at the University of Technologies Dortmund (Germany).

Table 3. Information about supported projects with Russian participation in the FP7 area “Socio-Economic Sciences and Humanities” in 2007–2013

№ п/п	Theme of the project with Russian participation	Russian organization, city	Project budget, million euros	Starting date of the project’s implementation
1.	Transnational cooperation between national contact centers in the direction “Socio-Economic Sciences and Humanities”*	Scientific Research Institute – Federal Research Centre for Projects Evaluation and Consulting Services, Moscow	3.10 2.22 1.20	01.02.2008 01.02.2011 01.02.2013
2.	Interplay of European, national and regional identities: nations between states along the new eastern borders of the European Union	Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow	1.73	01.04.2008
3.	Advancing knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship and innovation for growth and social wellbeing in Europe	Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Moscow	4.28	01.01.2009
4.	Towards the topography of tolerance and equal respect. A comparative study of the policies of public places in culturally diverse societies	Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, Yekaterinburg	1.72	01.01.2010
5.	European regions, external borders of the EU, its neighbors. The analysis of regional development policies and practices in cross-border cooperation	Non-Governmental Organization the Centre for Independent Social Research, Saint Petersburg	3.34	01.03.2011
6.	Memories, youth, political heritage, and civic activism	Research Center “Region” at Ulyanovsk State University, Ulyanovsk	9.95	01.06.2011
7.	Sharing knowledge: consolidation of regions	Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education, National Research University – Higher School of Economics, Moscow	3.27	01.08.2011
8.	The issues of borders, political situation, social sphere: prospects and problems of developing concepts of borders in the world after the cold war	Non-Governmental Organization the Centre for Independent Social Research, Saint Petersburg Federal State-Financed Research inst-tution the Institute of Geography, the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow	8.99	01.06.2012
9.	Social innovation: driving force of social change	Federal State-Financed Research institution the Institute of Socio-Economic Development of Territories of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vologda	6.06	01.01.2014**

In September 2012 ISEDT RAS held a seminar “Problems of development and introduction of social innovations” held in the framework of the visit of German colleagues to Vologda. In the course of the seminar, its participants discussed the concept for social innovation, developed by the Social Research Center. The Center is the European leader in this field of research, as it is one of the first organizations that paid serious attention to the research into the issues of social innovation. After the meeting in Vologda, ISEDT RAS and the Social Research Center signed the protocol of intent that laid the foundation for the preparation of a new FP7 project.

The work had the following results: the Institute joined the international consortium; a joint application “Social Innovation: Driving Force of Social Change” was prepared and submitted for participation in the FP7 competition program “Socio-Economic Sciences and Humanities” with the Social Research Center being the coordinator of the consortium.

In June 2013 the European Commission informed the consortium that according to the examination results, the application won 14 points out of 15, and that the European Commission intends to support the project and to start negotiations on a grant agreement. Currently, the coordinator is discussing the preparation of the documents and agreements, and their coordination with project partners.

Thus, ISEDT RAS research works received positive estimation of our colleagues from Europe, America, and other countries, which enabled us to participate in the EU’s Seventh Framework Program, which is an important tool of integration into the European Research Area.

Fifteen partners from twelve member states of the EU and eleven partners from other regions of the world take part in the project. The list of the countries represented by the participants includes Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Germany, Egypt, India, Spain, Italy, Canada, China, Colombia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, the Russian Federation, Romania, Turkey, Croatia, Chile, South Africa, Sweden (tab. 4).

The project seeks to extend the knowledge about social innovations in three main directions:

– integration of theories and research methodologies for better understanding of the essence of social innovation that will contribute to building a complete, comprehensive paradigm of innovation;

– identification and analysis of social innovations, implemented and developed at the European level and globally; and, through this, the study of the social, economic, cultural, historical and other aspects of these processes in eight major regions of the world;

– provision of the authorities and management bodies, as well as individuals involved in the issues under consideration, with relevant data obtained on the basis of comprehensive analysis and case studies in the framework of the seven policy areas (including European and global comparisons, development of forecasts and organisation of conferences/seminars on policy issues in the field of social innovations).

* * *

In the beginning of the article, we highlighted the importance of the issues concerning the development and introduction of social innovations. Due to the fact that ISEDT RAS carries out research in this area, we consider it necessary to disclose the content and specifics of the concept “social innovations”. It is also necessary to provide a more detailed review of certain aspects that determine the specifics of the research into the origin and development of social innovations. Our article is based on the materials prepared during the implementation of the work under the RFBR grant.

Table 4. The participants of the project “Social Innovation: Driving Force of Social Change”

No.	Participant	Country
1.	Project Coordinator University of Technologies Dortmund /Social Research Center	Germany
2.	Institute for Work and Technology, Westflische Hochschule Gelsenkirchen	Germany
3.	Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research	Netherlands
4.	Young Britons’ Foundation	Great Britain
5.	Brunel University	Great Britain
6.	Centre for Social Innovation, Vienna	Austria
7.	Austrian Institute of Technology, Vienna	Austria
8.	University of Deusto	Spain
9.	Social Innovation Laboratory	Croatia
10.	Applied Research and Communications Fund	Bulgaria
11.	International Organisation for Knowledge Economy and Enterprise Development	Sweden
12.	Kazimieras Simonavicius University	Lithuania
13.	Danubius University, Galai	Romania
14.	LAMA Development and Cooperation Agency, Florence	Italy
15.	Istanbul Technical University	Turkey
16.	Heliopolis University, Cairo	Egypt
17.	Institute of Socio-Economic Development of Territories of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vologda	Russian Federation
18.	Zhejiang University, Hangzhou	China
19.	Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Cape Town	South Africa
20.	United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean	Chile
21.	Colombian Center for Social Innovation, National Agency for the Alleviation of Extreme Poverty, Bogot	Colombia
22.	University of Sydney, Australian Centre for Innovation, Sydney	Australia
23.	Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai	India
24.	Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Centre for Policy Research on Science and Technology	Canada
25.	Social Innovation Research Centre, University of Qubec	Canada
26.	European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless	Belgium

Nowadays, scientists propose various interpretations of the notion “social innovations”, which often have significant differences (tab. 5) . Having studies the views of a number of European researchers, we note that, in our opinion, the interpretation proposed by German scientists J. Howaldt and M. Schwartz, reflects the main aspects of this concept and may become a landmark for further research into this area³.

We can define several features of social innovations by comparing them to material-and-technological innovations:

• 1.    The source of social innovations is, in most cases, collective work; as for material-and-technological innovations, they are more likely to emerge on the basis of individual labor.

• 2.    The result of implementing social innovations is not manifested so quickly, it does not have such concrete character that material-and-technological innovations do.

• 3.    The specifics of social innovations, in addition, lies in the fact that they are more clearly conditioned by external environment. Here we can draw an analogy with an approach, existing in the general theory of innovation, the so-called “pressure of demand”, according to which the development and spread of

• 4.    The wider potential sphere of implementation. In particular, the field of using social innovation depending on the group and personal qualities of the actors, as well as the target audience, participating in the development of this innovation, can be changed.

Table 5. Interpretations of the concept “social innovations”

№ п/п	Author	Interpretation
1.	Kopoteva I.V., Nikula Y.	Social innovations are the production and integration of new knowledge in the form of programs, organizational models or a specific set of principles and other tools used at the local level for responding to both positive and negative results of restructuring*.
2.	Mulgan G.	Social innovations - new ideas, working in the form of reproduced programs or organizations for satisfying urgent needs, and improving people’s lives**.
3.	Mumford M.	Social innovation is the generation and implementation of new ideas about people and their interaction within the social system***.
4.	Howaldt J., Schwarz M.	Social innovations are a new combination or a new form of social activity in specific areas or social context that are implemented by individuals or a group of individuals in thought-out ways for better satisfying or meeting the needs and problems than it is possible on the basis of the existing practice****.
*    Kopoteva I.V., Nikula Y. Sotsial’nye innovatsii v izmenyayushcheysya sel’skoy srede Rossii [Social Innovation in a Changing Rural Environment of Russia]. Ekonomicheskie i sotsial’nye peremeny: fakty, tendentsii, prognoz [Economic and Social Changes: Facts, Trends, Forecast], 2008, no.2, p. 76. * * Mulgan G. et al. Social Innovation: What Is It, Why It Matters, How It Can Be Accelerated. London: Young Foundation, 2006. * ** Mumford M.D. Social Innovation: Ten Cases from Benjamin Franklin. Creativity Research Journal , 2002, no.14(2), pp. 253-266. * *** Howaldt J., Schwarz M. Social Innovation: Concepts, Research Fields and International Trends. IMA/ZLW & IfU. RWTH. Aachen: Aachen University, 2010.

innovation facilitates the growth in demand. Under the “demand” in this case we mean the social problems that cannot be solved by conventional methods.

This means that the introduction of social innovations can be divided into a “singlepoint”, suggesting their development on a specific object (here, a one-time implementation is possible, as well as a regular one, depending on the objectives of a specific innovation), and “spatial”, with further spreading of innovations on many objects. Speaking about the scale of social innovations, it is necessary to note their different character: innovations important for the solution of universal issues; innovations, the implementation of which is especially important for certain regions; innovations of local importance. When considering social innovations from the viewpoint of social life, is it possible to highlight innovations, aimed at the development of social institutions, political, economic, cultural and spiritual spheres.

When developing social innovation projects, the persons responsible for decision-making have to define their specific features that are conditioned by targeted nature of the sphere of implementation; this ensures the achievement of the best results.

In our opinion, social innovations are classified according to a number of features (tab. 6) .

In addition to the proposed grouping of social innovations, they can be classified in accordance with the more specific sphere of activity, in which the social innovation is implemented. The FP7 project “Social Innovation: Driving Force of Social Change” (hereinafter – the Project) envisages that different countries and groups of countries implement the research into social innovations in several areas, including science, education and lifelong learning; employment (including in small and medium business); medical and social assistance.

It should be also noted that, despite the increasing interest of scientific community, authorities, and public to the issues of social innovations, it is other types of innovations that hold leading positions by the level and depth of research. Such innovations are as follows: technological (creation of new products, technologies, equipment, materials), organizational (improvement of organizational structure of enterprise management), economic (use of new systems and forms of remuneration, methods of production costs management), marketing (development of new markets and ways of product promotion), environmental (implementation of new technologies in environmental protection) and other innovations. Social innovations are studied on a much lesser scale, although they are an important condition for the promotion of the above mentioned processes (for example, introduction and development of social innovations is not reflected in official statistical digests; issue of their assessment remain undeveloped).

The monitoring of innovations implementation is of priority importance for the estimation and measurement of social innovations in the regions. The study of the data on the existing scientific approaches, on the development of concepts, methods for social innovations measuring and monitoring allow us to conclude that methodologies for assessing social innovations as such have not been elaborated or completed. Quantitative and numerical measurement of the results of social innovations implementation is very difficult, which hampers their accounting and analysis.

The data that can be used to describe the situation in the sphere of social innovations development are divided into two groups depending on data source: indices calculated on the basis of objective statistics; indicators calculated on the basis of subjective statistics. However, as noted above, statistics on innovation activities at Russia’s enterprises do not contain any information on social innovations. At present, the assessment of implemented social innovations and the monitoring of the latter can be done most appropriately using the method based on the calculation of indicators, derived from subjective statistical data, in particular, surveys, interviews of experts, etc. Participation in the Project will allow the research teams involved in the studies of social innovations, to consider the ways to solve this problem at the local, national and supranational levels, which, in turn, should lead to the formation of a more elaborated approach to the analysis of social innovations.

Table 6. Classification of social innovations

Classification criterion	Types of social innovations
By the way of development	Individual Collective
By the level of social novelties	Global, seeking to solve universal problems Regional Local, representing more specific interests of regional and local significance
By the type of effect	Target-oriented With indirect impact
By the way of implementation	Initiated by authorities Initiated by enterprises Based on public-private partnership
By the spheres of public life	In social structures and institutions Political Economic Innovations in cultural and spiritual sphere
By the scale of usage	Single social innovations, implemented on one object Diffuse innovations, distributed to many objects

The project will allow its participants to exchange relevant research information, theoretical findings, and research methods; to develop a joint vision of a theoretical concept of social innovation. The understanding of the nature and features of social innovations will be enhanced through the study of their theoretical and methodological aspects. In addition, comprehensive case studies of Russian and international practices in the development and implementation of social innovations will be carried out. Foreign experience of the latter, as follows from the findings of ISEDT RAS in the course of research work on the project of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research “Enhancement of consolidation of the population on the basis of social innovations” (RFBR grant No. 12-06-00379-a), confirms the positive impact of the development and introduction of social innovations on the quality of life.

In this regard, the project “Social Innovation: Driving Force of Social Change” is very important from socio-economic point of view;

its results are especially relevant for solving issues related to changes in society and enhancement of the quality of life.

From the scientific perspective, the participation of research organizations in EU’s framework programs and similar initiatives contributes to the development of fundamental and applied spheres of socio-economic and interdisciplinary research. The work in an international research team creates opportunities for testing methodological approaches in different countries, for a comprehensive analysis of research results, for the development and implementation of practical recommendations. Moreover, joint projects form a more objective overview of the research work and the socioeconomic situation in the participating countries (in particular, they help inform foreign colleagues about the research developing in Russia).

Thus, expansion of cooperation with foreign partners is the most important sphere of activity on the integration of the Russian science in the global processes of scientific and technological development.