Establishing the European Research Area in Ageing: a network of national research programmes.

The following paper gives a summary of the European Commission's research policy with regard to the ERA-NET scheme and especially with regard to the ERA-AGE project that was launched in March 2004. All the partner institutions in the ERA-AGE project are main national funding agencies, research councils or ministries. Some selected examples of programme funding by the partner institutions may demonstrate their different ways of funding research and show the great variety of programmes. The long-term objective of the ERA-AGE project is to create a sustainable basis for the planning, implementation and exploitation of transnational research. In future, the European Research Area in Ageing could gain an added value from research investments by integrating existing funding mechanisms and research infrastructures, by commonly deciding on research priorities for funding activities in order to reduce fragmentation and duplication, and by the recruitment of young researchers.