European Technology Platforms (ETPs) have been set up in a number of areas where Europe's competitiveness, economic growth and welfare depend on important research and technological progress in the medium to long term. They bring together stakeholders, under industrial leadership, around a common vision, to define and implement a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA), and carry out the mobilisation of the necessary critical mass of research and innovation effort.
The ETPs have contributed to the definition of the themes of the Cooperation programme, in particular in research areas of special industrial relevance. The implementation of the SRA will be supported by the Cooperation programme in areas where they constitute true European added value.
For a limited number of European Technology Platforms, the scale and scope of their strategic research agendas and the resources involved justify setting up long-term public-private partnerships in the form of Joint Technology Initiatives. These initiatives, will combine private sector investment and/or national and European public funding, including grant funding from the Research Framework Programme and loan finance from the European Investment Bank.
Parallel to several ETPs, national platforms have emerged in different Member States, including Spain, typically focussing on a part of the research agenda of interest to national research players.
