Phase 2 (Article 169)

The success of the early part of iMERA-Plus has enabled significant progress towards the second phase of the EMRP, now in its final stages of approval as one of the new European supported Article 169 initiatives, jointly funded by the European Commission and the 22 participating countries.

This second phase of the EMRP will have a total value of 400 M € over an approximately seven year period. It will provide the opportunity for the user community and other stakeholders to directly suggest topics that the metrology community should address with its resources. Additionally, researcher grant schemes will be available to bring external expertise into the research projects, and there will be the opportunities for organisations to participate in the research projects with their own resources where it is mutually beneficial to do so.

Phase 1 (iMERA-Plus)

The first phase of the EMRP (iMERA-Plus) was successfully launched in 2007 and was one of the first of a new type of medium-sized action launched under FP7 (ERA-NET Plus), which aimed at aligning and enhancing national programmes. Resources from the publicly funded metrology laboratories from around 19 European countries, plus the European Commission’s measurement institute (IRMM) have been committed within a single joint call for metrology research projects. In total, 64.6 M € of resources have been brought together, with the European Commission providing 21 M € of funding, the balance provided from national resources.

The two-step call ran between May and December 2007, and pivoted on independent peer review and selection of the very best metrology research proposals. A total of 21 collaborative projects have been launched in four targeted programmes, each project chosen for the quality of science and potential to make a significant contribution in its field. The successful JRPs were launched between February and July 2008 and run for three years.

History

In 2002 and 2003 a number of European NMIs carried out a study examining the structure and approach to top-level metrology in Europe.  The study was prompted by the challenges of supporting emerging technologies such as nanotechnology and biotech, providing increased support to non-traditional health, food, environment, energy and security whilst still providing ever better capability to the more traditional industrial stakeholders. One of the key outcomes of this study, known as MERA (Metrology in the European Research Area) was to propose significantly increased collaboration in metrology research amongst the NMIs and other Designated Institutes in Europe.  Planning the implementation was conducted in a larger coordination project, iMERA (implementing Metrology in the European Research Area).  The European Commission supported both MERA and iMERA.