What are Technology Platforms

Technology platforms (TP’s, http://www.cordis.lu/technology-platforms) are new mechanism proposed jointly by the industry and the EU in order to define research, technology and development (RTD) priorities, timeframes and budgets on a number of strategically important issues with high societal relevance for the forthcoming RTD programs of the EU. TP’s shall unite stakeholders around a common vision and approach for the development of the technologies concerned, with specific focus on the definition of a Strategic Research Agenda. The implementation of the research agendas should take place partly by means of existing instruments, and partly, for research agendas of high ambition, complexity and scale, by means of the new appropriate mechanism which can be set up under the provisions of Treaty Article 171. This mechanism would comprise one of the principal axes of the 7th Framework Programme (FP7).