^aDepartment of Political Science, University of Berne, Lerchenweg 36, Berne 9 CH-3000, Switzerland. E-mail: Klaus.armingeon@ipw.unibe.ch

Abstract

This commentary is in response to the European Union's (EU's) 7th framework programme (FP7). It sets out the major elements of FP7 and discusses the pros and cons of the EU's activity in the field of research funding. The main argument is that the EU's activities have grown in size. They can and should no longer be ignored by political scientists when looking for research money. The commentary enumerates some arguments regarding why the EU programmes may be better, or may become better in the future, than the usually critical accounts of the EU research system suggest.