The knowledge economy is recognised as a key driver of economic progress. It is also recognised that within a successful knowledge economy an important role is played by research and development and its effective transmission into the market place to the benefit of the local economy. These views express themselves in the European Union context in the goal set at the Barcelona Council 2002 to increase R&D investment to approach 3% of GDP by 2010 from its current level of 1.9% and to increase business R&D from its current level of 1.06% to around 2% of GDP. This goal is a particular challenge to a country like Scotland where business R&D, at around 0.53% of GDP, is low compared to the European average: (Scottish Executive). There are a number of programmes at national and European level designed to assist the development of the knowledge economy. One of the most important programmes is the EU Framework Programme, which provides funding assistance and encourages research links and networks throughout the EU. The purpose of this paper is to examine the participation of organisations in Scotland and Ireland in the Fifth Framework Programme (FP5), and compare the patterns of participation in the two countries. A particular emphasis in the paper is to consider the involvement of business in Scotland and Ireland in FP5. The information used was collated from the European CORDIS database of FP5 projects as at end February 2003
