How Europe shapes academic research: insights from participation in European Union Framework Programmes

The article describes the effects of participation in European Union Framework Programmes at the level of research units and researchers. The pilot study, based on a case study of the Sapienza University in Rome, analyses changes driven by EUFPs from an institutional perspective and uses the concept of institutionalisation to explain how these changes are translated into rules and practices by research units and researchers. EUFPs are considered as policy instruments that contribute to the Europeanisation of academic research. The extent to which EUFPs produce differentiated effects at the level of scientific fields is also discussed.