How Europe Impacts on Academic Research: The Transformative Potential of the European Framework Programmes

The study frames changes driven by EUFPs in an institutional perspective and exploits the concept of institutionalization to explain how these are translated into rules and practices by research units and researchers. Evidences support the idea that EUFPs lead, within academic institutions, to very diversified institutional responses by scientific fields rather than to undifferentiated ones. They strengthen leading research groups and Departments, already competitive at the EU level, enhancing existing international behaviors and practices, holding steady or tailing off competition opportunities for less experienced participants, without affecting new groups participation. Moreover, the absence of relevant organizational changes at the University level and the lack of incentives for the participation to EUFPs, seem to strengthen observed tendencies.