The NORFACE network addresses some of the weaknesses of the existing framework for research in Europe. In January 2000 the European Commission proposed the idea of a European Research Area (ERA). The ERA initiative grew out of the realisation that research in Europe suffers from three weaknesses: insufficient funding, lack of an environment to stimulate research and exploit results, and the fragmented nature of activities and the dispersal of resources. ERA aims to remedy these problems by, says ERA architect, Commissioner Philippe Busquin, "the development, at European level, of an area for the coherent and co-ordinated pursuit of research activities and policies, and an area in which researchers and knowledge move freely...".
The ERA-NET scheme was subsequently devised to support this ERA vision. ERA-NET's objective is to step up the co-operation and co-ordination of research activities carried out at a national or regional level in the Member and Associated States. It will achieve this goal through the networking of research activities conducted at national or regional level, and the mutual opening of national and regional research programmes. ERA-NET will thus help make ERA a reality by improving the coherence and co-ordination of research programmes and enabling national systems to take on tasks collectively that they would not have been able to tackle independently.
Launched in January 2004, the NORFACE network is the result of a successful bid for funding to the European Commission 6th Framework Programme under the ERA-NET scheme. NORFACE receives EUR 3.3 million of core funding over 2004-2009 and is expected to make a significant contribution to ERA-NET objectives. For, although NORFACE is located within the social sciences, it provides a significant test of the capacity of national science systems to work together across borders and achieve European synergy and convergence. The network's explicit objective is to build a platform for co-operation which can be extended to other European countries and other fields of science, and thus create a multi-national building block for the European Research Area.