EU research funding + free software

[Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos]

On Wed, 2014-06-25 at 12:16 +0200, Karsten Gerloff wrote:
> Hi Nikos, 
> 
> thanks for the question! 
> 
> On Sun, Jun 22, 2014 at 06:47:47PM +0200, Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos wrote:
> > Hello,
> >  I was made aware of the following fosdem talk about EU research funding
> > and free software:
> > https://fosdem.org/2014/schedule/event/eu_research_funding/
> > 
> > My experience with EU projects is that it is infeasible for any small
> > project to manage the bureaucracy required by the EU. Could FSFE assume
> > that role? As far as I know all EU projects include funds for
> > secretarial work, so that could be assumed by paid positions within
> > FSFE. What do you think?
> 
> tl;dr: Participating in EU projects usually isn't an efficient way
> for FSFE to achieve its goals. It makes sense for FSFE only when
> the project is 100% aligned with what we're trying to do; and even
> then, the administrative overhead is a big problem. We usually
> don't participate in such projects unless there's a compelling
> reason to do so.
[...]
> In short: An EU project usually isn't an efficient way to finance
> our activities adn achieve our goals.

Hello Karsten,
 Note that my question is not about FSFE participating to EU projects,
on the contrary, I asked whether FSFE would be willing to handle the
paperwork for other european free software projects that are not a legal
entity to participate. The scope of horizon 2020 is so broad that
improvement of existing free software is certainly within it. 

Moreover, such projects often require partnerships with universities
(with that I could help) something that would certainly help FSFE get
new members and free software contributions.

regards,
Nikos