First of all I want to stress to all that International cooperation in the field of research and technological development under the 5FP was pursued through two complementary routes: a dedicated cooperation programme "Confirming the international role of Community research" which was focused on specific activities relevant to certain third countries and regions and not addressed by other programmes of the 5FP and an international cooperation dimension integral to each of the other specific programmes.

Lithuania like other states in the pre-accession phase to the European Union was added to the A1 countries group. The co-operation activities specifically directed at these countries and were limited to certain types of accompanying measures:

• Conference Participation Support (CPS)- continuously open call,announced on 27 March, 1999 with 9 deadlines for submission,
• Awareness and Training (A&T)- the call, announced on 27 March, 1999 and 15 March, 2000,

• Support for Centres of Excellence (CoE) - the call, announced on 15 June, 1999,
• Strategic Action on Training and Excellence (SAT)- the call, announced on 18 September, 2001.

The last call was one of dedicated additional measures to further improve participation of Newly Associated States in 5FP aimed to enhance possibilities of training and excellence for NAS scientists and to enhance the integration of NAS potential into the European research activities.

Lithuanian scientists also had the possibility to participate in the call COPERNICUS 2 (dedicated for A2 countries group: Russia and New Independent States of the former Soviet Union) announced on 27 March, 1999; training of researches "Fellowships to Japan for Community Researches" (FtJ) and in Accompanying measures part of calls dedicated for Mediterranean partner countries (A3) and Developing countries (A4).

Proposals submitted with Lithuanian partners

The total number of proposals received with Lithuanian partners in 1999-2002 is 29. Following the evaluation by independent experts 7 proposals were selected for the negotiation of contracts. Five contracts are signed, two contracts are under negotiation and the contracts will be signed by the end of this year.

The Lithuanian research centres have been very active in the INCO-2 call "Support for Centres of Excellence". Nine proposals were submitted, 5 of them obtained a high evaluation mark, but only one contract was signed. The Centre of Excellence CEBIOLA is established at Vilnius University.

Lithuanian scientists participated in INCO-2 calls according to their possibilities. Not as many proposals were submitted by call Conference Participation Support as were expected. It related to the comparatively low budget of this part of the programme and restrictions in the conference themes and subjects. One reason could be added to Lithuania's non-participation in INCO-MED and INCO-DEV calls for accompanying measures - there are no common themes and projects with these countries.

The Science and Technology Park (STP) and the Semiconductor Physics Institute (SPI) are among the most active participants in INCO-2 calls. Two projects from STP are financed under the call "Awareness and Training", international conference on Advanced Optical Materials and Devices organised by SPI was financed under the call Conference Participation Support.

The success of Lithuanian fellow Rimantas Kodzius (Biocentras Ltd.) has to be mentioned. His proposal for the call "Fellowships to Japan for Community Researches" achieved the highest evaluation mark (91/100) among all proposals selected for negotiation.

In the programme INCO-2 there were made contracts for 663 787 EUR, there are negotiations holding on projects with 144 600 EUR budget.

Conclusions