There should be room for new priorities and the flexibility to facilitate the entry of new ones during the long period of implementation. However, major shifts in the current guidelines are undesirable as they will lead to confusion among the research community. Smooth changes will be more acceptable. The main structure of FP5 is recorded in the Treaty on EU, where four main activities are envisaged. There is an opportunity to concentrate some of the programmes of the first activity, particularly where overlapping of objectives is evident.
Experience shows that such concentration processes are difficult to achieve for several reasons.
It also seems reasonable to explore intermediate solutions in those programmes where concentration is not possible. This approach is not the solution to the oversubscription problem. More focused priorities result in the reduction of the possible beneficiaries of the programmes. The budget of FP5 is expected to be restrictive. The main objectives of FP5 should include economic and social cohesion as a significant contribution to reduce the international isolation of research groups of excellence in less favored regions.