The EIB University Research Sponsorship Programme (EIBURS) is part of the EIB-Universities Research Action, through which the EIB aims to foster its institutional relations with universities. EIBURS provides grants to university research centres working on research topics and themes of major interest to the Bank. EIB bursaries, of up to EUR 100 000 per year for a period of three years, are awarded through a competitive process to interested university departments or research centres associated with universities in the EU, Accession or Acceding Countries, with recognised expertise in areas of direct interest to the Bank. The scholarship seeks to enable the chosen centres to expand their activities in these areas.

For its first year of operation, the EIBURS programme has selected four lines of research:

• Financial and economic valuation of environmental impacts;
• Technology assessment and acceleration of innovation;
• Public-private partnerships;
• Social dimensions of sustainable development.

The EIB has received 75 formal proposals for the 4 EIBURS sponsorships proposed for the 2006-2009 period. The following table indicates the distribution of the applicants by country and theme:

The recipients of the 4 EIBURS were decided by the Selection Committee on 27 June 2006. All participants will be informed in the next few days of the result of their application.

The programme of activities envisaged by the 4 EIBURS will be published on this website once the contract with the Universities has been signed.

The next round of EIBURS is expected to be launched early next year. The themes to be proposed will be announced with the launch.

The other two programmes of the EIB-Universities Research Action, STAREBEI (STAges de REcherche BEI) and EIB University Networks are being developed.

For more extensive information on these programmes and mechanisms, please visit the EIB-University Research Action homepage.