Drug delivery research in the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for Research.

This paper presents an overview of drug delivery research activities funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7). It gives a brief introduction of the main policies, structure and budget of FP7 with the four Specific Programmes 'Cooperation', 'People', 'Ideas' and 'Capacities' including the ten priority themes of the Specific Programme Cooperation. The priority themes HEALTH, 'Information and Communication Technologies' (ICT) and 'Nanosciences and nanotechnologies, multifunctional Materials and Production technologies' (NMP) and the 'Innovative Medicines Initiative' (IMI) are discussed since they are the main sources of funding for medical and pharmaceutical research. Further details are provided on drug delivery research, notably the funding for development of drug delivery technologies by the NMP priority theme in the context of its funding of nanomedicine research projects. The link is made to the rapidly developing field of biomaterials research for implants and regenerative medicine. The paper highlights the strategic importance of the Key Emerging Technologies (KETs) including nanotechnology for the competitiveness of the medical and pharmaceutical sectors. Finally, there is an outlook to the future Framework Programme for Research 'Horizon 2020'.