The rules that guide how member nations participate in the multibillion-euro Framework programmes of research run by the European Union (EU) are complex, confusing and in urgent need of simplification - and nothing illustrates that better than the ongoing 're-audit' of the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6). The programme closed in 2006, but in recent months several national research agencies have been accused of cheating by the European Commission, the EUs executive arm, and have been asked to pay back grant money worth millions of euros.
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