Connecting young researchers Europe-wide and helping to launch them on an international career in science

The British Council co-funds and administers a series of research partnership programmes, similar to the British-Italian Partnership Programme, linking UK-based scientists with their opposite numbers in key countries across Europe.
At any one time several hundred teams drawn from the whole spectrum of scientific disciplines are in receipt of grants; this support is focused primarily on early career researchers.
Members of Research Networks are the British Council offices in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland and Portugal.
The Research Networks project was established in 2006 with a double ambition:

• To encourage greater interchange between programmes, helping them to focus on new ways of ensuring that administration remains "light touch" yet rigorous, that programme objectives are clearly defined and that evaluation at all stages is both systematic and co-ordinated
• To explore opportunities for new, multilateral activities with the potential to bring added value to teams which have competed successfully for funding under the bilateral programmes, responding in particular to the needs of researchers embarking on an international scientific career

A new initiative of Research Networks has been the introduction of training workshops called Building a Successful International Research Career, February 2008 in Paris; December 2008 in Lisbon.