Framework programs (FPs) are the main research policy tools of the European Union
(EU), attracting substantial attention from policy-makers and scholars. Therefore,
an increasing number of studies have investigated the EU’s FPs from various angles;
however, very few studies address the effect of the complex nature of the concentration
of resources and their implementation. While several studies have examined the concentrations
of collaboration structures, much less attention has been given to institutions, especially
the concentrations that appear during implementation. Institutions that have been
awarded several projects at the same time are forced to share their resources between
the running projects, which can make the implementation of the projects riskier and
thus jeopardize the project’s outcome. Therefore, the role of project management,
which must allocate resources among complex implementation structures, such as multiprojects
and programs, across portfolios, is appreciated. The aim of this study was to analyze
the progression of the nature of concentration, such as institutional concentration
in the four most recent framework programs (FPs), namely, FP5, FP6, FP7, and Horizon
2020 (H2020), and the structural and implementation concentrations in the last two
framework programs. The study employed the CORDIS database, which encompasses both
institutional and project-related information derived from four distinct framework
programs. The findings indicated that the parameters of the collaboration network
exhibited minimal changes; however, the concentrations of institutions experienced
significant alterations. The concentration of complex project structures increased
along with institutional concentration, which in turn led to greater efficiency and
productivity and, in this way, excellence. Hence, it can be inferred that the output-increasing
effect of the program structure is undermined in the deployment of other implementation
structures by the need to share resources among several projects running in parallel.
The strategy of using parallel projects involves inherent hazards because of the finite
nature of resources, which consists primarily of human talent in the form of researchers.
The results currently support policy-makers in three ways: (1) an improved understanding
of how implementation structures evolve in EU-funded Framework Programs; (2) strengthened
linkages among institutional concentration, productivity and excellence; and (3) insights
into the design of the EU FP ecosystem.
