ANR is the publicly funded French national research agency. The agency was created in 2005 to strengthen the development of knowledge through high-level projects in all areas of research. ANR reaches out to both public research bodies (universities, Inserm, CNRS…) and private organisations (SMEs, large companies, associations). Two types of programmes are implemented in accordance with ANR’s mission and objectives: 1) calls in basic research for knowledge development; 2) public-private partnership calls for application-driven research and knowledge transfer. In 2006, the total ANR budget was 800 Millions € of which 75% was dedicated to funding projects selected through peer-review process. Among the 6420 projects submitted, 1630 were funded.

Since 2005, ANR has launched annually a specific programme focused on Rare Diseases. For the first two calls 307 projects were submitted and 80 projects (78 partners) were funded, for a total budget of € 20.3 Millions.