Europe Advances a Plan for Merit-Based Funding

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

SCIENCE POLICY PARIS —The European Research Council (ERC)—a new funding agency that would support basic research based solely on quality—inched closer to reality at a meeting of the European Union's (E.U.'s) science, education, and industry ministers in Brussels last week. All but two of the E.U.'s 25 member countries support the idea and have asked the European Commission to work out a proposal. The ERC, a brainchild of Europe's scientific organizations, has quickly gained popularity over the past 2 years among researchers and politicians alike. It would be created as part of Framework Programme 7, the E.U.'s science funding round for the period 2007–10. In early November, it got a new high-level nod of approval from an expert group led by former Dutch prime minister Wim Kok; his panel backed the ERC in a report about the lack of progress on the Lisbon strategy, Europe's plan to reinvigorate its economy. The Dutch government, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the E.U., had hoped that last week's meeting of the council of ministers would result in a formal invitation to the European Commission to come up with a plan. But Italy and Poland refused to go along. The Italian government objected to the ERC, as it explained in an earlier statement, in part because the agency's merit reviews might lead to some grants being awarded to groups from just one country, which Italy says violates E.U. principles. Poland, for its part, is worried that it may lose out in the competition for ERC funds. The lack of unanimity was “quite disappointing,” says Peter Nijkamp, head of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, who, along with the Dutch government, had invested a lot of time trying to win over the Italian government. But Jose Mariano Gago, who chairs the Initiative for Science in Europe, a lobby group created to promote the ERC, says unanimity at this point would be too much to expect; he says he's very pleased with the outcome. The meeting's conclusions, although not shared by all, send a “strong positive message,” he says, adding that European Commissioner Janez Potoc?nik now knows he has the backing of the vast majority of countries to come up with a plan. Meanwhile, the Italian government has come under attack from its own scientists for opposing the ERC. The Italian Academy of Sciences issued a position paper supporting the ERC last month, pointing out that it had not been consulted on the matter and calling the government's position “dangerous for the prestige of the Italian scientists in Europe.” In addition, more than 2200 scientists have signed an online petition in favor of the ERC launched by an association of young researchers.