More discussion before a decision on European Research Council, says Danish Science Minister
On the occasion of a conference to discuss the concept of a European Research Council, Danish Minister for Science Helge Sander called for more discussion before making a decision on the proposal. In a question and answer session, Mr Sander outlined the benefits which a European Research Council (ERC) would bring, including improved coordination and increased competition for research funding, but urged the research community not to rush ahead with the initiative before more detailed discussions have taken place. 'The establishment of a European Research Council is still just a loose idea, and we will need to examine the practicalities more closely. It is important we gain for ourselves a clearer picture of the attitude in the other Member States before making a decision,' said Mr Sander. The minister emphasised that an ERC would 'certainly not be able to handle all the tasks that the national research councils handle today,' but claimed that the concept is still relevant, particularly within the context of the European Research Area (ERA). Under the umbrella of the ERA, not only should research policy and research itself be coordinated at the regional, national and European level, but 'the realisation of the European Research Area should also involve integration of research funding allocation. The question is only how this should happen,' said Mr Sander. Meanwhile Euroscience, a pan-European association of grassroots scientists is has outlined its vision of how an ERC should look. For Euroscience, 'a future ERC represents a much needed tool for fostering curiosity-driven science which cannot be currently funded by the existing Framework Programme. Its mission should therefore be the promotion of basic science in a flexible way, and most notably of emerging fields of science, which are often under-financed because of the lack of reactivity of funding instruments.' Euroscience proposes that the future ERC has links to the European Science Foundation as well as to the European Commission in order to ensure accountability. Projects submitted to the ERC should be evaluated for their scientific merit by a peer review system with open competition, and funding should be provided directly to the ERC and not to specific projects. This would preserve the ERC's autonomy of choice. The first half of ERC funding should come from national research council budgets, while the second half should come from the EU, charities and industry, says Euroscience. A target of five to 10 per cent of each national research council budget should be channelled towards the ERC, proposes the organisation.
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