Expert group backs ERC vision
A high level group of experts from Europe and the US, set up by the Commission to examine the likely impact of establishing a European Research Council (ERC), has concluded that such a body would help to address Europe's poor performance in cutting edge areas of research. '[The ERC] offers arguably the single most important means to remedy Europe's current weakness in high-quality research and in new, fast-developing areas,' reads the report's executive summary. The report is entitled 'Frontier research: the European challenge', and the expert group explains why it has avoided the term 'basic research'. '[C]lassical distinctions between 'basic' and 'applied' research have lost much of their relevance at a time when emerging areas of science and technology often embrace substantial elements of both. The report therefore adopts the term 'frontier research' rather than basic research, to reflect this new reality.' The expert group goes on to outline what it sees as the main benefits of establishing an ERC. These include: encouraging and supporting the best talent; capitalising on the diversity of that talent with more speed, agility and focus than is sometimes possible within national funding systems; conferring status and visibility on the best researchers and their teams; helping individual countries to maximise their research performance; expanding science-based industry; and tackling new and emerging issues confronting society. The report describes the ERC as 'a bold initiative', but stresses that it must be clearly differentiated from existing national activities so that they add value to one another. 'In particular, the national agencies, in their role of supporting the development of national research capabilities, will need to work with their respective research communities to help them in developing high-quality research proposals for submission to the ERC,' it argues. The success of the ERC, the expert group believes, will depend on a clear definition of its strategic mission and on a firm political commitment to provide the necessary autonomy and resources to attain its goals. The report concludes with a warning to Member States to 'reject any shortsighted temptation to regard ERC funding as a reason for cutting back on national research funding. This would deny them the opportunity to develop up-and-coming researchers to the level where they can compete successfully at the European level for ERC funds.'