Working on behalf of its principal stakeholders – the member organisations and thereby Europe’s scientific community – ESF considers hundreds of research proposals for programmes and awards each year; publishes a wide range of position papers and briefings; and organises workshops, conferences and symposia as key elements of its role in ensuring that the voice of European science is heard on major policy and other issues affecting Europe’s scientific community.

ESF’s activities encompass numerous levels of interaction and programs, to facilitate interdisciplinarity, and to create programmes whose work cuts across traditional boundaries. In other words, the ESF is committed to identifying, capitalising, and utilising European researchers, and to working in a cohesive manner to set new science agenda for Europe and to work towards for the betterment for the world. 

Today, ESF remains the only organisation in Europe that manages to bring together these types of distinct yet interrelated organisations from the full spectrum of scientific endeavours to debate, plan and implement pan-European scientific research initiatives