ESF comments on EU FP7 Research Proposal: New wind in European Research

The European Commission has presented the proposal for a new EU programme for Research. It represents encouraging realizations in some respects and in others more needs to be done. But overall it is a very ambitious programme, Professor Bertil Andersson, CEO of the European Science Foundation, ESF, says in a comment.

* What we’re witnessing here, in some parts of the proposal, is the emergence of a political insight where also investigator-driven research relates to the competitiveness of Europe. That is a major positive breakthrough.

It is proposed to double the budget of the EU Seventh Research Framework Programme, FP7, in comparison with the now existing programme. It is a substantial increase – and it can be expected to become intensely debated – but even with a doubling in funds the EC research budget will represent less than 10 % of public spending on research and development within the Union.

* Our Member Organisations alone, which include the major national funding agencies through out Europe, have 5 to 6 times more resources. To achieve a critical mass in European research co-ordination of some of these resources is fundamental, Bertil Andersson says. For example, the ESF EUROCORES programmes can bring to the Framework Programme a mechanism for multinational collaboration within Europe in science driven research to overcome some of the disadvantages of scale in a distributed science policy system. With the Forward Looks ESF initiates a scientific foresight as well as national and European planning for research funding.

The FP7 proposal also recognizes this need for co-ordination of national research programmes. The action undertaken in this field will, among other things, be used to enhance the complementarities and synergy between the Framework Programme and national funding agencies. A possible integration between EUROCORES and ERA-Net could provide such a strong collaboration for science-driven instruments.

FP7 is both innovative and conventional, Bertil Andersson thinks. What’s new is the introduction of ERC and what is conventional is the thematic programmes which basically stay the same as in FP6. As intended within the Commission, the proposals in large are a continuation of current initiatives.

* What is new is the introduction of a European Research Council, ERC, a highly competitive “Champions League” of European research. This is the first significant support for bottom-up, or investigator-driven, research in the Framework Programmes.

* Bertil Andersson thinks ERC and ESF can co-exist in the European Research Area, ERA, in a synergistic manner. ERC, under the EC, takes care of competition between the best science teams while ESF, together with its Member Organisations, is responsible for science driven collaboration between the best European researchers.

The FP7 proposal emphasises the need to simplify administrative and financial rules and procedures. It is seen as a “decisive factor for its success” says Bertil Andersson but thinks that the Commission could have gone even further.

Contact

Bertil Andersson
Tel: +33 (0)3 88 76 71 16
Fax: +33 (0)3 88 36 69 45

Claus Nowotny
Tel: +33 (0)3 88 76 71 32
Fax: +33 (0)3 88 76 71 80

Category: Media Centre, Press Releases 2005