Press release- EURYI awards 2004 - New way of thinking in European science funding

Thursday 26 August 2004 at 19.00, 25 brilliant young researchers received the EURYI award  at the EuroScience Open Forum in Stockholm. The 25 awards of 1,000,000 € – 1,250,000 € each are comparable in size to the Nobel Prize. President of EUROHORCS Professor Ernst Ludvig Winnacker and CEO of ESF, Bertil Andersson presented the EURYI award and Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen handed over the awards to the 25 young researchers. After the ceremony the awardees were invited for dinner at the Nobel Forum.

The European Heads of Research Councils (EUROHORCs) together with the European Science Foundation (ESF), developed the European Young Investigators Awards (EURYI) Scheme to attract outstanding young researchers from anywhere in the world to work in Europe and lead their own research team.

In an open competition funded by national research organisations in 15 European countries, the EURYI Awards Scheme provides the resources to pursue an independent research career, including the development and building up of a research group where appropriate. 

The first EURYI Call for Proposals was launched on the 15th of September 2003. The assessment of EURYI applications was done in a two stage process that involved a peer review assessment at the national level (Stage One) and a second panel assessment at the European level (Stage Two). A total of 777 applications were considered by the 18 participating organizations in Stage One and in the end 133 applications were received by ESF for further consideration at Stage Two. For the chairmanship and membership ESF has searched for world class scientists with a broad perspective and with the highest international standing in their disciplines (among them a Nobel prize winner).

The 15 countries participating to the EURYI Scheme are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Talents for benefit of competitiveness of European Society

 “Scientists are often in the early stages of their career when they formulate new ideas which later lead to paradigm shifts or a Nobel Prize. Therefore, if we want to support creativity and progress in science we should focus on the next generation of scientists and give them independence to pursue their own ideas”, says Bertil Andersson, CEO of the European Science Foundation and member of the Nobel Prize Committee.

“Younger people are probably the most valuable source of new discoveries in science. They are usually more adventurous and unconventional and are willing to challenge old established ‘truths’. We need to nurture this talent and make Europe more competitive in terms of creativity and innovation. In this way the European societies will all benefit from the new EURYI Award Scheme”, stresses Bertil Andersson.

New way of collaboration in Europe

The EURYI Scheme is also unique in the way European research funding organisations collaborate. This is the first time the organisations have taken an initiative to pool their funding in a common project with open competition.

Professor Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, Chairman of EUROHORCs and President of Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) says in a comment. "Many of our organisations have developed specific strategies to attract and support highly qualified young researchers. We shared the conviction that outstanding young researchers need to be offered excellent research conditions which enable them to carry out their own independent research unit as early as possible. Thus, we concluded that by joining our efforts we could achieve an added value with regard to this common goal."

List of awardees (PDF)

Contact

Mr. Jens Degett

Category: Media Centre, Press Releases 2004