Notes from ISE meeting on ERC

Paris, October 26, 2004

Preamble
On Monday 25 and Tuesday 26 October 2004, the Initiative for Science in Europe (ISE) organized a Conference on the European Research Council (ERC), which was hosted by UNESCO in its Headquarters in Paris, France. Neither the Initiative for Science in Europe (ISE) nor the European Research Council (ERC) existed prior to the Paris meeting. The ISE was officially founded during the Paris meeting, but no statutes have been written yet. The Initiative for Science in Europe is a platform of European learned societies and scientific organizations whose aim is to promote mechanisms to support basic science at a European level, involve scientists in the design and implementation of European science policies, and to advocate strong independent scientific advice in European policy making.

Also the ERC does not yet exist. "The Commission has done much preparatory work on the ERC. A first communication on Basic Science was published in January and a second in June. We welcome these important initiatives and in particular the very positive role that the EC Commissioner for Research, Philippe Busquin, has played in this respect. New opportunities, however, also carry the danger of fostering complacency. That would be a grave mistake, as much work lies ahead of us. In times of uncertain and possibly more limited financial prospects than hoped for, other important, highly visible political issues may easily obscure the long-term benefits of basic research. Furthermore, governments should not be tempted to reduce national funding for basic science if an ERC is established." (from http://www.initiative-science-europe.org/forms_maps/Science.pdf).

There is resistance, especially from Italy, towards the creation of an ERC (also Portugal and Greece seem to be critical). The Dutch EC presidency is trying to overcome this resistance. The Northern nations are most positive towards an ERC initiative. During the meeting in Paris, it became clear as well that the aims and objectives of the ERC are not clear yet. Should it be a body that merely co-ordinates the efforts of National Research Councils (NRCs) or should it be a funding body itself?

Conclusions of the meeting

During the final session, the following conclusions were drawn:

• the meeting mainly served to clarify existing problems and identify new problems
• the ERC should recognise centres of excellence in Europe and provide support for these (mainly in basic science)
• the scope of the ERC should be broad (both in terms of topics, i.e. from humanities through medicine to physics and chemistry and in terms of countries)
• it is expected that a budget for the ERC is to be assigned soon (order of magnitude one billion Euro)

Comments made during the sessions

Session on the ERC and the World:
Collaboration with Least Developed Countries (LDC) should focus on institutional capacity building, additional to personal capacity building (UNESCO). The ERC can help in identifying centres of excellence within Europe and within LDC to enter into collaboration.

Session on the ERC and the NRCs
NRC members are often appointed by government. How about ERC? The ERC should build upon the experience with the NRCs and within transnational bodies such as ESA, CERN.

Session on specific ERC policy issues
EIRO (intergovernmental research organisations) supports the idea of an ERC, so does the ESFRI (research infra- structures).
A comment was made from the audience that the focus on excellence only is potentially dangerous for emerging (i.e. not yet established) labs or individual scientists.

What may be in it for EAMBES

Once the ERC is established, EAMBES might offer services as a specialist organisation related to biomedical engineering and science, and assist e.g. in creating a database of referee experts and topics (cf. CHART efforts). This also helps in putting MBES on the map as an area of science for which funding needs to be foreseen.

Jos Vander Sloten
jos.vandersloten@mech.kuleuven.ac.be