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An NIH/NSF for Europe?
Author(s) -
Gan Frank
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
embo reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.584
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1469-3178
pISSN - 1469-221X
DOI - 10.1093/embo-reports/kvf120
Subject(s) - computational biology , political science , biology
The hottest topic on the agenda of European science administrators and scientists is the recent proposal for the creation of a European Research Council (ERC). The idea is to establish a Europe‐wide funding agency, which will support research projects based only on the criteria of the proposals' scientific quality and the applicants' proven track record. Such a system, probably modelled after the US National Institutes of Health or the US National Science Foundation, would certainly do a lot to increase competition among European scientists and thereby improve the quality of research in Europe. This is a laudable goal and some prominent European scientists have already come out in its favour ( Science , 295 , 443–446, 2002; EMBO rep. , 3 , 292–295, 2002).So what has happened since this idea was floated? The European Science Foundation has mandated itself to discuss this concept and has set up an expert group that is preparing the terrain for a major meeting on this topic next year. The heads of the European research councils are also getting into the act. The Danish government, which will hold the EU presidency for the second half of …