ERC considers a third grant scheme

Prof. Helga Nowotny, ERC President. Image courtesy ERC.

Defining what type of researchers will be backed in the new scheme and overseeing its rollout will be inspired by the success to date of the two existing schemes, which have attracted a high numbers of applicants and provoked competition between universities for the prestige of hosting ERC grant holders.

Putting the third grant in place is one of the main aims of the ERC Scientific Council’s new chair, Helga Nowotny, during her four-year term. “I would like the ERC to come up with another innovative, forward-looking programme,” Nowotny told Science|Business.

The ERC’s Starting Independent Researcher grant and Advanced Investigator grant are tied to the number of years’ experience after completing a PhD. There is a smooth transition from starting to advanced grants, so the new funding stream will not be tied to the number of years in the lab, but rather some other, as yet undefined, criterion, Nowotny said.

It is important to come up with, “something that has a leverage effect,” Nowotny believes, citing the way in which the Starting and Advanced grants have sparked competition between European universities.

Discussions are underway, but as yet no consensus has yet been reached on the specifics. If agreement is reached, the new grant could start in 2012 or 2013.

Other changes afoot

Other moves are afoot as the ERC gets on with implementing recommendations from the independent review carried out in 2009. Nowotny said two big changes are planned for this year, with the appointment of a new director with responsibility for the executive and scientific arms of the ERC, and the decision that Scientific Council members should be paid for their service.

Last year’s review panel called for a professionalisation of the agency, saying the “kind of ‘missionary’ spirit” that was so crucial in getting the ERC off the ground was not sustainable in the longer term. One element of this was the recommendation to pay Scientific Council members.

Nowotny, a retired professor, says she dedicates about 80 per cent of her time to being chair of the Scientific Council, up from about 50 per cent when she was vice-chair. When her predecessor Fotis Kafatos announced his resignation in mid-term earlier this year, a key reason was the time the position demanded. “As the founding President of the ERC, I have devoted to it much of the last 3 years – much more time and volunteer effort than what I had planned or expected,” Kafatos said.

The days of volunteering such large amounts of time for free are numbered. With one-third of Council members due to be replaced before the summer, Nowotny said she expected payment to be introduced after the new members are appointed. Remuneration will be tied to the Scientific Council’s meetings, in a similar way to how European Institute of Innovation and Technology members are paid, she said. As a result, the most likely date for payments to start would be at the Scientific Council’s October meeting in Luxembourg.

“We were the pioneering generation. Extraordinary amounts of time, energy and dedication on the part of everyone helped to set up the ERC and to make it work,” Nowotny told Science|Business. “It is now necessary for all members to receive some form of payment.”

Another strand of last year’s review was a call to integrate science and management at the ERC, which the review panel described as constituting “two separate worlds.” The appointment of a director who is, “a distinguished scientist with robust administrative experience” aims to go some way toward achieving this goal.

The post will merge the current roles of Secretary General, held by Andreu Mas-Colell, and Director, currently held on an interim basis by Jack Metthey.

Nowotny said there were 116 applicants for the newly created position of director, with all but one coming from outside the European Commission. She said the right person will be someone able to talk as a colleague to the members of the Scientific Council, which sets the ERC’s scientific policy and monitors scientific quality, and who can talk to the Commission services, responsible for the administration. It will be “an integrative function” that requires “an integrative personality,” she said.

There are a “good number of qualified people” among the applicants, said Nowotny, who is on the selection committee. Interviews will take place in June. Those who clear that hurdle will have to undergo a Commission assessment to test their managerial abilities and other skills. A shortlist of three will then be drawn up for an interview with the European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, who will make the final decision.

Nowotny considers the creation of the new position of director as “a move in the right direction.” However, she also wants to see a lot more being done to reform the ERC.

Last year an autonomous executive agency was formed to replace the so-called dedicated implementation structure. While acknowledging that a change was needed to cope with the ERC’s growth, Nowotny says that in some ways the Scientific Council was, “a bit naive” about the executive agency. By its very nature it is tied to the parent directorate-general (DG) and is “one size fits all,” which is hard to adapt to frontier research, she said.

“What is bothering us in many ways is the relation between the executive agency and the parent DG,” because it often results in minor matters requiring double permission, Nowotny said. “Excellence needs excellent flexibility. We can’t go by rules set up for very different purposes.”

Speaking to ITRE, the European Parliament’s industry, research and energy committee last month, Nowotny was more colourful, describing the ERC a “bureaucratic ménage a trois.”

Nowotny told Science|Business she hopes that between now and the next review of the ERC in July 2011, there will the chance to introduce extra flexibility and make things simpler.