Young at heart: the European Research Council kicks off

Fotis Kafatos, chairman of the ERC Scientific Council: no hostage to conventional wisdom

Grants of up to €400,000 a year for up to five years will be awarded to outstanding scientists with less than ten years on the clock since the completion of their PhDs, to allow them to set up their own research teams.

The aim is to tackle the widely accepted deficiency in European research of a lack of opportunity for young investigators to develop independent careers, and make the transition from working under a supervisor to being research leaders.

“This structural problem leads to a dramatic waste of research talent in Europe,” according to the Scientific Council, a 22-strong group of scientists charged with setting the strategy and running the ERC. “It limits, or delays the emergence of next-generation researchers, who bring new ideas and energy, and it encourages talented researchers at an early stage of their career to seek advancement elsewhere, either in other professions, or outside Europe.”

To date there have been a few small-scale attempts to solve this problem, and the Scientific Council says the ERC needs to develop a broad, international and consistent scheme.

The ERC is due to start operating in January 2007 under the auspices of the Framework Programme 7 (FP7). While previous Framework programmes have concerned themselves solely with applied research built around academic industrial collaborations, the ERC is conceived as the first pan-European agency for basic research. As such, scientific excellence is intended to be its sole criterion for awarding grants.

Young scientists

Although its final budget is yet to be announced, the Scientific Council is proposing to spend a third of its money, expected to around €300 to €350 million a year, on awards to young scientists under its proposed Starting Independent Research Grants (SIRG).

A rough estimate would be that around 200 SIRGs could be made annually, according to the council’s strategy document, published last week following two days of prognostication in Vienna. “Over the 7-year period of FP7, SIRG will have a substantial and durable effect on Europe’s research culture and the vitality of its research institutions,” says the strategy.

The council wants to get agreement to the programme so that it can begin to hand out money as soon as FP7 launches.

“We intend to establish the ERC as a truly outstanding research funding agency,” said Fotis Kafatos, chairman of the Scientific Council. “We are releasing the strategy note to give a clear indication of our thinking at an early stage, enabling the research community better to prepare for the launch of ERC.”

The size of awards it intends to make to young researchers will inevitably ruffle some feathers. The Scientific Council gets its retaliation in first, saying it will not be “hostage to the conventional wisdom”.”

Against the tide

One strict condition this gives rise to is that the institutions where researchers are based may only ask for the grant to pay 20 per cent of their indirect costs. This is going against the current tide, where institutions are getting a larger and larger share of indirect costs paid when grants are awarded. The UK for example, announced recently that government-funded grants would meet 100 per cent of indirect costs.

Anticipating that this 20 per cent rule will be unpopular, the Scientific Council proposes that the funds are earmarked for the work to be carried out under the leadership of a named individual, and as such are portable between institutions if the terms are not acceptable.

Another condition with the potential to cause ructions is that salary costs of the investigator and team members will be eligible for reimbursement to allow them to cut back on commitments to teaching or administration.

The Scientific Council says that by using excellence as its only criterion the ERC will add value to other funding schemes, such as those run by national research bodies. Its funds will promote improvements in the research infrastructure in Europe. Supporting young researchers will sustain an institution’s research capacity, provide them with a pan European barometer of their research performance, and enable institutions to spot emerging talent.

And in case older researchers are feeling left out, the Scientific Council proposed that the ERC’s second funding stream, the Advanced Investigator Research Grant, will be set up as soon as possible after the launch, to be led by “investigators at all subsequent career stages”.

If implementing the above does not sound like too much of a poisoned chalice, the Scientific Council included an advert for its top job in its announcement, inviting applications or nominations for the post of Secretary General. The deadline is 31 May.