Universities issue new plea for simplification of EU research grants

The League of European Research Universities (LERU) has hit out again about the administrative burden of managing research projects funded by the EU’s Framework Programme, and is making concrete recommendations for how to lighten the load and make the rules simpler and more consistent.

The European Commission has already started to make some changes, but LERU says more can and should be done. When it comes to preparing and submitting research proposals for example, the Commission has begun to introduce the use of two-stage proposal submissions. This procedure does cut down on total administrative time needed, but it needs to be expanded.

Two other ideas proposed by LERU in its report are to develop an SME database to make it easier to find potential collaborators in a project, and to simplify the way the calls for proposals are presented so that it becomes easier and faster to find the right funding programme for specific research. This is particularly important for interdisciplinary research.

Once a proposal is accepted, more can be done to simplify and speed up the negotiation and signing of the contract, and to make sure that the rules and guidelines are interpreted and applied similarly across all research funding departments within the Commission.

When it comes to financial reporting and auditing, a major simplification for universities would be if the Commission was to accept usual national or institutional accounting and auditing procedures.

The Commission has outlined a number of simplification options for the next EU research and innovation programme, starting in 2014. Among the options, LERU universities overwhelmingly prefer to continue the current cost-based reporting approach, but with further simplification and standardisation in rules across (sub)programmes.

Reimbursement and overhead rates should at the very least remain at current levels to ensure that participation is sustainable for universities. Output-based funding of research projects is not appropriate for frontier and fundamental research; it should only be used for research that is close to being brought to market, LERU says.