Initiatives to support European Research Council applications have worked, but cannot bridge the whole gap, says senior figures
Photo credits: European Union
Researchers in Europe’s Widening countries are far less likely to win funding from the European Research Council (ERC) than their peers elsewhere in the EU. The latest success rates show some improvement, but parity is still a long way off.
Widening is EU jargon for countries with a below average performance in research and innovation. This includes most of central and eastern Europe, plus Portugal, Greece and Cyprus. Past success rates for ERC funding in these countries hovers between 2% and 7%, while in Switzerland they are as high as 20%.
According to Lezcek Kaczmarek, a Polish neurobiologist and the current chair of the ERC Scientific Council’s Widening group, the root of the problem is underinvestment in science. R&D expenditure and the number of ERC grants a country’s scientists secure tend to correlate, with only a few exceptions. “It is kind of linear,” he said. “It means that the…
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