ERC chief welcomes parliamentary support for funder’s independence

Maria Leptin, the president of the European Research Council (ERC), has welcomed the strong support for the ERC’s independence voiced by the European Parliament’s lead rapporteurs on Horizon Europe. 

“The ERC Scientific Council has always appreciated the support of the European Parliament in safeguarding the ERC's modus operandi and its budget and these reports are a welcome continuation of that support,” she told Science|Business.

On March 13, the two MEPs released their draft reports on the Horizon Europe legislation, which also governs the ERC. Both used strong language to defend the ERC’s researcher-driven nature. 

One of the rapporteurs, Christian Ehler of the European People’s Party, told Science|Business that the European Commission’s original plans for the next ERC cycle was “an unnecessary attack” on the autonomy of the fund.

To ensure the ERC’s independence, the reports introduce amendments maintaining a four-year mandate for the ERC president, defending the freedom of the president and the ERC Scientific Council’s to communicate openly, and underlining the need to protect the ERC from political influence.

This is all in line with Leptin’s vision for continuing an excellence-driven ERC. “The ERC has been highly effective in supporting curiosity-driven frontier research across all fields, based only on scientific excellence and our focus is on continuing that mission into the future,” she said.

Her main concern is the budget. Launched in 2008, ERC grants have become one of Europe’s most prestigious science awards, allowing researchers to freely explore topics of their choice with multi-million-euro budgets. These grants are highly popular, which has led the success rates for ERC calls to plummet as low as 5%.

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Now, the Commission wants to build on the ERC’s success by adding new funding schemes to its portfolio. These include seven-year €7 million super-grants, called ERC Plus.

The Commission proposal for the next Horizon Europe almost doubles the ERC budget to €31.5 billion for 2028-34, but this increase may not be enough to cover all of the fund’s activities. “Our position is that the proposed budget increase for the ERC represents a minimum and would not be sufficient to cover major new funding schemes,” Leptin said. However, the €31.5 billion figure is just a starting point for negotiations, and EU governments looking to slim down the overall EU budget may well single out Horizon Europe and the ERC for cuts.

The MEPs meanwhile want to see an increase in the ERC budget. While Ehler’s report does not specify an exact figure, it proposes raising the budget for Pillar 1, which covers the ERC, from €44 billion in the Commission proposal to €55 billion.