Programme managers at the European Innovation Council could be in line for more responsibility as the Commission refines the role
Photo credits: alphaspirit / BigStock
The European Innovation Council (EIC) is currently recruiting up to six new programme managers. Already an unusual role in the Brussels research funding bureaucracy, this new generation will be at the forefront of the EIC’s ambition to adopt a more dynamic way of working, inspired by the US Advanced Research Project Agencies (ARPAs).
EIC programme managers already have more influence than most research civil servants in the Commission, for example overseeing the process in which highly-ranked bids to the EIC are built into portfolios that go on to receive funding.
The idea now is to give them more discretion to green-light risky projects, and to shut them down later if they are not delivering, much as happens in the ARPAs.
While this might seem a radical departure, much of the groundwork is already in place, a European Commission official told Science|Business. There…
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