FST JOURNAL

It is very good to have the UK back in the Horizon programme. The Scientific Council of the ERC has always believed that the association of the UK to Horizon Europe was important from a range of perspectives. UK colleagues have played an important part of the ERC’s calls from the very beginning. Having the UK participate in the ERC brings clear benefit for the entire European Framework Programme in terms of competition, prestige, and in the ability to fund cutting edge research.

Participation is about competition at the very highest level. A researcher from an EU member state winning an ERC grant in competition with researchers from across the community has achieved this in a very competitive and high-level playing field. With the addition of UK researchers, that pushes everyone to raise our game and to come up with the very best ideas (we hope that Switzerland will also shortly be joining the programme).

Raising the level

It is a similar situation for UK researchers who can now compete with EU colleagues. The level is simply not the same when competing solely at a national level. This is, of course, intentional. Framework Programme funding is only a thin sliver of overall EU funding on research and development but one of the main aims of those who conceived the ERC was precisely to raise the level of science through competition, challenging the very best to develop and hone new ideas.

So there is benefit for both sides. For the UK, though, there is further direct benefit. That comes from the collaborative nature of the Framework Programme. Being able to choose partners from the UK means for EU researchers access to better and larger networks. There is a higher chance of finding groups of colleagues and of achieving the aims of specific projects. It is the same for our colleagues in the UK, who can now develop joint projects across Europe.

The association of UK is clearly a win-win on both sides scientifically. And this feeling is shared across the entire European scientific community. We on our side never wavered in our support for UK association. There have been campaigns like Stick to Science as well as direct lobbying. So, welcome back, you have been missed!

The future

In Brussels, we are already starting work on the next EU Framework Programme, FP 10. The European Research Council itself has given the entire EU Framework Programme a dimension that it did not have before 2007, alongside their existing top-down elements, and the EU will look to build on the success that we have seen in this regard.

We hope to reach agreement on strengthening the ERC in the next Framework Programme. We have seen amazing creativity displayed within ERC-funded projects. The talent of Europe's best researchers has been seen at its best when they have been given the freedom to define their own paths, follow their own ideas and pursue their own thoughts with no strings attached.

The guarantee of freedom to follow one's own ideas is what has driven this success in many different fields across technology and innovation. ERC researchers have made breakthroughs in critical technologies like Artificial Intelligence. This was not invented only in 2022 when ChatGPT was released, but has been worked on by ERC-funded scientists and others for a long time. Quantum technologies are another example.

We believe that it is necessary to significantly increase spending on Research and Innovation at the EU level in the next spending period from 2028-34, when we of course hope that we will continue to have the UK as members.

Funding

Despite the excellent quality of projects funded by the ERC, it is a sad fact that many equally outstanding proposals have to remain unfunded. We simply do not have the budget to fund everything that is judged as excellent and worth funding by our panels. In addition, the size of ERC grants has not changed since 2009. They have remained the same because if we were to increase the amounts, we would have to reduce the number of awards. That has of course been eroding the value and the prestige of ERC grants, so we really need to do something about that.

It will also be vital to protect the ERC’s independence, running our own calls, managing our own grants and maintaining our own mechanisms and processes. So we will call upon the European Commission and its partners to strengthen the ERC’s independence and autonomy under Framework Programme 10 – and we will ask for support from the European scientific community, including that of the UK, in pursuit of that goal. We will also request additional funding to safeguard the ERC’s position as Europe's pre-eminent frontier research funder.