Sector fears ‘attack’ on European Research Council autonomy

The European Commission’s recently published Competitiveness Compass for the EU has sparked concern among sector leaders, who fear that its emphasis on “strategic interests” could indicate a reduction in autonomy for the European Research Council (ERC).

Described by commission president Ursula von der Leyen as a “roadmap”, the publication sets out several methods of boosting the competitiveness of the European Union, including “closing the innovation gap”, employing a “competitiveness-driven approach to decarbonisation” and “reducing excessive dependencies”.

The commission places particular emphasis on innovation with a high technical readiness level, stating in the Compass, “Europe must be the place where tomorrow’s technologies, services, and clean products are invented, manufactured and marketed.”

A leaked draft of the document alarmed leaders last week with the assertion that “the European Research Council and the European Innovation Council need to be aligned along the same strategic interests and cooperate more closely to achieve results,” as Science Business reported.

The final publication modified this statement, made in reference to the integration of AI into industry, to read, “The European Research Council and the European Innovation Council need to operate in their respective domains along the same strategic interests and cooperate more closely to achieve results.”

Jan Palmowski, secretary general of the Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities, said the published wording was an “improvement” on the leaked draft, but still did little to assuage sector concerns.

“[The ERC’s] independence is still compromised, by saying that it has to pursue the same strategic interests as the EIC – and that it has ‘to achieve results’,” he told Times Higher Education. “But what results has the ERC not achieved? It has been spectacularly successful, by any measure. And what strategic interests should it pursue, and who defines these?

“The ERC has a clear mission, to foster scientific excellence and fund breakthrough frontier research. That must be its strategy, and it has pursued it with spectacular results.”

Kurt Deketelaere, secretary general of the League of European Research Universities (Leru), described the statement as “an unprecedented attack on the ERC’s autonomy and independence,” calling the commission’s vision for the research body “a threat to the free, bottom-up, excellence and curiosity-driven approach of the ERC”.

“Those who think that we are ready to give up the ERC’s autonomy and independence for more money are mistaken,” Deketelaere added.

Commenting after a commission official told Research Professional News that the ERC would continue to “operate independently”, adding, “the commission is fully committed to continue preserving the unique role of the ERC and its independence,” ERC president Maria Leptin told THE: “We are delighted with the broad consensus in the commission that the EU’s competitiveness needs to be boosted.”

“Our position is clear that the ERC must continue to pursue its mission, free from any imposed political priorities,” Leptin said.

“The philosophy of the ERC rests on the idea that researchers know best the most promising research areas to explore without predetermined themes or priorities and that the ERC is independent in its strategies and their implementation. We trust that the commission understands this and supports it.”

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com