European Union Research Funding 2007 - 2013 Takes a Hit. (December 22, 2005)

    The compromise hammered out at the last minute on December 17, by the leaders of the 25 European Union (EU) member nations ended the months-long stalemate by agreeing to an €862 billion (A$1.39 trillion) budget for the years 2007 - 2013. That's a 16% cut to the budget proposed earlier this year.

Research funds took a significant hit.

     
Seven month ago the European commission proposed that research funding should double during the 2007-2013 budget, i.e. and increase from €5 billion to €10 billion per year; €1.5 billion per year was to be allocated to the new European Research Council (ERC), which would fund top researchers from across Europe (see TFW-051208). However, farm subsidies and development funds for the 10 new EU member countries that joined in May have forced a significant cut into the funds that will be made available for EU research.

ScienceNow reports that instead of an immediate doubling and an overall €35 billion increase in research funds over 7 years, the budget will gradually increase from €5 billion in 2006 to €8.75 billion in 2013. The overall increase adds up to about €15 billion. At a press conference in Berlin, research commissioner Janez Potočnik said the smaller boost "is clearly not what we wanted, [but] it reflects today's political reality."

Potočnik went on to say that it was not yet clear how much the squeeze would affect the ERC. Nevertheless he claimed the ERC "will receive an important sum." at least €1 billion per year to be viable. "We will have an ERC," Potočnik said, but he warned that prior commitments to the ITER fusion reactor and other programs will put pressure on the smaller budget.

It will be recalled that Fotis Kafatos recently installed as the ERC's first chairman said that It would not be worth establishing the ERC if it were poorly endowed, "the funding has to be sufficient for it to work properly and make a difference. Personally, I think the absolute minimum would be €1 billion per year."