Some things are worth waiting for. And in this case working very hard to obtain.

The European Research Council is on the verge of becoming a reality.

On August 6, 2004 Helga Nowotny as Chair of the European Research Advisory Board (EURAB) wrote in an Editorial for the journal Science:

[T]he European Constitution, agreed on in June 2004, makes explicit reference to research and a convergent European Research Area "in

 which researchers, scientific knowledge and technology circulate freely."  This gives EU research policy a more solid base and broadens its scope, making research a "shared competence."

 

Helga Nowotny

One of the six objectives of FP7[Framework Programme 7], to begin in 2007, supports basic research and an ERC [European Research Council] that would encompass all disciplines, including the humanities and social sciences. The ERC mission would be to generously support the very best researchers, making them truly competitive on a global scale.

 

The challenge is to create a European knowledge base for research and innovation in which human resources, adequate infrastructures, and mechanisms to encourage excellence receive the necessary sustained boost. Political support for a better balance between basic and applied research stems from recognition of the impact of basic research on economic performance.

 

A key to the overall challenges is the transformation of European universities, which in the end will determine whether support for basic research through EU mechanisms will have the desired effects.

Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker - ERC Secretary-general to July 2009

At the end of November a meeting of the European Union's (E.U.'s) science, education, and industry ministers voted 23 to 2 for the creation of a European Research Council (ERC) and asked the European Commission to develop a proposal.

But it was as far back as January 2002 that Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, president of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG, strongly advocated a European Research Council pointing out, "The global quest for scientific excellence has intensified enormously in recent years." and urging a strong European approach in order to be able to compete with the US, Japan and China... one [proposal] activity under discussion aims at the creation of high-level European junior research groups, headed by top-quality junior scientists, who would set up mixed European research groups in a country that is not their own."

It took until July 2005 when the European Commissioner for Science and Research, Janez Potočnik announced the formation of a 22-member Scientific Council of leading European scientists, to head up the future European Research Council.

In his announcement Janez Potočnik said, "The clear aim of the European Research Council is to promote scientific excellence, and the best judge of that are scientists. We want to put high quality, independent scientific advice at the heart of the decision making process and make sure that the brightest and best of European research gets funded."

Andreu Mas-Colell - ERC secretary-general 2009-2011

Now five years after Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker first championed a European Research Council he will serve as its first secretary-general when it becomes a reality in 2007. He will serve until July 2009, when he will be succeeded by Spanish economist Andreu Mas-Colell, a professor at the University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, who will serve through 2011.

The avowed purpose of the ERC is to fund cutting-edge research while avoiding the bureaucratic tangles of current E.U. funding schemes. But as ScienceNow's  Gretchen Vogel reports, "[I]t faces a tall task as it gets off the ground: It must prove that it can spend its €1 billion (US$1.28 billion) yearly budget efficiently while keeping red tape to a minimum.

It is the Scientific Council who is to be charged with setting the rules and scientific guidelines for the ERC while the secretary-general will serve as a liaison between the Scientific Council and the Brussels based EC bureaucrats, who will oversee the day-to-day operations of the ERC.

According to ScienceNow:

Both choices [for secretary-general] will provide the young organization with strong leadership, says Frank Gannon of the European Molecular Biology Organization in Heidelberg, Germany. Mas-Colell has been a strong advocate for increased research funding, he says, and Winnacker is "a solid appointment of someone who knows how to manage science at the highest level." Gannon says Winnacker is well-positioned to fight for the ERC in the face of possible political meddling in the first few years: "He will not be pushed around."

Alex Reisner

The Funneled Web