{"id":19348,"date":"2020-10-24T08:40:06","date_gmt":"2020-10-24T02:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=19348"},"modified":"2020-10-24T08:40:09","modified_gmt":"2020-10-24T02:55:09","slug":"eu-science-funding-could-slow-future-research-and-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/eu-science-funding-could-slow-future-research-and-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"EU science funding could slow future research and innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MUNICH\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Research and innovation are\u00a0key drivers of productivity and economic growth<\/a>, significantly contributing to technological breakthroughs and scientific advancements that are crucial for addressing Europe\u2019s economic and societal challenges. Unfortunately, Europe is now at risk of falling behind other global science leaders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
State of the Union. <\/em><\/strong>Credit: European Union 2015 – European Parliament ( Flickr<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Despite the European Parliament\u2019s initial proposal to allocate \u20ac120 billion to research and innovation during the next decade, the\u00a0current proposal<\/a>\u00a0has slashed the budget for research and innovation to \u20ac81 billion (at 2018 prices),\u00a0just 2% of\u00a0GDP<\/a>\u00a0and well below the nearly 3% currently spent by\u00a0the U.S.<\/a>\u00a0and nearly 2.5% spent by\u00a0China<\/a>. This reduced research and innovation spending could impact economic growth and jeopardise Europe\u2019s position as a leader in key scientific areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is concerned that the diminished research and innovation budget, if passed, will weaken the European economy, prevent Europe from reaching the Green Deal\u2019s ambitious targets<\/a>, and reduce its resilience to widespread crises such as COVID-19. The EGU is especially concerned about cuts to frontier research funding distributed by the European Research Council (ERC), Europe\u2019s primary funder of blue-skies research. This new budget proposal designates \u20ac5 billion for a pandemic recovery fund for which the ERC is not eligible, which represents a major budget cut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now is not the time to cut back on EU science research funding. As the ongoing pandemic and intensifying effects of climate change clearly demonstrate, Europe needs to invest in, rather than defund, its scientists and its research and innovation sector. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than\u00a070% of the\u00a0ERC\u2019s completed projects<\/a>\u00a0have led to discoveries or major advances to address pressing economic, environmental, and societal issues, including\u00a0more than 180 ongoing or completed\u00a0ERC\u00a0projects<\/a>\u00a0that are contributing to Europe\u2019s response to the\u00a0COVID-19 pandemic. And while the private sector has the capacity to support EU research and innovation programmes, relying on the private sector and public-private research partnerships to fill the funding gaps is not enough given the uncertainty surrounding the global economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EGU is also concerned that a diminished EU research and innovation budget will have devastating effects on Early Career Scientists, who represent approximately 50% of the EGU\u2019s membership. \u201cEarly Career Scientists are the future of the scientific world,\u201d says Anouk Beniest, EGU\u2019s Early Career Scientist Representative. \u201cWe learn a good deal from previous generations, but there is a point at which we have to become independent and start our own research lines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This independence requires financial support, says Beniest, and the ERC therefore plays an important role in the development of Europe\u2019s junior researchers. \u201cFinancial resources are indispensable for Early Career Scientists to lay a solid foundation for their research programmes,\u201d she says. \u201cThe ERC Starting Grants<\/a> programme is one of the best examples of funding for Early Career Scientists to pursue their most ambitious scientific goals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0EGU\u00a0urges all EU leaders to prioritise research funding, including funds for fundamental science through the\u00a0ERC, in Horizon Europe and the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adopting the European Parliament\u2019s October proposal for a \u20ac39 billion increase to their\u00a015 flagship programmes<\/a>, including Horizon Europe, is an important first step. However, given that research funding is only a small piece of the proposed increase, more methods of boosting the Horizon Europe budget also need to be found to ensure that there will be enough funding to accomplish Europe\u2019s environmental, social, and technological ambitions during the next seven years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Research and innovation are key drivers of productivity and economic growth, significantly contributing to technological breakthroughs and scientific advancements that are crucial for addressing Europe\u2019s economic and societal challenges. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/european.jpg",799,533,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/european-200x200.jpg",200,200,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/european-600x400.jpg",600,400,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/european-768x512.jpg",750,500,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/european-675x450.jpg",675,450,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/european.jpg",799,533,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/european.jpg",799,533,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/european.jpg",799,533,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/european.jpg",799,533,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/european.jpg",600,400,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/european.jpg",600,400,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/european-760x490.jpg",760,490,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/european-550x360.jpg",550,360,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/european-95x65.jpg",95,65,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/european.jpg",640,427,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/european.jpg",96,64,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/european.jpg",150,100,false]},"author_info":{"info":["RevoScience"]},"category_info":"News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}