Europe has a new agency for fostering scientific research

Europe has a new agency for fostering scientific research

The European Research Council, a new grant-making agency through which the European Union hopes to foster innovation and increase its economic competitiveness with the United States and Asia, is officially open for business with the conclusion today of a two-day inaugural conference in Berlin. The new agency will oversee a 7-year research budget of about $9.9-billion, focusing on investigator-driven, basic scientific research, similar to work supported by the United States' National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation. The ERC Scientific Council, consisting of 22 leading scientists from across Europe, was established in 2005, and the research council issued its first call for research proposals in February. More information is available at the ERC website http://erc.europa.eu/