News
Academies invited to propose new members of ERC Scientific Council, 21 December 2011, Brussels
21-12-2011
The European Research Council, which has become a key institution in the funding of top-class basic research in Europe, is seeking to renew its Scientific Council in view of an envisaged doubling of its overall budget for the ERC under the new Framework Programme “Horizon 2020”.
The ERC Identification Committee is consulting the main science organisations in Europe, among them ALLEA and a number of other inter-academy consortia (such as EASAC or also EuroCASE for the engineering sciences, etc.), for proposals of candidates.
The Scientific Council will exercise scientific leadership which is authoritative and absolutely independent, combining wisdom and experience with vision and imagination. Its membership should reflect the full disciplinary breadth of the research community across Europe, encompassing the exact sciences and engineering, as well as the social sciences and the humanities, with individual members enjoying an undisputed reputation as research leaders in their respective fields. Next to those who have exercised scientific leadership at European or world level, also younger next-generation leaders can be considered. Members must not be considered as representatives of a particular field of research and should not perceive themselves as such. Collectively, the members are expected to demonstrate a broad vision of important developments in research, ideally including also a range of experiences not only from across Europe but also from other research intensive countries. Relevant experiences may include support for and promotion of basic research, organisation and management of research and knowledge transfer, an understanding of national and international research activities, relevant research funding schemes and the wider political context in which the ERC is situated. Membership therefore should include those with experience in universities, research institutes, academies, funding bodies, research in business and industry, ideally in more than one country.
