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ERC chief ends term with warning to politicians on research funding

Image: Lukasz Kobus, European Commission

Purse-holders told to back scientific exploration to help deal with unexpected crises

On his last day leading the European Research Council, interim ERC president Jean-Pierre Bourguignon told politicians that they need to provide sufficient funding for research—particularly the kind of curiosity-driven research the ERC funds—if they want to prepare Europe for future crises.

A two-term president of the ERC from 2014-19, Bourguignon (pictured) returned to lead the EU’s top research funder from July 2020 until 31 August 2021 to fill the gap left by the surprise resignation of his successor as president, Mauro Ferrari.

Bourguignon marked his departure with a valedictory blog post stressing an argument he made throughout his various turns at the ERC’s helm: that politicians must be far-sighted enough to fund the ideas of excellent scientists—despite there being no guarantee of those ideas’ success—in order to have the best chance to address pressing political problems.

Unexpected research benefits

The Covid-19 pandemic “shone a light on the fact that bottom-up frontier research plays an essential role in preparing us for the next major crisis”, Bourguignon said in his post, referring to work on vaccine science carried out over decades by the ERC-funded researcher turned company leader Uğur Şahin as an example of such foundations.

As head of the biotechnology company BioNTech, Şahin played a major role in developing one of the vaccines that resulted in 70 per cent of European adults having been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 on the day Bourguignon published his post.

Politicians and officials should not focus on “immediate research results and narrow policy objectives” but instead “give bright minds the freedom to follow their curiosity and scientific instinct”, Bourguignon stressed. “It is in this way that we can best prepare for an uncertain future.”

It was in part an insistence from Ferrari that the ERC should divert from its legally defined remit by ringfencing funding for research into the Covid-19 pandemic that led to his departure from the role after only just over three months, and to Bourguignon’s interim return. In his blog post, Bourguignon said that around 200 ERC grantees funded before the pandemic turned out to have been working on research of relevance to it, including Şahin.

Bourguignon referred to the “escalating climate crisis unfolding before our eyes” as another example among multiple crises that require investment in research. “No one can say that we have not been warned,” he said. “One thing is clear: investing in science is essential for a better and safer future.”

He also stressed the economic benefits of R&D investment, noting that the United States and China are investing “massively” in research and innovation. “If Europe wants to be a front-runner that creates the breakthroughs and industries of tomorrow, it must prioritise R&I!” he insisted.

Political struggles

The Frenchman recounted how his return to lead the ERC in 2020 coincided with EU politicians’ “shock” decision to “slash an already moderately ambitious budget” for the bloc’s 2021-27 R&D programme, Horizon Europe. He said only “tough negotiations” resulted in an outcome that provided “a less bleak outlook for European research and the ERC”.

Bourguignon thanked those who stood up for the R&D budget at that time. But he warned of a similar responsibility to ensure the increased recognition of the importance of research that has resulted from Covid-19 will endure once the pandemic subsides. 

“This will depend on our capacity to strengthen trust in science, when some are trying hard to weaken it by spreading fake news”, he said, echoing a message stressed by the Europe director of the World Health Organization a mere day earlier.

Bourguignon will be replaced by Maria Leptin, the former head of the European molecular biology organisation Embo, who will become ERC president on 1 October. He said he was handing the role over “with complete trust [to] a first-class scientist with many competences”.

“I am sure the ERC will continue to meet its goals even if it means fighting some more battles,” he said.

Research Professional News will publish an interview with Bourguignon in the coming weeks.

Correction 3/9 – This article originally stated that 70 per cent of EU citizens had been vaccinated, rather than adults.

A version of this article also appeared in Research Fortnight