Keep politics out of European early-career funding, sector says

European research organisations have united to warn Brussels against introducing politically driven priority areas for the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA).

The programme’s fellowships have supported more than 150,000 researchers across all disciplines since they were launched in 1996, with early- and mid-career scholars the primary beneficiaries.

But the European Commission is proposing to introduce thematic priorities as part of the next research funding framework programme, known as FP10. This could see funding channelled towards fields handpicked by politicians, eschewing the bottom-up, subject-agnostic approach which many academics view as central to the MSCA’s success.

In a statement published on 29 June, research organisations say that MSCA has “consistently demonstrated its ability to anticipate emerging needs and address evolving societal and geopolitical challenges precisely because it remains researcher-driven and responsive to new ideas”.

“MSCA should not be intended as an instrument to address shortages and labour market demands. This is not what makes MSCA impactful. Its core mission is to ensure that Europe continues to generate excellent researchers and strengthen its long-term research capacity,” the statement says.

“Preserving MSCA’s open, research-field agnostic and bottom-up nature is therefore essential to ensuring that Europe continues to boost talent and excellence wherever they emerge.

“By contrast, introducing top-down thematic priorities would limit its ability to generate unexpected breakthroughs and interdisciplinary knowledge in all research fields, including those that will be critical in future and are not yet recognised as such.”

The statement is signed by 17 groups including the League of European Research Universities (Leru), the Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities, the European University Association and Science Europe.

The MSCA funds doctoral networks, postdoctoral fellowships and staff exchanges, and any dilution of its approach would lead to concerns that its success rate – which fell as low as 9.6 per cent in a recent round – could slip even further.

The signatories says that if the commission wants to develop targeted research and training programmes to address strategic priorities, these should sit within dedicated instruments homed elsewhere within FP10.

Kurt Deketelaere, Leru’s secretary-general, said: “Europe’s future competitiveness will not be secured by choosing between excellence and strategic priorities. It will be secured by investing in the researchers who create the knowledge, innovations and breakthroughs that shape those priorities in the first place.

“The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions have proven their value over three decades and have become a global benchmark for research excellence. Europe would make a profound strategic mistake by weakening a programme that attracts, develops and retains the very talent on which our future depends.

“The message to policymakers is simple: don’t reinvent MSCA – reinforce it, expand it and give it the resources it deserves.”

chris.havergal@timeshighereducation.com