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Real money to reverse Europe's brain drain has arrived in the form of the European Young Investigator Awards (EURYI Awards), which offer 25 outstanding young scientists up to €1.25 million (about $1.4 million) over 5 years to set up labs in Europe.
This opportunity for young investigators in any field is a joint initiative of the European Union Research Organisations Heads of Research Councils (EUROHORCs) and the European Science Foundation (ESF) and was announced on September 15.
"We want these to be elite awards," Dominique Martin-Rovet, ESF science policy advisor, told The Scientist. "We want to find the best people in the world and attract them to Europe, wherever they come from."
"One of the principles from the very beginning has been not to look at the nationality of applicants, only the quality," added Lea Ryynänen-Karjalainen, scientific secretary of EUROHORCs. Young scientists from existing member states of the European Union should be competing on equal terms with those from anywhere else in the world, Ryynänen-Karjalainen said.
Martin-Rovet also emphasized the lack of any political criteria or influence. "This is an initiative directly from the scientific community and for the scientific community."
The awards offer to up €250,000 (approximately $290,000) per year for up to 5 years, subject to satisfactory progress, allowing the winners to create their own independent research team based in Europe.
By the time the 5-year term of each project is over, the hope is that further national and European funding schemes will keep the top-quality scientists working in Europe.
Funding for the awards comes from a wide range of participating scientific organizations based in 15 European countries. Applicants must first contact one of these "host" organizations and gain approval to submit their application through that organization. This introduces a two-level selection process, first within the national organizations, then at the European level after submission of applications to the ESF.
But Frédéric Sgard, vice president of Euroscience, told The Scientist there were drawbacks in the selection mechanism, saying political factors and existing personal relationships may come into play due to the need to submit applications through selected national organizations.
"It would have been better to have an independent European jury," he said. "The initiative itself is good, but its limitations and complexity do emphasize the need for a European Research Council to fund such schemes independently on a larger scale."
Reversing the flood of researchers leaving Europe for greener pastures is one of the European Commission's key priorities.
Philippe Busquin, the European Research Commissioner, has strenuously voiced his concern that "more and more researchers trained in Europe leave for and remain in the USA [creating] a drain on European research resources." The EURYI Awards are the kind of initiative he has been seeking in order to address this damaging trend and begin to attract more of the best researchers to Europe.
Applicants for the new awards must have between 2 and 10 years postdoctoral experience. They should also have "an excellent track record with the potential to become world class leaders in their field of research."
The application procedure closes for this year on December 15. Full details are available on the ESF Web site. The first recipients are expected to begin implementing their projects in October 2004. As they begin building their teams, they will be free to recruit whoever they wish from anywhere in the world.
References
| 1. | | [http://www.the-scientist.com/news/20030724/05/]
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| | | A. Scott, "Action to stop EU brain drain," The Scientist, July 24, 2003.
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| 2. | | [http://www.esf.org/esf_genericpage.php?section=8&domain=0&genericpage=1879]
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| | | "EURYI Awards: a new opportunity to do science in Europe," European Science Foundation press release, September 15, 2003.
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| | | European Union Research Organisations Heads of Research Councils
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| | | Philippe Busquin
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| | | "Commission raises profile of researchers to stop the brain drain," European Commission press release, March 24, 2003.
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| | | EURYI call for proposals: European Young Investigator Awards
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