Some support for EU funding for US researchers

A proposal to consider allowing US researchers to be able to apply for funding from the European Union has the support of at least one major player in European research funding.

Speaking to The Scientist on Friday (April 20), Christian Br￩chot, director general of the French agency INSERM, applauded a proposal to discuss the idea at this week's meeting of the European Medical Research Councils (EMRC) by Liselotte H￸jgaard, chair of the EMRC's standing committee.

"It is excellent that Liselotte H￸jgaard brings these issues to the partners of EMRC," Br￩chot said. "In this way, EMRC is really acting in the correct position, as a kind of think tank to help the European Commission make good decisions."

Br￩chot said that in his personal opinion, some US researchers should be able to apply for EU funds. "It should be restricted, however, to projects that will lead to exchanges between US and European researchers ...to specific actions where you could really foresee the benefits," he said.

The emphasis should not be on national funding agencies, but European Union funds, Br￩chot said. "The situation can only make some progress if the EMRC really conveys to the European Commission the message that European programmes should provide some financial support to NIH-supported groups."

"This is feasible and should be performed within the context of FP7," he said, speaking of the 7th Research Framework Programme, the European Union's common source of science funding.

On the other hand, Br￩chot said that INSERM itself would not likely provide direct funding for US groups. Instead, INSERM would support the creation of INSERM units in the USA and associated laboratories formed by collaborations between a US lab and an INSERM unit in France, to encourage exchange of scientists between the USA and France, he said.

Antonia Mochan, science and research spokeswoman for the European Commission, told The Scientist that the European Union already funds US researchers, when they collaborate with EU scientists. "As our programmes are all about collaboration, it's the same for British researchers and Polish researchers as well as US researchers," she wrote in an Email.

She added that the EU has begun discussing the topic of widening the accessibility of FP7 money to international teams. "This is something we are looking into and hope to have some movement on it for the 2008 work programmes," she said.

Mochan also pointed out that the EU's FP7 funding represents only a small fraction of the research money spent in Europe. The bulk of money is spent by countries themselves in their national systems.

Stephen Pincock
mail@the-scientist.com

Links within this article

S. Pincock, "Could US scientists get EU funding?" The Scientist, April 19, 2007.
http://www.the-scientist.com/news/home/53079

Liselotte H￸jgaard
http://www.rigshospitalet.dk/rh.nsf/Content

European Medical Research Councils
'http://www.esf.org/research-areas/medical-sciences/about/standing-committee.html

Christian Brechot
http://www.inserm.fr/fr/inserm/organisation/centrale/att00001998/BIOC.BRECHOT.pdf

J. Burgermeister, "Scientists oppose INSERM changes," The Scientist,
June 16, 2005.
http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/22702