The European Research Council @ 10: Whither hopes and fears?

Abstract

While 10 years is too short a time to draw broad conclusions, the ERC does seem to have succeeded in promoting excellent and basic research in Europe, both through its own projects and by affecting standards and aspirations more broadly. It has affected widely shared conceptions of scholarly excellence and introduced new measures of academic esteem, with more attention to rigorous peer review—in the social sciences and the humanities as well as in the natural sciences. One concern is that the portability of grants may have fuelled the clustering of research talent and reputation towards some institutions and some states, away from others. The benefits of the ERC in promoting research quality across Europe in the longer term may be at risk unless some parties take steps to correct this imbalance.