Research Europe - 19/02/2015

Updated daily at www.ResearchResearch.
com
19 February 2015
Scientists aim to engage

as social media calls p4
Teaming Germany dominates p5

Horizon 2020 When great science
is scuppered by bad planning p8
Troubled Human Brain

Project changes course
Commission responds to critics with idea of permanent facility
The European Commission is considering changing the
Human Brain Project into an infrastructure facility, following criticism from researchers that it is not working.
The project could morph from a 10-year scientific
investigation into a permanent European facility for
human brain research. This is likely to centre on an IT
platform that would pool and analyse large volumes of
data from both neural and cognitive studies.
It appears that the facility would either be an intergovernmental organisation, similar in form to Cern,
the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva,
or be given the status of an official EU infrastructure
consortium. It would provide a supercomputing base
for researchers to use in the long term.
The idea follows an acknowledgement by the
Commission that the original aim of the projectto
build a model to understand the human brain in a decadewas too challenging.
The project is moving on to a solid track to become
a European research infrastructure. That is now a
clear target, although it will take time, said Henry
Markram, a co-director of the project and a neuroscientist at the cole Polytechnique Fdrale de
Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, in an email.
Details of the plan have emerged after a Commission
review of the project and during a mediation process
triggered by a letter of complaint from more than
650cognitive scientists in July 2014. Project leaders
say the Commission is coming around to the idea that a
facility could be more effective than a science project.
The core of the project relies on very large informatics and computational platforms, and the idea is
to offer them as a European tool, says Philippe Gillet,
the president of the projects board of directors.
The project has so far been funded as a flagship
scientific consortium by the Commission, which
pledged 500 million to it from Horizon 2020 in 2013.
According to Gillet, one option being considered
is for the project to become an intergovernmental
organisation similar to Cern or the European Southern
Observatory, which are based on a members treaty
that sets annual contributions.
by Cristina Gallardo
cgnews@ResearchResearch.com
A less drastic option would be to reclassify the

project as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium, says Gilleta legal entity that could then
receive funding from Horizon 2020.
Any change will have implications for the organisation of the project, which until now has been centred
at the EPFL. We are moving towards an organisation
that is shared by different partners, Gillet says. We
will not have a single coordinator but a joint entity,
with formal rules.
Alexandre Pouget, a neuroscience researcher at the
University of Geneva, says this may counter one of the
complaints outlined in the July letter, which was that
three of the projects 21 co-directors had too much
control over its direction.
The Commission has said that it will not confirm any
changes until March, when it will publish the results
of its first review of the project. However, in a blog
post on 9 February, Thierry Van Der Pyl, the director
for excellence in science at the Directorate-General
for Communication, said that building a world-class
experimental ICT infrastructure would be one of three
challenges to be tackled in the coming months.
The other priorities are to strengthen the projects
organisation to generate more concrete results, and
to improve the integration of cognitive researchers,
who study the human mind and its processes, said
Van Der Pyl. Cognitive researchers who were unhappy
with the projects original direction now say that the
Commission appears to be listening to their demands
although it remains to be seen how the promise of
better integration will play out.
The projects objectives cannot be
Every new opportunity
fulfilled without better coordination
for research funding
with neuroscientists, says Frdric
from every sponsor in
Chavane, a researcher at the Institute
the EU, US & beyond
des Neurosciences de la Timone in
Independent news
Marseille, France. The Commission
is choosing its words carefully, but I
Direct from Brussels
think it is going in the right direction.
Issue No . 403
2 editorial
Research Europe, 19 February 2015

Edited by Colin Macilwain
Europe@ResearchResearch.com
Tel: +44 20 7216 6500
Fax: +44 20 7216 6501
Unit 111, 134-146 Curtain Road, London EC2A 3AR
In whose opinion
Problems lurk behind independent scientific advice
The Commission and the European Parliament are both rearranging their
ways of obtaining reliable, independent advice on science and technology.
Carlos Moedas, the research and innovation commissioner, is conducting a review of the options available for providing such advice to
the office of the president of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker. This
follows the noisy departure of Anne Glover, the chief scientific adviser to
the previous Commission president, Jos Manuel Barroso.
At the same time, the Parliament is revamping its Science and
Technology Options Assessment unit, Stoa, partly to make its existence
more visible to parliamentarians. Its preferred solution is for the office to
concentrate more on foresight, the sometimes black art of identifying likely, medium-term trends in science and technology (see Insider, page 13).
Both reviews represent laudable efforts to fix hard problems. Moedass
review acknowledges that the role of chief scientific adviser is well established in London and Washington but does not exist in Paris, Berlin or
any other major global capital. Despite the UKs cheerleading for such
a position in Brussels, it is by no means clear that the appointment of a
single individual is appropriate for EU institutions.
One of Glovers goals was to assemble a committee of national chief scientific advisers, or equivalents, from every EU member state. The fact that
neither France nor Germany felt able to send someone to sit on this committee speaks volumes: neither country is culturally attuned to the idea that a
single individual could put themselves forward as representing the diverse
branches of knowledge that make up science and technology.
Moedas must therefore consider alternative arrangements to provide
his boss with reliable, useful and timely advice on science and technology issues. Stoa, meanwhile, has a long-term problem, common to similar
outfits around the world, including the Office of Technology Assessment
in the United States, which inspired Stoas establishment but was abolished by Congress back in 1995. While Stoa would like to be noticed by
a larger number of the 751 MEPs, it cannot afford to make enemies by
appearing to take sides on contentious issues. Stoa has therefore confined itself to producing reports that take a studiously neutral stance,
charting out the consequences of the different policy options that might
be available to the Parliament on different issues.
The trouble with this approach is that politicians are usually in a great
hurry and dont really want options: they want solutions. Perhaps that
is where Glover, a former chief scientific adviser to the government of
Scotland, went too far. In the end, politicians dont want their advisers
to have a public profile of their own. Worse, too many lawmakers would
like their advisers to produce technical reports that will provide cover for
whichever course of action they have already decided to embark upon.
It is wrong for anyone to suggest that a silver bullet, such as a wellfunded Stoa or the appointment of a chief scientific adviser, will alone
make it easy for the Commission or the Parliament to address such complex issues. The best we can hope for is that both bodies will continue to
obtain genuinely independent advice from inside and outside the EU.
elsewhere
If you start by giving the impression that
you have already given up, that is the way
to lose an argument in Europe.
The UKs shadow chancellor Ed Balls says the
government shouldnt bring forward its plans
for a referendum on EU membership to 2016,
because it will make it harder to negotiate
reform. The Guardian, 10/2/15.
In my view the NWO should really be
abolished and integrated within the
European Research Council.
Luc Soete, the rector magnificus of
Maastricht University, suggests a radical
alternative to the Dutch governments plan
to give more power to the national public
funding agency. Science Business, 27/1/15.
Do the people in the trilogue have any
idea of the consequences...or what these
changes mean, in terms of cost?
Germanys anti-bureaucracy chief Johannes
Ludewig argues that the discussions between
the European Commission, the European
Council and the European Parliament to
decide preliminary legislation result in costly
and ineffective laws. EU Observer, 10/2/15.
In a European context, where the states
have autonomous regions, establishing
a hierarchy between official languages is
not a very inclusive approach.
Patxi Baztarrika, the Basque governments
vice-councillor for linguistic policy, suggests that the EU should give the minority
languages of Welsh, Frisian and Basque
the same status as its official languages.
EurActiv, 11/2/15.
The euro is fragile. Its like building a
castle of cards. If you take out the Greek
card, the others will collapse.
Greeces finance minister Yanis Varoufakis
tells officials that Italy and Portugal will be
the next to depart if negotiations with the EU
mean that Greece is forced to leave the
eurozone. EU Observer, 9/2/15.
decade
Its as if I have three
children. Like any modern
father, if one of my children
is sick, I am ready to drop
everything and focus on him
until he is back to health.
European Commission president Jos
Manuel Barroso justifies his plan to
prioritise the economy over social and
environmental policies in the revamped
Lisbon strategy.
news 3
whats going on
Barroso takes university post
Jos Manuel Barroso, the former president of the European Commission, is to return to
academia at the Catholic University of Portugal. Barroso will instruct law students about EU
institutions, and teach governance and international affairs. He will also be a visiting professor
for international economic policy at Princeton University in the United States, where he will
focus on the relationships between China, the EU, Russia and the US.
Switzerland drafts immigration bill
The Swiss government has proposed a law that would impose quotas on immigration, following
a referendum last year that led to the countrys involvement in Horizon 2020 being limited.
The government suggests that there should be quotas on workers from abroad who are in
Switzerland for more than four months, and that Swiss people should be given priority when
applying for jobs. The aim is to find a solution that meets the terms of the 2014 referendum but
also allows the country to participate fully in Horizon 2020.
Head of Iters EU branch resigns
The head of Fusion for Energy, which manages the EUs contribution to the Iter nuclear
fusion facility in France, has stepped down. Henrik Bindslev, director since 2012, will leave
the company before the end of his tenure to become dean of the faculty of engineering at the
University of Southern Denmark. Pietro Barabaschi, an electrical engineer who joined Iter in
1992, will lead F4E from 1 March until the governing board appoints a permanent successor.
Netherlands leads the way in ERC commercialisation scheme
Researchers from the Netherlands have won the most grants in the latest round of Proof of Concept
funding from the European Research Council. Of the 59 winners announced on 5February, 11 are
from the Netherlands, nine from the UK, eight from Spain and six each from France and Israel. The
grants, worth up to 150,000, are provided to help researchers commercialise their work.
EMA acknowledges mistakes in data disclosure
The European Medicines Agency has acknowledged that some data in three clinical-trials reports
should have been released rather than being kept private because of commercial concerns. The
agency said that the massive amount of documents reviewed and the time pressure to release
them led to the error. The European ombudsman Emily OReilly had questioned the EMAs actions.
Survey reports rising cybersecurity fears
EU citizens are becoming increasingly concerned about their online security, a European
Commission survey has found. The Special Eurobarometer on cybersecurity surveyed
1,000people and found that the misuse of personal data and the security of online payments
were the most common cybersecurity concerns. Fears of identity theft also increased
significantly between 2013 and 2014, the survey found.
Ranking puts France ahead in internationalisation
French institutions have come top for internationalisation in the latest assessment by the
European Commissions university ranking U-Multirank. The exercise assessed 237 institutions
according to their international perspective. Of the 27 universities that achieved the top score,
six were located in France. Four were in Austria, three in Belgium and three in the Netherlands.
4 news
europe
US survey finds scientists active in

policy and public engagement
Most scientists are interested in being involved in science policy and many are turning to social media to
discuss their work, a study of researchers in the United
States has found.
The study, performed by the not-for-profit Pew
Research Center, found that 87 per cent of scientists
believe they should take an active role in policy discussions. Only 13 per cent said it would be better to stay
away and focus on establishing sound scientific facts.
About half of the respondents said they talked to the
press about their work, with 47 per cent describing it on
social media and 24 per cent blogging about it.
Science as an enterprise is changing, said Dominique
Brossard, a science communications specialist at the
University of Wisconsin at Madison, commenting on the
findings. It had to happen. The younger generation is
eager to be part of a more open environment.
Pews Internet, Science and Tech project surveyed
almost 4,000 members of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, and the studys findings
were released at the annual meeting of the AAAS in San
Jose, California, on 15 February.
Lee Rainie, the director of the project, said the findings reflected a general tendency for society to be
subject to greater online scrutiny. This isnt just science, he said. Everyone finds they have more people
by Colin Macilwain at the AAAS meeting in San Jose
watching what they are doing. It is going on in all areas

that we study.
The survey revealed that scientists were more likely to
engage with the press and on social media if they worked
in disciplines that were subject to public media debates,
such as Earth sciences. Engineers and chemists, who
considered their disciplines to be less in the public eye,
were not as inclined to engage.
The proportion of scientists who felt that now was a
good time to start a career in their particular discipline
was 59 per cent, down from the 67 per cent recorded in a
similar Pew study five years ago.
At a discussion at the AAAS meeting, some attendees
questioned whether the survey was representative of scientists in the lab, given that the participants were those
who had chosen to join the AAAS, which publishes the
magazine Science.
However, Brossard said that separate work surveying
scientists at all levels and disciplines at the University of
Wisconsin had mirrored the main findings. This work had
found that the most important social media outlet for
scientists at the university was Wikipedia, leading the
university to consider the role of researchers in shaping
Wikipedia entries when appointing staff.
Cancer groups collaborate on European database

The European Commissions Joint Research Centre is
working with cancer registries and organisations on a
centralised database for cancer research.
The database, to be launched in March, is intended
to make it easier for researchers and organisations to
access harmonised information in a standardised format, so that they no longer have to approach individual
registries for information.
The current system is rather hit and miss as to which
database has the most up-to-date information, says
Nicholas Nicholson, who is leading the cancer information project at the JRC. Its important we have one
definitive set of data.
Plans for the European cancer information system
began in 2010, and the European Network of Cancer
Registries, the International Agency for Research on
Cancer and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicines Concord programme have been involved in
its development. As well as helping researchers, the
database is intended to reduce the burden of analysis on
registries, which spend a lot of time formatting data to
send to individual cancer organisations.
by Safya Khan-Ruf
sknews@ResearchResearch.com
The JRC says it intends to work to improve data collection across Europe, as not all registries collect the range
of data required by the database and some countries lack
sufficient registries. Its a very heterogeneous picture
and we need to move towards a more systematic way of
operating, says Nicholson.
According to Michel Coleman, a professor of epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine, other fields of disease research could also
benefit from harmonised data sets. However, he says
that undertaking such a task would likely require the
involvement of an EU body such as the JRC, to get organisations across Europe on board. For cancer, population
data sets have been recorded for 50 to 100 years, so
there is a lot to collate and harmonise, he adds.
According to Nicholson, having the European
database in place will help policymakers to use the information in developing health policy. Cancer data are still
mainly used as a research tool, and should be driving
policy intervention much more, he says.
news 5
Germanys Teaming success

attributed to eastern ties
Strong links to eastern Europe and a push from the government are behind the overwhelming German presence
in Horizon 2020s Teaming initiative, observers have said.
The European Commission published the results of
the first round of Teaming calls on 30 January, revealing
the 31 projects that will receive a total of 14.5 million.
Germany is involved in 21 of them, in partnership with
researchers in Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic,
Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
German success is probably a reflection of the presence of a large number of researchers with eastern
European backgrounds in German research institutes,
says Luc Soete, the rector of Maastricht University in
the Netherlands and chairman of the Commissions
Research, Innovation and Science Policy Experts group.
Other observers say that the German government is
keen to ensure the success of the initiative to prevent
the widening-participation agenda from affecting its
future EU research funding.
Under the Teaming initiative, which aims to reduce
disparities in Europe, the 31 project teams will develop
business plans for specialised R&D centres in the low-performing countries. These will be aided by partners in the
advanced countries, and a further 87m may then be pro-
by Jenny Maukola
jemnews@ResearchResearch.com
vided to support up to 10 of the centres implementation.

The German government pushed hard for the countrys success, organising several conferences on the
subject with ministries in the east. Since the fall of
communism, theres been a tradition of cooperation
with eastern Europe, says Nils Wrner, the deputy head
of the Brussels office of the HRK, Germanys association
of rectors. Its always easier to build on existing cooperation than to start something out of the blue.
And according to one representative of German
research organisations, the government may also be
concerned that a failure to close Europes excellence gap
could lead to more EU funding being reallocated from
successful countries to poorer performers.
According to Claire Nauwelaers, a science and innovation policy consultant, the success of the programme
will ultimately depend on whether partnerships are
able to create much-needed structural changes in the
target countries. Partnering a good institution in a
less-advanced country with a good institution in an
advanced member state is fairly superficialit doesnt
solve the problem, she says.
Smart specialisation stalled by insufficient plans

More than half of the operational plans for smart specialisation submitted by regions have been deemed
unsatisfactory because they did not provide enough
detail about monitoring.
Speaking at a conference in Riga, Charlina Vitcheva, the
director of smart and sustainable growth at the European
Commissions Directorate-General for Regional Policy,
said the Commission had found that 59 of the 110plans
failed to meet monitoring and evaluation criteria.
The plans indicate how regions will spend their share
of 186 billion for regional research and innovation from
the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)and
regions will be required by the Commission to prove that
they have spent the funds effectively. The 59 plans must
have a monitoring part added before 2016 or face further
delays in accessing their share of the funds, the conference heard.
Vitcheva was speaking on 12 February at a conference on the progress of smart specialisation, held at
the National Library of Latvia in Riga. At the event, the
Commission representative maintained that the concept of smart specialisation had been a paradigm shift
by Jenny Maukola at the Latvian presidencys conference in Riga
in innovation policy, and had made regions look more

closely at their potential to innovate.
However, she noted that many submitted plans lacked
a real vision for transformation and were simply old,
tired innovation strategies that had been repackaged.
As in the past, she said, many regional governments
are still proposing to use ERDF money to build infrastructure. Others remain preoccupied with the interests
of large companies with a stronghold in the region,
instead of small, fast-growing businesses. According to
Vitcheva: That cannot translate into economic results.
John Bensted-Smith, the director of the Institute for
Prospective Technological Studies at the Commissions
Joint Research Centre, said that regions must prepare
for failure as well as success, to allow them to take more
risks in drafting their plans. If you simply follow the
previous path, youll continue doing what was done
before and you will get neither a better result nor a worse
result, he told participants. It simply wont change
much at all.
6 news
i n t e r v i e w h e l e n e h e l l m a r k k n u t s s o n
One step ahead

Marta Paterlini met Swedens research minister Helene Hellmark Knutsson to
ask her how she plans to keep the country at the forefront of European research.
In October, the former Stockholm county councillor
Helene Hellmark Knutsson was given one of the most
important tasks in the Swedish government. The countrys reputation for research means there is always
pressure on the research and higher education minister,
and Hellmark Knutsson was attacked, in some quarters, for her lack of a university degree. Two months
later, the fragile government coalition between the SAP
social-democratic party and the Green Party nearly collapsed because of a budget stalemate. All in all, Hellmark
Knutssons term didnt get off to the easiest of starts.
She says, however, that this hasnt distracted her from
the tasks ahead, the most important of which are to set a
long-term agenda for research and provide better, more
equal opportunities for young researchers.
On the first point, she says: The government is planning to present a research bill in 2016 for the following
10 years. In 2013, Sweden allocated 3.4 per cent of
its GDP to R&D, and the budget then grew to 63.6 billion Swedish kronor (6.7bn) in 2015. This cemented
Swedens reputation as one of the strongest countries for
research in Europe. I intend to keep it that way, says
Hellmark Knutsson.
But despite these budget successes, one issue that
has emerged is whether Sweden has allocated too
much to big science infrastructureat the expense of
its researchers. In 2010, the government announced
that it would commit $75 million (66m) to a national
SciLifeLab involving Uppsala University, Stockholm
University, the Karolinska
Institute and the Royal
Helene Hellmark Knutsson
Institute of Technology. By
2014-present Minister for higher
2016, the country will also
education and research
spend $95.8m on building the
2013-2014 Chairwoman, Stockholm
European Spallation Source
County Social Democratic Party
(ESS) neutron facility and
(SAP)
$15.3m on the Max IV syn2013-2014 Member, SAP national
board
chrotron, both in Lund.
2011-2014 Board member, Swedish
Some researchers say that
Association of Local Authorities and
the money poured into these
Regions
facilities should instead be
2010-2014 Commissioner and
distributed through comgroup leader, Stockholm County SAP
petitive grants, but Hellmark
2011-2013 Chairwoman, Mlardal
Knutsson disagrees. There
Council
will always be discussions
2001-2010 Commissioner and
chairwoman, Municipal Executive
about research spending
Board, Sundbyberg
and its important to have
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
funding for basic research and block grants for universities as well, she says. But we have to have special
money to allocate to infrastructure.
Fears that the ESS might absorb money from Vetenskapsrdet, the national research council, are misplaced,
she says, and investment in a life sciences facility was
much needed after AstraZeneca moved most of its R&D
activities to the UK. The injection of money into the
SciLifeLab was the right thing to do, she says.
AstraZenecas departure was hard to take for Sweden.
Perhaps in response, Hellmark Knutsson says that
encouraging industry will be a priority during her fouryear term. Sweden needs to coordinate its research
priorities with the needs of industry, and provide better
incentives for corporate R&D, she says.
She will also focus on training for researchersnot
least to make sure the ESS and Max IV have enough staff.
The government has said it will create 14,000 extra places at universities by 2018, to ensure that students are
trained in the sciences and subjects in which there are
not enough graduates, such as teaching and healthcare.
It has also said it will cut down on its grants to attract
leading researchers from abroad. We appreciate this has
been important to build the quality of the research environment in Sweden, says Hellmark Knutsson. But we
want to invest in younger researchers.
Gender equality is another priority: We still do not
judge men and women equally, she says. We are not
the gender-equal country that Sweden would like to
be. She will encourage improvements in recruitment
and grant assessment processes so that more women are
selected, and bonuses will be offered to universities that
hire female researchers.
Overall, the minister seems to have a clear vision for
Sweden. But on one EU-wide problemhow to provide a
more secure career path for researchersshe has little to
say. Some have suggested that Sweden should extend its
four-year Meriteringstjnster qualification to six years,
to help give young researchers some stability. On this,
Hellmark Knutsson acknowledges, There is certainly a
need for longer-term financing.
But in the absence of a concrete plan, Swedish
researchers will have to wait a little longer to see whether the minister tries to tackle this problem head onand
whether she can turn it into another research issue on
which Sweden leads the way for the rest of Europe.
More to say? Email comment@ResearchResearch.com
comment 7
f e d d e r k e & g o l d s c h m i d t v i e w f r o m t h e t o p
South African scheme shows

flaws in superstar funding
The South African Research Chairs Initiative, launched
in 2008 by the countrys National Research Foundation,
concentrates funding on a small number of researchers
judged by peer review to be world class. Chair holders
receive between $150,000 (133,000) and $300,000 a
year for five years, renewable for up to 15 years. In contrast, researchers outside the scheme receive, at most,
about $10,000 a year from the NRF.
The initiative grew from 32 chairs in 2007 to 150 in
2014. In a 2012 review, the NRF declared the scheme
to be an imaginative and largely successful innovation. It reported that there was good evidence that
chair holders and their colleagues are contributing to
an increase in the flow of publications, including those
to prestigious journals, but did not provide any data on
this point. It also noted that more than 90 per cent of
the chairs reviewed had been renewed.
The initiative offers an opportunity to measure the
effect of funding allocation on research output. We
recently compared the productivity of 80chair holders
with that of equivalent researchers without such funding,
from 2009 to 2012. We found that, in bibliometric terms,
chair holders were scarcely, if at all, more productive.
We used two types of control group in our comparison.
First, we used bibliometric measures such as publication counts, citation counts and h-index scores to create
groups of researchers who were comparable based on
similar past performance.
Second, the NRF ranks researchers in a number of
categories, based on peer review. This ranking is independent of the selection mechanism for research chairs,
although research chairs are also ranked. Categories A
and B are held to indicate world-class researchmaking these researchers an obvious control group against
which to compare chair holders.
We found that despite a funding advantage of at least
15:1, chair holders did not show a statistically observable superiority in their performance. On average, they
authored no more articles and were cited no more than
the researchers in either the A-rated group or the bibliometrically defined groups.
The chair holders showing the greatest superiority in
performance were those who had performed best and
Johannes Fedderke and Marcela Goldschmidt work in
the school of international affairs at Pennsylvania State
University in the United States. Their study of the South
African Research Chairs Initiative is published in Research
Policy vol 44, p467-482 (2015).
been rated most highly before the funding award. By

contrast, chair holders with relatively weak prior records
performed worse than those in the control groups.
Strikingly, more than half of the chair holders in
our sample were ranked below the A and B categories,
indicating a lack of international peer recognition.
Symmetrically, the researchers in our sample with the
lowest performance on bibliometric measures were more
likely to be chair holders. The peer-based selection of
research chairs thus appears to have been biased away
from its stated goal of rewarding research excellence.
The effect of funding varied across disciplines. Only
chair holders in the biological, medical and physical sciences showed a statistically significant improvement in
output. There was a weak effect in the chemical sciences
and engineering, and none at all in business, economics, the social sciences and the humanities.
This analysis was not designed to reveal other possible impacts of the chairs, such as economic and social
impact, a rise in graduate student numbers or capacity
building. But there are immediate policy inferences to
be made: our results show that selective funding yields
the greatest returns the more responsive it is to prior
research performance. Funding needs to go to the
strongest researchers.
Even then, the marginal returns from raised funding
seem to be steeply diminishing. In South Africa, even
for the most productive recipients, an additional publication by a chair holder costs 22 times as much as one
by a comparable researcher outside the scheme. Each
additional citation costs 32 times as much.
If funding is intended to raise the output and impact
of an entire research system, a more broad-based,
inclusive approach that gives smaller awards to more
researchers may carry more promise. The differential
rates of return across disciplines also suggest that
adjusting funding to reflect these differences could
raise aggregate levels of output and impact.
Finally, if funding allocation is to follow revealed productivity, productivity has
to be monitored transparently and objectively. An obvious step would be to use the
growing number of bibliometric measures
alongside peer review in reaching decisions about allocations. All the more so as
peer review is itself not immune from bias
as this South African case demonstrates.
Something to add? Email comment@
ResearchResearch.com
The marginal
returns
from raised
funding
seem to be
diminishing.
8 comment
v i e w f r o m t h e t o p d a v i d t a l b o t
Dont blame the Commission for

Horizon 2020s low success rate
Even the briefest of glances at online discussions about
EU research programmes will reveal a host of complaints
about the poor success rate of bids. The effort required
to put in an application, and the slim chance of it paying
off, it is argued, will lead researchers to turn their backs
on EU research funding.
This is despite the fact that changes have been
made for Horizon 2020 in response to widespread discontent with the slowness and complexity of previous
Framework programmes. Many of these changes have
been designed to simplify bidding, speed up contract
awards and encourage small and medium-sized businesses and organisations in the most recent member
states to participate.
The changes have indeed sped things up, but with
significant consequences for both individual submissions and the overall success rate.
One of the main simplifications has been the removal
of the negotiation phase that came between evaluation
and contracting in Framework 7. This has taken weeks
out of the time between a bids acceptance and the signing of the contract; the flipside is that applicants only
get one shot at specifying a project.
This means that bids that would have passed the evaluation stage in Framework 7 with recommendations for
things to be sorted out in negotiation are now rejected.
The message is that bid writers need to focus more on
their submission, rather than blaming the European
Commission for rejecting a poorly specified bid.
Another change has been to make calls under Horizon
2020 much less specific than those under the previous
Framework programmes. As a result, far more teams
have found opportunities to put in bidsvastly outstripping any increase in available funding and inevitably
leading to a lower success rate.
But from my experience as an evaluator and rapporteur in Horizon 2020, it is
clear that the people putting in bids are
just as much to blame for the low success
rate as the Commission is. The purpose
of Horizon 2020 is to fund multinational, multiyear and multimillion-euro
projects. Many bids lack the required
scale or vision, even though they have
no doubt allowed a research funding
specialist somewhere to tick the box for
a bid submitted. My feeling is that, for
the programmes I have worked on, if you
take out the time-wasting bids, success
It is
heartbreaking
to see brilliant
science
scuppered by
inadequate
management
planning.
rates are broadly similar to those in Framework 7 and

many national funding programmes.
Researchers really need to take on board what
Horizon 2020 is designed to do. It provides big money
and 100per cent fundingto tackle big questions. The
Commission wants to fund big projects and it expects big
results. Such work is likely to be beyond the capacity of
national research programmes.
Most proposals have little problem addressing the scientific and technical aspects of these big questions, but
that is only part of the story. To be successful, a proposal
needs to score as highly for its management as it does
for the science. Almost every evaluator will tell you how
heartbreaking it is to see brilliant science scuppered by
inadequate management planning.
Previously, this could have been addressed in the
negotiation phase, but no longer. You can call this
bureaucracy, but Horizon 2020 collaborations are, by
their very nature, massive projects. They need a high
level of management input and skill to fulfil their potential and allow researchers to do what they do best.
Similarly, exploitation of results is as important as
management and scientific excellence. The Commission
was rightly criticised for allowing the results of past
Framework projects to disappear into a black hole when
funding ended. As a result, it is determined to ensure
that Horizon 2020 projects have a real impact. Just saying that you will set up a website or host a conference
isnt going to score well.
The rules of the game are unlikely to change during
Horizon 2020. There wont be much more money, and
the calls arent going to become tighter. No doubt there
will still be more excellent projects than the Commission
can afford to fund, but if your proposal is truly excellent,
my sense from the first round of evaluation is that your
chances are as good as they were in Framework 7.
Simpler contracting and wider calls mean that bid
writers need to be at the top of their game. Small businesses and new entrants should consider forming
partnerships with established players to build their track
record, and dont forget management and exploitation.
Combine all this with an excellent idea, and your chances will be as good as ever.
More to say? Email comment@ResearchResearch.com
David Talbot (david@dkt-consulting.com) is a specialist
in EU research funding and management. He has served
as an evaluator and rapporteur in Framework 7 and
Horizon 2020.
funding opportunities
Research Europe
19 February 2015
every new opportunity every discipline
highlights
Aerial fire fighting
The Directorate-General for
Humanitarian Aid and Civil
Protection invites proposals on buffer capacities
for addressing temporary
shortcomings in extraordinary disasters. The budget
is 3.8million [4].
Civil protection grants
The Directorate-General for
Humanitarian Aid and Civil
Protection invites proposals for projects on civil
protection and marine pollution. The total budget is
8.5 million and grants are
worth up to 800,000 [7].
Sustainable development
The Northern Periphery and
Arctic Programme invites
proposals for its main
project grants. The total
budget is 56million [14].
Data management
The European Food
Safety Authority invites
tenders for assistance
to the assessment
methodology unit for
statistical analyses, data
management and ad hoc
consultation. The contract
is worth an estimated
2.5million [25].
Researcher incentives
The Netherlands
Organisation for
Scientific Research
invites applications for
its innovational research
incentives scheme Vici
awards. Grants are worth
up to 1.5 million [32].
not to be
photocopieD
For subscriptions call +44 20 7216 6500
deadlines
Opportunities from previous issues
of Research Europe, listed by closing
date. European Commission and
associated funders marked EU.
Each entry is followed by a Web id
27

February
UK All Saints Educational Trust

corporate awards 1171897
UK Gen Foundation grants 208697
UK University of Oxford Byrne-Bussey Marconi fellowships 1176712
UK University of Oxford Humfrey
Wanley fellowships 1176708
UK University of Oxford Sassoon
visiting fellowships 1176352
UK Wellcome international engagement awards 211201
DE Association of European Operational Research Societies doctoral
dissertation award 205717
DE Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds
Heinrich Wieland prize 209564
CH European Organisation for
Nuclear Research openlab summer
student programme 1162212
CH European Respiratory Society
award for lifetime achievement in
pulmonary arterial hypertension
261084
Maurizio Vignola asthma gold medal
1182399
research award in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis 1165878
Romain Pauwels research award
209561
CH European Society of Biomechanics SM Perren research award
206894
DE Institute of Development
Research and Development
Policy Erasmus Mundus scholarships
1182899
UK Institute of Historical Research
Jacobite studies trust fellowships
1160615
UK International Headache Society
cephalalgia award lecture 1170491
UK International Psychoanalytical
Association Elise M Hayman award
for the study of the Holocaust and
genocide 165086
UK International Psychoanalytical Association Hayman prize for
published work pertaining to traumatised children and adults 165091
DE International Society of Biome-
28
chanics promising scientist award

1182978
FR PhosAgro/UNESCO/International Union for Pure and Applied
Chemistry research grants in green
chemistry 1177485
UK Sainsbury Institute for the Study
of Japanese Arts and Cultures Robert and Lisa Sainsbury fellowships
209367
FR Solar Facilities for the European Research Area call for access
1172225
JP United Nations University
Japan Society for the Promotion of
Science-UNU fellowships 197704
JP United Nations University PhD
fellowships 197693
JP United Nations University postdoctoral fellowships 197701
CH World Health Organization social
innovation projects 1183458
FI World Institute for Development
Economics Research discrimination
and affirmative action 1183463
CA York University visiting scholars
1181929
March
UK Dystropic Epidermolysis Bullosa
Research Association International
epidermolysis bullosa research
grants 199894
NL ESF conservation genomics:
amalgamation of conservation
genetics and ecological and evolutionary genomics short visit and
exchange grants 1163579
UK European Association for the
History of Medicine and Health book
award 1170096
DE European Federation of Immunological Societies Ita Askonas
prize 1177168
DE European Molecular Biology
Organisation conferences and
conference series 212934
Organisation global exchange
lecture courses 1158877
Organisation Federation of European Biochemical Societies joint
lecture courses 259675
Organisation practical courses
212930
Organisation workshops 212932
UK European Society for Paediatric
Endocrinology fellowships 174830
NL European Society for Paediatric
Infectious Diseases training courses
and workshop awards 254898
Online Funding Search

For full details of every funding opportunity, visit
www.ResearchProfessional.com
Online subscribers can view full details of any funding opportunity by
simply searching for the Web id number as free text in a funding search.
Funding search
Free text: 1234567 x
europe
Antarctic research
The Scientific Committee on Antarctic
Research and the Council of Managers
of National Antarctic Programs invite
applications for their antarctic research
fellowships. These aim to encourage
the active involvement of early-career
Antarctic researchers and to strengthen
international capacity and cooperation
in Antarctic research. One to two awards,
worth up to US$15,000 (13,200) each,
are available.
Web id: 1162323
Email: sec@comnap.aq
Deadline: 3 June 2015 [1]
Bone research prize

The Austrian Society for Bone and Mineral
Research invites applications for its international research prize. This is awarded
to an individual whose recent work in
the fields of molecular, cellular, pathophysiological or clinical aspects of bone
and mineral metabolism has resulted in
a novel finding or concept. The prize is
worth 7,500.
Web id: 193670
Email: klaus.klaushofer@osteologie.at
Deadline: 19 March 2015 [2]
EU materials science
ERA-Net M-ERA.NET invites proposals for
its transnational joint call. This supports
transnational high risk R&D projects
addressing materials science and engineering, including micro- and nanotechnologies, production processes and
technologies. The project duration may
not exceed 36 months.
Web id: 1173688
Email: office@m-era.net
EU aerial fire fighting

The Directorate-General for Humanitarian
Aid and Civil Protection invites proposals on buffer capacities for addressing
temporary shortcomings in extraordinary
disasters. Proposals should provide two
modules of aerial forest fire fighting,
using planes stationed on, or on standby
in, different locations in southern Europe.
The budget is 3.8 million.
Web id: 1183606
Email: echo-a5@ec.europa.eu
EU public health
The Directorate-General for Health and
Consumers invites tenders for a pilot
project. The tenderer will support the
development of actions to address the
health needs of people living in isolated
and vulnerable situations in the EU. The
estimated value of the contract ranges
from 800,000 to 1 million.
Web id: 1183589
Email: sante-procurement@ec.europa.
eu
Global ozone monitoring

Search
The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites invites

tenders for a study on impact mitigation
10 funding opportunities
of the loss of solar visibility on the global
ozone monitoring experiment-2 reflectance data quality. The tenderer will carry
out an evaluation study and propose mitigating actions with respect to the GOME-2
on Metop-A reflectance data quality. The
work will be divided in four work packages
of a total of eight man-months.
Web id: 1183653
EU civil protection grants

The Directorate-General for Humanitarian
Aid and Civil Protection invites proposals for projects on civil protection and
marine pollution. These aim to promote
cooperation in prevention, preparedness
and awareness-raising. The total budget
is 8.5 million and grants are worth up
to 800,000.
Web id: 213189
Email: ECHO-CP-P&P@ec.europa.eu
Deadline: 8 April 2015 [7]
EU equality data collection

The Directorate-General for Justice
invites tenders for analysis and comparative review. The tenderer will map
the existing legal framework and practices
with regards to equality data collection in
the EU, update the publication 'European
handbook on equality data', and produce
a report on comparative review of equality
data collection in EU member states. The
contract has a duration of 12 months.
Web id: 1183709
Email: just-a4-cft@ec.europa.eu
EU vocational education
The Education, Audiovisual and Culture
Executive Agency, under its Erasmus
Plus programme, invites applications
for comprehensive policy frameworks
for continuing vocational education and
training. Grants support national authorities' efforts to plan for or implement
policy intervention in continuing vocational education and training with the
aim to secure coherence and relevance of
supply and significantly increase adults'
participation in learning. The total budget
amounts up to 4.2 million. Each grant is
worth up to 150,000 for one year and up
to 300,000 for two years. 15 proposals
are expected to be funded.
Web id: 1183563
Email: eacea-eplus-vet@ec.europa.eu
Cancer research awards

The European CanCer Organisation and
the European Journal of Cancer invite
applications for their young investigator's award. This recognises recent original work in cancer research, treatment
or care by a young scientist or doctor in
the field of basic, translational or clinical
oncology. The award includes 4,000,
free registration for this year's European
cancer congress, free accommodation
and a contribution towards travel costs.
Web id: 251287
Email: anne.blondeel@ecco-org.eu
Deadline: 5 May 2015 [10]
Ghent University doctorates

Ghent University invites applications,
under its special research fund, for its
joint doctoral grants. These support PhD
students who wish to take a doctorate
under joint supervision of Ghent University and a non-Flemish partner university

or institution for higher education. Grants
are worth at least 7,860 each.
Web id: 252513
Email: bof@ugent.be
Surgical oncology training

The European Society of Surgical Oncology invites applications for its training
fellowships. These enable young surgeons
to visit a specialist centre outside their
own country, in order to expand their
experience and learn new techniques. Up
to 10 standard training fellowships, worth
2,000 each, are available as well as one
major training fellowship of 10,000.
Web id: 189865
Deadline: 31 October 2015 [12]
Operational research
The Association of European Operational
Research Societies invites applications for
its general support funds. These support
activities related to EURO, which cannot
be covered by other means. The budget
is 10,000.
Web id: 1167699
Email: secretary@euro-online.org
EU sustainable development
The Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme invites proposals for its main
project grants. These aim to help generate vibrant, competitive and sustainable
communities by harnessing innovation,
expanding the capacity for entrepreneurship and seizing the unique growth initiatives and opportunities of the northern
and Arctic regions in a resource efficient
way. During the period 2014 to 2020, the
programme will allocate approximately
56 million to projects with a maximum
total budget of 2m.
Web id: 1166079
Email: christopher.parker@northernperiphery.eu
Genetic diseases
The Jrme Lejeune Foundation invites
applications for its research grants. These
support research projects on intellectual
disability from genetic origin appearing
in early childhood. Grants are worth
up to 20,000 per year for one or two
years. Clinical projects may be awarded
larger grants.
Web id: 213435
Email: conseilscientifique@fondationlejeune.org
Fellowships in Germany
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Leibniz Association
invite applications for their research
fellowships. These enable international
postdoctoral investigators to conduct
research at Leibniz institutes in Germany.
Grants provide a monthly instalment of
2,000, insurance and a research allowance of 460 over 12 months
Web id: 1162261
Email: behrsing@daad.de
Molecular biology
The European Molecular Biology Organisation invites applications for its young
investigator programme. This gives young
independent researchers in Europe exten-
sive networking opportunities, as well

as other financial and practical support.
Young investigators receive a financial
award worth 15,000 in their second
year. All current investigators may also
apply for small grants of up to 10,000
from the EMBO council.
Web id: 206990
Email: yip@embo.org
EU FP7 electron laser

Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf
invites applications for use of its freeelectron laser facility at the Electron Linear accelerator with high Brilliance and
Low Emittance. This hosts various high
power radiation sources which enable
user groups from all over the world to
carry out experiments in a variety of subjects including electromagnetic radiation,
nuclear physics and radiation physics.
Web id: 253943
Email: b.schramm@hzdr.de
Natural heritage awards

The Europarc Foundation and the Alfred
Toepfer Foundation invite applications
for the Alfred Toepfer natural heritage
scholarships. These enable young conservationists with practical experience in
the field of conservation and in the work
of protected areas to undertake a study
visit to one or more protected areas in
another European country. Three awards,
worth 3,000 each, are available.
Web id: 192399
Email: n.courant@europarc.org
Security and the state

The Gerda Henkel Foundation invites
proposals for its programme on security,
society and the state. This targets new
security-related issues that are prime
examples of the post-Cold-War era but
have been neglected in mainstream
research. The funding period is generally
between one and 24 months. Scholarships
include a monthly stipend of up to 2,700
and travel- and material expenses.
Web id: 1174534
Email: podranski@gerda-henkel-stiftung.de
Deadline: 4 December 2015 [21]
Scholarships in Hungary
The Hungarian Scholarship Board Office
invites applications for its Hungarian
state scholarships. These provide students and researchers with the opportunity to conduct studies or research in
Hungarian education institutions and
research institutes in the academic year
2015-16 and for participation in summer university courses in the summer
of 2015. Funding includes a monthly
stipend and may include an accommodation allowance.
Web id: 1165188
EU data management
The European Food Safety Authority invites tenders for assistance to the
assessment methodology unit for statistical analyses, data management and
ad hoc consultation upon request. The
tenderer will conduct specific tasks and
training courses upon request. The contract is worth an estimated 2.5 million
over four years.
Web id: 1183726

Email: rasa.procurement@efsa.europa.
eu
Gender economics
The UniCredit Foundation, in cooperation
with UniCredit Women's International
Network, invites submissions for the best
paper on women topics in Europe awards.
These will be awarded for the two best
papers on gender economics. Prizes are
worth 5,000 each.
Web id: 1161987
Email: unicreditanduniversities@unicredit.eu
EU ecotoxicology
The European Food Safety Authority
invites proposals for data collection for
the estimation of ecological data, residue
level and residue decline of pesticides on
food items to be used in risk assessment
for birds and mammals. This call aims
to collect and harmonise the available
ecological data, diet composition data
obtained in the treated areas, and data
from residues trials including both residue levels and residue decline to be used
for risk assessment of birds and mammals.
EFSA intends to fund one proposal over
nine months. The grant co-financing rate
will equal up to 90 per cent of the project
costs to a maximum of 300,000.
Web id: 1182601
Email: repro.grants.and.procurements@
efsa.europa.eu
Political science fellowships

The European University Institute and
the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced
Studies invite applications for their one
year Jean Monnet fellowships. These are
available for researchers, tenure track
academics and those wishing to spend
their sabbatical at the Robert Schuman
Centre. The fellowships include a monthly
stipend of 2,000.
Web id: 192263
Email: applyres@eui.eu
Plastic surgery scholarship

The European Association of Plastic
Surgeons, together with the American
Association of Plastic Surgeons, invites
applications for their academic scholarship. This aims to assist the recipient in
the establishment of a new combined
research programme between Europe
and the US. The scholarship is worth up
to US$60,000 (52,800).
Web id: 1171018
Email: office@euraps.org
Deadline: 1 January 2016 [29]
Radio telescope access

The Netherlands Institute for Radio
Astronomy invites proposals for its call.
This provides scientists with a limited
but diverse set of standard observing
capabilities on the international LOFAR
telescope, a powerful radio telescope
for frequencies below 240 MHz. For this
cycle 1,600 hours of observing time will
be allocated, of which about 750 hours
can be observed at night. There will be
2,400 hours of processing time available.
Web id: 1179445
Email: sciencesupport@astron.nl
funding opportunities 11

Researcher incentives
The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research invites applications for its
innovational research incentives scheme
Vici awards. These target senior researchers who have successfully demonstrated
the ability to develop their own innovative
lines of research, and encourage them
to act as coaches for young researchers.
Approximately 31 positions are expected
to be funded with up to 1.5m per grant,
for a period of five years.
Web id: 260546
Email: vi@nwo.nl
Market research impact

European Society for Opinion and Market Research invites submissions for its
research effectiveness award. This aims to
reward clients of research, in any market
and any field, who can prove the payback
of their research investment. The award
winner will receive 4,000 and will be
widely publicised by ESOMAR.
Web id: 1183090
Email: customerservice@esomar.org
Princess of Asturias awards

The Princess of Asturias Foundation
invites nominations for the Princess of
Asturias awards. These recognise scientific, technical, cultural, social and
humanitarian work performed at an international level by individuals or groups and
institutions. Each award comprises a Joan
Mir sculpture and 50,000.
Web id: 1161516
Email: fpa@fpa.es
Advancing knowledge
The BBVA Foundation invites nominations
for its frontiers of knowledge awards.
These recognise research and creative
work that contributes to an improved
understanding of the natural, social and
artificial or technological worlds and
technological innovations and developments. Awards are worth 400,000.
Web id: 212505
Email: awards-info@fbbva.es
Mycobacteria science
The European Respiratory Society, with
support from Insmed, invites nominations
for its research award. This recognises a
young scientist or clinician in the field
of non-tuberculous mycobacteria science and medicine. The award is worth
10,000 and will be divided into two parts;
1,000 as a personal reward and 9,000
as a research grant to the institution of
the awardee.
Web id: 1183561
Oncology fellowships
The European Society for Medical Oncology invites applications for the following
fellowships:
clinical research fellowships, worth
35,000 for one year. Host institutions
will receive 1,000 towards administration costs. Web id: 260981
translational research fellowships,
worth 35,000 for one year, with the
possibility of an additional 35,000 for
a second year. Host institutes receive
1,000 towards administrative costs.
Web id: 260977

Email: esmo@esmo.org
Increasing wheat yields

The International Wheat Yield Partnership
invites proposals for discoveries. This call
supports projects that aim to discover
approaches to substantially increase
the genetic yield potential of wheat, as
defined by grain yield under the absence
of stress. Projects should last between
one and three years, and may receive up
to US$2million (1.76m) each, including both cash and in-kind contributions.
Web id: 1183672
Email: iwypprogdirector@gmail.com
EU metrology grants
The European Association of National
Metrology Institutes invites applications
for its 2015 call for the following topic
areas metrology for health, SI broader
scope, metrology research for pre- and
co-normative projects, and research
potential - within the European Metrology
Programme for Innovation and Research.
Web id: 1161610
Email: msu@npl.co.uk
Occupational safety grants

The Institution of Occupational Safety and
Health invites proposals for its annual
competition call. This supports research
that will provide an evidence base for
effective occupational safety and health.
Collaborations are welcome.
Web id: 1161712
Email: reception@iosh.co.uk
Wellcome archives access

The Wellcome Trust invites applications
for its medical humanities research bursaries. These support small and mediumscale research projects based on library
or archive collections supported by the
trust. Bursaries are usually worth up to
25,000 (33,800), depending on the
duration of research.
Web id: 1183662
Email: r.resources@wellcome.ac.uk
Civil engineering travel

The Institution of Civil Engineers invites
applications for the Queen's Jubilee
Scholarship Trust travel award. This enables candidates to travel overseas and
undertake an activity that furthers their
professional development. The award
is worth up to 1,500 (2,000) for an
individual member or up to 6,000 for a
group of members.
Web id: 1169776
Email: quest.awards@ice.org.uk
Neuroendocrinology grants
The British Society for Neuroendocrinology invites applications for its project
grants. These provide support for consumables and other research costs to
enable postdoctoral scientists or students
to carry out neuroendocrine research
projects. Awards are worth up to 5,000
(6,800) each.
Web id: 1163782
Email: a.j.fulford@bristol.ac.uk
Radiology awards
The Society for Radiological Protection
invites applications for its research and
innovations grants. These support projects in the field of radiological protection. Three awards, worth up to 10,000
(13,500) each, are available every year.
Web id: 1174264
Email: admin@srp-uk.org
Edinburgh humanities
The University of Edinburgh's Institute
for Advanced Studies in the Humanities
invites applications for its postdoctoral
bursaries. These support research in any
area of the humanities and social sciences. Bursaries are worth up to 10,000
(13,500) each, and are tenable between
three and nine months.
Web id: 254612
Email: iash@ed.ac.uk
Antarctic research
The Scientific Committee on Antarctic
Research invites applications for its Antarctic research fellowships. These encourage the active involvement of early-career
scientists and engineers in Antarctic
research, and strengthen international
capacity and cooperation. Four to five
awards, worth up to US$15,000 (13,200)
each, are available.
Web id: 199203
Email: info@scar.org
Iranian studies
The Iran Heritage Foundation invites
applications for its grants. These support projects on any aspect of Persian
and Iranian studies, including art and
archaeology, architecture, history and
Persian language. Grants range between
500 (700) and 3,000 and may be
used for research, travel, conferences,
workshops and publications.
Web id: 189705
Email: info@iranheritage.org
Deadline: 6 November 2015 [48]
CRUK fellowship
Cancer Research UK invites applications
for its clinician scientist fellowship. This
enables scientists to develop their clinical
academic research career. The fellowship
provides salaries for the fellow and one
research assistant, and associated running expenses for up to four years.
Web id: 189108
Email: rachael.panizzo@cancer.org.uk
Geography awards
The Royal Geographical Society, with the
Institute of British Geographers, invites
applications for the Ralph Brown expedition award. This is offered to the leader
of an expedition involving the study
of inland or coastal wetlands, rivers or
shallow marine environments. The award
is worth 12,500 (16,900) for fieldwork
lasting from four to six weeks. Additional
funding of 2,000 may be available if the
fieldwork project includes a first-year
geography undergraduate student.
Web id: 211459
Email: grants@rgs.org
rest of world
Taxation and business law
The University of New South Wales' School
of Taxation and Business Law invites
applications for its research fellowships.
These support international academics
and professionals keen to further their
research in the field of taxation, business
law and related disciplines. Fellowships
are worth up to AU$7,500 (5,100).
Web id: 256315
Email: b.tran-nam@unsw.edu.au
Spine motion assessment

The Workers' Compensation Board of British Columbia invites proposals for the provision of a systematic review. This should
relate to a range of motion assessments
for spinal permanent functional impairment. Eligible costs include conference
travel of up to CA$1,700 (1,200) and
salary support for graduate students,
postdoctoral fellows, research associates,
technical and professional assistants.
Projects must not exceed one year in
duration.
Web id: 1183579
Email: policy@worksafebc.com
Burney Centre archives

McGill University's Burney Centre and the
American Society for Eighteenth-Century
Studies invite applications for their fellowship. This enables scholars to travel
to and establish temporary residence in
Montreal in order to use the resources of
the McGill University library. The fellowship is worth US$3,000 (2,600) for a
one-month stay.
Web id: 255597
Email: burney.centre@mcgill.ca
Holocaust studies
The Yad Vashem - International Institute
for Holocaust Research invites applications for its two-week research fellowships for PhD students. These support
PhD students who are writing a dissertation on some aspect of the Holocaust to
enable travel to Israel in order to conduct
research in the Yad Vashem archives for
two weeks. The fellowship includes funding for travel and accommodation.
Web id: 1173082
Biology prize
The Japan Society for the Promotion of
Science invites nominations for its international prize for biology. This recognises
an individual who has contributed to the
advancement of research in cell biology.
The prize is worth 10 million (7,400).
Web id: 1172689
Email: ip-biology@jsps.go.jp
Peace grants
The Sasakawa Peace Foundation invites
applications for its grants. These support
projects in the fields of international
understanding, exchange, and cooperation. Most grants have previously
fallen between US$20,000 (17,600)
and US$100,000 over one to three years.
Web id: 207913
12 funding opportunities
tenders
Operations design *ESA
The European Space Agency invites tenders for model based operations design,
planning and execution. The tenderer
will define monitoring and control design
methodologies and techniques to identify
more consistent and harmonising models, taking the European ground system
common core execution monitoring and
control models as a potential demonstrator. This activity is restricted to non-prime
contractors, including SMEs. The contract
is worth up to 500,000. Ref: 14.112.04.
Deadline: 19 March 2015
Ionospheric modelling *ESA

The European Space Agency invites tenders for improved modelling of short and
long term characteristics of ionospheric
disturbance during active years of the
solar cycle. The tenderer will develop
ionospheric models and adapt existing
ones based on experimental data measured in activities during active periods of
the solar cycle. This activity is restricted to
non-prime contractors, including SMEs.
The contract is worth up to 200,000.
Ref: 15.1EE.10. Deadline: 25 March 2015
Geohazard platform *ESA

The European Space Agency invites tenders for the development of a geohazard
exploitation platform. The tenderer will
support the implementation, deployment
and pre-operations of a geohazard exploitation platform. The contract is worth an
estimated 600,000. Ref: 14.155.22.
Deadline: 27 March 2015
Telemetry *ESA
The European Space Agency invites tenders for development and procurement
of integrated modem and baseband
unit MK-IV. The tenderer will develop
and implement the integrated modem
and baseband unit as a flexible system that can easily be reconfigured for
testing ground station to spacecraft
communications and interfacing at different levels. The contract is worth a
minimum of 500,000. Ref: 15.112.05.
Deadline: 8 April 2015
Earth-orbit satellites *ESA

The European Space Agency invites tenders for study on combined TX/RX array
reconfigurable coverage from geostationary, medium and low-earth orbit
satellites. The tenderer will conduct a
study to develop an engineering model of
a transmit-receive direct radiating array
antenna able to generate both multiple
pencil or shaped beams, reconfigurable
during the lifetime of a satellite operating from geostationary, medium or
low-earth orbital position. The contract
is worth up to 500,000. Ref: 14.1TT.87.
Deadline: 21 April 2015
Telecommunication *ESA
The European Space Agency invites tenders for technology development for
Q-/V-band lineariser. The tenderer will
develop Q-/V-band lineariser monolithic
microwave integrated circuits with a
focus on the device, circuit and housing.
The contract is worth up to 500,000.
Ref: 14.1TT.47. Deadline: 22 April 2015
---------------------------------------------
*ESA is at: http://emits.esa.intw
usa
policy diary
Electrochemical Society battery division

research award
Web id: 147124
March
2 EU Science: Global Challenges,
Global Collaboration, Brussels,
Belgium. To 6.
http://rsrch.co/VNAkYF
5 The European Circular Economy
Conference, Brussels, Belgium.
http://rsrch.co/1JeF0My
9 Intellectual Property Rights
of Research in Health and Life
Sciences, Gotenburg, Sweden.
To 13. http://rsrch.co/1LLF1sC
10 2015 ITEA-ARTEMIS Co-summit,
Berlin, Germany. To 11.
http://rsrch.co/1ytA2ry
Earma Conference: ERA Working
Group, Brussels, Belgium. To
11. http://rsrch.co/1sP7Iih
17 ASEAN-EU Annual Conference
on Science, Technology & Innovation, Paris, France. To 19.
http://rsrch.co/18xs2eY
17 The Role of Patents, Brussels,
Belgium.
http://rsrch.co/1F5DqJG
18 Evidence Based Policy Making
for Innovation and Resource
Efficiency, Brussels, Belgium.
http://rsrch.co/1yYZ7vS
25 Net Futures 2015, Brussels,
Belgium. To 26.
http://rsrch.co/1C9lbEx
25 The Future of Open Access and
the Move Towards Open Data
London, UK. To 26.
http://rsrch.co/1JuaxYg
North American Catalysis Society Robert

Burwell lectureship in catalysis
Web id: 211354
Sigma Theta Tau International/Midwest
Nursing Research Society research grant
Web id: 211376
Smithsonian Latino Center Latino museum studies programme
Web id: 1178153
Tinker Foundation/Scientific Committee
on Antarctic Research of the International Council for Science Martha T Muse
prize for science and policy in Antarctica
Web id: 1166478
Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research target optimisation
awards
Web id: 1183491
Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research target validation pilot
awards
Web id: 209121
Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research conference and workshop grants
Web id: 252365
Marconi Society Marconi prize
Web id: 1164449
Marconi society's young scholars award
Web id: 1164455
Deadline: 30 June 2015 [82.1]
Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers Computer society Ken Kennedy award
Web id: 251830
Deadline: 1 July 2015 [83]
Bibliographical Society of America Justin G Schiller prize for bibliographical
work on pre-20th-century children's
books
Web id: 1173560
Engineers Computer Society Harlan D
Mills award
Web id: 194978
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Taylor L Booth education
award
Web id: 1183707
Engineers Computer Society W Wallace
McDowell award
Web id: 194976
Sigma Theta Tau International Virginia
Henderson clinical research grant
Web id: 187598
Smithsonian Institution biodiversity
genomics postdoctoral fellowships
Web id: 197013
April
16 European University Association Annual Conference 2015,
Antwerp, Belgium. To 17.
http://rsrch.co/10f5s5e
22 10th International Scientific Conference for Economic
Integrations, Competition and
Cooperation, Opatija, Croatia.
To 24. http://rsrch.co/1uZAOFK
28 Earto and Eirma Annual Conference 2015, Luxembourg. To 29.
http://rsrch.co/1zMOtsn
May
14 EHEA Ministerial Conference
2015: The Bologna process,
Yerevan, Armenia. To 15.
http://rsrch.co/1ytxfuj
20 ICT for Ageing Well, Lisbon, Portugal. To 22.
http://rsrch.co/1sFCXH1
June
8 Open Innovation 2.0 Conference, Espoo, Finland. To 9.
http://rsrch.co/13HrfWL
10 EuroNanoForum: Advancing Technologies within the new Approach
for H2020, Riga, Latvia. To 12.
http://rsrch.co/1CdhRoC
15 Access to Finance for Research,
Innovation and SMEs 2015,
Riga, Latvia. To 17.
http://rsrch.co/1Gy1vKb
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analysis13
insider
The shifting structure

of scientific advice
The European Parliament is revamping its science advice unit in the hope of making
the advisers work more relevant to MEPs and the public. Safya Khan-Ruf reports.
Since its foundation in 1987, the Science and Technology
Options Assessment office, or Stoa, has sought to provide MEPs with information to help them legislate on
sensitive technical issues.
The office has gained respect for the quality of its
assessmentsbut critics say it has mainly worked in areas
of interest to the few MEPs who choose to take ownership of its work. Some of these, such as Malcolm Harbour,
a British MEP who was a member of the European
Conservatives and Reformists group and chairman of
the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer
Protection, left the Parliament after the elections in May.
The Parliament, through the panel of 15 MEPs responsible for the office, is now reshaping how Stoa works.
In September, the office was renamed the Science
Foresight Unit (although it retained its acronym) and
split in two. One part continues to produce studies for
MEPs, as before, but the other will focus on conducting
technology foresight studies, an increasingly fashionable approach that has taken root in northern European
countries including the Netherlands and the UK.
Foresight exercises involve mapping out potential
future developments in science and technology that
may affect policy. Stoa will employ external experts to
help analyse technologies and create policies for different scenarios, focusing on the technologies potential
impact on society. The quality of the people involved may
determine the effectiveness of this approach, says Kieron
Flanagan, a specialist in science and technology policy at
the Institute of Innovation Research at the University of
Manchester. Foresight is more of an art than a science,
regardless of what its practitioners will claim, he says.
The foresight approach will help Stoa to deal with
the sheer complexity of science and technology policy
issues, says Paul Rbig, an Austrian MEP and member of
the European Peoples Party, who was elected chairman
of Stoa by MEPs in October. Rbig has named five priority
areas for Stoa: mobility, resources, ICT, health improvements and science communication. He says that Stoa is
using social media, as well as research journals, to push
its work into the public domain. It is important that the
knowledge gathered can be used in society, he says.
But more work will need to be done to make Stoas
work relevant to the Parliament, says Peter Tindemans,
the secretary-general of Euroscience, a grass-roots scientists group. One approach, he says, would be for all of
the panel members to try harder to link Stoas activities to
those of the parliamentary committees on which they sit.
Tindemans and other observers also suggest that it might
be appropriate for Stoa to stop simply spelling out the
consequences of different policy options and start making firm recommendations. As things stand, he says, Stoa
doesnt have a real relation with the policy discussion.
This is an issue that has always dogged offices such as
Stoa. For example, perceived political bias led the United
States Congress to close the unit on which Stoa was originally modelled, the Office of Technology Assessment,
in 1995. Unlike Stoa, the US office did offer recommendations for certain technologies. A past employee,
Philip Shapira, who is now a professor of innovation
management and policy at the Manchester Institute for
Innovation Research, says there is an ongoing discussion
in the US about whether the office should be re-established. Technology assessment offices should be able to
offer recommendations if the evidence is clearly in one
direction, even if it proves controversial, he says.
But Fabian Zuleeg, the head of the European Policy
Centre, a Brussels-based think tank, says: It becomes
very difficult to have such bodies provide recommendations, as you are entering political territory.
The Stoa revamp isnt the only change affecting
scientific advice in Brussels: over at the European
Commission, research commissioner Carlos Moedas is
preparing a set of options to replace the chief scientific
adviser role vacated by the UK biologist Anne Glover.
It is very important that we stay neutral, says Lieve van Woensel, the head
of Stoa. We have to give independent
advice. But thats a fine line for any group
to walk, and only time will tell whether the
revamped Stoa unit can succeed in boosting its profile while retaining a reputation
for neutrality.
In practice, Flanagan points out,
nothing is entirely neutral in the world of
policy-making and government.
Something to add? Email comment@
ResearchResearch.com
Part of the
unit will focus
on foresight
studiesan
increasingly
fashionable
approach.
14 news
uk & ireland
Academies warn of talent exodus

The next UK government should double public funding
for R&D from 0.5 to 1 per cent of GDP to retain the best
researchers and compete with research-intensive countries, according to the UKs national academies.
A statement by the Academy of Medical Sciences, the
British Academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering and
the Royal Society, published on 10 February, warns that
a sustained drop in R&D funding in real terms will lead
to an exodus similar to that seen in the 1980s. Highquality researchers are looking elsewhere, said Alex
Halliday, the vice-president of the Royal Society, at a
briefing to journalists. There is not enough money in
the system to support them.
We cant go on like that, added Ann Dowling, the
president of the Royal Academy of Engineering. In
their statement, the academies argue that funding
for research and innovation is necessary for economic
growth. They add that investment levels need to be
raised to keep up with those of other research-intensive
countries, noting that the UK spends a smaller proportion of its GDP on R&D than countries including Austria,
Slovenia, South Korea and the United States.
Last autumn, a report by the House of Commons
Business, Innovation and Skills Committee recommended that 3 per cent of GDP be spent on R&D. And earlier
in 2014, a report commissioned by the Department for
Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) recommended
2.9per cent. Investment actually stands at 1.7 per cent,
with public funding accounting for just 0.5 per cent. No
uk&i
in brief
by Adam Smith
asnews@ResearchResearch.com
specific funding level is set out in the statement, but

at the briefing the academies representatives said it
should double to 1 per cent. We need to go from ringfencing to an expansion, said Halliday.
Only one of the three main political parties in
Westminster, the Liberal Democrats, has set a target for
R&D fundingsaying it should be raised to 3per cent
over inflation. James Wilsdon, a science policy researcher, has questioned the decision by the representatives of
the academies to tie their target to GDP, saying that the
academies presented no evidence to support their call
for a doubling. Wilsdon says an annual budget increase
of 10per cent in cash terms would be better.
The academies statement also calls on the government to make it easier for scientists and students to
migrate to the UK, and to promote government science
advice in regional, national and international arenas.
It is not clear who in Whitehall will help the academies
to build their case ahead of the general election in May,
with John OReilly having recently departed the post of
director-general for knowledge and innovation at BIS.
Nicholas Stern, the president of the British Academy,
said the call was made to the incoming government,
not civil servants. However, Ric Parker, the director of
research and technology at Rolls-Royce, said that the
governments chief scientific adviser Mark Walport
should be the first point of contact in government.
War museum library saved

The Imperial War Museums library
and research room are to stay open
as the museum has found other
ways to save and raise moneyincluding charging users
of the research room. The library had been threatened
with closure after projections showed that the museum
would soon be running a 4-million (5.4m) deficit.
Fears of funding concentration

Overall quality-related funding, which will be allocated
to universities based on their results in the Research
Excellence Framework assessment, is to stay at the 2014-15
level of 1.57 billion (2.1bn) in 2015-16. Some vicechancellors and pressure groups have warned that this
real-terms reduction will lead to funding being even more
concentrated at a small number of elite institutions.
Science museum to open research centre

The London-based Science Museum is to establish a
facility to house its research and public history department and provide a space for public engagement. The
aim is to increase the use and understanding of the
museums collections by academics and the public.
Ireland sets target for 13,800 STEM graduates

The Irish government has asked higher education institutions to help produce 13,800 science, technology,
engineering and maths graduates a year by 2018. The
government specifies energy research, sustainable food
and manufacturing as particularly important areas.
Lobby group prepares pre-election action

A grass-roots scientists group is launching a letterwriting campaign to MPs and may organise a march at
election time to demand that politicians protect the
research budget. Science is Vital will aim to galvanise
the 35,000 people who signed its petition when the
budget was threatened in the 2010 spending review.
Research council to block failed grant applicants

The Natural Environment Research Council has capped the
number of applications that institutions with poor success rates can make for its standard grants for discovery
science. Research institutions with a success rate of less
than 20 per cent across the previous six rounds will be
restricted in their bidding.
news 15
nations
Science council outlines accreditation

plan for private universities
Germanys science council has provided chancellor
Angela Merkel with a set of guidelines for the accreditation of private universities.
At its first session of 2015, the Wissenschaftsrat,
a council of senior scientists that advises the government, met Merkel in Berlin to discuss how to ensure that
non-governmental higher education institutions, such
as private universities and religious colleges, meet sufficient standards in their teaching and research.
The guidelines were drawn up last year after concerns
were raised by academics and politicians about the quality of education at private universities, in particular at
business schools and art colleges, the council said.
At the meeting, the council set out separate standards
for teaching, research and governance that institutions
must meet in order to be accredited by the government.
For example, institutions must show that a minimum
requirement for the number of full professors is in place,
and that their academic syllabus is not influenced in any
way by external funders or commercial interests.
nations
in brief
German foundation to fund

Russia-Ukraine ties
The Volkswagen Foundation has
launched a programme to fund
research collaborations between scientists in Germany,
Russia and Ukraine. The foundation will provide up to
250,000 for projects involving at least one participating
institution from each country. The aim of the initiative
is to build rapprochement, confidence and understanding between the countries, the foundation said.
Researchers oppose decentralisation of power
The SNCS, a French researchers union, has expressed its
opposition to draft legislation that would give French
regions more power over higher education, research and
innovation policies. The bill being considered by the
French parliament focuses on reforming regional territories jurisdiction and increasing their responsibilities.
But the SNCS said the proposed amendment could significantly diminish national policies.
Bavaria promotes online teaching
The government of Bavaria has made 2.5million available under its Digital Campus Bavaria programme to fund
digital technologies at universities. The programme is
intended to increase the digitisation of teaching and
research by funding computing infrastructure, online
learning tools and data exchange services. The government also promised to increase the funding to 5m next
year, to help universities hire IT professionals.
by Inga Vesper
news@ResearchResearch.com
The Wissenschaftsrat also approved six private universities to be accredited. These included the Apollon
university of applied sciences in Bremen, which teaches
remotely only and has 1,800 students on its books, and
the International School of Management in Dortmund.
The council said the Dortmund school was doing so well
that its accreditation period should be extended by
10years if it maintains the same standards until 2020.
The other private institutions that received a positive
vote were the Merz Academy, a college of design, art
and media in Stuttgart; Bochum University of Applied
Sciences; and the Dekra and SRH Universities in Berlin.
The Wissenschaftsrat also confirmed the re-election of
Manfred Prenzel, an education researcher at the Ludwig
Maximilian University of Munich, as its chairman. He
will be assisted by Antje Boetius, a deep-sea researcher
at the University of Bremen, and Hans Pape, a physiologist at the University of Mnster.
Sciences Po plans work with EU bank
The European Investment Bank and Sciences Po, a
French research institute, have signed a five-year deal
to increase economics-related research and arrange student and staff exchanges. Research themes will include
climate change, big data, smart cities and crowdfunding. Sciences Po researchers and lecturers will be able to
make contributions on specific topics at the bank, and
EIB staff will give lectures to Sciences Po students.
Rectors reject IT criticism
Germanys rectors have hit back over claims that a new
computer system to assess university applications is not
working, after some courses started without being full.
The HRK, Germanys association of rectors, admitted that
there had been issues in rolling out the DoSV system, but
said it was not to blame for the empty places.
CEA names next director
Frances council of ministers has named Daniel
Verwaerde as the head of the CEA, Frances commission
for atomic and alternative energies. Verwaerde, an engineering graduate, began working for the CEA in 1978.
Vaccine collaboration between France and US
A long-term collaboration has been agreed between
Frances not-for-profit Pasteur Institute and the
American biotechnology firm Moderna Therapeutics,
which specialises in treatments exploiting mRNA. The
collaboration will focus on viral and bacterial diseases.
16 news
nordic
Finnish academics float vision to increase

resources for evidence-based policy
The incoming Finnish government should set up committees of academics across its ministries to provide
scientific evidence for policy, the Tutkas association of
MPs and academics has said.
The group suggests that five to eight committees
should be established, in areas including taxation and
innovation policy, to advise the government and prepare
background documentation. The committees should
comprise independent researchers from universities and
government research agencies, Tutkas said.
Similar systems are already in place in Sweden and
Norway, and Finland should keep pace with its Nordic
neighbours, Tutkas said.
Resources to ensure research for policy-making
should be strengthened so that research can help the
government to react quickly to changing conditions,
the group said in a statement on 29 January, ahead of
the countrys parliamentary election on 19 April.
Finland does not have a structured system for science
advice, leaving the government to commission studies
on an ad hoc basis. Only two policy fields are informed by
permanent panels of advisers: the environment has had
a panel since 2012 and the economy since 2014.
by Jenny Maukola
Kari Raivio, a former rector of the University of

Helsinki, says that having multiple committees would
aid preparatory work but lead to a clunky advisory structure that might not be able to respond quickly to urgent
matters. There are issues that come up quite suddenly,
in times of crisis, that need an answer before you can
even convene a committee, he says.
According to Raivio, the government should instead
appoint a chief scientific adviser to support the prime
ministers office. He outlined this idea in a report to
prime minister Alexander Stubb in October.
In its vision for the next government, Tutkas also
called for a dedicated minister for research and technology, a role that for now is overseen by the ministry
of culture and education. Raivio agrees that this could
give science and research a higher standing in government, but he warns that it must not be allowed to
result in science being neglected by other ministries.
It would be good to address the question of policy for
science through a single ministry, but science for policy
is required in every ministry, he says.
Keep up with the EU, US and global funding

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analysis 17
A step back from joint spending

In 2008, a year before Copen
hagen hosted the 15th UN
Framework Convention on
Climate Change conference,
five Nordic prime ministers
decided to launch a joint research programme on climate, energy and the environment. The topic was a
burning political issue, and it was relatively easy for
leaders to justify taking money from national budgets
to create a common pot for research.
The result was the Top-Level Research Initiative,
a programme funded with 400 million Danish kroner
(54m) by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and
Sweden. Despite its relatively small budget, the fiveyear initiative was the largest joint effort by the Nordic
nations in researchand the first with the combined
weight of the countries leaders behind it.
In January, the Nordic research consultancy Damvad
published its assessment of the programme. The report
says there was a significant increase in scientific publications by researchers funded by the initiative between
2010 and 2013, and that the quality of the programmes
outputs was well above average compared with other
Nordic research in the same areas.
But despite these successes, the programme was
not continued after 2013a development the report
attributes to a complicated and inefficient programme
structure, waning political will and concerns over the
sharing of national resources.
The programme was led by three organisations: the
research funder Nordforsk, the trade agency Nordic
nordic
outlook
nordic
in brief
Researchers call for PhD cap

The Finnish Union of University
Researchers and Teachers has
called for a limit on the number of
PhD places offered in fields that are suffering from high
unemployment, including biology and biochemistry. The
unemployment rate among PhD holders grew by 30 per
cent between 2013and 2014, from 685 to 886.
Copenhagen pushes for female applicants
The University of Copenhagen has made it mandatory for
both female and male applicants to be considered for all
positions during recruitment. The university says it will
wait to receive at least one application from each gender
before filling a position. It will also be mandatory for all
selection committees to be gender-balanced.
Neutron source gets Swedish money
Vetenskapsrdet, Swedens research council, has committed 1.1 million (1.5m) to the UKs Isis neutron and
by Jenny Maukola
Innovation and the research organisation Nordic

Energy Research. This, it seems, posed a real structural challenge. The initiative cut across the interests of
the ministries and the other actors, says Erik Arnold,
the director of the UK consultancy Technopolis and
author of a 2009 evaluation of the initiative. It didnt
fit into the boxes were used to working with.
The management board featured three representatives from each of the five countries, and six
programme committees assessed applications. The
construction was much too complicated for a relatively
small amount of money, says Nicolai Zarganis, the
vice-president of the Danish Energy Agency and a former board member. Kr80m per year, and more than
50 people handling itit was too much.
The initiative undoubtedly produced positive
results, but many people agree that it used too large
a proportion of the money available for Nordic collaboration to become a regular fixture. There simply
isnt budgetary headroom to do this more than once or
twice, says Arnold.
And Nordic leaders are increasingly placing more
emphasis on Pan-European, rather than Pan-Nordic,
cooperation, in an attempt to increase their participation in Horizon 2020.
It is likely that another burning issue, with the
same political impetus, would be needed for the prime
ministers to undertake a similar venture again. For
now, it seems their attention has shifted elsewhere.
muon source, located near Oxford. The contribution will
help to fund the construction of a 10m neutron imaging and diffraction research instrument at the facility.
Swedish scientists will gain access to Isis for four years.
Environmental foundation puts spotlight on banks
Mistra, the Swedish environmental research foundation, has set up a programme to research how financial
institutions could become more ecofriendly. Mistra will
provide 30 million Swedish kronor (3.1m), with contributions also expected from participants. All projects
should involve people from the financial industry and
make recommendations for institutional reform.
Finnish government names collaboration obstacles
Different labour rules and data systems are hindering
collaboration between universities and public research
centres in Finland, a government report has said. The
report says that a lack of trust is also a problem, and that
more face-to-face meetings could help to resolve this.
18 news
usa
Back geoengineering studies, government told

Climate change intervention is no substitute for reducing carbon emissions, but the United States government
should nevertheless fund research into geoengineering to improve our understanding of its possibilities,
according to the National Research Council.
The NRC published reports on two possible ways of
limiting global climate change on 10 February, alongside a clear statement to say that there is no substitute
for dramatic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to
mitigate the negative consequences of climate change.
The first method of geoengineering is to remove
carbon dioxide, one of the most common greenhouse
gases, from the atmosphere. The second is to increase
the albedo, or reflectiveness, of the Earth to send more
solar energy back into space.
The authors conclude that only the first technique is
ready for possible implementation, but that it would be
expensive. Albedo modification is deemed too risky to
try as it standsbut the federal government should be
funding research into both, the council says.
The technology to remove carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere is fairly well understood, the reports say,
as solids or liquids called scrubbers are already used in
exhaust stacks at power plants and factories to capture
carbon dioxide. But scaling it up is a difficult and expensive proposition.
usa
in brief
NIH proposes emeritus grants

The National Institutes of Health
has asked for feedback on the
idea of issuing grants to help latecareer scientists wind down their work. Sally Rockey, the
deputy director for extramural research, says the agency
wants to help researchers move away from active research
careers and pass on their knowledge. The suggestion has
received some criticism on the basis that money would be
better spent on younger, more active researchers.
Research favoured in 2016 budget request
President Barack Obama has asked for a 6 per cent increase
in R&D spending from the 2015 level in his $4-trillion
(3.5trn) budget request for 2016. The proposal would
raise the budgets of the National Institutes of Health
and the National Science Foundation by 3 and 5 per cent
respectively, and commit money to the areas of antibiotic
resistance and climate change. Republicans have said that
changes to the proposal will be needed, including more
funding for NASA, before it can pass Congress.
Biotech venture capital shifts focus
A study of investment in biotechnology between 2004
and 2013 has shown that 78 per cent went towards
developing new drugs. However, interest in small-
by Sam Lemonick
news@ResearchResearch.com
Albedo modification has been studied much less and

carries a certain stigma, the reports say. A UK project to
release reflective water vapour half a mile high was shut
down because of environmental concerns, they claim.
The reports stress that neither option is ideal. That
scientists are even considering technological interventions should be a wake-up call that we need to do more
now to reduce emissions, which is the most effective,
least risky way to combat climate change, said Marcia
McNutt, the chairwoman of the committee that wrote
the reports and a former director of the US Geological
Survey. The longer we wait, the more likely it will be
that we will need to deploy some forms of carbon dioxide
removal to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
The report suggests the creation of a US Global Change
Research Program to coordinate research in these areas.
That would mark a big change for the federal government,
which until now has largely ignored geoengineering.
The reports also recommend setting up a committee to
explore options for governing such research.
The reports were requested by the Central Intelligence
Agency and were supported by NASA, the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the
Department of Energy.
molecule therapies and cancer treatments waned in
favour of treatments for obesity and metabolic disorders.
The Biotechnology Industry Organization evaluated
investments worth a total of $38 billion (33.3bn) across
1,200drug companies.
White House reveals precision-medicine plan
President Barack Obama has proposed that $215million
(188m) be spent on a precision-medicine programme
to generate personalised treatments for illnesses such as
cancer and diabetes. This would include $130m to create
a biobank of 1 million volunteers for research studies.
The biobank would be formed from existing groups
around the country, and the National Instutes of Health
has planned a meeting in February to begin selecting
research studies.
FDA head to step down
Margaret Hamburg, the commissioner of the Food and
Drug Administration, is to leave the agency at the end of
March after six years in the job. The FDAs chief scientist,
Stephen Ostroff, will fill her role until Congress approves
a successor. The Duke University cardiologist Robert
Califf, who became the FDAs deputy commissioner for
medical products and tobacco in January, has been suggested as a candidate for the role.
news 19
world
Russian library fire compared to Chernobyl

The Russian government is considering how to salvage
a large collection of social sciences and humanities
research, following a fire at the library of the Institute
of Scientific Information on Social Sciences in Moscow.
The fire, which broke out on 30 January, damaged
2,000 square metres of the library building. The library
is the largest collection of humanities and social science
research in Russia, containing an estimated 14.7 million
books and papers dating back to the 16th century.
Having carried out preliminary investigations, Fano,
the Federal Agency for Scientific Organisations, estimates that about 15 per cent of the collection has been
damaged. Vladimir Fortov, the president of the Russian
Academy of Sciences, compared the catastrophe to the
1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, in terms of
its consequences for researchers. What has happened
here is reminiscent of Chernobyl, said Fortov. Its a
major loss for science. This is the largest collection of
its kind in the worldand one can find documents here
that are impossible to find elsewhere.
Expressing her condolences, Catriona Kelly, a professor of Russian at the University of Oxford and the
president of the Association of Slavic, East European and
Eurasian Studies, said the consequences would be felt
around the world. Many of us have for years benefited
from using, in our scholarly work, the long-distance
resources produced by the library, she said.
Initially, library authorities believed the collection
was not in danger from the fire, which was contained in
world
in brief
Theres more to innovation

than funding, says OECD
Nations must encourage innovation by building skills and
know-how instead of just being preoccupied with R&D
funding, the OECD has said in its annual assessment of
economic growth. Many countries consider their innovation performance purely on the basis of R&D spending
and capital, but innovation relies on a much broader
range of components such as employee skills, organisational know-how and design, the report says.
Israel and Japan strengthen links
Japan and Israel have set out plans to cooperate on
R&D relating to energy and cybersecurity, and to share
defence technologies. The value of joint research grants
awarded in Israel will be increased by 50 per cent this
year, and a trade office for Israel will be opened in the
Japanese city of Osaka.
Chiles president renews plans for science minister
The Chilean government has announced that it will set
up a committee to plan out the introduction of a science
by Laura Greenhalgh
lgnews@ResearchResearch.com
one area of the building. However, the situation worsened when 1,000 square metres of roofing collapsed.
Much of the damage is believed to have been caused by
water from the firefighting operation.
Fano says it intends to develop an urgent response plan
to get the library up and running as best it can for the
large number of researchers who rely on the collection.
It estimates that about 5.4 million items were damaged, although some of these are duplicated in other
collections and others were archived newspapers that
have since been written off. A large-scale recovery effort
will focus on about 2.3 million pieces of literature considered valuable and unique to the collection.
We expect that this can, to a large extent, be
restoredwith the help of Russian and foreign colleagues, said Yuri Brewers, the institutes director.
However, this effort is likely to take many years.
Meanwhile, some documents will need to be transferred
to a new site for restoration, and others will have to be
moved to prevent further damage from the cold weather
while the building is redeveloped. A suitable site for
temporary stacks has not yet been found.
About 100 library employees have been moved to a temporary location at the Central Economics and Mathematics
Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Fano has
also set up a helpline to advise researchers concerned
about the impact of the fire on their work.
and technology minister. The committee will deliver a
financial plan, a research strategy and a list of recommendations for the creation of the post by June, ahead
of a parliamentary debate. The previous government set
up a similar committee in 2013, but its plans were not
implemented by the new government.
First Chinese biosafety lab ready
China has constructed a biosafety laboratory for the
study of highly contagious viruses including Ebola.
The facility, located in Wuhan in Hubei Province, is the
countrys first lab dedicated to biosafety and will be
funded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It was initiated after the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory
syndrome, or SARS, in China.
NZ and South Korea announce collaborations
New Zealands government is to provide 1.35 million
New Zealand dollars (891,000) for three joint research
projects with South Korea. The projects will be carried
out by consortia of institutions from the two countries,
to investigate 4D home entertainment, global warming
in Antarctica and treatments to repair damaged joints.
20 inside out
Out to lunch 10,000 US researchers at the American

Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in
San Jose, California, last week lived down to their global reputation for parochialism when only about 150of
them showed up for the plenary talk Why Science In,
With and For Africa Matters by the South African science minister Naledi Pandor. We keep telling people
Africas the future, said an unfazed Pandor, surveying
the empty hall, and they keep not believing us.
L arge sums At a conference on smart specialisation
in Riga on 12 and 13 February, Kristjan Lepik of the
Estonian Development Fund sought to demonstrate how
big an impact single projects can have on small countries
such as Estonia. He pointed out that Skype, created by
four Estonian engineers, was sold to eBay for $2.6 billion
in 2005. That was around 1 per cent of Estonias GDP,
Lepik explained, adding: I did some calculations, and
no one in the world has money equivalent to 1 per cent
of US GDP.
Silent protest A Spanish researcher upset with the economic situation in her home country appears to have
found a novel way to express her dissatisfaction. An article in the national newspaper El Pas describes how, on
28 January, psychologist Elena Herrera collected her PhD
diploma from Vicente Gotor, the rector of the University
of Oviedo. In return, she handed him the boarding card

of the flight that brought her there from Chile, where she
has gone to find a permanent research position having
been unable to find one at her alma mater.
Retro-science The French science communications website Deuxime Labo has created a gallery on the social
networking site Tumblr of what it considers to be the
most dated-looking scientific websites online. The
Kitschest Lab Websites gallery includes the sites of the
RT 30 at the AFS, Frances national sociological association, and the Virtual Biology Lab at the CNRS, the
national research centre. Many of the websites look as if
they havent been updated since the mid-1990s; maybe
if theyre left another 20 years theyll be retro enough to
be in fashion again.
F inal word Anne Glover, the former chief scientific
adviser to the European Commissions president, has
been outspoken this month in detailing the bad, as well
as the good, experiences she had during her time in
office. But perhaps her real feelings are best described
by a hidden message contained in her legacy. One of the
groups established by Glover was a network of science
advisers from EU agencies, called EU-ANSAan acronym
that in Finnish means EU trap. The message might be
to get out while you can.
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Scientists aim to engage

Teaming Germany dominates p5

Troubled Human Brain

A less drastic option would be to reclassify the

Research Europe, 19 February 2015

Research Europe, 19 February 2015

Research Europe, 19 February 2015

US survey finds scientists active in

by Colin Macilwain at the AAAS meeting in San Jose

watching what they are doing. It is going on in all areas

Cancer groups collaborate on European database

Research Europe, 19 February 2015

Germanys Teaming success

vided to support up to 10 of the centres implementation.

Smart specialisation stalled by insufficient plans

by Jenny Maukola at the Latvian presidencys conference in Riga

in innovation policy, and had made regions look more

Research Europe, 19 February 2015

One step ahead

Research Europe, 19 February 2015

South African scheme shows

been rated most highly before the funding award. By

Research Europe, 19 February 2015

Dont blame the Commission for

rates are broadly similar to those in Framework 7 and

every new opportunity every discipline

UK All Saints Educational Trust

chanics promising scientist award

Online Funding Search

Bone research prize

EU aerial fire fighting

Global ozone monitoring

The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites invites

EU civil protection grants

EU equality data collection

Cancer research awards

Ghent University doctorates

Research Europe, 19 February 2015

Surgical oncology training

sive networking opportunities, as well

EU FP7 electron laser

Natural heritage awards

Security and the state

Web id: 1183726

Political science fellowships

Plastic surgery scholarship

Radio telescope access

Research Europe, 19 February 2015

Market research impact

Princess of Asturias awards

Web id: 260977

Increasing wheat yields

Occupational safety grants

Wellcome archives access

Civil engineering travel

Spine motion assessment

Burney Centre archives

Research Europe, 19 February 2015

Ionospheric modelling *ESA

Geohazard platform *ESA

Earth-orbit satellites *ESA

*ESA is at: http://emits.esa.intw