Readers respond

Correspondence
Horizon Europe:
UK must stick to
its deals
Horizon Europe and other
European Commission research-
funding programmes are
instruments of the European
Union’s policy for developing
a European research area, in
which researchers, scientific
knowledge and technology
circulate freely (Article 179
of the Lisbon Treaty). These
programmes are therefore
inextricably linked to politics,
despite the efforts of ‘Stick
to Science’ campaigners (see
Nature 606, 623–624; 2022).
Horizon Europe is the latest
tool for creating a strong,
scientifically interlinked EU —
including, notably, the European
Research Council (ERC) and the
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
for doctoral and postdoctoral
training. Non-EU countries can
sign an agreement and associate
with Horizon Europe by paying
their way, gaining access to
collaborations in the world’s
most ambitious multilateral
funding scheme.
It is unlikely, however, that
the EU will accept such an
association with the United
Kingdom, because the country
currently plans to break some
of the terms of the Brexit
withdrawal agreement that
it signed after four years of
negotiation — namely, those of
the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Already, the ERC has cancelled
115 grants to researchers in the
United Kingdom.
The losers are, of course, the
scientists and the academic
and research institutions in EU
member states and in the United
Kingdom.
Conor O’Carroll SciPol Services,
Dublin, Ireland.
conor.ocarroll@scipol.ie
Greek scientists
desperate for a
national research
foundation
As Greek academics, business
leaders and researchers
working abroad, we support
our colleagues’ call for a long-
term, reliable and adequate
state funding mechanism
for research in Greece (see
go.nature.com/3rsiydg). The
country’s researchers have
been forced to rely on schemes
that typically last only as long
as the government in power.
A centralized and well-funded
agency is desperately needed
to oversee the flow of research
funding and apply consistent
criteria to grant applications.
This could take the form of a
national research organization,
governed by top-level scientists
and run in a similar way to the
US National Science Foundation
and the funding bodies of many
European Union member states.
The agency would issue
regular grant calls and
coordinate the peer-review
process for applications. It
would prioritize research
topics according to the
strengths of Greek researchers
and to requirements for the
country’s scientific, cultural
and economic development.
This would enable Greece to be
more productive in fundamental
and applied research and
scholarship, and would provide
a strong incentive for expatriate
researchers to return.
Konstantinos Drosatos*
University of Cincinnati,
Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
Nicholas Ktistakis* Babraham
Institute, Cambridge, UK.
nicholas.ktistakis@babraham.
ac.uk
*On behalf of 36 signatories. See
go.nature.com/3hjkjpr
Flood management:
Bangladesh and
India must join
forces
In mid-June, eastern India
and northeastern Bangladesh
experienced flash flooding
unprecedented in its speed,
its height and the area flooded
in the hilly east of Bangladesh.
As floods become increasingly
frequent in the region in the
face of climate change, ad hoc
flood-control plans are no
longer enough. Developing a
combined flood-management
plan should be a priority,
given that the countries share
multiple environmental features
— including 54 international
rivers.
The effects of extreme
weather on India and
Bangladesh have been
exacerbated by short-sighted
development projects such as
razing mountains for agriculture
and building climate-vulnerable
hydroelectric dams and roads
across flood plains. Rivers are
not excavated to help prevent
flooding. Plastics and industrial
waste are dumped in rivers and
swamps, causing overflow and
toxicity for people and animals.
The Indian and Bangladeshi
governments depend mainly on
dams to control rivers before the
flood season, and on post-flood
relief measures. To avert further
humanitarian catastrophes
caused by these increasingly
common natural disasters, the
governments should together
devise a climate-resilient plan
for flood management. This
would need to be underpinned
by research into, for example,
how contextualized weather-
prediction models could
affect water flow through
hydroelectric dams.
Hasnat Sujon Directorate General
of Health Services, Dhaka,
Bangladesh.
hasnatsujon@gmail.com
Formally designate
blue–green
infrastructure for
climate adaptation
Protecting biodiversity should
go hand in hand with climate-
change action (H.‑O. Pörtner
et al. Preprint at Zenodo
https://doi.org/h5g7; 2021)
— hence the importance of
blue–green infrastructure,
organized networks of natural
and modified green areas and
water bodies across a variety
of landscapes (see go.nature.
com/3pjkzq8). As the climate
crisis gathers momentum,
I contend that this should
be formally classified as
‘critical infrastructure’ and
overseen by the same national
and international laws and
operational regulations.
Most authorities consider
‘critical infrastructure’ a top
priority (see, for example,
go.nature.com/3pdz2xb). By
contrast, national and local
governments are frustratingly
slow to adopt blue–green
infrastructure, even though it
can buffer hydrometeorological
extremes such as floods,
droughts and heat waves (see
T. Almaaitah et al. Blue Green
Syst. 3, 223–248; 2021).
Standards for maintenance
and resilience of blue–green
infrastructure should be set
in the same way as for critical
infrastructure, but on the basis
of ecological principles. Its
implementation must support
biodiversity, and increase water
retention and connectivity
between natural areas. As a
new norm for societies and
administration, it would
accelerate protection and
restoration of nature, and the
adaptation of socio-economic
systems to climate change.
Iwona Wagner University of Lodz,
Łódź, Poland.
iwona.wagner@biol.uni.lodz.pl

Nature | Vol 607 | 28 July 2022 | 657

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Readers respond

Correspondence
Supplementary information to:

Greek scientists desperate for a national

research foundation
A Correspondence published in Nature 607, 657 (2022)
https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01997-1

Konstantinos Drosatos and Nicholas Ktistakis

Co-signatories
Spiros N. Agathos Catholic University of
Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
Stylianos E Antonarakis University of Geneva,
Switzerland.
Nicandros Bouras King’s College London, UK.
George Coukos University of Lausanne,
Lausanne, Switzerland.
Nicholas A. Christakis Yale Institute for Network
Science, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
George P. Chrousos University of Athens,
Greece.
Eleftherios P. Diamandis Mount Sinai Hospital,
Toronto, Canada.
Konstantinos Drosatos University of
Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
Athanassios S. Fokas University of Cambridge,
Cambridge, UK
George Georgiou University of Texas, Austin,
Texas, USA.
Stathis Gourgouris Columbia University, New
York, New York, USA.
Marianthi Ierapetritou University of Delaware,
Newark, Delaware, USA.
Ioli Kalavrezou Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Dimitrios P. Kontoyiannis MD Anderson
Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.
Konstantinos Koumenis University of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
Stella Kourembanas Harvard Medical School,
Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Evangelia G. Kranias University of Cincinnati,
Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
Leonard Kritharides University of Sydney,
Sydney, Australia.
Nicholas Ktistakis Babraham Institute,
Cambridge, UK.
Diomedes E. Logothetis Northeastern
University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
George Malliaras University of Cambridge,
Cambridge, UK.
Athanasios Mantalaris Georgia Institute of
Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Maria Mavroudi University of California,
Berkeley, California, USA.
Costas Meghir Yale University, New Haven,
Connecticut, USA.
George K. Michalopoulos University of
Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Thimios A. Mitsiadis University of Zurich,
Zurich, Switzerland.
Dimitri Monos University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Alexander Nehamas Princeton University,
Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
Menelas N. Pangalos BioPharmaceuticals
R&D, Cambridge, UK
Christos H. Papadimitriou Columbia
University, New York, USA.
Stelios Papadopoulos Biogen Inc.,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Vassilios Papadopoulos University of
Southern California, Los Angeles, California,
USA.
Aristides A. N. Patrinos New York University,
New York, USA.
Leonidas C. Platanias Northwestern
University, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Mike Romanos Microbiotica Ltd., Cambridge, UK.
Constantine A. Stratakis Institute of Molecular
Biology and Biotechnology of the Foundation
for Research and Technology Hellas,
Heraklion, Greece.
Ianthi M. Tsimpli University of Cambridge,
Cambridge, UK.
George C. Velmahos Harvard Medical School,
Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Ioannis V. Yannas Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Yannis C. Yortsos University of Southern
California, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Supplementary information | Nature | 1
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