Call from the Scientific Council of the ERC to "be established as a standalone, permanent body"

"The Scientific Council of the ERC has written to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on 17/06/2025, proposing that the ERC be established as a standalone, permanent body", indicates Maria Leptin, ERC President.

"We hope that the Commission will consider this proposal in a positive light. This would provide a strong signal of Europe’s commitment to scientific freedom in a time of uncertainty, and it would put the ERC on the same footing as other major basic research funders worldwide, which has long been a demand from Europe’s scientific community. It would also allow the ERC to make a better contribution to EU competitiveness by giving us the ability to further tailor and enhance our support for the best scientists working in Europe", she says.

"By contrast, we have concerns that merging the ERC into a single pipeline of support with a single rule book, covering everything from grants to individual researchers and start-ups, to debt and equity financing for industrial deployment and manufacturing will inhibit the ERC’s operations".

The Scientific Council…