The initiative is a consequence of the news about the resignation of the ERC President, Mauro Ferrari
Yesterday over 300 scientists in Italy and abroad signed a letter to support the European Research Council (ERC), the first European organization for the financing of high-level frontier research, which provides individual research grants. The initiative is a consequence of the news published by several Italian newspapers about the resignation of the ERC President, Mauro Ferrari. Ferrari publicly announced his departure with a letter published on the Financial Times (https://www.ft.com/content/f94725c8- e038-4841-a5f6-2e046ae78e95) and announced in Italy by Corriere della Sera; the ERC Scientific Council replied with an official statement (https://erc.europa.eu/news/resignation-mauro- ferrari-% E2% 80% 93-statement-scientific-council), which reported a different version of the relationship existing between the new President and the ERC. A critical confrontation that, when it became public, was transformed into discussions on the correct functioning of the European body and the validity of its choices, despite, as the scientists recall in their letter, “many ERC project winners have received important international awards, including 7 Nobel prizes”.
The appeal of the Italian scientists originates from the way the story was featured by some Italian newspapers: “The controversy that broke out in the Italian media following the recent resignation of the scientist Mauro Ferrari as President of the European Research Council (ERC) tends to paint the latter as an organization managed by European bureaucrats, which finances research for its own sake and irrespective of society’s problems, first of all the current dramatic Covid-19 emergency”. Scientists, on the contrary, recall that “the ERC is the only European agency that finances research without top-down directions and hence exclusively based on the ideas and questions posed by the researchers themselves”.
In the letter, written during the first national holiday spent in a lockdown country facing the Covid19 pandemic, also recalls the European Union’s commitment to dealing with the emergency by financing dedicated research programs, and also that “over 50 ERC projects have carried out or conduct research that is potentially relevant to the Covid-19 emergency and other projects are currently redefining their objectives for this purpose” thanks to the autonomy of the ERC grantees, for whom – scientists underline – autonomy and excellence are cardinal principles.
The appeal was circulated among researchers holding ERC funding in Italy and abroad and was subscribed by over 300 scientists, including researchers at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Università la Sapienza in Rome, Università Bocconi in Milan, Trento University, SISSA in Trieste, Università Ca’ Foscari in Venice, Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine, IFOM, CNR, INFN, INAF, Polytechnic University of Milan, EPFL in Lousanne, King’s College London, CNRS in France, CERN in Geneve and many others.
ERC grantees who want to join the appeal can contact initiative promoters: Irene Bozzoni (Università la Sapienza, Rome), Paola Buzi (Università la Sapienza, Rome), Lorenzo Marrucci (Università di Napoli Federico II), Valeria Nicolosi ( Trinity College Dublin), Fabio Sciarrino (Università la Sapienza, Rome).
Link to the letter: https://sites.google.com/view/appelloerc/eng
