European research cannot live on Marie Curie actions alone

Funding for basic research and mobility will not pay off if more overstretched areas of the Framework programme fall apart, says Gosse Vuijk.

A research and innovation system, stretching from basic research to societal and economic benefit, is only as strong as its weakest link. If bright new ideas stay just that—ideas—it does not help society. If, on the other hand, a desire for concrete results leads to the neglect of bright new ideas, the results will stop coming.

The League of European Research Universities seemed to express a different view recently, appearing to prioritise the interests of some parts of the research system above others. On 14 September, the European Commission announced that high demand for grants from the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)—which fund individual researchers at all stages of their careers to work in another EU member state—meant that the success rate of the latest call would fall to 14.2 per cent, compared with a long-term average of 14.9 per cent.