Post #1593483

2026-04-22 21:18 UTC

The &quot;ERC President explains stricter application measures amid rising demand for funding&quot; [1] and then scientists say, in an open letter, that&#39;s nuts, what you should be doing is increasing the overall funding of the Horizon program [2], because right now funding stands at a tiny fraction of the e.g., annual NIH budget in the US. Compare ~€2.5 billion/year for Horizon (for all disciplines) compared to over $45 billion/year for the NIH alone (NSF and Darpa would add even more). See [3] to sign the letter. [1] https://erc.europa.eu/news-events/news/erc-president-explains-stricter-application-measures-amid-rising-demand-funding [2] https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/9iartkuzo8ioomtrjlb0r/ERC-letter.pdf?rlkey=ejcop6ut98oxgue74gv6lk7mb&amp;e=2&amp;st=u95l81j3&amp;dl=0 [3] Sign the letter: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfOm6zpq_zwP8PFgvR9hoFynsxGkXT_xOVwO3J1lXFqodE2sg/viewform #academia #EU #Horizon #grants #EuropeanResearchCouncil

Replies (3)

@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz 2026-04-22 21:21

As the open letters says: "Given ERC’s demonstrated return on investment of∼€6 to ∼€11 in benefits or GDP gains per €1 invested, this would be one of the most cost-effective actions for European innovation policy." In other words: raise the research budget (and stop throwing money at wars, the military, and leaking money through corruption).

Open ##2991146
@hicksy2@mastodon.green 2026-04-22 22:05

@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz can you do another comparison where you contrast ERC budget plus research budgets of all countries within the ERC? ERC isn't the only game in town for government research funding. UKRI will be ~£10Bn annually by 2030, for instance. https://www.ukri.org/who-we-are/our-vision-and-strategy/updates-on-our-2026-strategy-and-budget/2026-budget-allocations/

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@lowrankjack@mathstodon.xyz 2026-04-23 06:30

@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz I agree but I'd prefer the EU to diversify its grants to help research by not only promoting super prestigious ERC grants with massive O(1M€) budgets for each (which can be hard to manage btw), but also more smaller grants O(100k€), still for open research, with a higher acceptance rate.

Open ##2991158