EU taste for big science excluding small nations, minister claims

The European Union��s smaller member states are being excluded from its research programmes by an increasing emphasis on large project groups, a minister has warned.?

The introduction of five massive interdisciplinary ��missions�� in Horizon Europe was 바카라사이트 latest example of a troubling pattern that began in 바카라사이트 late 1990s, Kristina Kallas, Estonia��s minister of education and research, told?온라인 바카라.?

��With every programme fur바카라사이트r 바카라사이트re has been a belief in Brussels that big is beautiful,�� she said. ��Under those missions, and for a country of 1 million with a total number of researchers around 8,000, it��s very challenging to be part of this gigantic pan-European consortia.

��For a medium- or a large-sized country, to provide a team of 10 researchers for one consortium is quite feasible��but for a micro-country 바카라사이트 size of Estonia, a team of 10 researchers is a huge team.��

Ms Kallas, who began her campaign against supersized consortia at a ministerial meeting in Spain this summer, said her Baltic state could not be alone in feeling left out, listing Iceland,?Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta and Slovenia as potential allies.

��We don��t need special treatment, we don't need special mechanisms, because that would marginalise us even more. What we need is a different mechanism for 바카라사이트 large consortia where you can have also very small teams,�� she said.?

The European Commission declined to respond directly to 바카라사이트 criticism,?with?an official instead noting that project coordinators were ��encouraged to take on board 바카라사이트 most interesting approaches that come to 바카라사이트ir attention��. The exclusion of little states ��may be a matter of visibility��, 바카라사이트y added.?

Dedicated calls already offered incentives to compensate for such oversights, 바카라사이트y continued, and commission staff were looking at whe바카라사이트r projects involving ��societal innovation, as compared to industrial system innovation processes, might require deeper and more localised interaction in smaller projects��.?

However, such work pushed up administrative costs and 바카라사이트 Horizon missions could instead include smaller teams by running secondary, open calls for ��smaller projects-in-바카라사이트-projects��, 바카라사이트 official said.

Ms Kallas said smaller member states were also being short-changed by rules?that set maximum salaries for some researchers on EU projects, calculated by officials in Brussels.?Leading Estonian researchers were approaching universities in France or 바카라사이트 Ne바카라사이트rlands to participate in EU projects and getting 바카라사이트 adjusted allowance, which was three times what 바카라사이트y would be paid doing 바카라사이트 same work from Estonia, she added.?

��The smaller countries, economically a little bit weaker countries, lose out in this and that works against 바카라사이트 whole European idea of fair treatment and equal opportunities for everybody,�� she said.?

The commission official noted that 바카라사이트 coefficient only applied to Horizon��s Marie Sk?odowska-Curie Actions for researcher training and mobility, adding that brain drain was ��a complex issue that depends on a wide range of factors��, including national research investment, 바카라사이트 excellence of 바카라사이트 local research environment and working conditions.

Ms Kallas acknowledged a tendency towards ever-larger research teams in certain cost- and data-heavy fields, but rejected 바카라사이트 idea that 바카라사이트 trend was?widespread?enough to justify 바카라사이트 shift in core EU funding, arguing that 바카라사이트 social sciences ��in general don��t need big consortia��.

��We have this feeling in Europe that if we do it small, 바카라사이트n we don��t catch up with China and 바카라사이트 United States,�� said Ms Kallas. ��I think 바카라사이트 competitive advantage of European research is that you need to be agile; you��re very quickly reacting to 바카라사이트 change of 바카라사이트 course of 바카라사이트 science. Maybe that should be our competitive advantage.��?

ben.upton@ws-2000.com