a european research council (ERC) for the social sciences and humanities: pros and cons
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Abstract Achievement of the full set of EU objectives in the long run requires basic and critical research in the social sciences and the humanities. A European Research Council (ERC) may offer economies of scale, the alleviation of coordination problems, and the provision of public goods or ‘club goods’ to the social sciences and humanities. It should focus on data sharing and large comparative projects; raising public awareness of the value of the social sciences and humanities, and funding basic and critical research in these disciplines – not just research offering immediate-term extrinsic pay-offs. In order to function properly, such a body should develop standards of assessment and peer review processes that are appropriate for research in the social sciences and humanities. An ERC must receive ‘fresh money’; it must minimise transaction costs – both to attract good applicants and to fund as many of them as possible – and, by giving priority to academic excellence over Lisbon relevance and geography, it must maximise its credibility as a supporter of high-quality research. At a time when competition is supposed to foster excellence in research, academies and private funding bodies must continue to be competitors of the European Research Council.
Keywords
European Research Council; Bologna; peer review; social sciences; humanities
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n 6 April 2005, the European Commission accepted a proposal for the creation of a new European Research Council (ERC) to support the best in European ‘investigator-driven’ research (European Commission, 2005). What are we to make of the proposal? As
teachers, researchers and advisers, we should welcome an ERC insofar as it responds to the following challenge to sustainable European research in the social sciences and the humanities. When our brightest students ask for our advice on how to pursue an academic career, european political science: 5 2006
(21 – 32) & 2006 European Consortium for Political Research. 1680-4333/06 $30 www.palgrave-journals.com/eps
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where do we point? As an adviser, I am committed to furthering the interests of my students and of my discipline. I always recommend that students first pursue doctoral training at the very best university that caters to their academic interests. They should then seek careers that allow them to combine teaching and research at an institution visibly committed to high standards in both. Alas, those of my students who heed my advice must usually leave Europe and head for the United States – often never to return. The Commission proposal correctly identifies this as a crucial challenge: ‘individuals should be stimulated to enter into the researcher’s profession, European researchers should be encouraged to stay in Europe, researchers from the entire world should be attracted to Europe and Europe should be made more attractive to the best researchers’ (European Commission, 2005: 6). To reduce the frequency of these oneway trans-Atlantic journies in search of excellence, European policy makers must strengthen research in th
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