A joint statement by ERC and EIC

The European Research Council (ERC) and the European Innovation Council (EIC) have published a joint statement in which they acknowledge the importance of both Councils as mentioned in the recent EU strategic reports and policy declarations. The joint statement highlights the complementarity of their activities, with the ERC focusing on scientific excellence and basic research, while the EIC supports the scaling-up of breakthrough technologies and innovation.

In the light of the ongoing discussions on the preparation of the future FP10, the document stresses the need to increase the budgets of both institutions and, above all, to ensure that these budgets are ring-fenced if they become part of the wider Competitiveness Fund. At the same time, both the ERC and the EIC should have a clear mandate, independence and management flexibility to effectively support deep-tech start-ups and excellent researchers.

The joint statement is available here.