Future of European Science

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2015

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A debate about the state of scientific research in Europe, recorded in Brussels on the day when the European Research Council was celebrating its 5000th grant. Since 2007 the ERC has written cheques totalling the equivalent of around 10 Billion dollars. Presenter Gareth Mitchell is joined by biologist Dr Iva Tolic of the Ruder Boskovic Institute in the Croatian capital Zagreb and the 5000th grantee, European research commissioner Carlos Moedas, Dr Veerle Huvenne, who is originally from Belgium but is currently based in Southampton in the south of England, where she is a marine geoscientist, and the ERC president, Jean-Pierre Bourguignon. They discuss how the ERC decides which scientists to support and whether its funds can make Europe an attractive place for scientists from all over the world to work. Iva Tolic and Veerle Huvenne explain how their grants help them do their research. Dr Tolic works on how cells divide and Dr Huvenne on marine biodiversity. And, can European science can compete with research in the US?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading from the BBC.
0:03.0	The details of our complete range of podcasts and our terms of use,
0:07.0	go to BBCworldservice.com slash podcasts.
0:26.1	Hello, I'm Gareth Mitchell and... broadcasts. each week. But today something different. A focus on science for sure but also on how that science is funded. We brought the program into the heart of one of the world's biggest
0:30.7	research funding organizations since 2007 its written checks
0:34.9	totaling the equivalent of around $10 billion. It's the European Research
0:39.7	Council based here in Brussels and it's celebrating a landmark having recently awarded a
0:44.8	grants to its 5,000th recipient. She is a Croatian biologist who's doing some
0:50.2	very exciting work on the way that cells divide. We'll be speaking to her,
0:54.0	along with a Belgian researcher,
0:56.0	also funded from here, who studies biodiversity in the deep sea.
0:59.0	Not only that, but we also have two of the top people
1:02.0	on the funding side.
1:03.8	All of us around this very table to discuss how an entire continent makes decisions about how to
1:09.5	spend its research budget.
1:11.6	And what about the challenges when Europe has controversial plans to divert
1:15.3	some money away from the science budget? Well first though, let's hear some actual science.
1:21.5	Now Eva Tolich is the Lady that I mentioned. She is the celebrated
1:25.4	five thousandth recipient of funding from this organization and she also I should
1:30.4	say is based at the Rudder Boskovich Institute in the Croatian capital Zagreb.
1:35.4	So first of all congratulations on this being the 5,000 grantee.
1:41.0	What will this funding actually be for?
	...

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