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After the European Research Council (ERC) released a new white paper examining the persistent gap in participation and success rates between Europe’s strongest research systems and a group of countries performing less well, the ‘widening countries’, those countries lagging behind in Europe’s research and innovation performance are calling for stronger support from the ERC, arguing that boosting access to its prestigious grants could help narrow the EU’s persistent east–west research gap.
According to a report by Science|Business, representatives from so-called “widening countries” say national policies alone will not be enough to catch up with Europe’s top-performing research systems. Instead, they are pushing for EU-level measures—particularly expanded ERC opportunities—to accelerate progress.
The ERC, widely regarded as Europe’s flagship programme for funding frontier science, awards grants based solely on excellence. However, this merit-based system has tended to favour institutions in more developed research ecosystems, leaving widening countries with a smaller share of funding.
Officials and experts from these countries argue that increasing participation in ERC schemes—through targeted support, mentoring, or complementary funding—could help build stronger research environments and retain talent. Without such intervention, disparities in scientific capacity risk becoming entrenched across the EU.
The debate comes as the EU prepares its next long-term research programme (FP10), where addressing the innovation gap remains a central challenge. Policymakers are weighing how to balance excellence-driven funding with cohesion goals, ensuring that less-developed research systems are not left further behind.
While boosting ERC support is seen as one potential solution, observers note that closing the gap will likely require broader structural reforms, including improved national investment, better research infrastructure, and stronger links between academia and industry.
Read the full aricle by ScienceIBusiness here