Brussels

The European Union (EU) last week edged closer to setting up a new research agency that would be run by scientists and would give out grants purely on the basis of scientific merit.

Achilleas Mitsos, director-general of the European Commission's research directorate, said last week that the commission would publish a position paper within the next few weeks for a “major programme in basic research where excellence is the sole and exclusive priority, and where evaluation will be in the hands of the scientific community”.

Until now, the EU has funded only small amounts of basic research under its Framework research programmes, which are designed primarily to support applied research. Most basic research is supported by national research councils.

Mitsos was speaking at a meeting last month in Brussels of research directors from Germany's Max Planck Society, members of the research commission and research commissioner Philippe Busquin.

The concept that Mitsos proposed is close to the advice given by an expert group, which recently called for a European Research Council to be set up, financed with EU money but run independently of European Commission officials (see Nature 425, 440; 200310.1038/425440a).

Mitsos said that the commission will not use the term 'European Research Council' in its document, pointing out that although the concept has been intensively discussed in the scientific community during the past couple of years, it has not been discussed in political circles.

The commission's paper will, however, be discussed in spring by the European Council of Ministers and by members of the European Parliament.

“We have to do this in a clever way,” Mitsos said. “The commission cannot afford to propose something that would be rejected — we have to prepare the ground.” He hopes that the paper will persuade the council to ask the commission to prepare a formal proposal for a basic research council in the second half of next year.