Sir
Your recent Editorial “Science needs the commission, Sturm und Drang and all” (Nature 426, 481; 2003) is most welcome. Among other things, it makes a much-needed and previously unrecognized point, namely that oversubscription by European scientists to funding offered by the European Commission's Framework programmes is “a sign of the need for European-level funding for basic research which does not exist elsewhere”, not “a sign of [the programmes'] success”, as naively argued by director general Achilleas Mitsos.
I would like to add a local observation. Swedish researchers have received more money through Framework programmes than the Swedish government has put into the programmes (see http://www.eufou.se). This is less a sign of Swedish scientists' excellence in application-writing than of an acute shortage of funding in national research councils and foundations. With an annual budget of €44 million (US$55 million), the Swedish Medical Research Council, for example, would only be able to finance three of the Network of Excellence collaborations offered by the latest Framework programme.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ibanez, C. Framework reveals lack of basic-research funds. Nature 427, 485 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/427485b
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/427485b