The arguments in support of a single 'European research area' received a fresh airing last month at a meeting in Dublin. Participants heard how the United States is dominating science, with a disproportionate number of highly cited papers — and Nobel prizewinners — now coming from US labs. One factor seemed particularly pertinent — many of the lauded authors and laureates are actually Europeans who have moved across the Atlantic.

A recurring theme at the meeting was the need for more European-led basic research, says Enric Banda, secretary-general of the European Science Foundation (ESF). Currently, funding for basic research varies from country to country within the European Union. And the European Commission's funding mechanism, the Sixth Framework Programme, emphasizes applied research and collaborative projects.

The Dublin meeting, convened by the European Life Sciences Forum and EuroScience, tried to address the issue. One way to combat the brain drain would involve a central European Research Council that would fund basic research across all member countries. Another would be to hold member nations to the commission's goal of increasing each country's research-and-development funding to 3% by 2010.

But bringing about such changes is beyond scientists' control. A more realistic approach is to pursue incremental changes from the ground up. The European Young Investigator Awards, which will provide up to E250,000 (US$294,000) a year for five years and will be chosen by the ESF next month, represent one such example. But they are just a first step — the earliest possible date that a European Research Council could form is 2007. In the meantime, Europeans can but hope that the Young Investigator Awards lead to high-impact research — and a stop-gap measure against the brain drain.