ERC president seeks public backing for curiosity-driven mission

“I really think it’s almost impossible to make it even better,” Maria Leptin said of the European Research Council, the world-renowned funder that she now leads.

This might seem like an enviable position for Professor Leptin, a German developmental immunologist who previously led the European Molecular Biology Organization for a decade and who took on the ERC presidency at the start of November.

But she insisted that she would be looking and listening closely over the coming months to see what can be optimised – and seeking a bigger budget, too.

“There are always things that can be smoothed out – and anyway, any organisation continuously has to evolve. The outside world changes, so you have to change with the world; there are new demands,” she said.

A familiar demand is that the ERC should seek to improve the notoriously low success rates for its globally prestigious grants. Professor Leptin acknowledged that this would be the hardest part of her job.

“I really think Europe would benefit massively if more of those fantastic research proposals that are being submitted, if more of them could be funded,” she said. “It's not going to be easy, and it requires careful, thoughtful and long-term preparation.”

Improving success rates probably requires an increased budget. To secure this, Professor Leptin hopes to encourage the public to embrace the ERC’s model of funding excellence, wherever it is found and in whichever discipline.

“I think we really have to get the citizens throughout Europe to see the value of curiosity-driven research,” she said. “People read Kahneman,” she added, referring to Daniel Kahneman, an economist and author of a best-selling book on modes of thought. “They read that and think it’s great. They forget that he was an academic who was paid to walk around campus and think and come up with these ideas. That kind of stuff, they enjoy it, it’s wonderful. It needs to be funded.

“Of course, the politicians also have to be convinced and involved. But they listen to all sorts of inputs, and a major input are the citizens in their own countries.”

When it comes to political pressure in the other direction, such as to bend the ERC’s grant-making away from its mandate to fund only excellent, curiosity-driven work proposed by applicants, she was resolute, citing the value of such work in solving unexpected problems, such as Covid-19.

“I really think the value of that cannot be overestimated, and I’ll do everything to protect it,” she said of the curiosity-led model.

On the gender balance of grant winners, Professor Leptin said progress must come from wider changes to research culture. “Without that, there’s nothing much you can do. If there aren’t women in positions where they can apply, what can we do? But those who are in positions to apply should, and we should get more women into those positions, too,” she said.

The ERC has made efforts to change its internal culture, such as by providing unconscious bias training to grant evaluators. Professor Leptin, who has served on and chaired ERC panels, acknowledged that such work was valuable, but she added that many evaluators were already on the right track.

“I’ve not seen discrimination in panels. If anything, they’re supportive and certainly take into account childcare times, etc. I’m optimistic that it’ll continue to improve.”

Professor Leptin said her goal for her first 100 days was to “listen, listen, listen, listen”. She also wants to meet the funder’s allies, such as in the European Commission. “Then one can have a reality check and see what can actually be done within the framework that’s there, whom I need to partner up with.”

Having already spoken to the European commissioner for research, Mariya Gabriel, and the bloc’s top official for research and development, Jean-Eric Paquet, Professor Leptin said she expected they would work well together. “We want the same thing. We want research in Europe to be leading and top and to thrive.”

A conversation that many academics might want her to have with the commission is on the participation of Switzerland and the UK in Horizon Europe. On this, Professor Leptin said there was not much she could add.

“I don’t think one needs to advocate for it; it’s what every scientist wants,” she said. “I don’t think researchers see national boundaries very much, and everyone I’ve talked to wants the association, from both sides. So I really hope it’ll come to pass.”

ben.upton@timeshighereducation.com