[MGSA-L] The existence of ERC in danger

[Katsikas, Stefanos]

Dear all,

I wish to draw your attention to the following message by the President of the European Research Council, Professor Dr. Helga Nowotny, who is asking for support to keep ERC alive. I thought that some of you might wish to read Professor Nowotny's message, visit the electronic link provided below and sign the petition.

Best wishes,
Stefanos Katsikas

_______________________________________
Dr Stefanos Katsikas MA, PhD (London),
Historian of Modern Greece and Southeastern Europe,
Director of the Modern Greek Studies Program,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics,
707 S. Matthews Avenue,
Urbana, Illinois 61801 USA
Tel (217) 333-3563
Fax (217) 244-8430

________________________________

Dear ERC Panel members, dear ERC Panel Chairs,

As you probably know, the EU budget negotiations for the upcoming seven years (2014-2020) is entering its hot phase. A real cut to the overall budget seems inevitable, which will impact the research budget and hence will come at high costs for the European Research Council as well.

The ERC's future very much depends on the outcome of these negotiations. Two weeks ago, 44 Nobel Laureates and 6 Fields Medallists have raised their concerns about the future of the European research funding, and the ERC in particular, in an Open Letter to the EU Heads of States and Governments. Encouraged by this letter, ERC Starting Grantees in the Young Academy of Europe, together with the Initiative for Science in Europe, have launched an online petition. This petition is a huge success: more than 110.000 signatures have been received in less than two weeks.

As you know, the Social Sciences and Humanities are increasingly integrated in the European research budget. The ERC, with 18% of its funding dedicating to SH, is the best example for this development. I am therefore concerned that the SH community in Europe, did not react strongly in signing the petition so far. As you are deeply involved in the ERC evaluation, I ask you to sign the petition yourself, and to forward it to your colleagues and respective communities. Ideally, you may want to convince others of the urgency of signing the petition if we want to achieve our goal, namely to present our arguments to high-level European politicians with the strongest possible backing from the entire scientific community.

Here is the link to the petition: http://no-cuts-on-research.eu

With my best regards,
Helga Nowotny

Professor Dr. Helga Nowotny, Ph.D.
President, European Research Council
WWTF Vienna Science and Technology Fund
Schlickgasse 3/8
AT-1090 Wien
Tel.: +43-1-402 31 43-18
Fax.: +43-1-402 31 43-20
Personal Homepage: www.helga-nowotny.eu<http://www.helga-nowotny.eu/>
ERC Homepage: http://erc.europa.eu/

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