The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities

The Guild welcomed its guest of honour, Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, President of the European Research Council, as guest of honour at its inaugural dinner. Members were very pleased to note the ERC’s very significant support for basic research across the entire range of disciplines, including Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities. It also underlined Prof. Bourguignon’s very personal engagement with universities from lower-performing countries to see how the quality of applications for Research and Innovation could be enhanced.

In response to this discussion about how we can make an effective case for basic research for the next framework programme, the Guild will prioritise the active engagement of its members with policy-makers, as well as with stakeholders from industry and business. Building on Jean-Pierre Bourguignon’s reflections on the demonstrable impact the ERC has made on the support of outstanding curiosity-driven research in Europe, Jan Palmowski, Secretary-General of the Guild, commented that ‘Our Universities have close connections with national members of parliament, governments, and MEPs, as well as the Commission. We will do everything we can to utilize these connections, as well as our wider public constituencies, to make an effective case for the importance of curiosity-driven research. We will show that this is indispensable for the future of European culture, society and its economy, and that the EU’s leadership in Research and Innovation has led to successes that could not have been achieved by individual countries acting on their own.’