FNP Calls on the EU to Guarantee EU Funds for Research for 2021?2027

21 June 2025

"Researchers from all over Europe call for signing a petition calling for the protection of funding for the European Research Council (ERC) within the new multi-annual budget of the European Union. The Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) has also joined the initiative. The events of recent months related to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic have more clearly than ever demonstrated how important high-quality scientific research is in the modern world. That is why outstanding scientists from all over Europe ? including Nobel Prize winners ? initiated the Friends of the ERC initiative, bringing together scientists and research centers from eight countries. They submitted a petition calling for adequate funding of research, including the ERC?s activities, which funds groundbreaking basic research. You can sign the petition here ?In view of the many challenges the world faces today ? the climate apocalypse, demographic problems, or the ongoing pandemic ? the ERC?s activities can contribute to the development of tools that will solve the issues, because the ERC takes into account both the social and economic perspective of these difficulties. However, to do this, you need a proper budget,? writes Prof. Maciej Żylicz, President of the Foundation for Polish Science Executive Board, in a letter of support for the Friends of the ERC initiative. Besides the FNP, the Polish Academy of Sciences and the University of Warsaw have also institutionally supported the initiative in Poland. An EU agenda created by the European Commission in 2007, the European Research Council finances the highest-quality research conducted in the European Union, managed by the Scientific Council, which includes eminent European scientists. Prestigious ERC grants finance pioneering groundbreaking research conducted in any scientific area. The budget of a single project can reach up to EUR 3.5 million.