Research Europe, 9 February 2017
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Updated daily at www.ResearchProfessional.com 9 February 2017 EU strategic investment fund under fire for few results – p4,5 Brexit Where to now? – p7-8, 13 Innovation Output-based payment trial to cut Horizon 2020 audit burden – p5 Science advice panel struggles to find feet Scientific Advice Mechanism’s second loss is chairman The chairman of The high-level group at the by Eleni Courea [email protected] Commission’s Scientific Advice Mechanism has become the second of seven members to quit within from a consortium called Science Advice for Policy by two months—raising questions about the SAM’s likely European Academies (Sapea), which was only formed effectiveness. last month. It has five members: Academia Europaea, Henrik Wegener, a food scientist, is leaving the SAM the European Academies Science Advisory Council, All to become rector of the University of Copenhagen. In European Academies, EURO-Case, and the Federation December, meteorologist Julia Slingo also left when of European Academies of Medicine. she retired from her full-time job at the UK Met Office. “The first year was to some extent a proof-of-con- Chairing the high-level group will pass to Rolf-Dieter cept year,” Wegener says. “As that comes to an end Heuer, former director of Cern. The deputy chairwoman we enter the more important second phase, where will be Pearl Dykstra, a sociologist at Erasmus University, the academies and societies become part of the Rotterdam; and Paul Nurse, director of the Francis Crick mechanism. So the full potential of the mechanism Institute in London, joins the group. remains to be seen.” The Commission created the SAM in 2015 to When it comes to the SAM’s effectiveness, “the replace the chief scientific adviser to its president. It judgement will come now,” says Sven Bestmann, a is made up of three parts: a high-level group of seven neuroscientist at University College London, who has advisers, supported by a small secretariat in Brussels; worked with SAM through the Young Academy, a pan- parts of the Joint Research Centre, the Commission’s European group representing young scientists. in-house science service; and input from Europe’s “Going forward, the most important thing is to various science academies. establish a well-functioning collaboration with Sapea, “The concept of the SAM is a clever way to get and to maintain good collaboration with the Joint around the criticisms that the chief scientific advis- Research Centre and the specialised agencies,” says er faced, regarding concentrating scientific advice Wegener. “And then, of course, to get sufficient rec- into one person,” says Philip Hines of Maastricht ognition among the commissioners.” University, who assessed the SAM for a think-tank, Elvira Fortunato, a materials scientist at the New the European Policy Centre. “But they have only just University of Lisbon and a member of the high-level issued their first report—on carbon emissions from group, says: “Since we are a new mechanism, we don’t cars in the real world versus laboratories—so they yet have a lot of visibility. We want to make our work haven’t attracted much attention.” more known among politicians, scientists and society.” The SAM’s predecessor, the post of chief scientific “Not enough has been done to publicise the SAM,” adviser to the president, existed for just two years and says Bestmann. “Many scientists are not aware of it—and was held by Scottish biologist Anne Glover. Its 2014 you would expect them to be, considering its scale. It’s abolition, alongside that of its corresponding advisory the Commission’s flagship programme body, the Science and Technology Advisory Council, for delivering scientific advice.” raised an outcry from scientific leaders. “Now that the academies are Every new opportunity “There was a need to invent something to better involved they will have to deliver, for research funding match the needs of the Commission,” Wegener says. and the challenge for them is to acti- from every sponsor in the EU, US & beyond “The mechanism was and still is an attempt to do that. It vate their members,” Bestmann says. is a piece of innovation—we are breaking new ground.” “This will be difficult if there is a lack Independent news, The high-level group has been meeting since of credibility because people just comment and analysis January 2016, but the academies’ input will come don’t know about the SAM.” Issue No. 446 2 editorial Research Europe, 9 February 2017 Edited by Colin Macilwain [email protected] Tel: +44 20 7216 6500 Fax: +44 20 7216 6501 Unit 111, 134-146 Curtain Road, London EC2A 3AR elsewhere “It is simply bonkers to leave Euratom.” Cold fudge Steven Cowley, a former director of the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Oxford, reacts to news that the UK might pull out of European nuclear cooperation, including the Iter fusion Commission’s scientific mechanism yet to find traction project, after Brexit. Nature, 27/1/17. “We have a third front undermining the European Union, and it is Donald Trump.” In order to assess what’s happening inside the European Commission’s Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the liberal Alde Scientific Advice Mechanism, whose top panel has just lost two of its group in the European Parliament, does not seven members (see Cover story), we need to return, briefly, to its origins. mince his words when discussing the danger posed to the EU by Russia and fundamental The Commission historically relied on a combination of several layers Islam. EU Observer, 30/1/17. of specialist committees, its Joint Research Council and external scien- tific academies for scientific advice. But in 2010, José Manuel Barroso, “I’m living in a big prison called the United States of America.” Commission president at the time, appointed the Scottish biologist Anne Ehssan Nazockdast, a fluid dynamics Glover as its first chief scientific adviser. researcher at New York University, say he Glover is smart and articulate but she sometimes struggled in the role. does not dare travel abroad following presi- dent Donald Trump’s move to ban Iranians Unwisely for example, she became involved in the never-ending guerilla from entering the US. Science, 29/1/17. war between environmentalists and pesticide suppliers over genetically modified crops: a highly charged and complex issue on which divisions “We’re not expressing an opinion, we’re presenting the cold, hard facts.” within and between EU member states have existed for decades. Jarosław Szarek, head of Poland’s Institute of Barosso’s successor Jean-Claude Juncker didn’t reappoint Glover, but National Remembrance, explains his decision with scientific and industrial lobbies calling for more scientific input into to publish the names of all Auschwitz guards online with the view of supporting research policy, the Commission felt obliged to develop a compromise approach to and clarifying history. BBC, 30/1/17. the science advice role. After some consultation, it came up with the idea of the Scientific Advice Mechanism, a seven-strong panel of senior scien- “Our ultimate aim is to maximise the bene- fits of medicines and minimise the harm.” tists who would remain in their external jobs, while supplying advice as Project coordinator Kevin Park describes required, supported by a 20-strong secretariat sitting in the Commission’s the mission of a £14-million Innovative research and innovation directorate. Medicines Initiative project on adverse reac- tions to drugs, launched at the University of These days, no one individual, or indeed seven individuals, can pro- Liverpool in January. Eureka, 29/1/17. vide scientific and technical advice across all areas of likely interest: the task of the panel is rather to collate it from more specialised sources. “Some member states were upset about this, but those are the rules.” In doing this, ideally, the SAM would combine the responsiveness of Denis Roger, the European Defence Agency’s a single adviser with the sagacity of a scientific academy. But it always head of innovation, says the European seemed more likely that it would fall short of this ideal. The panel doesn’t Parliament will retain budgetary control of a new defence research fund, even if the work work full-time, and can’t do much to shape a role for itself in the corridors is top secret. Science Business, 25/1/17. of the Commission. Nor is it likely that a panel of seven will fully reflect the different perspectives that exist on contentious issues. “I feel very comfortable with Canada.” European Food Safety Authority boss The crux of the problem, however, is that the SAM was brought to presi- Bernhard Url says that extra trade agree- dent Juncker, not demanded by him. And experienced scientific advisers, ments between the EU and other parties will such as Peter Gluckman, the New Zealand prime minister’s adviser who not increase the organisation’s testing work- has been working to build a global network of such advisers, agree on one load. EurActiv, 16/1/17. thing: an advisory mechanism will only work if there is a genuine appetite for its advice. decade There has been scant indication that Juncker wants or needs the SAM. So, it is not surprising that some of the people who had agreed to devote their time and energy to it are feeling unwanted. Two have already left, “This is something that is one citing the outside commitments that every member of the panel not OK.” would always be expected to hold. Angelika Niebler, chairwoman of the One of the Commission’s perennial weaknesses is its propensity to European Parliament’s industry com- search earnestly for compromises and end up with half-measures.