Keeping Europe's Basic Research Agency on Track
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NEWSFOCUS PROFILE: HELGA NOWOTNY has an excellent political sense,” says Dutch physicist and E.U. science policy expert Peter Tindemans. “She’s very well networked on March 3, 2011 Keeping Europe’s Basic and very effective. At meetings, she’s always going from person to person, talking, talk- Research Agency on Track ing, talking,” says Frank Gannon, a veteran of European science administration who now Helga Nowotny played a key role in the successful start of the European Research heads the Queensland Institute of Medical Council. As its president, the Austrian sociologist still has two major tasks ahead of her Research in Brisbane, Australia. Nowotny is “strong and powerful,” he adds. VIENNA—There were a few times when from across Europe, which Nowotny now www.sciencemag.org Helga Nowotny considered throwing in the chairs—it has been a steep learning curve Midwife towel and abandoning the fl edgling Euro- and a source of deep frustration. “We were Helga Nowotny was born and raised here, pean Research Council (ERC) she’d helped naïve,” Nowotny says. “We got caught in this except for a high school year spent in Wis- create. The thought would typically arise web of rules.” consin, where she fell in love with 1950s when she couldn’t bear the weight of the Nowotny, a petite, 73-year-old sociolo- American youth culture and learned to play Brussels bureaucracy anymore. gist of science with the energy of some- the saxophone. Back in Vienna, she stud- In 2007, for example, the ERC’s scientifi c one half her age, hung in there, and in most ied law, found a job at a criminology insti- council, of which she was then vice-chair, cases, eventually got her way. The ERC, tute, and obtained her law degree in 1959. Downloaded from wanted to fl y several hundred young appli- which has disbursed almost €3 billion since Then her husband’s career took her to New cants for the fi rst round of grants to Brussels 2007, has become popular with scientists York, where she studied sociology at Colum- for interviews. Weeks before the invitations and is considered a success story in Euro- bia University. Giants of the fi eld like Paul were to go out, the European Commission’s pean research policy. Lazarsfeld—an Austrian Jew who had left (EC’s) legal service said no: E.U. rules did not But Nowotny—who works at an offi ce Vienna in the 1930s—and Robert Merton allow payment of E.U. travel money to grant close to the University of Vienna and were her teachers. applicants. “We never saw these lawyers,” Sigmund Freud’s old apartment—still has After getting her Ph.D. in 1969, she spe- Nowotny says. “We called them the secret two major tasks to accomplish before she cialized in the sociology of science, a fi eld legal service. It was maddening.” steps down in 2013, at the end of the ERC’s also known as science and technology stud- The lawyers eventually caved in—but not fi rst 7-year mandate. One is an overhaul of ies, or STS. She has co-authored more than until Nowotny and her fellow council mem- the organizational structure that she hopes a dozen books but is best known for her con- bers arranged a meeting with EC President will put it on more solid ground and wrest tribution to The New Production of Knowl- José Manuel Barroso. The incident was just power away from the offi cials and politicians edge, a 1994 book written with British sci- one of many frustrating episodes. Through- of the EC. The other is a substantial hike in ence policy analyst Michael Gibbons and out the birth and the 4-year existence of the the ERC budget for the period from 2014 others. Its thesis was that traditional sci- ERC, scientists’ ideas on how to run a fund- to 2020. Her opening gambit: a more than ence was being replaced by what the authors ing agency for creative frontier science have 200% increase from the current level. called Mode 2: research driven by applica- clashed with the EC’s rules for managing Those are tall orders, but insiders say few tions and societal questions, less organized an international bureaucracy. For the scien- are better placed to accomplish them than by discipline and hierarchy, but based on tifi c council—a group of 22 heavyweights Nowotny. “She’s extremely capable and she collaborations in fl exible teams. PRESS HEIMO AGA/SIPA CREDIT: 1134 4 MARCH 2011 VOL 331 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org Published by AAAS NEWSFOCUS On the move. Nowotny has a busy travel schedule, ever; she loves Vienna’s quality of life and paragraph added to the E.U. Treaty last year but her offi ce is in Vienna, where she was born. the arts scene but abhors its provincial, stipulating that the union “shall establish xenophobic streak. the measures necessary for the implementa- The book was controversial; critics said A frenetic traveler, Nowotny says she tion of the European research area.” It might Mode 2 had always existed, or that it wasn’t often makes multipurpose trips, such as last allow abandoning the agency and starting clear whether it was an empirical description month, when an old friend retired at The something entirely new. The task force is of reality or rather a model to follow. But the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The univer- chaired by Robert-Jan Smits, the EC’s direc- book cemented Nowotny’s reputation as the sity offered to organize an “ERC day,” dur- tor general for research, whom Nowotny “grand lady of STS,” says sociologist Pieter ing which grantees presented their work and fi nds easy to work with and understanding of Leroy of Radboud University Nijmegen in the Weizmann Institute of Science organized the ERC’s needs. the Netherlands—even though her sharp pen a dinner for her. She fl ies to Brussels once Her other big job is securing a perma- has made her a few enemies as well. or twice a month, because despite the ERC’s nent budget hike. The ERC was allotted just After she retired as a professor at the initial success, Nowotny isn’t fi nished. €7.5 billion out of the €51 billion total for Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in FP7, which spans 2007–13. The amount actu- Zurich in 2002, Nowotny became one of the Tripling the budget ally spent is ramping up as the years go by ERC’s midwives. She was on the 2003 blue- Overhauling the ERC’s awkward organiza- and will reach €1.7 billion by 2013. Nowotny ribbon panel that fi rst concluded that Europe tional structure is important because it ham- wants at least double that—€3.4 billion per needed an agency for fundamental, curiosity- pers the mission, Nowotny says. The ban on year—from 2014 on. That would be €24 bil- driven, bottom-up research. Until then, the inviting applicants was just one example. EC lion over the entire 7-year period of FP8, a tri- E.U.’s Framework Programme (FP) primar- rules demanded that grant reviewers, some of pling of the budget. Nowotny knows that’s a lot ily funded large collaborations, centering on them world-famous scientists, fax in a copy to ask for from the EC, but she was delighted applications and requiring groups from many of their passports to prove their identity. The when Geoghegan-Quinn called herself “prob- E.U. countries. The ERC would be different scientific council wanted to give grantees ably the ERC’s greatest fan” in a recent inter- because it would fund individual scientists credit cards for expenses; EC lawyers said it view with Science (18 February, p. 844). and its sole criterion would be excellence. couldn’t be done. The basic problem, accord- Still, given the economic downturn and on March 3, 2011 Between 2001 and 2006, Nowotny ing to a 2009 panel: The scientifi c council sets the fi scal crises in several European coun- chaired the 45-member European Research the policy but is dependent on the EC to get it tries, Gannon says he believes that such a Advisory Board (EURAB), which issued executed (Science, 31 July 2009, p. 523). drastic increase is unlikely to happen. He several ringing endorsements of the idea. The situation has definitely improved, cautions that countries that fare less well in She kept on board EURAB’s industry Nowotny says. Since last year, day-to-day the ERC’s competitions—which are mostly representatives, who were lukewarm, and management rests with a so-called Executive in eastern and southern Europe—may start helped to win over Philippe Busquin, then Agency, a structure in Brussels that operates wavering in their support. To keep them Europe’s commissioner for research. “She at arm’s length from the EC and is more fl exi- involved, he has suggested that the ERC cre- www.sciencemag.org speaks everybody’s language,” says French ble. Nowotny praises its “highly professional” ate a special competition, still using excel- astronomer and former EURAB mem- staff members and says working relationships lence as a criterion but aimed at countries ber Catherine Cesarsky. In 2005, Nowotny are much better now. But a world-class fund- that spend less on science. joined the embryonic ERC’s scientifi c coun- ing agency can’t be dependent on the goodwill That’s anathema to Nowotny. Other parts cil as vice-chair; she took over as chair last of civil servants, she adds. of the Framework Programme address the year, when Imperial College London molec- That’s why, at Nowotny’s request, Máire needs of lagging countries, she says; besides, ular biologist Fotis Kafatos stepped down.