ECREA

European Communication Research
and Education Association

Log in

News & Activities: Research Committee urges ECREA to seek improvement in European research funding

05.12.2018 19:06 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

Research Committee urges ECREA to seek improvement in European research funding

Does our field get its fair share of research funding? Two years ago the Association established a task force to look into this. It was chaired by Peter Golding (UK) and included Christina Holtz-Bacha (Germany), Paolo Mancini (Italy), Slavko Splichal (Slovenia), Helena Sousa (Portugal) and Kirsten Drotner (Denmark). The concern was fuelled by unease that research funding, even where available, was increasingly leaning towards work that was short-term, atheoretical, and with a strong bias towards more applied and commercially oriented investigation. The group’s first report found many of these trends were apparent in many (not all) countries, and there was real basis for concern. The Committee also drew attention to the work of national subject associations, and recommended that ECREA seek to update its information about such bodies, encourage their activity where they were dormant or even non-existent, and to provide support for them where resources and time allowed, not least to promote research support in their own countries. ECREA decided to transform the task force into a standing committee, and invited it to continue its work, focusing especially, in the first instance, on the role of the European Research Council (ERC).

This resulted in the second report from the Committee, which was presented at the Lugano conference, and can be found on the website together with the recommendations of the first report. At the Lugano conference there was also a presentation by Dr. Lionel Thelen, who is the ERC Coordinator for the panel to which many ECREA members might submit bids. As the Committee’s findings and Dr Thelen’s presentation showed, there is great uncertainty and imprecision about just how much support is provided for our field by the ERC. However, what is clear is that it could be very much more, and that far too few applications are submitted, a matter ECREA will seek to correct. It is also a concern that submissions should be reviewed by researchers active in the communications and media fields, and ECREA will be seeking to improve the number of such referees accredited by the ERC. The ERC does provide large grants with long duration, and successful award holders seem largely pleased with their situation. But are enough such people in our field? The information to date is indecisive, but sufficiently uncertain to suggest that there are too few grant holders in the field and too few applications, and that ECREA should work with ERC to improve the situation, both in relation to applications and to encourage members to become referees for the ERC.

Professor Peter Golding
Emeritus Professor, Northumbria University, UK


contact

ECREA

Chaussée de Waterloo 1151
1180 Uccle
Belgium

Who to contact

Support Young Scholars Fund

Help fund travel grants for young scholars who participate at ECC conferences. We accept individual and institutional donations.

DONATE!

CONNECT

Copyright 2017 ECREA | Privacy statement | Refunds policy