We reported in July that the European Research Council (ERC) whittled the 9167 applications for its Starting Grants for young scientists down to 559 finalists. Late last week, the agency provided further statistics (links to PDF) on those finalists. In a Science Scope in this week's Science (subscription required), Gretchen Vogel takes a look at the home countries of the applicants--and the fact that fewer than 5% of them are from the mostly eastern European countries that have joined the European Union since 2004.
Here's the breakdown that the ERC provided:
| Nationality by country groups | Number | Percent |
| Founding Member States (Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands) | 293 | 53% |
| Member States joining the EC/EU 1973-1995 (Austria, Denmark, Greece, Spain, Finland, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden, United Kingdom) | 152 | 27% |
| Member States joining the EU 2004-2007 (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia) | 30 | 5% |
| Associated countries (Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Croatia, Israel, Iceland, Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Turkey) | 47 | 7% |
| Other countries | 37 | 7% |
The ERC notes that 87% of the candidates have 4 to 9 years of experience after completion of their Ph.D., and their average age is around 36 years. They also say that only 24% of the finalists are women. ("Only" is my word, not theirs.) The applications are judged individually and without regard to the applicant's gender or nationality, and the starting grants are an awesome opportunity for young scientists to land some serious funding. Still, though, one would have hoped to see stronger representation in eastern Europe and a better gender balance.
Comments
Post a comment