Probing a myth: Does the younger generation of scientists have it easier?

Sapna Deo, Yinan Wei, Sylvia Daunert

Research output: Contribution to journalEditorial

1 Scopus citations
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2065-2067
Number of pages3
JournalAnalytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry
Volume403
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2012

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
In Europe, the picture is similar. The average age of investigators receiving a Starting Grant Award from the European Research Council (ERC) is 37 years of age and the success rate is 12 % overall, with a 35 % success rate for invited (pre-selected) applicants in life sciences and 46 % in physical sciences and engineering [4]. These rates indicate that the picture for young investigators is also bleak on the European scene. This Starting Grant Award program was established as an effort to counteract the lack of sufficient opportunities for young investigators to develop independent careers. Its goal is to facilitate the transition from working under a senior investigator to establishing their own research program to prevent the waste of research talent in Europe due to a lack of resources for younger generations. Furthermore, another goal of the Starting Grant Award program is to speed up the establishment of the next generation of creative and energetic research leaders within Europe. The ERC was created in 2007 as an arm of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), and was the first pan-European funding body for frontier research. ERC funds account for 15 % of the FP7 budget and total €7.5 billion for the 5-year period from 2007 to 2013. It is anticipated that by 2013 the ERC will have supported around 5,000 grants. While this number appears to be high, in reality these funds are not sufficient when considering the number of countries and investigators in the European Union countries.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Analytical Chemistry
  • Biochemistry

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