Issue 12

Bologna Process

Bologna Secretariat changes hands

On 1 July, Romania took over responsibility for the Bologna Secretariat from Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, which together have provided the Secretariat over the past three years. Romania will provide the secretariat for the Europe Higher Education Area until July 2012 and will host the next ministerial meeting of the EHEA in Bucharest on 28 - 29 April 2012. Ligia Deca, Chair of the Europe Students Union from 2009 to 2010, will lead the new Bologna Secretariat. An official ceremony took place in Bucharest on 5 July to mark the occasion.

CEE expands its membership

New members have joined the Central and Eastern European Network of Quality Assurance in Higher Education (CEE). The CEE celebrated its tenth anniversary at its general assembly meeting in Bulgaria on 28 May. The CEE serves as a clearing house for issues on quality assurance in higher education in the Central and Eastern European countries. The CEE admitted five new members at the meeting in Sofia: Agency for Development of Higher Education and Quality Assurance (ADHEQA), Bosnia and Herzegovina; Kosovo Accreditation Agency (KAA); National Centre of Public Accreditation (NAA), Russia; Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance and Career Development (AKKORK), Russia; and the European Association for Public Administration Accreditation (EAPAA), registered in The Netherlands.

Switzerland advocates a closer look at rankings

The Swiss Rectors' Conference (CRUS) has recommended to its members not to resist rankings of HEIs, but to concentrate on their results. CRUS has aligned itself with a statement from the European Latin Universities which "recognises the legitimate requirement of future students, political decision-makers and the broader public for more transparent and readable information about the activities and performance of universities."

CRUS acknowledges that rankings do, however, oversimplify reality and do not satisfy the requirement for clear data. Instead of fighting against the development and publication of rankings and similar instruments, CRUS suggests that HEIs should develop transparent commentary about the use of, limits to, and other possible applications of rankings.

In light of the current situation in Switzerland, CRUS recommends for its members to comment on the most well-known rankings on their websites, and to focus in particular on: to what extent the rankings correctly portray the universities' activities; and what relevance they give to their position in the ranking (league table) In recent years, CRUS and the Ministry for Education and Research (SBF) have maintained a website which offers a critical overview of international rankings.

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Research

COST reviewed

A panel of independent experts carried out an FP7 Mid-Term Evaluation (MTE) evaluation report of COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) from January to May 2010. The intergovernmental COST initiative is coordinated by the European Science Foundation (ESF), and is meant to receive 40 million euros of Framework 7 funding up to 2013 under a grant agreement set out between COST and the Commission in 2007.

One of the reports key recommendations is if the European Commission agrees to fund COST until the end of FP7 in 2013, then the ongoing question of whether COST should be integrated into the ESF or remain a separate entity must be addressed. The ongoing question over COST's future had led to problems with management in the office.

In addition there have been tensions between COST member states and the ESF regarding the future direction of the initiative. Mirroring similar debates on the impact of publicly-funded research in Europe, the report recommends studying the impact that COST Actions currently have or could have in the future on European Research Area (ERA) objectives. A future area of work could be to identify 'early weak signals' of newly emerging scientific fields or issues, thereby feeding into other work being done in Joint Technology Initiatives.

Research stakeholders call for review of Innovative Medicines Initiative

The European University Association (EUA), the Helmholtz Association, the European Association of Research and Technology Organisations and several national bioresearch representatives have called for a review of the terms and conditions of participation in the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI).

The Europe Unit and Universities UK have previously lobbied the European Commission on the reimbursement rates for participation in IMI. Under the current rules, participants can only claim a 20 per cent reimbursement of overhead costs, an amount that signatories deem to be 'ignoring economic reality'.

The IMI has already launched two calls for proposals, but participation in these has been well below expected, and this has been attributed to the perception by SMEs, research organisations and HEIs that participation in IMI is simply not rewarding enough. The statement issued by research organisations on 6 July calls on the IMI governing board to make amendments to the funding and intellectual property arrangements as soon as possible, preferably in time for research starting under the third call.

Joint Research Centre (JRC) to provide more scientific support to European Commission policy-making

The Joint Research Centre published its new strategy for the period 2010-2020 on 2 July. It envisages reinforced scientific support to EU policy-making based on assessments of policy options identified in close collaboration with the Commission's policy Directorates-General.

The Joint Research Centre is a Directorate-General of the European Commission. It has seven scientific institutes located in five different EU countries. The total number of staff is 2,750 and it has an annual institutional budget of approximately €350 million. Its mission is to provide customer-driven scientific and technical support for the conception, development, implementation and monitoring of EU policies. According to the new strategy, the JRC aims "to be a trusted provider of science-based policy options to EU policy makers to address key challenges facing our society, underpinned by internationally-recognised research".

It will focus its efforts on seven thematic areas:

• Towards an open and competitive economy
• Development of a low carbon society
• Sustainable management of natural resources
• Safety of food and consumer products
• Nuclear safety and security
• Security and crisis management
• Reference materials and measurements.

How the JRC will sit alongside the European Research Area Board (ERAB), the newly constituted European Research Area Committee, the EIRO forum, and the planned Chief Scientific Adviser for Europe remains to be seen, but the space for advising the European Commission on research matters is becoming very congested indeed.

Transparency in Framework Programme funding

The European Financial Transparency System was introduced in 2008 to provide information on budget beneficiaries sorted by country, fund, institution or funding area. The information comes from European Commission accounts. However, it only covers the funding managed directly by the European Commission, around 20 per cent of the EU budget. On 2 July, the contents of the system were published online, giving interested stakeholders an overview of recipients of research funding under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) and the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme. According to the database, 6.3 billion euro of FP7 funds was distributed in 2009, of which the largest share, 125 million euros, was given to the Innovative Medicines Initiative.

Guide for EU researchers on how to make research count

The European Commission has launched a guide for social sciences and humanities researchers on how to communicate their knowledge to policymakers. Entitled 'Communicating research for evidence-based policymaking - A practical guide for researchers in socio-economic sciences and humanities', the guide is meant to ensure that social scientists are heard by governments and get a chance to influence policies with their research results. The guide notes that social science input is particularly needed in sensitive policy subjects such as health, the economy and climate change. T

he guidelines were drawn up by the Directorate-General for Research with input from academics and HE journalists from across Europe. Among the recommendations in the guide are that researchers should offer information in short and simple briefs before submitting whole reports to politicians, scientists should focus on facts and outcomes for their initial pitch, and that researchers should not be shy about talking to the press about their work.

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News in brief

Belgian EU Presidency outlines research priorities

The Brussels Minister of Science and Research, Benoit Cerexhe, outlined the research element of Belgium's EU presidency during a ceremony on 7 July. During its six months as head of the European Council, Belgium is to focus on researcher mobility and careers, and will also continue initiatives started under the Spanish presidency. Presidential responsibilities will be shared between the authorities in Belgium's three regions of Brussels, Wallonia and Flanders, with Brussels taking charge of research matters. .

Non-EU HEIs to gain privileged access to EU data for scientific purposes

The European Commission updated its list of institutions whose researchers can access confidential EU data for scientific purposes on 1 July. The updated list includes a number of overseas HEIs, including Tel Aviv University (Israel), University of Chicago (US), Sabanci University (Turkey) and McGill University (Canada).

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Opportunities for HEIs

Deadline for applications to Institutional Evaluation Programme extended until 30 July 2010

The European University Association (EUA) has extended the deadline for registration for the 2010-2011 round of its Institutional Evaluation Programme (IEP) to 30 July 2010. The IEP evaluation takes place over a whole academic year and includes a self-evaluation phase, two site-visits and a final report that provides specific recommendations. Since 1994, the IEP methodology has been tested in over 200 institutions across 44 countries worldwide. Institutions that have undergone an IEP evaluation in recent years are also encouraged to consider applying for a follow-up review as a means of monitoring progress and maintaining momentum.

New European Research Council grants to be announced in July

The European Research Council (ERC) will publish a new call for proposals for Starting Grants 2011 on 20 July with deadlines for research domains (Life Sciences (LS), Social Sciences and Humanities (SH), and Physical Science and Engineering (PE)) throughout autumn. Starting Grants fund frontier science projects by researchers who completed their PhD no more than five years ago.

Profile

Dr Alisa Miller, CREST Research Network Co-ordinator, GuildHE

Dr Miller became the first CREST (Consortium for Research Excellence, Support and Training) Research Network Co-ordinator in June 2010. Before joining GuildHE she worked as a researcher on the JISC-funded 'First World War Digital Poetry Archive' at the University of Oxford, where she obtained her DPhil in 2008. She also received degrees from the London School of Economics and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Funded by HEFCE and members' subscriptions, the CREST provides an innovative model for supporting research excellence, creating a community of researchers through interdisciplinary and institutional collaboration. Taking as its premise the principle that quality research should be recognised and funded wherever it is found, regardless of the size of the institution, the Consortium works with the 'islands of research excellence' secured in the RAE 2008. The CREST has a vital role in telling the story of these ongoing research achievements to the wider HE community, and to the general public. This is particularly timely and important given that the specialised, near-to-market, commercial and community-centred research pursued by CREST's members is key to local, regional and national regeneration in the post-recession UK.

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Diary dates

September

13-14 EUA Experts Conference 'Towards Financially
Sustainable Universities II: Diversifying Income Streams', Bologna, Italy.

October

14-15 EURASHE 20th Annual conference, 'Implementing Bologna, from rhetoric to reality' Tallin, Estonia.

November

18-20 Fifth European Quality Assurance Forum (EQAF 2010),
Lyon, France

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