An open letter, signed by over 40 European Nobel laureates and addressed to EU Heads of States, was published in leading newspapers across Europe last week.
The letter warns against cutting the future EU research budget, ahead of a special European summit on 22nd and 23rd November where leaders will decide the overall EU budget for 2014 till 2020.
The letter has been joined by the launch of an online petition, which has already attracted 89,000 signatures from around the world in just over a week. In the past, less than 30 000 scientists signed the largest petition for a European scientific cause.
The UK is one of eight member nations calling for EU budget cuts, which includes funding for ‘Horizon 2020’ the EU’s research programme. Such efforts threaten to cut €80 billion (£63 billion) in research funding an area in which the UK receives a disproportionately large amount of the overall budget.
CaSE has called on the Government to protect the EU’s research budget from a UK-led campaign for overall cuts and we very much welcome this campaign for a ‘future-oriented Europe’.
