European Research Council needs revamp says panel

Nature News : The European Commission must make “immediate corrections” to the running of the European Research Council (ERC) or risk the body suffering a “deadly blow”, an expert review has found.On 23 July, a panel led by the former president of Latvia, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, published a review of the ERC—the first pan-European initiative to fund frontier research solely on the basis of excellence.The ERC was established two years ago and is administered by an executive agency under the commission’s control. The panel describes the council’s management as a source of “great frustration and low-level conflict.”