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| Signatures including commentsRefine your search Show all comments (sorted by date) Show all comments (sorted by length) Show regional comments: Comments from Belgium78 comments. (Note: Some comments are not made public accessible.) 22 Mar 12:06 Belgium CIP, University of Liège Jean-Marie Frère In addition to an increasingly heavy administrative burden when you obtain one, the EU grants have become the objects of competitions in which the best scientist and the most promising projects are not always the winners. Some colleagues spend more time lobbying in Brussels than working in their labs to try to orient the calls to their favourite fields. You can find private companies which offer their services to help you answer the sometimes ridiculous questions in the application forms. It is noticeable that these forms contain more non scientific questions than scientific ones. The number of pages devoted to a detailed description of the project is strictly limited while you are asked to describe at length how the network will be managed. Scientists knew how to collaborate before most of the Commission civil servants were born! As far as I know, the scientific productivity of previous EU financed networks managed by the coordinator does not seem to be important in the evaluation of an application. The involvement of SMEs (even if it is completely irrelevant to the goal of the program, e.g. Marie Curie Networks) appears to be a more important factor. 5 Mar 18:33 Belgium Coopération Technique Belge Réginald Moreels The human being precedes the structures and procedures and NOT the reverse... 22 Feb 14:32 Belgium COST Office Martin Grabert Trust is the basis for all societal progress. Europe needs to re-invent this simple principle. 6 Feb 12:24 Belgium EARTO Christopher John Hull Yes, things must change! The present administrative and financial management arrangements for EU R&D&I programmes are dysfunctional. We need an accountability regime and management framework that accepts risk and judges work performed primarily (but not only) on scientific-technical criteria. There are many examples of national good practice (research funding bodies etc.) that can inform the search for a better European model. 6 Mar 09:23 Belgium Ecole de Santé Publique, Université Libre de Bruxelles Huygens Pierre Logical frameworks being more and more bureaucratic, i.e., pre-determined, implies that research should necessarily be deductive. Empirical research frameworks need to be flexible to adapt to a changing reality. In fact, Science supposes the capacity of the analyst to change the rules according to the observations. However, whilst changing rules, the logical framework itself should be changed to enable efficiency. Today, theories of Business Administration gradually intoxicate every levels of social living - science; art, social work, ... - assuming their models are reproductible in each and every context. Daily information in the Press or specialized litterature show how much the BA scientism is fake, including in sustaining an economy of business capable to meet citizens expectations. We, as scientists, have the responsibilty to deconstruct the exact nature of BA theories and call our representatives in the EU Commission to report to EU Citizens why they accept to submit to these non evidence-based theories, that is to say, to scientism, universalism and coercitive ideologies/ 6 Mar 22:04 Belgium EMA European Medical Association Vincenzo Costigliola I fully agree. Is urgent simplify the financial and administrative procedures related to the Framework Programme 9 Mar 17:20 Belgium EuroTop SCRL Jacques VISEUR Reporting is necessary but cumbersome administrative burden and incoherence are counter-productive, especially for SMEs. Simplified rules are prerequisite for more SMEs participating in EU co-Financed research projects ! 25 May 12:52 Belgium Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Johanna Leissner I have more than 16 years experience with the EU FPs and research projects. Compared to FP2 or FP3 things have become much more complicated and more administrative. Therefore simplification is needed in terms of simplifying contract amendments eg rearranging budgets wihtin the project life time and also to rearrange aims and deliverables according to new research findings during the project; less administrative burden is needed in terms of reporting eg requested are midterm report, yearly report, 6 months report, management report, report on the kick off meeting etc., this is too much. Researchers spend more time for writing reports and other documents instead of devoting their time to the real research. Time sheets for are also a burden. Research is always a risk - there is no guarantee that all the experiments will bring positive results. But the work done in a project can easily be checked by the midterm and final report and the deliverables. The time to contract is quite ok already now, however often the researchers want to define themselves the start of their project but it is not welcome by the COM services since within the DG Research head of units want to be the quickest unit in terms of time to contract. This is not acceptable for the project teams. Alltogether I want to support the continuation of the heart of the Framework Programme - the cooperation programme which is the most important scheme for a successful implementation of the ERA. 26 Feb 09:20 Belgium Free University Brussels - ULB Gilbert Vassart Researchers are selected on stringent criteria of scientific output. However, as they progress, they spend an increasing proportion of their time doing things unrelated to their scientific activity (and for which they have not, or should not have, been selected). The EU should keep this in mind when defining the amount and type of administrative duty they impose on their researchers. 25 Feb 08:03 Belgium Ghent University Jozef Vercruysse Considering the low chances to obtain funding, the workload for an initial application should be limited to the essential facts e.g. relevance of objectives, the scientific approach, the competence of the participants, the added value of the scientific collaborations etc 22 Apr 16:16 Belgium Ghent University Peter Bossier In relation to the previous framework programme, the administrative burden of intermediate reporting has further increased, forcing scientists to be pre-occupied with non-creative tasks. 22 Apr 16:28 Belgium Ghent university kristof dierckens Concerning reporting: please do not make us write a full report and ask at the same time to get a report on each deliverable that has been met or not to be able to submit that report on line. It means more paper work without any extra info towards the EC (and less time for science). 22 Apr 19:46 Belgium Ghent University Dominique Adriaens Current administrative load forms a definite threshold for even considering in engaging into a collaborative research project. 4 Jun 07:56 Belgium Ghent University, VIB Peter Vandenabeele Administration is the task of administrators for which they have chosen. Performing excellent science is the choice and driving force of scientists. Scientist dont expect administrators to perform science. So administrators shouldnt expect scientists to spend too much time on administration, which distracts them from their core business. Reducing the complexity of administration and reporting will create time for new ideas, insights, well designed experiments and increased quality time. 25 Apr 00:05 Belgium ICTEAM, Université catholique de Louvain Laurent Jacques It would be a shame that public money, initially dedicated to research, would be just spend for the time taken by the EU admnistrative tasks and not for that research ... but it starts to be the case ... really 6 Apr 14:26 Belgium IMEC Ingrid Reynaert We believe that the Financial Regulations as they are interpreted and applied in FP7 and beyond are not sufficiently suited to the needs of the research community in general and the ERA in particular. The administrative overhead to manage all this has reached the limit and does not create any added value to the ERA. 22 Feb 15:41 Belgium Institute of Public Health William Moens Management costs are very high for the contractants (time of program leader +time of the project leaders + the costs of lost time when working with non research-educated third party management bodies). Megalo-sized programs very often without formal acceptance criteria applied on the CV of project leaders and program leaders. Policy-based rather than science-based pre-selection of research topics, weak quality monitoring of published official results particularly those acquired before start of the program, are some elements to be better elaborated. 3 Mar 11:28 Belgium Institute of Tropical Medicine Jean-Claude Dujardin I know that the current heavy administrative and financial rules of EU already discouraged several researchers to lead new EU-funded consortia and actively participate to the construction of the European research area...others might follow. This is a serious issue 3 Mar 13:00 Belgium Institute of Tropical Medicine Patrick Kolsteren The administrative procedures are becoming very counter productive 4 Mar 21:15 Belgium institute of tropical medicine Bart Ostyn EUs administration throws up barriers that may cause major headaches for european researchers. For partner institutions outside Europe, i.e. in Africa and Asia, this is even worse: the administrative complexities and financial regulations make it for them rather a risk than an opportunity. 17 Mar 10:11 Belgium Institute of Tropical Medicine Jef Van Lint Simplification of rules together with a constructive, problemsolving attitude during audits will encourage researchers in Europe instead of complicating their work. 4 Mar 12:10 Belgium Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp Gert Van der Auwera The current heavy administration is imposed to control and prevent misuse of European funds. I am convinced that the current administrative machinery is taking up much more money than would ever be lost to fraud, and as such it does not serve its purpose, nor deserve its means. The cost is not only the support of administrative staff, but valuable research time is lost as well. 4 Mar 15:45 Belgium K.H.Kempen - K-point: research center on ICT and Inclusion Jan Dekelver We could do so much more with less. If it would be our own money, we would never even think about putting that much time and money into administration. 8 Apr 17:34 Belgium K.U. Leuven Antoine Van Proeyen The administrative work for EC projects takes a way a lot of energy from research. By this the European research suffers a lot, and is in a bad position e.g. with respect to the US. It should be possible to leave more time for the good researchers to do really research rather than writing many projects and administering them later. 9 Mar 17:36 Belgium K.U.Leuven Emmanuel Van Lil A reduction in administrative output would increase the scientific output of many programs. 15 Mar 13:11 Belgium K.U.Leuven Roger Huybrechts The consortia representing a complementary research group should consist of a sufficient but certainly not exagerated number of participants. It all needs to be manageble by researchers whose first job duty is research, not simple administration and bureacracy 28 May 14:49 Belgium K.U.Leuven Liliane Schoofs too much rules and administrative matter that block the real science 3 Mar 22:17 Belgium Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Jan Engelen Being active in European research since a long time, I have witnessed personally the change from a trust relation to a situation where administrative harassment and paperwork take much more from my time then the research itself. 18 Mar 11:22 Belgium Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Hugo Van hamme Overall, my experience with EU-projects is positive. Yearly reviews, tight follow-up ... are good instruments to get the quality we want. But the role of coordinator scares me off. 18 Mar 14:10 Belgium Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Hans Op de Beeck Scientists are good in doing science. Give them academic freedom, and evaluate their projects on measures of scientific output rather than by intensive administrative procedures such as time keeping etc.. 19 Mar 12:19 Belgium Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Carlos Dotti further problem is that local (country) funding institutions have copied the EU bureaucratic regulations. 19 Mar 15:56 Belgium Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Gregory Maes The current administrative burden for project coordinators results in nobody wanting to lead a project anymore (unless by paying a full-time secretary for such purpose on EU budget), while project partners spend a tremendous time in project management rather than research (the pmrimary focus of an EU project in my opinion) ! 25 Mar 09:51 Belgium Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Christian Kesteloot If the EU would control the banks like they control us, the world would be better ... 27 Apr 15:32 Belgium Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Filip Volckaert We have coordinated and participated in some 10 EU research projects, networks and coordination actions. Sadly enough the administrative burden has grown over the years to the degree that it increasingly stiffles creative research. Not any other research agency we work with distrusts so much its grantees. Dear EU administrators, parliamentarians and council members, please be sensible and reverse this trend asap. 1 May 01:30 Belgium KULeuven & VIB Johan Thevelein Research should be funded and evaluated primarily based on scientific performance. 4 Mar 21:15 Belgium Laboratoire de Référence des Mycobactéries Dissou Affolabi It is so important to simplify administrative and financial procedures and to let researchers focused on research instead of administration 18 Feb 12:22 Belgium LEGEST (Lab for Eukaryotic Gene Expression and Signal Transduction) Guy HAEGEMAN Scientific proposals and approval have more to do with politics and burocracy than with pure science. Further, the financial administration of the projects approved is so complicated and burocratic, that it really represents a big burden and a loss of precious time and money (no more possible without expertised administrative companies involved). Simplification of the entire procedure, and of execution of the work program is most welcome and should yield more efficiency and enthousiasm to apply for EC funding. 27 Feb 14:44 Belgium NCP Wallonie Stéphane WAHA As an NCP we try and help beneficiaries in FP project to make the most of their research. Lighter and less rules would help them concentrate on what matters : research and its valorisation. 25 Mar 15:40 Belgium Optrima Andre Miodezky Commission research programs should be more focused and open gates to more innovative SMEs in cooperation with Universities and simplify KNOWHOW needed to avoid projects attribution based on specialized writing skills as PROFESSIONAL EUROPEAN COMMISSION PROJECT WRITERS. 2 Mar 08:32 Belgium Polish Science Contact Agency Jan Krzysztof Frackowiak Research funding should be based on trust and trust should be based on the way former funds have been used. Higher risk should be accepted to support young researchers fresh ideas. 4 Mar 18:48 Belgium Prins Leopold Institute of Tropical Medicine Le Ray Dominique We are participating in the EU projects since the start ( INCO, 1984) despite the EC increasing administrative intricacies. Now it is getting too much, we all get fed up. Do you want european research committing suicide ? 16 Apr 10:50 Belgium PWR Mike Parr 1. I have been a project proposal evaluator and project reviewer & helped draft work programmes. The Framework Porgramme is focused on a process not a result. There are very few projects that live on after funding funishes mainly due to this fact. The result we want is stronger companies, the result we get is mostly funding for the usual suspects. Large Euro companies tend to subsitutute government funds for their own R&D funds - they have a poor record with respect to those in the US. The FP needs to be reformed - it is a process and fails to produce any sort of real result. 31 Mar 12:45 Belgium RBINS Erik Verheyen The European Council of Ministers and the Parliament should understand that the present state of affairs actually discourages scientists to use EU funded R&D schemes, this is probably unintentional, but nevertheless a real issue. 19 Feb 21:32 Belgium Royal Academy Sciences, Arts and Letters of Belgium Jean Pol Vigneron All programs should allow for long-term science support, in addition to immediate applications 31 Mar 13:40 Belgium Royal Belgian Institute of natural Sciences Koen Martens I am coordinator of an EU MC RTN project which ended October 2008. At this stage (March 31 2010) the final report is still not approved... 1 Apr 10:42 Belgium Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences Isabelle Schon As a PI of a Marie-Curie Research and Training network I got first-hand experience of the unnecessary administrative obstacles scientists have to constantly fight these days when being involved in a larger European project. I agree that there have to be certain rules that need to be obeyed. However, we should not loose track of the most important task of European Scientific Projects, namely to support and conduct science. The increasingly complicated rules to manage European research projects are counterproductive, especially when compared to the aims of the ERA. The equal participation of financially weaker participants, e.g. from Eastern Europe or from non-profit organizations, is furthermore jeopardized because of the complicated financial rules and their implantation. 4 Feb 18:20 Belgium Science Business Publishing Ltd. Richard Hudson Its up to the European Parliament to reform the funding rules, as already suggested by the Court of Auditors and the new Research and Innovation Commissioner. So I look forward to seeing how the Parliament responds this Spring. 15 Mar 12:03 Belgium Solvay Abbott George Syrmalis If we are to move ahead, then Government should start being effective as corporations are. 26 Feb 09:56 Belgium ULB Liao Tianjun This burdon takes more and more time from our research and leaves us with all the paper work - most of it not really necessary. 4 Mar 12:09 Belgium ULB Véronique de Halleux As Consortium Technical Officer my role is to supervises with the Coordinator and the Board the implementation of the work plan and leads WP6 devoted to dissemination, exploitation, and intellectual property. However, this first project year, administrative tasks such as amendement procedures of the Grant agreement took me more time than expected... and it is a pitty for dissemination! 4 Mar 12:30 Belgium ULB Yves Geerts I was coordinator in FP5 and FP6, currently I am coordinator of a large EC project in FP7 ... administrative burden grows exponentially. The Commission Officers can not face the administrative burden that they create. Audit certificate, time sheets, LEAR, etc... are simply not necessary. Excessive bureaucracy impacts negatively on the image of the Commission in Europe and wastes tax payer money! 6 Mar 12:09 Belgium Université catholique de Louvain Jean Delbeke There is no limit to justified rules and controls as they all prevent some mishaps. At some point, however, the resulting administrative cost and burden takes up all resources. Efficient action is actualy fueled by the remaining trust. 8 Mar 10:47 Belgium Université catholique de louvain Alain DECCACHE Fully agree with the need to simplify procedures, in projects evaluation as well as in administrative and funding matters. Make them more transparent ! 8 Apr 23:44 Belgium Universite Catholique de Louvain Shady Attia tedious effort 23 Apr 15:22 Belgium Université catholique de Louvain Pascal Dupuis I would like to invest my time and energy into performing research, not run after funding, writing financial reports, prove that buying something for two euros was done the right way, and so on 26 Apr 09:59 Belgium Université catholique de Louvain Peter Van Roy The main criteria for evaluating research should be quality and innovation of the science and technology. Evaluation of management should be binary (pass/fail), not a numerical score that is added to the overall score. The experts chosen for the evaluation should be the *best* researchers in the area, not just *average* researchers, which is the current situation. 10 May 11:46 Belgium Université Catholique de Louvain Glénisson Wendy To perform research, we need funds! To day the application for fund can last for 6 months or more... this is fat too long! We need shorter and easier and faster fundings procedures! 25 Feb 18:34 Belgium Université Libre de Bruxelles Marco Dorigo There is a lot of useless bureaucracy connected with EU funded projects. I think the top example are time sheets in which we record the work time of researchers! 26 Feb 12:11 Belgium Universite Libre de Bruxelles Arne Brutschy . 26 Feb 20:43 Belgium Universite Libre de Bruxelles André Herchuelz Money should be given to do research and not unecessary collaborations or organisations 28 Feb 00:11 Belgium Universite LIbre de Bruxelles Ariane Toussaint Less administration, more time for research. 5 Mar 16:02 Belgium Université Libre de Bruxelles Bruno Dujardin Have a Look at the last TEMPUS Call : with the new UE administrative form, it took more than 80 pages and 2 months ETP just to fulfill their administrative and financerial requirements !!!! 26 Feb 11:07 Belgium Université libre de Bruxelles/I.R.I.B.H.M. Jacqueline Van Sande Writing a project may clarify ones ideas,but when the time and effort it requires reach the actual level,it hampers research.Research is hard work.If paper work consume thetime one needs to think about it , it kills research. We need also some freedom. It is impossible to foresee in details what we will find and where the results of an experiment will lead us . 23 Mar 18:04 Belgium University Gent Patrick Van Damme enough administration, and if you want us to deliver, then: pay for it.. also: avoid duplication... 3 Mar 23:43 Belgium University of Antwerp Arjen van Witteloostuijn The tendency to emphasize accoiuntability and control is over the top. This is not helpful at all in Europes attempt to boost high-quality academic research in the global marketplace. 24 May 13:52 Belgium University of Antwerp Dominique (Nick) Schryvers why not simply couple funding on the output during previous years? No need to write lengthy projects that finally change anyway while running. Researchers that have shown to produce serious output, will most probably keep doing so in the near future. 22 Mar 14:35 Belgium University of Liège Dominique Dehareng I chose Science to make Science, not a lot of reports and administration, otherwise I would haven chosen Administration. 27 Apr 13:12 Belgium University of Liege Edwin De Pauw The administrative load is by far too high and some administrative constrains are brakes for innovation. 27 Apr 21:22 Belgium University of Liege Serge Hiligsmann We also should claim for the same or similar submission forms in any funding instruments available in all european countries. 26 May 11:07 Belgium University of Liège David Colignon . . 3 Mar 13:40 Belgium University of Mons Carla Bittencourt Funding schemes only work if they are flexible enough to allow the continuous adjustments of budgets and work plans. The rigid rules of EU funding result in a massive waste of money in nonproductive administrative exercises and hamper the progress of research. 16 Mar 18:28 Belgium VIB Department of Plant Systems Biology, Ghent University Pierre Hilson I have the mixed blessing of coordinating an FP6 integrated project. The consortium works well, the scientific project is excellent and my colleagues are constructive and supportive. Nevertheless, the administration is a real burden with hundreds of reporting pages that need to be submitted annually. This can only be achieved with the help of personnel solely dedicated to management and consumes a significant portion of the research funding. When discussing our constraints with US researchers, they are stunned by the cumbersome administration required for such projects. 25 Feb 20:38 Belgium Vrije universiteit Brussel Ann Nowe Has anyone calculated the cost of this bureaucracy? 25 Mar 15:31 Belgium Vrije Universiteit Brussel Adrian Munteanu EU research funding opportunities are much appreciated. However, the administrative burden and over-bureaucratic procedures associated with EU-funded projects are really discouraging and many are not motivated to participate in such initiatives because of these reasons. I think that the EU administration should better concentrate on assessing projects in objective terms (scientific results, IP generation, prototyping, industrial valorization, etc) and much less on filling-in tables with irrelevant data. 26 Mar 08:52 Belgium Vrije Universiteit Brussel Roger Vounckx The unbalance between the number of researchers in Europe and the available funding that permits them to actually work is extremely harmful to our research capacity, to the creation and -more importantly- to the safeguarding of know-how. Since Europes wealth is essentially based on brains, the present scientific policies with their ridiculous administrative overheads and their obsession with over-competition are nothing but destructive to our economy. 30 Mar 12:02 Belgium Vrije Universiteit Brussel Jan Lemeire Researchers are best in doing research. 26 Feb 00:48 Belgium Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) Luc Steels The current rules treat creative research laboratories and educational institutions as accounting companies and it just does not work. It creates enormous headaches to resolve inconsistencies and conflicts with all the rules imposed on us today and it causes precious resources to be taken away from real work. More and more one-sided decisions are taken by project officers without any possible appeal or without justification. As a result of all this bureaucracy the participation of top experts has steadily gone done and European research suffers. 25 Mar 15:15 Belgium VUB johan stiens 1) If you treat academics like industrials... dont forget to pay them like that. 2) If Europe wants to be at the forefront of research @ global level, give the means, freedom and thrust to the creative minds of the European region, who can bring ideas for future employment. 3) if you frustrate these creative minds, forget about the future of Europe Back | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||