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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 Netherlands98 comments. (Note: Some comments are not made public accessible.) 22 Mar 11:32 Netherlands Academic Medical Center Maria Siebes The administrative burden of EU funding requires researchers to spend too much time on bureaucratic duties and accounting, to the detriment of actual time spent on research. Budget requirements need to be more flexible in order to not unduly restrict discovery two or three years into a grant. 22 Mar 11:45 Netherlands Academic Medical Center Stephan Kemp There are just way too many bureaucratic duties in EU projects. It takes away time that should be dedicated to the science of the project. 1 Mar 21:55 Netherlands Academic Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam John M. Karemaker The way the EU is spending its research money looks very much like the way it is running its own institutions: compromises based on national return and so much red tape and overhead that one wonders if it is about getting administrators employed rather than let researchers do their work. 10 Feb 12:19 Netherlands Agentschap NL Trudy Millenaar I agree with the statement that the administrative burden and the financial regulation of European research funding should be simplified. 16 Feb 09:49 Netherlands Alterra Erik van den Elsen Soneone should calculate how much time and (research) money is wasted on all this bookkeeping, it is really rediculous! 22 Mar 09:46 Netherlands Alterra Berien Elbersen EU research funding is of key-importance to bring EU cooperation further and to improve our scientific standards EU wide. The administrative burden during execution of projects makes time and resource investment in the project inefficient however. 18 Mar 22:28 Netherlands Alterra Wageningen UR Marta Pérez-Soba Lets be really efficient with research funds - just compare the costs of project auditing with the money gained based on the financial errors found. 19 Mar 10:16 Netherlands Alterra, Wageningen university and research centre Wim de vries I fully agree that the statement in Nature (Simplification is essential; Vol 463 | Issue no. 7284 | 25 February 2010) that the bureaucratic effort with detailed accounting to leave no room for corruption is out of all proportion to the amounts of money in question. Indeed: Simplification is essential 19 Mar 13:02 Netherlands Alterra, Wageningen University and Research Centre Theo van der Sluis ridiculous amount of bureaucracy for those applications... 15 Mar 16:08 Netherlands Alterra, Wageningen UR Robert Jongman My experience is that it is a little bit easier in FP7 than in FP6; still we have to deal at present with changing rules during the finaalisiation of a contract. 18 Mar 13:21 Netherlands AMC- medical Biochemistry Dave Speijer Scientific research is only compatible with a flexible control of spending, and can, by its very nature, not be too tightly regulated. 3 May 21:47 Netherlands CNCR Matthijs Verhage I find the administration required by EU for my funded projects (FP6 and FP7) as well as the burden for applying for new projects too tough. It takes up too much energy from scientists who cannot focus on their core bussiness. Simplification will be a major relief and major benefit for the operations in my institute 5 Mar 16:38 Netherlands Comprehensive cancer centre South Jan Willem Coebergh The EU has a unfortunate ugly & double face to us professionals who spend so much energy and good will in forging collaborations based on professional trust for the sake of european citizens. Let madame Cresson burn in hell for all this! 9 Apr 09:45 Netherlands DAF Trucks N.V. Jack Martens Lead time between submitting a proposal and final approval is too long, this should be limited to 4 months max. 23 Feb 20:07 Netherlands Delft University of Technology Johan Pouwelse Financial reporting and accounting should be simplified. Numerous millions are spend on accounting and red tape overhead. For every 10 people in EU projects, 1 extra person for administrative duties is required. This significant overhead can be reduced by simplifying and removal of exceptions. 18 Mar 12:53 Netherlands Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Geosciences Mark Dekkers Over the years application procedures and forms for many EU grant schemes have tripled or quadrupled in size without becoming more informative. This trend should be reversed. Bureaucratic and financial accounting has becoming increasingly complex as well, while it is not clear whether this contributes to a better research output and a more transparent handling. Simplify matters. 19 Mar 11:33 Netherlands Erasmus MC Elaine Dzierzak Reporting needs simplification. This will allow us as scientists to perform our functions as researchers more effectively, instead of taking enormous amounts of our time to fill out forms and reports. 18 Mar 11:36 Netherlands Erasmus University Rotterdam Rolf Zwaan In order for these funding mechanisms to work effectively and fairly, they need to be more transparent. 19 Mar 10:04 Netherlands ErasmusMC, dept. Hematology Marieke von Lindern I have participated in EU training networks since 1995. Never as a coordinator, but always with a very active supportive role in writing and coordinating the network. While administration was already complex in 1995, the number of rules and regulations have only been increased ever since. After participation in 4 networks I gave up untill the administration changes. 26 May 17:13 Netherlands European Research Institute in service Science Michael Papazoglou If Europe is to be competitive European research funding needs to be simplified. Too much time is spent on admin. work and filing out all kinds of forms. As researchers were confronted with all kinds of administrative trivia and support to do meaningful research. The actual research output of most research projects is questionable. Emphasis needs to be given to pre- competitive ground breaking research and not purely industrial research which is the current practice with FP-7 projects. Why cant we adopt the NSF example?? 25 Feb 13:14 Netherlands GROW Research School for Oncology and Developmental Biology Louis Peeters The preparation of a grant proposal for an EU project has become so time-consuming due to the enormous amount of superfluous details requested that the latter is only possible for the select group of scientists, which is allowed the luxury of a 2-3 months 100% preparation period. Scientists without this privilage have an enormous disadvantage, thus challenging the democratic character of the selection process. 23 Mar 16:09 Netherlands Hubrecht Institute, KNAW and Utrecht Medical Center Wouter de Laat great initiative, hope this will simplify this unrealistic bureaucratic exercise 24 Mar 09:37 Netherlands Institute of applied social research (ITS), Radboud University Nijmegen jeroen winkels lets introduce a simple rule for all European research proposals: the total number of questions and answers does never take more than one page. 4 Mar 16:30 Netherlands Institute of Health Policy and Management Marleen Foets In the end this requires so much time that better could be dedicated to the research rather to administratio. 4 Mar 16:58 Netherlands institute of Health Policy and Management - Erasmus University Gerrit Koopmans It is an illusion that creativity can be stimulated by controlling it. Im convinced that the costs of maintaining all these rules exceed the benefits. 18 Mar 21:35 Netherlands International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam Nahda Shehada I SUPPORT your initiative 25 Feb 17:02 Netherlands Leiden University Martin van Hecke European funding decisions need to be driven by scientific quality, if the EU ever wants to hope to remain competitive on a world stage. In addition, overhead and admin need to be limited, and should be significantly less than what they are now. 25 Feb 18:27 Netherlands Leiden University Michel Orrit Please simplify the administrative rules for using ERC grant credits. Much time is lost for useless double-checks. In addition, several rules may force researchers to adopt artificial/creative solutions to obey them. 25 Feb 21:42 Netherlands Leiden University Tjerk Oosterkamp Red tape is very costly 26 Feb 09:37 Netherlands Leiden University Jan Aarts A certain amount of trust is also cost effective and will generate more value for reseach money. Too much money is going to accountants, program officers, the organization of refereeing processes, negotiations with your own organizations etc. And just as in other areas of the public domain, too much time is devoted to the processes, not enough to content. 26 Feb 17:30 Netherlands Leiden University Thomas Schmidt Public research money should be spent for research rather than accountants & administrators. 14 Apr 08:58 Netherlands Leiden University Edu Boer ... and save money for us all: less rules. less administrative burden, less control measures 14 Apr 10:36 Netherlands Leiden University Ineke van der Hoef The money spent on administration to avoid risks can not be spent on research. It is important to accept a certain amount of risk in order to keep the balance between security and liberty (of research). 29 Apr 14:52 Netherlands Leiden University Jan Reedijk The growth of bureaucrats/administrators has been much faster than the growth of funding. So regulations have grown into the absurd. Simple protocols based on past performance and exciting plans should be enough for funding, with only a final report (after which the final x% can be received). 6 May 10:09 Netherlands Leiden University Nico Kaptein I fully agree with this statement 24 Jun 14:01 Netherlands Leiden University L.J.F. (Jo) Hermans Too much regulation and/or mistrust makes EU programmes extremely unattractive for high-level scientists, and thus makes them miss their goal completely. In addition, the amount of taxpayers money spent at burocracy and external auditing is appalling! 23 Feb 18:43 Netherlands Leiden University Medical Center Baptist Trimbos Horrible experience with a specific controller of the financial department with an obsession of details and paperwork. 18 Mar 09:53 Netherlands Leiden University Medical Center Harry Vrieling Scientist should spend their time on doing great science not on bureaucratic exercises. 18 Mar 10:24 Netherlands Leiden University Medical Center Niels de Wind Good research is faith and evidence-based and should not be disrupted by bureaucracy. Excessive bureaucracy will deter good researchers from applying for European grants and will reduce the quality of European research, rather than improve it. 18 Mar 10:50 Netherlands Leiden University Medical Center Rune Frants too much details 19 Mar 14:08 Netherlands Leiden University Medical Center Louis Havekes Hereby I declare that the EU research application rules should be simplified extensively 23 Mar 11:10 Netherlands Leiden University Medical Center Robert E. Poelmann It should be possible for scientists to write applications without hiring external experts to handle the many rules imposed by the burocratic rules. 18 Mar 09:57 Netherlands Leiden University Medical Centre Christine Mummery The admin is enough to make one stop applying for EU grants: in fact we are considering declining a small one becuse the cost of accountants control is almost as much as the grant will yield. 19 Mar 09:03 Netherlands Leiden University Medical Centre Peter den Heijer I support this initiative and hope that simplification of the rules lead to a higher financial support for (pioneering) research. 3 Mar 14:25 Netherlands Leiden University medical School Johanna Meijer Scientists are good in science. Not in administration. 26 Feb 10:49 Netherlands LIS Consult Huib de Vriend Preparation of proposals and, once a proposal has been granted, reporting requires a substantial amount of time. I really doubt the usefulness of extensive reporting requirements in a format that calls for a lot of repetitive statements. As a private consultant, this makes me very hesitant about being a participant in a FP project the next time. 7 Apr 16:02 Netherlands Maastricht University Sebastiaan Huntjens European funding is supposed to be invested in (fundamental) research and researchers should be enabled to do the job they were trained for: SCIENCE. Yet, due to the huge amount of management and governance of EU funded projects, a large portion of the funding is spent on accountancy and management and the time spent on research is reduced. In the end the european research area should be about European TRUST between commission and outstanding researchers throughout Europe! 19 Feb 21:19 Netherlands Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Peter Wittenburg The funding through the EC has become a major source for establishing European competitiveness in many areas. We should indeed simplify procedures to give the creative persons even more space for the creative part of their work to realize the Lissabon goals. 13 Apr 16:25 Netherlands Netherlands Vaccine Institute Ernst Soethout Costs for administration are immens when compared to costs for the intended research. 23 Feb 10:38 Netherlands Radboud University Gerbert Kraaykamp Please simplify!! 2 Apr 11:45 Netherlands Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre Terry Vrijenhoek Not only could the legal framework for research funding be more effective, it could also contain more fleixibility to react on emerging research themes instantly. The gap between research policy and actual research developments is still large, and should be closed to ensure true innovation. 20 Mar 13:17 Netherlands Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences/Hubrecht Institute Hans Clevers The bureaucratic burden surrounding EU grants has become heavier with each new round, ever since I acquired my first under FP3. It has now reached a level where the costs start outweighing the benefits. As a result, I find myself actively declining invitations to participate in several FP7 networks. 26 Feb 10:16 Netherlands Schenkelaars Biotechnology Consultancy Piet Schenkelaars The investment in time, that is the work required to submit proposals is substantial, in particular for small private consultancies, while the risk of not being funded may often be too large. In case of a succesful proposal, that is the actual research work is being funded, the work involved in reporting on the research work and the financial-administrative matters is also burdensome, also because the same things have often to be stated in different forms and formats. Another problem consists of complex accounting rules that are not always appropriate for the financial-administrative situation of small private consultancies. 16 Feb 09:25 Netherlands Square One Dr Peter Troxler Peter Troxler HIgh costs of the administrative part of EU projects are a deterrent for research-based SMEs to participate. This reduces potential take-up of research results and impedes innovation in Europe. 25 May 22:20 Netherlands Tilburg University Xavier Martin The EU has an important role to play in funding research, and responsible stewardship of that money is important. That is why streamlining the process will make Europe better off, indeed. 25 May 22:30 Netherlands Tilburg University Dean Hennessy Simplicity is (also) the mother of invention. 9 Mar 14:12 Netherlands TNO Heather Griffioen-Young The administration of framework projects desparately needs to be streamlined. The level of detail of financial reporting is too high, guidelines are often too vague and do not provide the concrete information that is needed, Brussels often acts according to the letter of the regulation rather than according to the spirit of the regulation, there is little uniformity in the way different project officers administer the projects. In sum, it seems that for each new project, we have to re-learn its coordination. 4 Mar 12:41 Netherlands Universiteit van Amsterdam Robert Kloosterman The bureaucratic hoops we have to jump through are a #@@$%%^ nightmare. And it keeps on increasing. I can understand a decent selection process and the implementation against corruption, but this is driven by a bureaucracy cut loose from the world of research. As it is now, researchers refrain from applying because of the admin load. 3 Mar 16:56 Netherlands University Medical Center Groningen Harold Snieder As a recipient of an International Reintegration Grant from the Marie Curie program I have experienced first hand that the administrative requirements of this relatively small grant were disproportionally large and extensive. 22 Feb 18:29 Netherlands University of Amsterdam Federico Savini Europe funded research will be more and more important in the future. Lets put the good conditions to let it develop. 24 Feb 09:53 Netherlands University of Amsterdam Herman Van de Werfhorst The European Research Area is easier to achieve with less bureaucracy and more support for researchers. 25 Feb 12:31 Netherlands University of Amsterdam Michaela Hordijk Even with a nice and willing project-officer dealing with EU-bureacracy is a nightmare, with sometimes impossible questions. Both bureacratic (URF procedures) as finance-questions we find embarrassing to pass on to our Southern Partners. 26 Feb 12:02 Netherlands University of Amsterdan Jacobijn Sandberg The administrative burden hampers the research. Especially the number of progress reports and deliverables required take far too much time which should be spent on the research itself. 19 Feb 09:43 Netherlands University of Groningen Jeanine Olsen The financial procedures are needless complicated. Best is to keep things simple which also makes the accounting simple. Work with real money rather than virtual money and complex matching models. I was involved in two NoEs and the financial end was a total nightmare. 27 Feb 17:36 Netherlands University of Groningen Tjeerd Andringa Trusting people leads to them giving more of their enthusiasm and creativity. Trusting people does not entail unaccountability if you keep the bureaucracy a bit personal. 19 Mar 12:37 Netherlands University of Groningen Caspar van der Wal The balance between work and investments aimed at controlling malconduct, and actual risk of malconduct, is far too much on the side of administrative checks. 28 Mar 20:19 Netherlands University of Groningen Muhsin Harakeh I have coordinated a number of EU funded projects and I find it quite cumbersome to deal with all the complicated procedures before and after securing the project. Simplification of the procedures as suggested in this declaration. 7 Apr 08:48 Netherlands University of Groningen frans sijtsma The EU has a great potential in creating inspiring and truly helpful science. Simplifying procedures is one of the things that will support realising this potential. 4 Mar 19:02 Netherlands University of twente Aiko Pras Assignment of research money should to a larger extend be based on past performance. 18 Mar 20:08 Netherlands University of Twente Willem Vos I agree that research should be steered mostly by output, not by input, and that simplification will greatly stimulate research initiatives. But there is no such thing as a free lunch: in return, obviously we researchers must also vow to adhere to ethics rules to make the system based on trust work; we should hence also stimulate each other to do so! 1 Mar 11:47 Netherlands Utrecht University Bas Leeflang The development of innovative ideas and the research required to explore their potential is essential to keep Europe at the frontiers of developments both in science and in entrepreneurial activities. The outcome of research has a certain intrinsic uncertainty. Hence the exact output of research investments is not known at the start. It is obvious that the funders, including the EC and national governments, would like to see safeguards that their money is none the less well spent. Quality control is important in this respect, but can not be modeled along the same lines as quality control in a manufacturing environment. The scientific community has developed well functioning schemes, that involve e.g. peer-reviews. 18 Mar 12:10 Netherlands Utrecht University Gert J de lange one of the reasons why I have not submitted any EU proposal during the last 5 years, is exactly the major administrative burden. 18 Mar 14:45 Netherlands Utrecht University S. Majid Hassanizadeh I have had many project since FP3. In the beginning, the administrative work was accepable. But, in recent years, it has gone out of proportions. We had a Marie Currie Conferences and Training project with 15 other partners. Our share of the budget was only around 80000 Euro. With that money, instread of one summer school, we organized two summer school. The officer in charge of our project drove all of us crazy, asking for so many nonsense document and making so many ridiculous demands. I will never ever go for an EU project anymore! 23 Mar 01:46 Netherlands Utrecht University Cor Langereis The huge administrative load of EU projects makes them less appealing for trying to get funding. It is definitely a burden that you wish to avoid. 23 Mar 10:58 Netherlands Utrecht University Willem van Eden The administrative burdens keep me away from being pro-active in EU research. 23 Mar 10:09 Netherlands Vrije Universiteit Andreas Ehlers Studying sciences is not enough to get funding from the eu 16 Mar 14:15 Netherlands Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam John Woodside The necessary reduction of bureaucracy will not result in irresponsible abuse of the system through any reduction in transparency. Funding of European research should have a strong bottom-up component with the built in flexibility to permit scientific research greater success. In short, we need a less domineering funding system. 29 Apr 16:20 Netherlands VU Free University Hospital Henk Blom The amount of paperwork is ridiculous 26 Feb 13:28 Netherlands VU University Maarten van Steen I admit having kept participation in EU projects to a minimum for one simple reason: a terrible signal-to-noise ratio. I fear the day that a large part of my research may depend on EU funding. 10 Mar 16:12 Netherlands VU University Maarten J. Waterloo I would rather spend my valuable time on research, which is in the interest of the European society, than waste it in bureaucracy... 30 Mar 07:55 Netherlands VU University medical Center Hans Brolmann the natural inclination of men to overregulate important processes should be counterbalanced 31 Mar 09:55 Netherlands VU University medical center Niels van Strien Give researchers the possibility to focus more time on research and education and less on bureaucracy. 1 Apr 10:10 Netherlands VU University medical center Jan De Munck Procedures to acquire fundings should be simplified and more funding should become available. 26 Feb 10:01 Netherlands Wageningen University Justus Wesseler The admistrative burden needs to be simplified to reduce the time spend on administration and to provide the flexibility needed for research projects to adjust to changes that are unavoidable within projects with several partners the EU asks for. 10 Mar 14:45 Netherlands Wageningen University Ken Giller The financial procedures with the EU have become so complex and problematic that it seems hardly worthwhile to seek funding for research. It is high time that the EU became more supportive of research rather than its current dictatorial approach with excessive controls. 12 Mar 13:52 Netherlands Wageningen University Martin van Ittersum The rules do not lead to better and more efficient research. 18 Mar 23:09 Netherlands Wageningen University Tinka Murk The horrible bureaucracy now refers me from taking initiative any more for EU-project proposals. 19 Mar 07:19 Netherlands Wageningen University WILLEM M DE VOS Being recipient of Framework Programme funding since FP2 (BEP fellowship) till now in FP7 and also as a recent ERC recipient I can only testify for the fact that burocracy is taking the wrong direction and increasingly the system is based on mistrust rather than on trust that should be based on past performance. I really hope that this can be changed for the better sooner than later to prevent that the talented scientists turn their back to the EU ! Kind regards WILLEM M DE VOS 19 Mar 10:16 Netherlands Wageningen University Gert Spaargaren Having participated both as coordinator and participant in several EU-projects in the 1990s, we were more or less frightened off in more recent time because of the huge dependency on rules and rule-specialists when developing innovative, front running scientific projects. 19 Mar 11:17 Netherlands Wageningen University Bas Van Vliet Recent experiences with EC bureaucracy in starting up or finalizing projects made me hesitant to initiate new EC funded projects. Time spent on administration was many times higher then time spent on doing research. 22 Mar 14:11 Netherlands Wageningen University Jelier Vervloet A good initiative, although I dont expect it will help. Bureaucracy is too powerfull. 23 Mar 11:27 Netherlands Wageningen University Robert Kraus The fact that European money makes it often neccessary to appoint full time project managers to cope with administrative rules makes we worried. Not only is overlay cost increasing in the politicial and administrative organs of the EU, but also it is now introduced in Science, where traditioanlly a maximum of focus is set to the work of the motivated and the honest. Black sheep are everwhere, but especially in Science people work in teams rather than in competition - even though we all do compete, we like collaboration more. 24 Mar 15:34 Netherlands Wageningen University Lijbert Brussaard I totally agree 15 Mar 10:51 Netherlands Wageningen University and Research Centre Ronald Hutjes The administration/justification of Research Grants should become much more output oriented than it currently is. I sincerely hope procedures in this direction can developed soon. 27 Apr 12:59 Netherlands Wageningen University and Research Centre, Food and Biobased Products Hans Mooibroek Too much control is more a sign of weakness than of strength. Carefull control of Deliverables and Milestones does not necessarily lead to good science and to succesful implementation of project results. 25 Mar 11:11 Netherlands Wageningen UR Peter Jongebloed I agree fully with the need for further simplification, although in FP7 some improvement has made compared to FP6. We should find a better balance between trust and control. So we need a more trust-base approach to realize the full potential of the ERA. Furthermore, to realize the 15% target for participation of SMEs in FP7-projects, further simplification is conditional 23 Mar 11:40 Netherlands WUR herman van keulen The complex administrative procedures discourage participation in EU projects and thus is a threat to knowledge generation 8 Mar 16:45 Netherlands Yellow Research Mette Skraastad The European Commission promised simplification at the start of FP7. Currently, FP7 and its associated research programmes are too complex and too much focused on control. 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