The President of the European Research Council, an EU agency responsible for coordinating scientific research programs, has resigned from his post, “disappointed“by responding to the new coronavirus pandemic, according to a letter released to the public.
Mauro Ferrari announced his resignation in a letter to the British daily Financial Times, in which he explains “having lost faith in the system“.
“Professor Mauro Ferrari presented his resignation (…) on April 7. This resignation will take effect immediately as requested“A spokesman for the EU executive confirmed on Wednesday, without giving further details.
The Commission says “to regret“the departure of the professor”at the start of my mandate, and in these times of unprecedented crisis where the role of European research is essential“.
He will only have spent three months in office – his term began on January 1. In his letter, he states that the strategy he had developed to support research in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic was rejected by the scientific council of the CER.
“I was clearly disappointed, and deeply disturbed, by this unanimous rejection“, he wrote in this letter, published in full by the FT. According to him, the rejection was justified to him by the fact that the mission of the CER is to support projects without giving directives on the objectives or the fields of research. .
He then explains that he had the opportunity to work directly with the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, but that the fruit of his reflections was “reduced to nothing“by the different administrative levels.
In a press release published Tuesday evening, MEP Christian Ehler (EPP, right), who is following the Horizon 2020 dossier (name of the EU scientific program), regretted Mauro Ferrari’s decision.
“Mr. Ferrari’s recent proposal to move away from the researcher-driven CER approach was seen more as a front-end public relations operation on the coronavirus crisis, and was at odds with the legal basis of the ERC, which can and does contribute in many ways to the fight“against the Covid-19, he believes.
Describing Mr. Ferrari as “a brilliant researcher and entrepreneur“, however, he criticizes him for having spent more time in the United States than in Brussels during the first months of his mandate.
One of the three vice-presidents is the interim chairman of the ERC, said the European Commission, who stressed that “always respected, and will continue to respect, the scientific autonomy of the ERC“.
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