EUROPE: Nowotny new ERC President?

With the retirement of Fotis C Kafatos as President of the European Research Council and Chairman of the Scientific Council, rumours in Brussels suggest Helga Nowotny, one of the vice-presidents of ERC, will be elected to take his place at the next meeting of the Scientific Board in Bucharest next month.

Nowotny, 73, is professor emeritus of the social studies of science at ETH in Zurich and is a former Director of Collegium Helveticum. Originally trained in macro-sociology at Columbia University, she later moved to social studies of science and technology where she has written extensively on scientific discoveries, technological risks, the study of time, innovation in science and technology and on research policy issues.

Her latest book on innovation, Insatiable Curiosity: Innovation in a fragile future, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2008.

Nowotny participated in the planning and establishment of the ERC. At the Swedish EU Presidency Conference in Lund last July, New Worlds - New Solutions, she strongly argued that the future success of the council was dependent on a bigger budget so its success rate could increase to 15% to 20%.

Given a total ERC budget of EUR7,510 million for 2007-2013, her proposal to strengthen it is an indication of the programme's remarkable success.