This week I have attended the annual ATS (American Thoracic Society) conference in Washington. One of the sessions at the conference was about global warming and lung health. The first part of the session was science, the other politics. This editorial will deal with the latter. One of the speakers was Carol Browner, who served as director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy under the Obama administration, and is also a previous head of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). She presented a rather shocking outline of the methods used by the oil, coal and automobile industry to misinform about global warming and health consequences. These methods make those used by the tobacco industry regarding cigarette smoking and health to look like nothing. These industries are now backed by the current head of EPA under the Trump administration, Scott  Pruitt. He has now laid off scientists, closed EPA web pages, and is planning to reduce the agency by about one third.

Does this concern us? Yes, as it does all of us, but also according to the ex-head of EPA, Carol Browner, particularly so as researchers. In this case, it affects particularly scientists into climate and health. The next time it could be other topics.

As researchers, we have traditionally had little interest to communicate our knowledge to the population at large. What is important is the scientific journals. However, times have changed, and so must we. Scientific publications does not exclude dissemination to the public. A good example is the communication about consequences of lack of vaccination that Becky and Kristin from K2 had last year.

Fake news and alternative facts should be opposed. This is a particularly responsibility for university employees!

Per

The ERC was created to address the need to develop long-term funding for researchers to pursue ground-breaking, high-risk/high-gain research where the intention is to establish excellent research environments in Europe. Scientific excellence is therefore the sole evaluation criterion for selecting the principal investigator and the scientific project. The ground-breaking nature and ambition of the project must be balanced by feasibility. In addition, the intellectual capacity, creativity and commitment of the principal investigator are evaluated. Proposals should cross the boundaries between different fields of research and ERC is welcoming pioneering proposals addressing new and emerging fields of Research.

The principal investigator of an ERC Starting Grant shall have been awarded his or her first PhD degree > 2 and < 7 years ago, while this period for the ERC Consolidator Grant is > 7 and < 12 years. Clinical training, long-term illness, maternity- and paternity leaves can be taken into consideration when calculating the effective elapsed time.

The ERC Starting and Consolidator Grants are looking for independent young and mid-career scientists who may become the future top notch researchers and/or leaders in their research field. What could, in your case, be seen as proof of research independence? It is expected that the applicant will have produced at least one important publication as main author or without the participation of their PhD supervisor for Starting Grant candidates, and several such publications for Consolidator Grant candidates.

For 2016, the success rate for Life Sciences proposals was 14 % for Starting and Consolidator Grant proposals; success rates which are in line with, or even higher than, similar programs from the Research Council of Norway.

We urge you to contact us if you consider applying for these grants during 2017 or 2018. The call for the Starting Grant will most likely open during summer 2017 and usually has deadline during October, while the Consolidator Grant call is expected to open during fall 2017 with the expected deadline during February 2018. In that respect, we want to make you aware of the ERC Starting and Consolidator Grants Course arranged by the Division of Research Administration at UiB. Representatives from the company Beacon Tech will guide you through the proposal elements and talk about presenting the research idea and yourself. You can book a session with them after lunch to discuss your idea and further questions. The course takes place 14 June at Hotel Ørnen and you can register via this link.

Helge, Eystein, Amra and Itana