A group of research-intensive universities has called on the European Union to rethink how it allocates its Widening funding, suggesting that it should be used to increase access to top competitive research grants for countries with weaker research and innovation performance.
The proposal, outlined in a position paper by the Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities, recommends using part of the EU’s Widening programme to support additional successful applications from eligible countries to the European Research Council (ERC) and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA).
The Widening programme is currently aimed primarily at improving research capacity in 13 newer EU member states, along with Greece and Portugal, by reducing disparities across Europe’s research landscape.
According to the university group, redirecting part of these funds to strengthen participation in highly competitive grant schemes would not undermine the “excellence-based” selection principles used by ERC and MSCA. Instead, they argue it could help improve research quality and competitiveness in underrepresented regions while maintaining merit-based evaluation.
The recommendation reflects ongoing debate within the EU about how to balance excellence-driven funding with efforts to reduce regional inequalities in research and innovation capacity.
