Royal Society response to resignation of President of the European Research Council

"The resignation of Mauro Ferrari as President of the ERC is an unwelcome distraction from the efforts of the European scientific community to tackle the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.  Anything that could undermine the hugely important work of the ERC, its Scientific Council, the European Commission and wider European cooperation in these difficult times can only be to the detriment of us all.

"There are a variety of EU funding sources specifically for work on Coronavirus (COVID-19) and they are very welcome but the bottom-up funding of the ERC, which gives freedom to pursue novel ideas, will also be playing a huge part in helping us fight this pandemic."

Venki Ramakrishnan, President of the Royal Society