Statement by the EIC Advisory Board and the ERC Scientific Council

The importance of knowledge creation and research for our well-being and the prosperity of our society and economies cannot be overstated. The ability to formulate questions and to seek answers to understand the world around us is a distinguishing feature of being human. Research is key to satisfy our innate curiosity and imagination.

At the European level, this was recognised in 2007 with the establishment of the European Research Council (ERC) to fund the highest quality curiosity-driven research, and in 2021 with the founding of the European Innovation Council (EIC) to support ground-breaking innovations. Both institutions aim to nurture the best talent in research and in innovation. Their presence under the same framework programme, Horizon Europe, recognises that many ERC researchers are also innovators and many EIC innovators also are researchers.