European Research Goes for Gold
BBC News (02/27/07) Amos, Jonathan

`After five years of planning, the European Research Council (ERC) has been established,
 with the goal of increasing the global competitiveness of Europe's scientific 
community. In the past, the EU's Framework Programme was in charge of funding public 
research, and was known to be overly bureaucratic and to favor intricate collaborations. But the ERC, which will receive 7.5 billion euros by 2013, will not require specific themes, collaboration, or the return of a proportion of grant money to contributing nations.
A main point of the ERC's philosophy is the importance of emerging researchers, those
who have held a Ph.D. less than nine years. The administrative structure will support 
the young researchers, allowing them to put their own teams together.'
See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6399157.stm

European Research Council call for proposals: http://erc.europa.eu/

Regards,
Julianne