STOA-ERC event: 'Investing in researchers, shaping Europe's future', Brussels - Main contents

© Kevin Bergenhenegouwen

This event will be held as part of the Science Week at the European Parliament (5th- 7th February).

This year the Science Week will be composed of several elements; the 'Brussels Week' of the MEP-scientist pairing scheme, 'Science meets Parliaments', a joint initiative of the Joint Research Centre and the Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA) to strengthen links between scientists and policy-makers at the EU, national and regional level; the European Science-Media Hub activities and the STOA-ERC event which will bring together policy-makers and ERC grantees.

The STOA-ERC event will bring Members of the European Parliament and ERC grantees together to discuss 3 topics: smart agriculture/food, CRISPR and migration/demography to underline how Europe’s future can be shaped by basic research.

Follow us on Twitter under #ERCSTOA.

The event is open to the public.

Please register here

Provisional Programme

8.30 - 9.00 Welcome coffee/tea

9.00 - 9.35 Opening and welcome

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  Eva Kaili, STOA Chair
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  Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, ERC President
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  Prof. Alina Badescu, ERC grantee, Polytechnic University of Bucharest
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  Wolfgang Burtscher, Deputy Director-General, DG Research and Innovation

9.35 - 10.20 Panel session on smart agriculture/food

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  Moderator: Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, ERC President
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  MEPs: Martin Häusling (Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance) and Jan Huitema (Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe)
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  ERC grantees: Prof. Boaz Pokroy, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Israel and Dr Ana Isabel Caño Delgado, Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics, Spain

10.20 - 11.05 Panel session on migration/demography

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  Moderator: Angela Liberatore, Head of Unit for Social Sciences and Humanities, ERC Executive Agency
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  MEP: Eva Kaili, STOA Chair
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  ERC grantees: Prof. Steven Vertovec, Max-Planck-Institute, Germany and Prof. Vanessa Grotti, European University Institute, Italy

11.05 - 11.50 Panel session on CRISPR

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  Moderator: Margaret Buckingham, ERC Scientific Council Member
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  MEP: Paul Rübig, STOA First Vice-Chair
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  ERC grantees: Prof. Holger Puchta, Karlsruher Institute for Technology, Germany and Dr Laura Cancedda, Fondaziones Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy

11.50 Special remarks

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  Jean Arthuis, Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe

12:00 Closing remarks

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  Paul Rübig, STOA First Vice-Chair

The European Research Council (ERC) is part of the EU's Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7). It is set up by the European Commission to support investigator-driven frontier research and was established in February 2007 on the basis of the FP7 IDEAS specific programme, with a total budget of 7.5 billion Euro (2007-2013).

Its main aim is to stimulate scientific excellence in Europe by supporting and encouraging the very best, truly creative scientists, scholars and engineers, who are invited to submit their individual proposals in any field of research.