Understanding and Assessing the Impact and Outcomes of the European Research Council and its Funding Schemes

This is the final report of an international research project funded by the ERC and entitled EURECIA. In a nutshell, EURECIA set out to develop a novel methodology for the study of the impact of research funding schemes on knowledge and its social conditions, and to apply this to investigate the impact (effects) of the ERC and its funding schemes on science. From the outset EURECIA was conceived as a project to explore novel approaches and methodologies to the study of the impact of funding and policy schemes and to collect preliminary data.EURECIA constitutes a departure from more traditional approaches in two important ways: a) by interrogating the relationship between research funding and the science system rather than the economy and society at large; and b) by broadening the ‘impact’ question to include not only intended effects as read through the objectives but also other possibilities.