Horisont Europa er det nye forskningsprogrammet til EU som overtok etter Horisont 2020 i fjor. Tidligere i januar kom de aller f?rste tildelingene fra European Research Council (ERC), den f?rste runden med Starting Grants. Og SV-fakultetets forskere kom veldig godt ut. Totalt ni tildelinger gikk til Norge i denne runden, og hele to av disse ni gikk til forskere hos oss. Dekanatet gratulerer Manudeep Bhuller ved ?konomisk institutt og Lotte Thomsen ved Psykologisk institutt s? mye.
Dette betyr at v?rt fakultet stakk av med 22% av alle tildelingene her til lands. N?r det gjelder ERC-tildelinger, fortsetter SV-fakultetet ? konkurrere helt i toppen.
Fremover blir det spennende ? se hva vi f?r ut av de f?rste rundene av Consolidator Grants og Advanced Grants – i hver av disse har vi to forskere med i finalen. I forrige uke var det s?knadsfrist for den andre runden med Starting Grants. Deltagelsen fra oss var lavere der enn i den f?rste runden – to s?knader, etter det jeg har funnet ut s? langt – men jeg tror ikke det betyr at interessen for ERC er p? vei nedover p? fakultetet.
Ordnet seg til slutt etter budsjettrot
En sak som har skapt mye b?lger de siste m?nedene, er Fellesl?ftet, som er en satsing der 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det og forskningsinstitusjonene g?r sammen om ? bevilge penger. For UiOs del er det snakk om 12 forskningsprosjekter hvert p? rundt 25 millioner kroner, i alt 300 millioner kroner, med 150 millioner bevilget fra 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det og omtrent like mye fra UiO selv. Da Statsbudsjettet for 2022 ble lagt frem uten penger til 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?dets del, sto hele Fellesl?ftet i fare. Til slutt ordnet dette seg, og SV-fakultetet kan glede seg over to prosjekter som f?r bevilgning, ett ledet av Daniel Naurin ved ARENA og ett ledet av Kristine Walhovd ved Psykologisk institutt. Begge prosjekter er tverrfaglige – prosjektet ved ARENA 澳门葡京手机版app下载er s?rlig med forskere ved Det juridiske fakultet, mens prosjektet ved Psykologisk institutt 澳门葡京手机版app下载er med forskere ved Institutt for sosiologi og samfunnsgeografi og Frischsenteret.
Budsjettrotet med Fellesl?ftet kan v?re spikeren i kisten for denne typen 澳门葡京手机版app下载sprosjekt mellom 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det og institusjonene. Det kan v?re like greit – og det er to grunner til at jeg mener det. For det f?rste spytter universitetet v?rt inn store bel?p – her ca. 150 millioner kroner – til forskning som er evaluert av utenforst?ende. Riktignok er det all mulig grunn til ? se p? 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det som venner av UiO, og vi p? SV-fakultetet klager ikke over at akkurat disse to prosjektene kom gjennom n?l?yet. Men det er likevel rart at vi skal overlate prioriteringene av v?re egne midler til 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det i en s? stor skala. For det andre viser tumultene denne gangen tydelig at 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?dets bidrag til Fellesl?ftet kommer p? bekostning av andre smarte ting ? bruke penger p?.
Kan legge til rette for mye interessant forskning
N?r alt dette er sagt, skal jeg v?re ?pen om at det som fyller hodet til forskningsdekanen om dagen, er verken jubel over tilslag i ERC eller bekymring over rotet rundt Fellesl?ftet. I disse dager st?r slaget om hvordan 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?dets penger skal fordeles i ?rene som kommer. Det er tid for 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det ? revidere portef?ljeplanene sine.
澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det fordeler midlene sine via seksten portef?ljer, og for tiden er planene for tolv av disse oppe til diskusjon. Det foreg?r p? den m?ten at 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det sender utkast til planer ut til forskningsinstitusjonene for kommentarer. Ved UiO har SV-fakultetet ansvaret for ? organisere arbeidet med ? kommentere p? utkastene for planene til portef?ljene ?Demokrati, styring og fornyelse? og ?Velferd, kultur og samfunn?. Dersom vi jobber godt med disse kommentarene, legger vi til rette for mye interessant forskning finansiert av 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det ved dette fakultetet i ?rene som kommer. Samtidig m? vi ogs? hjelpe med ? bidra til at de ti andre portef?ljeplanene har formuleringer i seg som kan gi opphav til god samfunnsvitenskapelig forskning.
Vi st?r n? midt i denne prosessen. Vi har samlet inn innspill for de to portef?ljene vi har ansvar for, f?rst og fremst fra interesserte forskere rundt p? SV-fakultetet, men ogs? fra de andre fakultetene og enhetene ved universitetet. S? skal kommentarene til alle tolv portef?ljeplaner opp til en avsluttende behandling i 澳门葡京手机版app下载skomiteen, der alle forskningsdekanene sitter, f?r det hele sendes over til 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det.
En hel verden trenger hjelp
Blant de viktigste momentene i v?re kommentarer til 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?dets portef?ljeplaner er at 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det m? ?ke fokuset sitt p? grunnforskning. Bare p? den m?ten kan vi st? klare til ? l?se problemer i en fremtid vi enn? ikke kjenner. Videre m? 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det anlegge et globalt perspektiv og ikke bare v?re opptatt av ? l?se nasjonale problemer. Det er en hel verden som trenger hjelp, samtidig som l?sningen p? selv de mest s?rnorske problemene kan ligge der ute et sted. Og endelig m? 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det se sin virksomhet som komplement?r til EUs forsknings?finansiering, ikke som et supplement til den. Det at et problemomr?de f?r midler fra EU, m? ikke utelukke det fra ? f? midler fra 澳门葡京手机版app下载sr?det. Det er lurt ? bygge stein p? stein, ogs? der EU var de som la den forrige steinen.
Opening with a bang
Researchers from the Faculty of Social Sciences received a large part of the cake from the ERC award in Norway in January and will continue to compete at the very top, Research Dean Tore Nilssen predicts. In this editorial, he also gives an opinion on the Research Council of Norway, which he believes should think more internationally and complement the EU’s research funding in the current revision of their portfolio plans.
Horizon Europe is the new EU research programme that took over after Horizon 2020 last year. Earlier in January, the very first awards came from the European Research Council (ERC), the first round of Starting Grants. The Faculty of Social Sciences’ researchers did very well. A total of nine awards went to Norway in this round, and two of these nine awards went to our researchers. The Deanery offers hearty congratulations to Manudeep Bhuller of the Department of Economics and Lotte Thomsen of the Department of Psychology.
This means that our faculty won 22 per cent of all awards here in Norway. When it comes to ERC awards, the Faculty of Social Sciences continues to compete at the very top.
Going forward, it will be exciting to see what we get out of the first rounds of Consolidator Grants and Advanced Grants – in each of these we have two researchers in the final. Last week was the application deadline for the second round of Starting Grants. Our participation was lower there than in the first round – two applications, according to what I have found out so far – but I do not think this implies any decline in interest in ERC at the faculty.
Finally resolved after budget mess
One issue that has drawn a lot of attention in recent months is “Fellesl?ftet” (the Joint Pledge), which is an initiative whereby the Research Council of Norway and research institutions join forces to allocate funding. For UiO, this concerns 12 research projects, each for around NOK 25 million, at a total of NOK 300 million, with NOK 150 million allocated from the Research Council of Norway and around the same amount from UiO itself. When the Norwegian National Budget for 2022 was presented without funding for the Research Council’s share, the entire Joint Pledge was in jeopardy. In the end, this was resolved, and the Faculty of Social Sciences is pleased to have two projects that receive grants, one led by Daniel Naurin at ARENA and one led by Kristine Walhovd at the Department of Psychology. Both projects are interdisciplinary – the project at ARENA cooperates in particular with researchers at the Faculty of Law, while the project at the Department of Psychology collaborates with researchers at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography and the Frisch Centre.
The budget disruption concerning the Joint Pledge may be the nail in the coffin for this type of joint project between the Research Council and the institutions. This may be just as well – and there are two reasons for this. First of all, our university contributes significant amounts – in this case approximately NOK 150 million – to research that is evaluated externally. There may be every reason to view the Research Council as friends of UiO, and at the Faculty of Social Sciences we are pleased that these two projects got through the eye of the needle. It is nevertheless strange that we should leave the prioritisation of our own funds to the Research Council on such a large scale. Secondly, the disruption this time round clearly shows that the Research Council's contribution to the Joint Pledge comes at the expense of other smart ways of spending the money.
May facilitate a lot of interesting research
Having said all this, I must admit that what concerns this research dean most at the moment is neither celebration of the ERC awards nor concern about the mess affecting the Joint Pledge. The current battle rather concerns how the Research Council's money should be distributed in the years to come. It is time for the Research Council to revise its portfolio plans.
The Research Council allocates its funding via 16 portfolios, and the plans for 12 of these are currently up for discussion. The process is that the Research Council sends draft plans out to the research institutions for comment. At UiO, the Faculty of Social Sciences is responsible for organising the work of commenting on the draft plans for the “Democracy, governance and renewal” and “Welfare, culture and society” portfolios. If we work well with these comments, we will facilitate a lot of interesting research funded by the Research Council of Norway at this faculty in the years to come. At the same time, we must also help ensure that the ten other portfolio plans are drawn up in a way that can lead to good social science research.
We are now in the middle of this process. We have collected input for the two portfolios for which we are responsible, primarily from interested researchers at the Faculty of Social Sciences, but also from the other faculties and units at the university. The comments on all 12 portfolio plans must then be submitted for final consideration by the Research Committee, of which all the research deans are members, before everything is sent to the Research Council.
A whole world needs help
Among the most important elements in our comments on the Research Council's portfolio plans is that the Research Council must increase its focus on basic research. This is the only way that we can be ready to solve problems in a future we do not yet know. Furthermore, the Research Council must establish a global perspective and not be solely concerned with resolving national problems. There is a whole world that needs help, while the solution to even the most specifically Norwegian problems may lie out there somewhere. Finally, the Research Council must see its activities as complementary to EU research funding, not as a supplement to it. The fact that a problem area receives funding from the EU must not exclude it from receiving funding from the Research Council. It is a good idea to build stones on stone, even when the previous stone was laid by the EU.