History

The Chairpersons and Directors of European Research Councils Chemistry Committees ( CERC3 ), comprises representatives from nearly all European Union member states and Switzerland . The committee has the principal task to coordinate chemical activities in Europe and has no funds, assets or staff. At present, the CERC3 secretariat is run by the programme directors of CNRS (France) and DFG ( Germany ).

In 1999, nine CERC3 member councils took the pioneering step of the first calling for transnational applications for chemistry research grants in two topical subjects. The so called TransNat initiative agreed upon joint evaluation and received national funding. In total, 13 transnational applications from 50 working groups were evaluated. Ultimately, 2.5 million euros provided by 7 partner organisations was granted to 7 research projects consisting of 20 sub-proposals. In 2001, the French and German research councils made a bilateral call for joint research proposals from their two countries without fixing the subject. In this call, for the first time common, specially-drafted, electronic application and evaluation forms were used. 102 joint proposals by 279 French and German researchers were received, of which 29 proposals by 75 applicants received funding, summing up to a total amount of 7.5 million euros. Subsequently, in 2002, ten CERC3 member councils released a second round of TransNat calls in two topical research fields. By taking into consideration the experiences of CNRS and DFG, improved joint electronic application and evaluation forms were used. In total, 43 proposals were submitted for review.

The early CERC3 initiatives have turned out to be a useful tool to foster European cooperation in chemistry research. However, mainly because of big deficits in the mutual knowledge of the different national funding systems there are still many gaps and weaknesses in the interaction between the different parties.

As part of the Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technology ( FP6 ), the EU introduced a specific programme Integrating and Strengthening the European Research Area. From this a new initiative, the European Research Area Network (ERA-NET) was financed. As it core message, the ERA-NET programme has the initiative to overcome the traditional fragmentation of research efforts in the EU through better coordination and cooperation between national and regional programmes. Using a bottom-up approach, ERA-NET is implemented via an open call for proposal for coordination actions in any field of science and technology.

As a partner of CERC3, the ERA-Chemistry network is a first step towards an European Research Area in chemistry and was awarded a 1.8 million euros grant from the ERA-NET open call in 2003 and a contribution from the Swiss government. The ERA-NET ERA-Chemistry was officially funded since January 1, 2004 for an initial period of three years. In the initial period the ERA-Chemistry charter members comprised ten national research funding bodies from eight EU-countries and Switzerland. From January 2006 onwards the funding period was extended with two years. Since April 2006 the ERA-Chemistry network has fourteen partners, from twelve different European countries.
ERA-Chemistry will provide a great opportunity to put the chemistry network on a firm footing and to release the existing potential constituting the chemical bonds of the European Research Area.