Dear colleagues,

The discussions at the next summit of the European Union heads of state
or government, which is scheduled for 22 and 23 November, will be
decisive in determining the EU research budget for the next seven years.
Several Member States are demanding severe cuts on the total EU budget
and research will have to compete with other policy priorities. 

This is a time when we, the scientific community, should act together
and make our case to protect research funding, including that of the
European Research Council (ERC), from cuts. Decisions will be prepared
in discussions among politicians at the national level. All of us must
look for opportunities to affect these decisions and send a strong
signal to the heads of state or government.

An open letter signed by European Nobel laureates has been published in
top European newspapers this week. The impact of this letter will be
increased if it is followed by a mobilization of the national scientific
communities. To keep the momentum going, an online petition has been
launched:

http://www.no-cuts-on-research.eu

I would like to ask you to sign it and to encourage all your colleagues
to do likewise. Note that in the past, less than 30 000 scientists
signed the largest petition for a European scientific cause compared to
the hundreds of thousands of signatures on petitions from other groups
of society.  We must do better than that.

This action is coordinated by the Initiative for Science in Europe
(ise@i-se.org; www.initiative-science-europe.org), of which EMBO is a
member.  Please contact Wolfgang Eppenschwandtner, Executive Coordinator
of the ISE if you have any questions or suggestions.

Best regards,

Maria Leptin

Director   
EMBO - excellence in life sciences
Meyerhofstr. 1
69117 Heidelberg, Germany
tel +49-6221-8891-102
fax +49-6221-8891-202

maria.leptin@embo.org