ERC’s former president has warned that the pandemic COVID-19 could damage Europe’s ability to attract and retain scientific talent.

“I fear that we could be at a point where we lose three or four years of young researchers, because a number of them leave away claiming there is too much uncertainty, they’ve not been treated well, and so on. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon told Science|Business that this is the basis of his appeal.

European Union officials should begin gathering trustworthy data on the scope of the problem as soon as possible, in order to develop remedies before it is too late.

His present position is chair of Ludwig Maximilians University’s University Council, and he previously served as president of the European Union’s fundamental research financing organization. He spearheaded the ERC’s efforts to get a larger budget, allowing it to fund more projects and support more academics across Europe.

Research positions in the EU were becoming more and more risky even before the pandemic. More and more researchers are leaving academia, their original countries, or science altogether because they are being underpaid and denied long-term contracts.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the “research precariat” should be given better working circumstances and professional development. The European Union’s research ministers agreed on the need for more support for career advancement in the same month. A new rule in Germany has made it easier for young researchers to get long-term contracts, and France is preparing a 10% salary rise for early-career researchers in the public sector.

In spite of these additional safeguards, Bourguignon doubts that they’ll be able to withstand post-pandemic budget cuts.

According to Bourguignon, “The worry is that the epidemic has pushed this over the edge, and thus now it’s no longer wobbly, but it’s broken. he likened the supply of scientific talent to water in a pump: if it’s stopped, it’s difficult to get it going again. “It is difficult to restart the pump if the pump has stopped absorbing people.”

There are numerous indicators that the epidemic is worsening, but hard evidence is scarce.

As part of the Marie Sklodowska Curie program for researcher mobility, grantees were recently asked whether or not the epidemic affected their efforts. Nearly 83% of fellows indicated the impact has been negative or extremely negative. They are not in the worst situation, either.” According to Bourguignon, the MSCA’s support is excellent and long-lasting.

Other EU institutions have taken notice of the issue. For MSCA studies that had to be discontinued or postponed due to a pandemic, two Marie Curie researchers filed a complaint with the EU Ombudsman in October 2020. Two German MEPs contacted EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel to request funding for the prolongation of the study project. The Commission, on the other hand, did not give further cash except in a few circumstances.

Anecdotal experiences of young researchers grappling with the epidemic are recounted by Bourguignon, including field work that was postponed and months spent queuing up animals for studies that were halted by the pandemic. Data from across Europe should be gathered now, he says. “The most important thing to know is how widespread this is. As long as it’s just a few occurrences, these kinds of changes can be easily overlooked. “It could be a real problem if it’s a lot bigger,” he warned.

Research initiatives that were postponed, halted, or cancelled owing to the pandemic are of interest to Bourguignon. He wants to discover whether the impact of the epidemic vary between institutions, countries, or fields.

An EU-wide exercise is planned for next year, and a public meeting is scheduled for the near future. It is imperative that we agree on what data should be collected, and if feasible, how it should be collected so that the data can be compared, said Bourguignon.The pandemic COVID-19 could damage Europe’s ability to attract and retain scientific talent. More and more researchers are leaving academia, their original countries, or science altogether. European Union officials should begin gathering data on the scope of the problem as soon as possible. Nearly 83% of MSCA fellows indicated the impact has been negative or extremely negative. Anecdotal experiences of young researchers grappling with the epidemic are recounted by Bourguignon. An EU-wide exercise is planned for next year, and a public meeting is scheduled for the near future.