IPSEC V - Informal Meeting of Representatives of Physical Societies
Warsaw, 12 September 2005

Introductions
Maciek Kolwas welcomed everyone to the meeting and passed the chair to Jaroslav Nadrchal, who announced that there were to be two closely linked presentations on the European Research Council and the 7th Framework programme and then discussion would turn to the World Year of Physics and to EPS and the East-West Task Force.

European Research Council
Jerzy Langer of the Institute of Physics of the Polish Academy of Science and Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Science and Information Society Technologies stated that frontier research was a chance and a must and that he had been asked by the ESF to look at this. As Deputy Minister he wanted to increase the budget for research in Poland by at least 30% and believed that it was feasible to get this accepted by parliament.

The role of the EU treaty is to increase competitiveness not research. However, there are loopholes and one can argue that even basic research increases competitiveness. In Poland there has been a rapid increase in students (x5 in a decade). Private universities have been founded and public universities expanded. Research is needed for good education. There are good reasons why talented people go into research and in many cases stay there. With the exception of high energy physics (HEP) basic research is in small groups and needs relatively small grants. However, it does need a critical mass, the opportunity to meet to exchange and confront views and good quality laboratories. In Poland 80% of research is performed in universities and in the academies of the Polish Academy of Sciences whereas in the US and Japan there is much more industrial research.

The ESF put forward a position paper "New structures for the support of high quality research in Europe" arguing that basic research must be financed. The term "frontier research" was chosen rather than "basic research". A sum of 2x10⁹ euro was proposed (compared with a total funding of 4x10¹⁰ euro by research agencies in Europe). The European Challenge is how to compete with the US, how to compete for talent, etc. Award of grants should not be a political decision but based on award for excellence, with tough competition for the money, supporting only the best individuals and groups so that they become even better. Two years ago the European Commission was against the ERC. Now it is in favour and is talking about one third of the money in the Framework programme.

Basic research is an advantage for the new Member States, which are strong in physics, maths, etc. and relatively cheap although weak in new technologies. Uncompromised quality is an absolute must. We should all advocate the ERC and work for its success.

7th Framework Programme
Erika Szendrak of the European Commission.s Directorate General for Research spoke about specific programme ideas for the 7th Framework programme. Basic research has an important impact on economic performance - this is the strongest part of the argument and there is proof of this - Europe is not making the most of its research capabilities, and a new funding mechanism is needed at European level to reinforce excellence, giving added value through the impact of Europe-scale funding. The "ideas" programme in the FP7 proposal - building the Europe of knowledge - includes frontier research through the ERC with support to individual teams to promote excellence through Europe-wide competition (with no need to form consortia). There should be independent scientific governance, a dedicated implementation structure and a simplified grant mechanism.

A new term "frontier research" is needed to avoid outmoded distinctions between "basic" and "applied" research, between "science" and "technology", and between "traditional" disciplines. "Frontier research" reflects the importance of basic research to economic and social welfare, emphasising that it is at or beyond the frontiers of current understanding, is an intrinsically risky venture and is interdisciplinary.

The ERC Scientific Council will be a group of independent, respected personalities, reflecting the full scope of European research and acting in their personal capacity. They will be responsible for the oversight and the guarantee of the quality in scientific decision making. They will establish the overall scientific strategy, ensure preparation of the work programme, define peer review methodology, monitor and evaluate the programme implementation, etc. There will be an ERC dedicated implementation structure to implement calls for proposals, organize peer review, establish grant agreements, administer scientific and financial aspects, etc. We need to hope that the system won't crash at the start because of a high number of submissions. There is hope for funding of 1.5x10⁹ euro per year.

Discussion
The following points arose during discussion:
1. The current Framework programme is 5x10⁹ euro, and at present FP7 is 7.5x10⁹ euro. 0.5x10⁹ euro (10% of the current 5x10⁹ euro) is the minimum for the ERC.
2. As regards the large amount of money going to CERN, there is no one solution to the problems; long-term contracts are needed for large facilities.
3. There is a need for more entrepreneurship in Europe to gain benefit from the research, including a change in the basis of education. After the ERC we need a European Innovation Council.

World Year of Physics
Marta Kicińska-Habior spoke on the World Year of Physics in Poland. This started with the New Year's Eve ball at the Technical University in Warsaw and was followed by participation in the official launch in Paris. Poland also had participants in "Physics enlightens the world". Physics talent search to encourage young people has been a great success and will continue in following years. National events under the auspices of the Polish President include the composition of a symphony (premiere that evening), books published on the works of Einstein, national experiments on the measurement of dust pollution, a competition "we photograph physics", competition for the best lecture on relativity, etc. Festivals of Physics have been held in a number of towns throughout the country and similar events will continue throughout the year. There have been a number of conferences, with more to come. Postcards, posters, a CD with presentations for schools and various gadgets with WYP logos have been prepared. There have been several physics programmes on television, television debates, etc. Indeed there has been very good contact with the media, with much mention on radio and television, in internet services and in newspapers. Finance has come from EPS, national and local sources and from private companies.

An important part of the impact is that it has united teachers, local authorities and young people, particularly in small towns, to show that physics is everywhere. Teachers want it to continue.

East-West Task Force
A major task of the East-West Task Force is to support young people from former communist countries to attend EPS conferences. This was started 6 years ago and 80-100 people are supported annually. Application for support is through the national society. In addition there is the Young Physicists Fund, where the money goes to the conference organizers for them to choose whom to support. Denes Nagy, Chairman of the EPS Conferences Committee, had proposed that the East-West Task Force should no longer support physicists from the new Member States of the EU and that the money should be transferred to the Young Physicists Fund instead. However, attention has to be paid to the following factors: the situation of science in the new Member States had not changed significantly; from the start the East-West Task Force has distinguished between richer and poorer countries; the number of applications from new EU state is declining; high energy physics is a rich areas that does not require support. The feeling of the meeting was that, although it may be appropriate to cease providing funding to the new EU Member States at some time in the future, that time was some way off.

Dr Peter Melville LLM DEng FInstP FCIL
International Director, Institute of Physics
and Secretary, European Physical Society