Structures, mechanisms and consequences of Europeanization in research: how European funding affects universities

Abstract

European integration in research funding can be interpreted as a complex, conflict-ridden historical process containing paradigmatic shifts in cultural values and political goals. One of these transformations entails a change of objectives from promoting transnational cooperation of research institutions towards fostering the ‘scientific excellence’ of individual researchers. Institutionally, this is mirrored in the establishment of a genuinely supranational funding organization, the European Research Council (ERC). Led by a Mertonian sociological framework, the paper presents the results of an empirical study on the impact of the ERC’s funding upon public universities from the perspective of researcher’s vis-à-vis their institutions. Findings comprise conditions and contexts, action strategies and consequences of the Europeanization of universities, such as country- and discipline-specific pathways, the re-distribution of tasks and resources in market-based university competition, effects on researchers’ scientific careers and mobility, and the impact of funding on the disciplines and knowledge content.

KEYWORDS:

• Europeanization
• European integration
• European Research Area
• European Research Council
• research funding
• research excellence
• universities
• social mechanisms

Acknowledgements

For their helpful comments on a previous version of the manuscript, I would like to thank an anonymous referee and the editor.

Notes on contributor

Barbara Hoenig received her qualifications in sociology at the Universities of Graz (Diploma 2001, PhD 2009) and Innsbruck (Habilitation 2016). Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Luxembourg (2015-2016), substitute Professor at the University of Linz (2017-2018), currently lecturer at universities in Germany and Austria. Publications on the sociology of knowledge and science, social inequalities, and European integration.

Notes

1. In the EU context, the ‘juste retour’ principle designates the fact that its member states can expect to receive a fair return on investment on an equitable geographic basis, compensating for their financial contributions to the supranational entity.

2. In a more encompassing research project, these findings were also combined with applying quantitative bibliometrics and curriculum vitae analyses of 600 researchers. For some results, see Hoenig (2017a).

3. The institutional context of a research application is weighted as about 10–20% in the evaluation procedure, thus affecting the chance of an ERC proposal to be approved (HLEG 2015).

4. For the British Research Excellence Framework, see www.ref.ac.uk.

5. For the Dutch VSNU Standard Evaluation Protocol, see www.vsnu.nl.