developments in the Eureka initiative. According to Georghiou, there is a clear role for Eureka in supporting the innovation needs of European industry, but only if the initiative is prepared to adapt, restructure, and attract new political commitment. Georghiou's group has suggested four possible scenarios: "autumn"—business-as-usual; "summer"—reorientation from R&D to innovation support and policy coordination; "spring"—relaunch and revitalization; and a fourth, "unthinkable" scenario, "winter" termination of Eureka. Officials have supported going ahead with the "spring" scenario, with a hint of "summer", but they have yet to action plan. The strategic review is currently making the rounds of European industry. First signs are that they support its conclusions. Ministers will decide what action to take at their conference in Istanbul at the end of June 1999. The pressure is on Germany, the incoming chair country, to ensure that Eureka faces a sunny future and does not perish in the depths of winter. David Bradley
Uniting peers An overhaul of the peer review of chemistry grant applications is in the cards at the U.K.'s scientific funding body, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The aim is to experiment with a new system that will be more flexible and give interdisciplinary research a fairer hearing. According to Phil Burnell, manager of the EPSRC's chemistry program, "It has been said that the tail is wagging the dog, in the sense that prospective proposers often feel that they need to tailor their applications to fit the system." He adds that EPSRC wants to change that perception by creating a new flexible grant application structure that does not "shoehorn applications" into the traditional categories of organic, inorganic, and physical chemistry. The new idea will ensure that new proposals will be treated fairly. To this end, EPSRC, which was set up five years sgo, will lxperiment with a aingle-panel peer review system in September 1999. The system will run in parallel with the present three-panel setup. New proposals will be sent to both panels, and their decisions will be analyzed to see which method selects the best research most effectively. "We are still working on the details," Burnell explains. But why change the present system at
all? The reason for changing the system is that one can always tune things up to work better, Burnell explains. Some sections of the chemical community, such as those involved in instrumentation or those whose research overlaps divisions of chemistry, perceive they are not being best served by the present system. "Some good science may be choked off before it even gets written down on paper because the scientists feel it won't get a fair hearing," says Burnell. However, the main driving force behind the proposed changes is that the amount of cash allocated to a particular area is based on the number of proposals with no accounting for quality. "If one of the three current panels gets more applications, then it gets the lion's share of the funding, and I just don't think that'sright,"says Burnell. "Instead, money should follow the quality." The new system will mean that the funding structure will have less influence on the proposals that EPSRC attracts. "We are attempting to deal with proposals effectively, whatever their science content," he adds. Some members of the chemical community are worried that EPSRC is attempting a fait accompli to cut down on red tape. Nevertheless, following the single-panel experiment, EPSRC will consult the community to debate the issue openly before making afinaldecision. 'We should be reflecting what the eommunity wants to oo," says Burnell. The dog will then surely be wagging its tail. David Bradley
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Analytical Chemistry News & Features, July 1, 1999 443 A
