Chatting with Andreu Mas-Colell

The European Research Council has a new secretary-general, Andreu Mas-Colell, and Science Insider had a chance to speak with him about getting grants to young researchers and female scientists as well as the importance if focusing on excellence and "fair trade" in attracting new talent to Europe. "It's true that the twelve countries who recently joined the European Union had very low success rates. What can we do about it? Let me tell you what we can't do: change the rules. We are driven by excellence, and that will not change," Mas-Colell says.