The effect of the European Union budget talks "is decidedly mixed for scientists," ScienceInsider reports. At the talks, EU leaders decided on a 3.4 percent cut to the EU budget, which comes to a €960 billion budget for 2014 to 2020.
However, one aspect of the budget that includes research funding would get a substantial — 37 percent — boost, ScienceInsider adds, though it notes that that is less than what researchers had been lobbying for. Further, the Horizon 2020 science program is to receive €70.96 billion, less than the proposed €80 billion, but more than what the current science funding has received.
"Our feeling is that €80 billion is required to deliver on the ambitious and exciting proposal that the commission presented," Paul Boyle, the president of Science Europe and the chief executive of the UK's Economic and Social Research Council, says. "Anything other than that is disappointing news from Science Europe's perspective."
The budget, ScienceInsider adds, is not final as it awaits approval by the European Parliament.