Excellence and the gap between East and West two foci of Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities launch | myScience / science wire

"The new Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities will officially launch with an opening symposium on the 21st of November 2016 in the Bibliothèque Solvay in Brussels.

Composed of eighteen of Europe’s leading universities from across thirteen countries, the Guild is able to draw from fresh perspectives from all parts of Europe. Thus, at its official launch the Guild notes with alarm that despite new instruments in Horizon 2020 to support low-performing countries in research and innovation, the research and innovation gap between European universities has widened in recent years. The Guild thus calls for an urgent, critical evaluation of how we support excellence in Europe. Affirming the importance of excellence as a criterion for funding decisions, the Guild notes that every country (and every global ranking) has framed research excellence in different ways."