The new president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, drew criticism from the scientific community in Europe when he proposed reallocating a portion of the budget for the new research and innovation program, Horizon 2020, to establish an investment fund intended to create jobs and jump-start the economy in the countries of the European Union. Horizon 2020 is expected to receive €70 billion over the next six years for research in fields such as biotechnology, health and transportation. Juncker wants to use €2.7 billion of that to set up an investment fund that would obtain additional funding from other programs and eventually reach €21 billion. According to Juncker, the idea is to attract counterparties from the private sector as well as from national governments, thereby raising investments in the new fund to €315 billion within three years. The League of European Research Universities issued a protest note: “The Horizon 2020 program is not a lemon. Stop squeezing it.”
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