The European Scenario

In most of the European countries research is traditionally carried out by public bodies that can generally be divided into the following categories:

• Funding agencies
• Performing bodies
• Mixed bodies (both funding and performing)

In the UK and in The Netherlands research in both space- and ground-based astronomy is almost entirely performed in the Universities, apart from few specialized institutes. Funding and strategic priorities are planned and pursued through funding agencies (PPARC and NWO for UK and The Netherlands, respectively). Priorities and strategic plans are defined with the contribution of scientists and experts from the Universities. In the UK, PPARC also provide the participation to international organizations like ESA and ESO.

In France, Germany, Italy and Spain the systems are more complex. Besides Universities, scientists working in Research Institutes provide a strong contribution to astrophysical research. The main Research Institutes are CNRS/INSU in France, MPG in Germany, INAF in Italy and CSIC in Spain; although, smaller independent Research Institutes exist. Here, astronomers typically have a low involvement in educational and teaching activities, although they contribute to the training of younger scientists.

Funding is provided through several channels. A fraction is directly managed by Research Institutes; while another fraction is provided by the government through a nation-wide competition, often open to all scientific disciplines. This is done either by specific agencies (like ANR for France and DFG and PT-DESY for Germany) or directly by the relevant Ministers, like in Italy and Spain. In addition, a strong contribution to Astronomy is provided by Space Agencies (CNES for France, ASI for Italy, DLR for Germany, INTA for Spain) which have an autonomous role in planning and funding researches, both in Universities and in Research Institutes, and in participating to ESA programs.

With such a large number of participants combined with the independent planning and funding capabilities of ESA and ESO, it is not surprising that the decision-making process is often complex and non-linear at the European level, and it is sometimes felt to be too inefficient.

In addition, astrophysics is very interdisciplinary in nature, overlapping with many other scientific disciplines, such as fundamental physics, biology or earth sciences. As a result, the way these boundaries are defined is difficult to establish, and it varies from country to country and from agency to agency.

The goal of this document, and of ASTRONET, is to provide a comprehensive view of these management systems, focusing on the European countries that launched the ASTRONET initiative.

We provide in this chapter a global overview of all these systems. In the following chapters, we provide a more detailed description by each country. Before going into the descriptions, three important cautionary remarks need to be discussed.

First, the present report describes only the major European countries involved in ASTRONET: France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain and United Kingdom. This is not surprising, since these countries have promoted the ASTRONET initiative and have been, therefore, the most prompt in providing the wealth of information requested to compile this report. However, ASTRONET has initiated from its earliest phases measures to include as many European countries as possible. As a result, several European countries have entered or are considering joining ASTRONET over the recent months. As this process develops, the opportunity or necessity of a second version of this report will be assessed, to provide a more comprehensive view of the European scenario.

In addition, it must be kept in mind that the organisation and the managing rules of these large countries are often subject to significant changes. Over the last 18 months, for instance, a new agency for research funding, ANR, has started its operations in France, a new funding scheme for large infrastructures, FIRST, has been announced in Italy, and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) in the UK has been merged with other Research Councils to form the Science & Technology Facilities Council. This report provides a description of the systems as of December 2006: as such, it does not describe the new Science & Technology Facilities Council, nor other recently announced changes in other countries.

Finally, a considerable effort has been devoted to the collection of quantitative data about the financial and human resources dedicated to Astronomy in each country. Despite this effort, the data acquired are still incomplete and inhomogeneous. One of the major reasons is the fragmentation and complexity of the European organisation in Astronomy, and research in general. In many countries, researches are carried on in many independent institutes, most notably Universities, and statistics about personnel and funding have not been compiled recently. Even when available, these statistics refer to different years and do not provide a view of the average investments over the last years, as would be more appropriate. In addition, accounting and budget systems are also much different and difficult to compare in a self-consistent way. Finally, the very definition of astronomy, and its splitting into sub-areas, is considerably different from country to country. As a result, some of the numbers that we provide are subject to uncertainties, and comparisons between different countries should be made with caution.