@FMMM1 I hope the EU has good scientific advisors because an uninformed person, despite having the best intentions, could come up with a plan that will do little to help or may even do more harm than good. So I would like to remind you that
@Jonathan Edwards would be happy to fulfill that role.
Speaking personally I am a little concerned that the wrong research will get funded. However, the Commission will presumably say that they have evaluators with the necessary skills. My knowledge is very limited; however, I understand that (Horizon Europe) applications are evaluated by the European Research Council - Mauro Ferrari (originally from Italy) is the new head of the Council.
When I say "wrong research" I don't mean poor quality psychological research; the petition was quite specific - the request is for biomedical research i.e. not psychological research.
Also I would not assume that this lobbying will be successful. However, I am hopeful that good quality applications for biomedical research are more likely to be funded now -- that still is not enough, we need good quality biomedical research funded now.
I would encourage anyone with an interest to join in this effort. There is an ME Action EU Facebook group. Also, there are opportunities to lobby in the UK via ME Action UK
@EspeMor
Jonathan Edwards is an incredibly bright guy and has so much knowledge/experience. When the Commission responded to a question asked by Pascal Arimont (MEP)
@Jonathan Edwards @Simon M @Trish provided comments, on this forum, which were useful in drafting the response [
https://docs.google.com/document/d/128lzPqm4kdzhUmSjtyktF7RWsi_ntzl2iWCZ37wWZPs/edit].
To me there is a big power imbalance here - we are a small group of individuals trying to "encourage" a large organisation, (monolith) i.e. the Commission, to help us. We will accept assistance from anyone in that!
I'm impressed by the consensus that Chris Pointing's GWAS offers hope of finding leads to understanding ME. So there are research areas which can be funded by the EU Commission and good research groups which desperately need funding to progress that research. Research groups outside the EU can participate in EU research programs e.g. Norway participates and I hope the UK will.
We will continued to "kick shins" i.e. to try to get good quality biomedical research funded by the Commission. We will accept help from pretty much any source to progress that. We cannot "direct" that the Commission funds this project, or that project, just encourage it to support good quality research! We have a battle to get the Commission to give ME research the priority it deserves - anyone interested is welcome to join!
Excuse the long reply!