Vviewpoints

I M A G E B Y M I C A G O T O / F L I C K R

project figures or outcomes, but contend that my claims can be backed up by publicly available material.

EU Projects: “Novel Ideas for
Radically New Technologies”

EU projects are set up in response to
regular calls by the European Com-
mission that outline the issues to be
Ph.D.’s for academia and the European
workforce, and opportunities for col-
laboration with industry in Europe.

I will argue a dissenting opinion
that EU projects in this field may not
serve their stated purposes of advanc-
ing science and education, and are not
effective in subsidizing European in-
dustry. On the contrary, they are a time-
consuming effort with often mediocre
outcome that tend to perpetrate a nar-
row, self-referential, and trivialized
view of the scientific process with pos-
sibly detrimental long-term effects on
the scientific culture in Europe and the
quality of the workforce. The problems
are not exclusive to the EU funding sys-
tem, and also not to parallel computing
research, but to a large extent caused
by excessive managerial overheads
and the specific stated requirements
and unstated expectations in the EU
“success.” Since these reflections are
not meant as criticism of specific proj-
ects or activities, I will not cite concrete

Viewpoint
(Mis)Managing
Parallel Computing
Research through
EU Project Funding
Considering the possible negative long-term effects
of EU projects on European scientific culture.
DOI: 10.1145/2948893