Mr. Tim Conlon:

A number of very important points have been made. I will pick up on the emphasis on all career stages and research stages. It is very important that this be reflected in legislation. There is a potential tension in head 8, Objects, between (a) and (f), which has been pointed to. I note that there is a very productive relationship between basic and applied research. Some of the figures that are emerging from the funding the European Innovation Council is providing show that in one of its recent schemes, approximately 25% of the awards were made to people who had ERC grants. Those are the blue-skies awards which allow people to work on what they want to work on. There is a very powerful and productive relationship there that we should be encouraging and preserving.

In terms of other international examples, the Swiss example is very interesting. The Swiss separate between a blue-skies agency, the Swiss National Science Foundation, SNCF, and then Innosuisse, which is the country's innovation council. Actually, there is €1 billion for the blue-skies side and €250 million for the innovation side, which is rather interesting. I take the point about the policy dimension of this but it is worth reflecting on those international balances so that we can achieve a dynamic system which we are all in favour of.