The European Research Council recently published its annual review regarding funded projects that ended in mid-2015, and declared that around four out of five financed studies resulted in a major scientific advances and, among these, one out of five consisted in a fundamental breakthrough; these studies are already having considerable economic and social impact.
Quite importantly, according to the reviewers, most of these financed projects were defined as “high risk”, strongly suggesting that more risk-friendly policies from funding agencies in Europe represent an important driving force to promote highly-rewarding studies, as well as to retain talents in Europe (where most of research funders are generally “risk-averse”).