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Dear colleagues, Sorry for yet another petition to sign with regard to funding cuts - this time Europe wide: The petition 'No cuts on research<http://www.no-cuts-on-research.eu/>' protests against the slashing of funds for the EU research budget. This reached me via 'AcademiaNet', an initiative of the Humboldt foundation and the Robert-Bosch-Stiftung. The action is coordinated by the Initiative for Science in Europe<http://www.initiative-science-europe.org/>. They circulated a letter by Professor Maria Leptin. She writes: The discussions at the next summit of the European Union heads of state or government, which is scheduled for 22 and 23 November, will be decisive in determining the EU research budget for the next seven years. Several Member States are demanding severe cuts on the total EU budget and research will have to compete with other policy priorities. An open letter signed by European Nobel laureates has been published in top European newspapers this week. I would like to ask you to sign it and to encourage all your colleagues to do likewise. Note that in the past, less than 30 000 academics signed the largest petition for a European scholarly cause compared to the hundreds of thousands of signatures on petitions from other groups of society! Prof. Henrike Lähnemann Chair of German Studies<http://ncl.ac.uk/sml/german> | School of Modern Languages, Newcastle University, GB - NE1 7RU Newcastle upon Tyne Tel.: 0044 191 2227513, email<mailto:[log in to unmask]>, Website<http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/henrike.laehnemann/> * Medingen<http://research.ncl.ac.uk/medingen/> project * Medieval and Early Modern Studies<http://research.ncl.ac.uk/mems> @ Newcastle * WIGS<http://www.wigs.ac.uk/> * Follow us on Twitter<https://twitter.com/#!/HLaehnemann> and Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003613244854> *