That's one area that really, really varies, and is completely unstandardized across Europe (while the funding mechanisms and degrees are becoming more standardi

That's one area that really, really varies, and is completely unstandardized across Europe (while the funding mechanisms and degrees are becoming more standardized, which is a tricky divergence). Germany has more of a traditional model where a Professor has a capital P, is not a social peer of the lower-down people, and there is no clear route to becoming that person. But once you are, there is a large degree of research freedom and some guaranteed funding. Sweden has the diametric opposite, where a lecturer with a masters degree who's been teaching at the same place for a few years basically becomes permanent faculty with tenure, without having to either do a PhD or go through a tenure application (and anyone with a PhD is more or less equally at the top tier). Denmark isn't quite as flat on the teaching side, but is flatter on the faculty vs. PhD student side, with PhD students considered more or less faculty, paid much better salaries than most PhD students (€40-45k), and guaranteed funding (by law) for their entire PhD before they're admitted. Italy is more feudal, with "barons" controlling the positions in some departments (apparently Umberto Eco, mostly known to the general public for his novels, is somewhat notorious in Italian academic circles for being one of the big ones). Spanish universities can be super-regional, with complex language requirements, e.g. a colleague of mine who was born and raised in Galicia can't teach at a Galician university without doing additional certifications, because his degree was not done in a Galician university. Etc. But my point was mostly just that the EU as a funding body doesn't micromanage research areas that much, because it has too many governments to do so: Denmark might want all the money in wind power, but they won't get that through. Instead the EU picks general meta-goals like "promote European research integration", and a few broad focus areas, which allows quite a bit of flexibility on what the actual scientific project is. Some blue-skies stuff gets funded as a result, as long as it's multinational blue-skies work in a broad area of interest.