Up to now, the case for establishing an ERC has been couched in terms of the need to create a pan-European competition to support the best
‘basic research’. However, classical distinctions between ‘basic’ and ‘applied’ research have lost much of their relevance at a time when emerging areas of science and technology often embrace substantial elements of both. The report therefore adopts the term frontier research, rather than basic research, to reflect this new reality. Frontier
research, because it is at the forefront of creating new knowledge, is an intrinsically risky endeavour that involves the pursuit of questions without regard for established disciplinary boundaries or
national borders.
http://erc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/publication/files/h...
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The translation workplace 
