ABSTRACT
Providing a case study on the European Research Council (ERC) as an organization of supranational scope, my inquiry pursued the question whether European integration in science led to new forms of oligarchization and elite formation in the European Research Area (ERA). The ERC represents a genuinely European funding institution, which also prompts questions on conditions and criteria, mechanisms and consequences of defining, regulating and steering 'excellence'. The case study combined quantitative and qualitative strategies of social research towards a comparative sociology of elite researchers' scientific careers. Bibliometrics were useful for reconstructing centre-periphery-structures among universities, and knowledge growth of certain cognitive fields over time. Supranational funding results in an enforced market model of integration between actors based in ERA countries and in the US, instead of a predominantly European integration. Supranational funding (or its absence) frequently confirms research policies set by national Excellence Initiatives (EI) and funding organizations, reinforcing institutional path-dependence of public science.
