Mauro Ferrari, president of European Union's (EU) top science organization, the European Research Council (ERC), has resigned in frustration to the EU's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Professor Ferrari started a four-year term as ERC's leader on January 1, and submitted his resignation to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday afternoon. 

Ferrari said in a statement to the Financial Times that he proposed setting up a special ERC program to combat COVID-19, but the ERC Scientific Council, its governing body, unanimously rejected the idea.

"I have seen enough of both the governance of science, and the political operations at the European Union. I have lost faith in the system itself," Ferrari wrote.