Prof Donald Dingwell ERC Secretary General. Visit to Australia and New Zealand October FP7 IDEAS Programme The European Research Council

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1 FP7 IDEAS Programme The European Research Council Prof Donald Dingwell ERC Secretary General Visit to Australia and New Zealand October 2013 ERC EA Unit A1 Support to the Scientific Council

2 The European Research Council What is ERC

pan-european competition Budget: 7.5billion (2007-2013) - 1.

members; full authority over funding strategy Support by the ERC Executive Agency (autonomous)

3 Strategy Legislation What is ERC? The ERC supports excellence in frontier research through a bottom-up, individual-based, pan-european competition Budget: 7.5billion ( ) billion /year on average Scientific governance: independent Scientific Council with 22 members; full authority over funding strategy Support by the ERC Executive Agency (autonomous) Excellence as the only criterion Support for the individual scientist no networks! Global peer-review No predetermined subjects (bottom-up) Support of frontier research in all fields of science and humanities 2

4 Million Euro FP7 budget 50.5 billion ERC budget 7.5 billion; Increase by 250 M/year Co-operation (65 %) JRC nonnuclear (3 %) Capacities (8 %) People (9 %) Ideas (15 %) % % % 17.8% % 600 4% 7.3%

ERC Structure The European Commission Provides financing through the EU framework programmes Guarantees autonomy of the ERC Assures the integrity and accountability of the ERC Adopts

Commission (4 years, renewable once) Establishes overall scientific strategy; annual work programmes (incl.

scientific community The ERC Executive Agency Executes annual work programme as established by the Scientific Council Implements calls for proposals and provides information and

5 ERC Structure The European Commission Provides financing through the EU framework programmes Guarantees autonomy of the ERC Assures the integrity and accountability of the ERC Adopts annual work programmes as established by the Scientific Council The ERC Scientific Council 22 prominent researchers proposed by an independent identification committee Appointed by the Commission (4 years, renewable once) Establishes overall scientific strategy; annual work programmes (incl. calls for proposals, evaluation criteria); peer review methodology; selection and accreditation of experts Controls quality of operations and management Ensures communication with the scientific community The ERC Executive Agency Executes annual work programme as established by the Scientific Council Implements calls for proposals and provides information and support to applicants Organises peer review evaluation Establishes and manages grant agreements Administers scientific and financial aspects and follow-up of grant agreements Carries out communications activities and ensures information dissemination to ERC stakeholders

6 ERC Scientific Council Members Prof. Klaus BOCK (Chemistry) Prof. Nicholas CANNY (History) Prof. Sierd A.P.L. CLOETINGH (Earth Sciences) Prof. Tomasz DIETL (Physics) Prof. Daniel DOLEV (Computer Sciences) Prof. Athene DONALD (Biological Physics) Prof. Carlos M. DUARTE (Biology) Dr. Barbara ENSOLI (Medicine) Prof. Daniel ESTEVE (Physics) Prof. Pavel EXNER (Applied Mathematics & Mathematical Physics), ERC Vice President Prof. Reinhard GENZEL(Astrophysics) Prof. Carl-Henrik HELDIN (Molecular Cell Biology), ERC Vice President Prof. Timothy HUNT (Biology) Prof. Matthias KLEINER (Engineering) Prof. Eva KONDOROSI (Biology) Prof. Nuria SEBASTIAN GALLES (Psychology) Prof. Helga NOWOTNY (Science and Technology Studies), ERC President Prof. Alain PEYRAUBE (Linguistics) Prof. Mart SAARMA (Biology) Prof. Anna TRAMONTANO (Biochemistry) Prof. Isabelle VERNOS (Molecular and Cell Biology) Prof. Reinhilde VEUGELERS (Economics) Prof. Don Dingwell ERC Secretary General

7 ERC prospects for the future Rising applications

8 Future perspectives HORIZON 2020 HORIZON 2020 structure: Excellent Science Industrial leadership Societal challenges EIT; Spreading excellence and widening participation; Science with and for society JRC Excellent Science: reinforcing and extending the excellence of the EU s science base and consolidating ERA to make EU s R&I system more competitive on a global scale European Research Council (budget under H2020: 13 billion) Future and Emerging Technologies Marie Curie Research Infrastructures 8

budget 13 billion FP7 budget 50.5 billion ERC budget 7.

9 Budget Horizon 2020 after negotiations between Parliament-Council-Commission H2020 budget 77 billion ERC budget 13 billion FP7 budget 50.5 billion ERC budget 7.5 billion Co-operation (65 %) JRC nonnuclear (3 %) Capacities (8 %) People (9 %) Ideas (15 %)

10 The European Research Council ERC Grant schemes

11 ERC Grant schemes Starting Grants starters (2-7 years after PhD) up to 2.0 Mio for 5 years Consolidator Grants consolidators (7-12 years after PhD) up to 2.75 Mio for 5 years Advanced Grants track-record of significant research achievements in the last 10 years up to 3.5 Mio for 5 years Synergy Grants 2 4 Principal Investigators up to 15.0 Mio for 6 years Proof-of-Concept bridging gap between research - earliest stage of marketable innovation up to 150,000 for ERC grant holders

12 Creative freedom of the individual grantee ERC offers independence, recognition & visibility to work on a research topic of own choice, with a team of own choice to gain true financial autonomy for 5 years to negotiate with the host institution the best conditions of work to attract top team members (EU and non-eu) and collaborators to move with the grant to any place in Europe if necessary (portability of grants) to attract additional funding and gain recognition; ERC is a quality label 12

13 Attractive features for researchers from outside Europe Flexibility: Additional start-up funding for scientists moving to Europe (EUR for Starting and EUR 1 Million for Advanced grantees) Grantee can keep affiliation with home institute outside Europe ( significant part of work time in Europe, at least 50%) Team members can be based outside Europe Grantee can move within Europe with the grant Negotiation: Several European countries/host institutions assist applicants and reward grantees with top-up funds or long-term professorships

14 ERC funding process Peer Review Evaluation Starting, Consolidator and Advanced Grants Panel Members are appointed by the ERC Scientific Council 25 Panels covering all fields of science, technology and scholarship 3 sets of Panels: StG Panels, CoG Panels, AdG Panels Each Panel consists of the Panel Chair and Panel Members Panel Chair oversees evaluation process for the proposals assigned to his/her panel in collaboration with the ERC staff Evaluation criteria: Principal Investigator Intellectual capacity and creativity Commitment Research project Ground-breaking nature and potential impact Methodology 14

15 25 panels for all areas of science Physical Sciences & Engineering Mathematics Fundamental constituents of matter Condensed matter physics Physical and analytical chemical sciences Synthetic chemistry and materials 10 panels Computer science and informatics Systems and communication engineering Products and processes engineering Universe sciences Earth system science Life Sciences Social Sciences & Humanities 6 panels Molecular and structural biology and biochemistry Genetics, genomics, bioinformatics and systems biology Cellular and developmental biology 9 panels Physiology, pathophysiology and endocrinology Neurosciences and neural disorders Immunity and infection Diagnostic tools, therapies and public health Evolutionary, population and environmental biology Applied life sciences and biotechnology Individuals, institutions and markets Institutions, values, beliefs and behaviour Environment, space and population The Human Mind Cultures and cultural production The study of the human past

16 Submission, evaluation and selection Starting, Consolidator and Advanced Grants Submission of full proposals Individual assessment of full proposals by panel members & referees Eligibility check Step 1 (remote) evaluation on the basis of section of proposal* by panel members 1st Panel meeting AdG : 2nd Panel meeting StG, CoG: 2nd Panel meeting incl. interviews of applicants Panel chairs meeting Consolidation of 3 main domains rank lists Proposals passing to step 2 Proposals selected for funding *) Profile of PI, project extended synopsis

17 International participation to proposals evaluation * Number of instances that experts of a certain country of origin are contributing to the ERC peer review 17

18 After 6 years of existence A success story Highly recognised by the research community Over top researchers funded; 62 nationalities Working in > 550 different institutions in 29 countries Over 6.5 billion euro awarded Highly competitive (average success rate 12%) 50% of grantees in 50 institutions; Excellence attracts excellence Benchmarking effect, e.g. pan-european competition among researchers; EU value added Efficient and fast grant management 18

19 ERC Competitions Total number of applications Evaluated* Funded success rates** Starting Grant ,167 8, Starting Grant ,503 2, Starting Grant ,873 2, Starting Grant ,080 4, Starting Grant ,741 4, Starting Grant ,329 3, Starting Grant 26,693 25,858 2, Advanced Grant ,167 2, Advanced Grant ,584 1, Advanced Grant ,009 1, Advanced Grant ,284 2, Advanced Grant ,304 2, Advanced Grant ,408 2, Advanced Grant 12,756 12,404 1, Proof of Concept & Proof of Concept & Proof of Concept Proof of Concept Synergy Grant * withdrawn and ineligible proposals not taken into account ** percentage of funded proposals in relation to evaluated proposals of which Data as of 09/09/

20 The European Research Council International participation

2009 2013 (including Consolidator 2013) * ERA =

21 Evaluated proposals from researchers with non-era* nationality ERC Starting Grant calls (including Consolidator 2013) * ERA = European Research Area *) all submitted for StG and CoG 2013

2008 2013 * ERA = European Research Area

22 Evaluated proposals from researchers with non-era* nationality ERC Advanced Grant calls * ERA = European Research Area European Research Council *) all submitted for AdG2013

Submitted proposals by Australian researchers ERC Starting grant calls 2007-2013 (including Consolidator) ERC Advanced grant calls 2008 2013 16 Australian applicants were resident in Australia at the

23 Submitted proposals by Australian researchers ERC Starting grant calls (including Consolidator) ERC Advanced grant calls Australian applicants were resident in Australia at the time of application. One of them won an ERC grant. 136 applied from various European countries (69 from UK, 16 from Germany, 8 from France etc), and 2 from Japan. 42 researchers of other nationalities were resident in Australia at the time they applied to ERC. Three of them obtained an ERC grant.

Submitted proposals by researchers from New Zealand ERC Starting grant calls 2007-2013 (including Consolidator) ERC

application. 52 applied from various European countries (32 from UK, 5 from Sweden, 4 from Germany etc.

24 Submitted proposals by researchers from New Zealand ERC Starting grant calls (including Consolidator) ERC Advanced grant calls none of the applicants with NZ nationality was resident in NZ at the time of application. 52 applied from various European countries (32 from UK, 5 from Sweden, 4 from Germany etc.), 1 from US and 1 from Thailand. 7 European researchers were resident in NZ at the time they applied to ERC. None of them obtained an ERC grant. 24

ERC grantees with a non-era nationality* ERC Starting Grant calls 2007-2013 ERC Advanced Grant calls 2008 2013 TOTAL number of

25 ERC grantees with a non-era nationality* ERC Starting Grant calls ERC Advanced Grant calls TOTAL number of grantees with non-era nationality : 188 StG and 101 AdG *) nationality as last declared by the principal investigator Data as of 09/09/2013

Grantees with AU nationality ERC Starting Calls 2007 2013 ERC Advanced Calls 2008-2013 21 Australian grantees (5 women) 2 of the

26 Grantees with AU nationality ERC Starting Calls ERC Advanced Calls Australian grantees (5 women) 2 of the Australian grantees won each an ERC Proof-of-Concept grant to verify the opportunities for commercial exploitation of their ideas

Grantees with NZ nationality ERC Starting Calls 2007 2013 ERC

27 Grantees with NZ nationality ERC Starting Calls ERC Advanced Calls grantees with NZ nationality (1 woman) 27

28 Few grantees from outside ERA Mainly researchers moving/returning from the US Country of residence International grantees ERA nationals Total Argentina 1 1 Australia Canada India Japan 1 1 Korea 1 1 Lebanon 1 1 Russia 1 1 USA Total Note: Researchers residing outside the European Research Area at the time of application

29 Developing a new generation of excellent scientists 2/3 of staff are people in the training phase of their career Analysis of 995 ERC projects 29

30 Attracting excellent researchers Composition of ERC teams (PIs not included) Analysis of 995 Starting and Advanced Grants EU: 67% Assoc. Countries: 12% non-era: 18% unknown: 3% 53% of non-era team members ''attracted'' to Europe with the ERC grant (10% of all team members) Most non-era from China, US, India, and Russia 30

2013 Russia Sept.2012 Japan, S.-Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong July 2012 China Sept.

31 Attracting excellent researchers worldwide ERC goes global campaign targeting top and emerging research locations Canada Feb.2012 US West Coast 2013 US East Coast US Texas & Mexico 2013 Feb.2013 Russia Sept.2012 Japan, S.-Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong July 2012 China Sept.2013 India March 2013 Brazil, Chile May 2012 Chile, Argentina Jan.2013 South Africa March 2012 Australia, New Zealand Oct.2013

32 NCPs in non-era countries Other non-era NCP's NEW Non-ERA NCPs established as a result of the global campaign *provisional NCP; official NCP tba 32

33 More information on To subscribe to ERC newsletter and newsalerts Follow us on

ERC in the European Research Landscape

The European Research Council ERC in the European Research Landscape Jean-Pierre BOURGUIGNON ERC President J.-P. BOURGUIGNON Strategy Legislation What is ERC? The ERC supports excellence in frontier research