The European Research Council

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Caroline Osborne
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1 The Monica Dietl Policy Officer ERC Strategy Unit European Commission Paris, 5 Juin SERI

2 ERC, Ideas and FP7 An integrated structure with a specific vocation Independent scientific governance (Scientific Council) Dedicated Implementation Structure (Executive Agency) Part of the family of FP7 and complementary to other FP7 supports to research Bottom-up vs targeted research Individual teams vs consortia FP7 Ideas programme provides funding Budget ( ) : 7.51 bn (around 15% of FP7 budget) Average budget: ~1 bn per year 2

3 ERC - an «integrated structure» The ERC is composed by : 2. The ERC Scientific Council Independent scientific governance 22 members, high level scientists The ERC Secretary General Link between Scientific Council and the ERC Executive Agency High level scientist with management experience 3. The ERC Executive Agency Practical implementation and management of operations Commission s Décision 3

4 Aim & Strategy A logical and revolutionary development of the European Research Area : Boost European excellence in frontier research by investing in the best researchers and ideas through investigator-driven projects through competition at European level on the basis of scientific excellence as the sole criterion raising incentives towards quality and aspirations of individual researchers providing benchmarks and leverage towards broader (structural) improvements in European research 4

5 Frontier research A new understanding of fundamental, forward-looking research avoiding distinctions between basic and applied research between science and technology relying on traditional disciplines The term Frontier research reflects going beyond these categories critical importance of fundamental research in S&T risk-taking nature of research at and beyond the frontiers of knowledge fluidity of disciplinary boundaries 5

6 Calls and Budget Prospective Schedule Starting Grant Advanced Grant Call Deadline 869 Mio 741 Mio 517 Mio 480 Mio Mio 1st Call 1st Call 2nd Call 2nd Call 3rd Call 3rd Call 4th Call 4th Call Spring Spring Autumn Spring Autumn Spring Autumn Spring

7 Objectives & Activities Objectives: Retain Repatriate Recruit Favour brain gain and reverse brain drain improve career opportunities and independence - especially for young researchers increase competition, recognition and international visibility - for excellent individual scientists and scholars in Europe Activities: Two complementary funding schemes ERC Starting Grant (StG): attract & retain the next generation of independent research leaders ERC Advanced Grant (AdG): attract & reward established independent research leaders 7

8 ERC Starting Grant (ERC Starting Investigator Researcher Grant) Principal Investigator (2 to 9) 3 to 8 years after PhD Support researchers at the start of their independent research career and establishing or consolidating their own independent research team (or research programme) Provide a structure for transition from working under a supervisor to an independent research leader ~ up to 2, Euros per grant (for 5 years, pro rata reduction for shorter periods) ~ ⅓ of ERC annual budget per year, annual calls ~ 300 Starting Grants per year, ~1500 Starting Grants over 7 years of FP7 ( ) 8

9 ERC Advanced Grant (ERC Advanced Investigator Researcher Grant) Principal Investigator - possible benchmarks of 10 year track record Flexible grants for ground-breaking, high-risk/high-gain research that opens new opportunities and directions including those of a multi- and inter-disciplinary nature Complement to the ERC Starting Grants, targeting researchers who are already established independent research leaders for up to ~2,500,000 Euro per grant (for 5 years, pro rata reduction for shorter periods, may go up to ~3.5 MEuro in specific cases) ~ ⅔ of ERC annual budget, annual calls ~ 300 Advanced Grants per year 9

10 ERC Grants - Who can apply? Individual Research Teams: headed by a single Principal Investigator (team leader) of any nationality if necessary, including additional team members. The Principal Investigator has the freedom to choose the research topic and the power to assemble his/her research team meeting the needs of the project. Teams can be of national or trans-national character. 10

11 ERC Grant - Evaluation Criteria Scientific Excellence is the sole criterion Potential of Principal Investigator Quality of research project Research Environment and Resources Referees and panels evaluate and score criteria under Heading 1 and Heading 2 numerically which will result in the ranking of the projects: 1-4 points Threshold 2 Criteria under Heading 3 will be considered as "pass/fail" and commented but not scored 11

12 ERC Grant - Eligibility Eligible Scientific Fields: any field* of research Eligible Principal Investigator: researchers of any nationality who intend to establish and conduct their research activity in any EU Member State or Associated Country Eligible Host Institution: work must be substantially carried out in the EU Member State or Associated countries 12

13 ERC Grant - Budget Allocation ERC covers all fields of science, engineering and scholarship For operational reasons the ScC agreed on 3 main research domains + 1 interdisciplinary: Physical Sciences & Engineering Biological & Life Sciences Social Sciences and Humanities The first call budget for ERC Starting Grants has been pre-allocated to these areas as follows: 39% - 34% - 15% + 13% 13

14 ERC Peer Review Panels 25 peer review panels in 3 domains Domain 1: Physical Sciences, Engineering Sciences, Universe and Earth Sciences (10 panels) Domain 2: Biological and Life Sciences (9 panels) Domain 3: Social Sciences and Humanities (6 panels) Each panel consists of one Panel Chair and panel members (selected by Scientific Council and drawn from all parts of the world) Panel Chair oversees evaluation process for the proposals assigned to his/her panel in collaboration with the ERC staff The Panel Chair gives high level stamp of credibility and visibility to the whole evaluation process 14

15 ERC Peer Review Panels Interdisciplinary, forward-looking construction Examples of the ERC Panel Structure in Engineering PE6 Computer science and informatics PE7 Systems and communication engineering PE8 Products and process engineering LS7 Diagnostic tools, therapies and public health LS9 Applied life sciences and biotechnology 15

16 Multiple Applications/Resubmissions General Only one ERC grant managed by a Principal Investigator can be active at any time No Principal Investigator may be associated with more than one application to the ERC during the same year Starting Grant No Principal Investigator who has submitted an eligible proposal to a Starting Grant call may apply to the next Starting Grant call, unless his/her proposal was evaluated above the quality threshold during the 2nd step but not funded due to insufficient available budget Advanced Grant A Principal Investigator or Co-investigator who has submitted an eligible proposal for an ERC-Advanced Grant in either of the first two Advanced Grant calls may not apply for an ERC Starting Grant during the same period ( ) Read Work Programme! 16

17 ERC Starting Grant Call 1 Two step evaluation process Stage 1 evaluation: ~ 6 % success rate 8794 proposals evaluated Stage 2 evaluation: ~ 54% success rate Interviews (9167 submitted!) 559 full proposals 300 anticipated grants Requested budget about 10 billion Requested budget about 535 million Awarded budget about 300 million 17

18 ERC Starting Grant Call 1 Stage 1 Country of host institution of the 8794 evaluated proposals Number of eligible proposals by domain and country of host institutions 1600 SH 1400 PE LS countries IT UKDE FRES NL SE EL BE FI CH IL PL HUPT DK TR AT IE RONOCZ BG SI CYSKRSHR LT EE LU IS LV MT 18

19 ERC Starting Grant Stage 2 Outcome By country of host institution of the 300 selected proposals Percentage of grants by country of host institution 20% 18% 16% 21 countries 14% 12% 10% 8% 6% 4% 2% 0% UK FR DE NL IT ES IL CH BE SE FI HU AT EL DK CY IE PT BG CZ NO 19

20 34 5 Grants in relation to R&D expenditure (of the 300 selected proposals) 4 3 Grants by country of host institution per Gross Domestic Expenditure on R&D in PPS* (x1000) CY HU BG NL EL CH ES UK BE IT FI PT IE SE FR DK AT DE CZ 20

21 Starting Grants: Geographical distribution LS: Life Sciences PE: Physical Sciences & Engineering SH: Social Sciences & Humanities France Grants total 39 such as: - Universities - INRIA - INSERM - CNRS France Grants per domain LS PE SH Israel Cyprus 21

22 ERC-2007-StG Intra-European mobility Staying X Y Z 6 Incoming Outgoing CY IL

23 ERC-2007-StG Repatriation and Recruitment to Europe FI SE UKBE DE CH ES EL IL from Argentinia Source: Top 300 proposals from Australia 23

24 Grantholders: Remain and Relocate 60 1/1 No. of Grantees /0 Relocation Non-EU 4/3 30 other EU Nationals 3/0 20 2/3 10 1/1 0 AT BE BG CH CY CZ DE DK EL ES FI FR HU IE IL IT NL NO PT SE UK Country 24

25 ERC Advanced Grant Planned Schedule for proposal submission Call Publication: 30 November 2007 Fully electronic submission 3 different deadlines by domain: Physical Sciences (PE): 28th February applications Social Sciences: 18th March applications Life Sciences: 22nd April applications TOTAL of 2176 applications received! Communication of results planned October

26 ERC Advanced Grant Lessons learned from StG Call 1 1. Managing demand for grants Maximise call budget By combining budgets over 2 successive years (only one application per researcher in either 2008 or 2009) Encourage the best to apply Excellent track record (in recent years) Strong leadership profile Discourage trivial or low-quality applications Applications should be substantive (one-stage submission with two stage evaluation) Disincentives to submission of applications which are not of the highest quality 26

27 Work Programme Structure Unified presentation of common implementation modalities: panel structure, rules of re-applications, evaluation procedure, panel description, etc b) First WP covering both StG and AdG calls c) Complementary actions/activities/studies via CSAs (as necessary) d) Total budget of 2009 (ca. 770 M) StG: ~ 300 M and AdG: ~ 490 M 27

28 Work Programme Strategy b) Stable and complementary grant schemes: StG, AdG Investigator driven ( bottom-up ) actions Highest quality research at the frontiers of knowledge particular encouragement of interdisciplinarity Targeting investigators at two different career stages Multiple, sliding stage opportunities over 7 years of FP7 Continuously increasing budget with c) Funding Funding level inadequate to cover entire spectrum of candidates Full spectrum coverage remains a Member State responsibility d) Accompanying measures/actions (CSA) for the timely monitoring/assessment of the ERC activities 28

29 Work Programme Adjustments Starting Grant (1): c) Measures against oversubscription StG calls for 2009 and 2010 will correspond to ca. 630 M Clearly illustrating the profile of the competitive applicant ( benchmarks ) Single submission of full proposal (2-step evaluation, including interviews in step 2) Minimal and symmetric reduction of eligibility window (3-8 years post PhD) e) Elements on the basis of the lessons learned 25 StG evaluation panels Handling of interdisciplinary proposals (towards evaluation mainstreaming ) Assessment of proposals budget requests by panels Total budget awarded by panels 29

30 Work Programme Adjustments Starting Grant(2): c) Targeting PI populations The scheme targets Principal Investigators who are setting up or consolidating their independent research team/activity Evaluation panels will assess applications taking into account the stage of evolution of the PI career and the research team Consideration regarding minimal and symmetric reduction of eligibility window d) Resubmission restrictions PI can apply every second year Exceptionally no fallow year for applicants whose proposals make it to the second step of evaluation Note Increased alignment with AdG evaluation process! 30

31 Timetable 2009 Establishment of WP by ScC April 2008 Target period for new WP publication (adoption by the Commission): July 2008 Immediate publication of the second StG call, ERC-2009-StG July 2008 Publication of the second AdG call, ERC-2009-AdG late autumn

32 Applicants Services ERC National Contact Points inform, raise awareness and provide advice on ERC funding opportunities, application, follow-up ERC helpdesk EPSS helpdesk technical support on electronic proposal submission ERC website: News Alerts 32

33 Merci! Thank you! Danke! Gracie! Gracias! 33

FP7 IDEAS The European Research Council

FP7 IDEAS The European Research Council European Commission Research DG William Cannell ERC Strategic Objectives Boost European excellence in frontier research by investing in the best researchers and