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Horizon 2020European Research Council (ERC)
Edward Ricketts edward.ricketts@bbsrc.ac.uk University of Edinburgh13 November 2013
Mission to facilitate effective UK participation in EU research, innovation and HE programmes
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The European Union’s funding instrument for research and innovation from 2014-2020
• Budget of EUR 70,2 billion• From research to innovation – from basic research to bringing ideas to the
market• Focus on societal challenges EU society is facing (e.g. health, clean energy,
food security, integrated transport)• Concentration of resources on areas of high growth and innovation potential• Provides key measures to support industrial leadership, particularly
innovative SMEs• Significant investment in excellence
Horizon 2020 overarching priority:
Exiting the economic crisis through sustainable growth
What is Horizon 2020?
Excellent Science
European Research Council (ERC)
Future and Emerging Technologies (FET)
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Research Infrastructures
Industrial Leadership
Leadership in Enabling and
Industrial Technologies (LEIT) -
ICT, KETs, Space
Access to Risk Finance
Innovation in SMEs
Societal Challenges
Health and Wellbeing
Food security
Transport
Energy
Climate action
Societies
Security
Widening Participation; Science with and for Society
European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT)
Joint Research Centre (JRC)EURATOM
Horizon 2020 structure
Excellent Science: Rationale
Total budget 30% of Horizon 2020
Overall objective: “to strengthen the excellence of European research”
• New research and ideas are drivers of competition
• Attract and retain high potential individuals
• Fund the most talented and creative researchers
• Develop and maintain world-class research infrastructures
European Research Council
Marie Sklodowska-
Curie Actions
Research Infrastructur
es
Future and Emerging
Technologies
Excellent Science
ERC in Horizon 2020
“The ERC shall provide attractive and flexible funding to enable talented and creative individual researchers and their teams to pursue the most promising avenues at the frontier of science….. scientific excellence shall be the sole criterion on which ERC grants are awarded. The ERC shall operate on a ‘bottom-up’ basis without predetermined priorities”.
Horizon 2020 proposal text
The ERC seeks to fund the best ‘frontier research’ proposals submitted by excellent researchers in the area of their choice
Will fund projects led by a Principal Investigator, if necessary supported by a research team (no requirement for collaboration or forming consortia across different EU countries)
25 panels in 3 domains which proposals can be submitted to:
Physical Sciences and Engineering (PE) Life Sciences (LS) Social Sciences and Humanities (SH)
Total ERC budget: €11.6bn
ERC in Horizon 2020 – What can be funded?
Starting Grants 2-7 years post-PhD Up to €2m for 5 years
Consolidator Grants 7–12 years post-PhD Up to €2.75m for 5 years
Advanced Grants Leading researchers Up to €3.5m for 5 years
Synergy Grants 2 – 4 PIs Up to €15m for 6 years
Proof of Concept ERC grant holders €150k for up to 18 months
ERC in Horizon 2020 – Five schemes
Career Stages
Post-docs
Senior Professor
Students
Post Graduates
Junior Professor/ Junior Researcher
Associate Professor
Full Professor
Erasmus
Marie Curie
ERC Starters
ERC Consolidators
ERC Advanced
Team members in ERC projects
Scientific excellence is the sole evaluation criterion
Significant funding is provided to attract exceptional research leaders
Grants are awarded to the host institution that engages and hosts the Principal Investigator – the PI will be employed by the host institution
The host institution guarantees the PI’s independence and provides the research environment to carry out the project and manage its funding
ERC: guiding principles
ERC Starting / Consolidator Grants
• Aim to support excellent researchers at the stage of starting or consolidating their own independent research team or programme
• Eligibility windows for PIs (same as for 2013 calls):
• Starting Grants: 2 to 7 years after the PhD award • Consolidator Grants: 7 to 12 years after the PhD award
• This is measured from the publication date of the call, and extensions are permitted only in a few strict cases (parental leave, long-term illness, etc)
ERC in Horizon 2020 – What type of researcher are the ERC targeting?
Starting Grants and Consolidator Grants
• The ERC panel will evaluate the PI’s “intellectual capacity, creativity and commitment”. This includes:
• ability to propose and conduct ground-breaking research and achievements going beyond the state-of-the-art
• abundant evidence of creative independent thinking
• the ERC grant would contribute significantly to the establishment and/or further consolidation of the PI's independence
• commitment to the project (minimum 50% of the PI’s total working time)
* please note that this is the wording from the 2013 ERC calls
ERC in Horizon 2020 – should I apply?
Starting Grants
Who is a competitive candidate?
Must be able to show potential for excellence and evidence of maturity:
• expectation for at least one important publication without the participation of the PhD supervisor
• promising track record of early achievements appropriate to field and career stage, including:
• significant publications (as main author) in major international peer-reviewed journals
• and/or monographs• invited presentations, granted patents, awards, prizes etc
• good leadership potential and must convince the ERC panel that the PI will be able to lead an ambitious ‘frontier research’ project
ERC in Horizon 2020 – should I apply?
Consolidator Grants
Who is a competitive candidate?
Must be able to show potential for excellence and evidence of maturity:
• it is expected that applicants will have produced several important publications without the participation of their PhD supervisor
• promising track record of early achievements appropriate to field and career stage, including:
• significant publications (as main author) in major international peer-reviewed major scientific journals
• and/or monographs• invited presentations, granted patents, awards, prizes etc
• good leadership potential and must convince the ERC panel that you will be able to lead an ambitious ‘frontier research’ project
ERC Advanced Grant
• Aims to support excellent, leading researchers to pursue groundbreaking research which opens up new directions in the field of their choice
• Aims to “encourage substantial advances at the frontier of knowledge; as well as new productive lines of enquiry, methods and techniques”
• No eligibility requirement concerning a PhD, but the PI must have an excellent track record of research achievements during the last 10 years
ERC in Horizon 2020 – What type of researcher are the ERC targeting?
Advanced Grants
• The ERC panel will evaluate the PI’s “intellectual capacity, creativity and commitment” and their track record should be characterised by:
• groundbreaking research & achievements going beyond the state-of-the-art
• abundant evidence of creative independent thinking
• sound leadership in the training and advancement of young scientists
• commitment to the project (minimum 30% of the PI’s total working time)
* please note that this is the wording from the 2013 ERC calls
ERC in Horizon 2020 – should I apply?
Advanced Grants
Who is a competitive candidate?
• track record of significant achievements in last 10 years:• 10 publications (as senior author) in major international journals • or 3 major research monographs
• if appropriate to the research field, also: • granted patents • invited presentations• led expeditions• organised international conferences • international recognition (awards, prizes)• contributions to launching the careers of outstanding researchers
• an “exceptional leader in terms of originality and significance of research contribution, with international recognition”
* please note that this the wording from the 2013 ERC calls
ERC Synergy Grants
• Pilot scheme which funds ambitious, groundbreaking proposals submitted by a group of between 2 to 4 PIs (and their teams)
• Very low success rate for first call in 2012, and the 2013 call results expected to be announced in late 2013
• No call is expected to be launched in 2014 /15 ……
• But the scheme could continue within Horizon 2020, as a limited part of the ERC’s portfolio of schemes (tbc)
ERC Proof of Concept
• Scheme for ERC grant holders to undertake further work to establish the innovation potential of an idea developed during the course of an ERC-funded project
• Maximum grant: €150,000
• Project duration: up to 18 months
• Original ERC grant must be either ongoing or have ended less than 1 year before the publication date of the call
Applications submitted online through the Research Participant Portal
Apply to discipline-specific panel
Applications are in three parts
• Part A: Admin forms
• Part B1: Information on applicant and extended synopsis (5 pages) of proposal
• Part B2: Detailed proposal (15 pages)
ERC grant application process
Life Sciences• LS1:Molecular and
Structural Biology and Biochemistry
• LS2: Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
• LS3: Cellular and Developmental Biology
• LS4: Physiology, Pathophysiology and Endocrinology
• LS5: Neurosciences and Neural Disorders
• LS6: Immunity and Infection
• LS7: Diagnostic Tools, Therapies and Public Health
• LS8: Evolutionary, Population and Environmental Biology
• LS9: Applied Life Sciences and Non-Medical Biotechnology
Physical Sciences and Engineering• PE1: Mathematics• PE2: Fundamental
Constituents of Matter• PE3: Condensed Matter
Physics• PE4: Physical and Analytical
Chemical Sciences• PE5: Synthetic Chemistry
and Materials• PE6: Computer Science and
Informatics• PE7: Systems and
Communication Engineering
• PE8: Products and Process Engineering
• PE9: Universe Sciences• PE10: Earth System
Science
Social Sciences and Humanities• SH1: Individuals,
institutions and markets• SH2: Institutions, values,
beliefs and behaviours• SH3: Environment, space
and population• SH4: The human mind and
its complexity• SH5: Cultures and cultural
production• SH6: The study of the
human past
ERC Evaluation panels
ERC in Horizon 2020 – What type of research projects can be funded?
Proposals evaluated solely on the basis of excellence (excellence of the PI and of the research project), and should address:
B1 Extended Synopsis (5 pages)B2 Scientific Proposal (15 pages)
• To what extent does the proposed research address important challenges?• To what extent are the objectives ambitious and beyond the state of the art?• How much is the proposed research high risk/high gain?• To what extent is the outlined scientific approach feasible?
• To what extent is the proposed research methodology appropriate to achieve the goals of the project?
• To what extent does the proposal involve developing novel methodology?• To what extent are the proposed timescales and resources necessary and
properly justified?
* please note that this is the wording from the 2013 ERC calls
Evaluation on excellence of PI and excellence of project
One stage application, two stage peer review evaluation
First stage evaluation looks only at Part B1
StG and CoG feature an interview at second stage
See here for lists of panel members for previous ERC calls: http://erc.europa.eu/evaluation-panels
ERC evaluation process
Step 1 evaluation applicants notified: • A: sufficient quality to pass to step 2 of the evaluation • B: high quality but not sufficient to pass to step 2 • C: not sufficient quality to pass to step 2 of the evaluation
Step 2 evaluation applicants notified: • A: fully meets the ERC’s excellence criterion and is
recommended for funding if sufficient funds are available• B. meets some but not all elements of the ERC’s excellence
criterion and will not be funded.
Projects funded in ranking order – not all “A” projects funded
Application results
• Single beneficiary nature of projects
• Innovative/unconventional/invention/new/emerging research
• High risk/high gain
• No nationality or mobility requirements
• Pursuit of questions at or beyond the frontiers of knowledge
• Any field of research (except nuclear)
• Interdisciplinary proposals encouraged
• Grants portable
• Max grant amounts/ max length of project / min PI time
What is not changing in Horizon 2020
A change in balance of funding between schemes:• Indicative budgets for 2014:
Starting Grants €485m (22% increase compared to 2013) Consolidator Grants €713m (36% increase compared to 2013) Advanced Grants €450m (32% decrease compared to 2013)
Overhead rate 25% not 20% • Note that maximum grant levels have not changed.
Open access to be the norm: “the terms and conditions laid down in the ERC Model Grant Agreement will address how scientific publications must be made available through open access”
What IS changing in Horizon 2020
Different resubmission rules
• Applicants scoring A at step 1 = will be able to resubmit to the next year’s call
• Applicants scoring B at step 1 = will not be able to resubmit to the next year’s call
• Applicants scoring C at step 1 = will not be able to resubmit to the next two years’ calls
• Takes effect from 2015. Existing rule applies for 2014.
What IS changing in Horizon 2020
Starting Grants: opens 11 December 2013, deadline 25 March 2014
Consolidator Grants: opens 11 December 2013, deadline 20 May 2014
Advanced Grants: opens 17 June 2014, deadline 21 October 2014
Synergy Grants: no call launched in 2014
Proof of Concept: opens 11 December 2013, two deadlines on 1 April and 1 October 2014
ERC Calls in 2014 (very likely call dates)
ERC allocated around €12.7 billion for Horizon 2020 (compares to the allocation of €7.5 billion for FP7). Highest amount of funding to go to the Starting Grants and Consolidator Grants schemes.
But due to the progressive increases in the annual ERC budget until 2013, the amount allocated for the 2014 calls will in fact be lower than in 2013:
ERC in Horizon 2020 – Budget
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 20200
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
ERC since 2007: a few statistics
• UK was the most successful country in applying to the ERC in FP7:
Over 800 grants based in around 75 different UK
institutions
Around 15% success rate for proposals submitted by UK institutions (about
11% average overall)
Around 20% of all ERC grants based in the UK
6 of the 11 Synergy Grants projects funded in 2012 feature at least one
UK-based PI
• See here for examples of funded projects: http://erc.europa.eu/erc-funded-projects
Sign up to the UKRO portal and you will receive:
• Updates on content of programme• Information on call dates and management/financial
issues• Proposal writing workshops from January 2014 onwards
ERC website contains information on previous calls, guides to applicants, Q&A and details of evaluation panels for previous years’ calls http://erc.europa.eu
Staying informed
Questions? ERC National Contact Point helpdesk
• Email: erc-uk@ukro.ac.uk • Tel: +32 2289 6121
Contact Email: edward.ricketts@bbsrc.ac.uk Phone: +32 2 286 9056
Thank you!
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