European Research Council

European Research CouncilIts mission and calls for proposals

Dr Gabor NagyERC EA

Head of UnitAdvanced Grants

June 2011

European Research Council

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What is the ERC?

ERC is a new type of funding body in Europe to support excellence in frontier research, a bottom-up, individual-team, pan-European competition

• Scientific Council with 22 members

• Support by the ERC Executive Agency

• Significant budget (1.2 billion €/year)

• Excellence as the only valid criterion

• Support for the individual scientist – no networks!

• International peer-review

• No predetermined subjects (bottom-up)

• Support of frontier research in all fields of science and humanities

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European Research Council

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 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

The 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

European Research Council

• Prof. Claudio BORDIGNON (IT – Medicine)• Prof. Nicholas CANNY, (IE – History)• Prof. Sierd A.P.L. CLOETINGH (NL – Earth Sciences)• Prof. Mathias DEWATRIPONT (BE – Economics) • Prof. Tomasz DIETL (PL – Physics)• Prof. Daniel DOLEV (IL – Computer Sciences) • Prof. Carlos M. DUARTE (ES – Biology)• Prof. Daniel ESTEVE (FR – Physics)• Prof. Pavel EXNER (CZ – Applied Mathematics & Mathematical Physics) • Prof. Hans-Joachim FREUND (DE- Physics & Physical Chemistry)• Prof. Carl-Henrik HELDIN (SE – Molecular Cell Biology)• Prof. Timothy HUNT (UK - Biology)• Prof. Norbert KROO (HU – Physics)• Prof. Maria Teresa LAGO (PT – Astrophysics)• Prof. Henrietta L. MOORE (GB – Social Anthropology) • Prof. Helga NOWOTNY (AT – Social Studies of Science), ERC President• Prof. Christiane NÜSSLEIN-VOLHARD (DE – Genetics)• Prof. Alain PEYRAUBE (FR – Linguistics) • Dr. Jens ROSTRUP-NIELSEN (DK – Chemistry)• Prof. Mart SAARMA (FI – Biology)• Prof. Anna TRAMONTANO (IT- Biochemistry)• Prof. Isabelle VERNOS, (ES – Molecular Biology)

ERC Scientific Council Members

European Research Council

FP7 budget € 50.5 billion ERC budget € 7.5 billion; Increase by € 250 M/year

Co-operation (65 %)

Ideas (15 %)

People (9 %)

Capacities (8 %)JRC non-

nuclear (3 %)

European Research Council

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ERC Grant SchemesERC Grant SchemesFunding Strategy

Aim: 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

raise aspiration and achievement of basic research in Europe

Activities: Two complementary funding schemes

ERC Starting Grant (StG)

ERC Advanced Grant (AdG)

European Research Council

ERC Granting schemes

Starting Grants Advanced Grants

StG 2010AdG 2010

• Attract/retain next-generation leaders• Address funding gap early in independent

career• Establish independent research

team & program• up to € 2.0 Mio for 5 years

• Attract/retain current world-leaders• Stimulate investigator-driven, breakthrough

research• up to € 3.5 Mio for 5 years

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57 59 61 63 65 67 69 71 73

Age of the grantees

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Age of grantees

Nu

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European Research Council

Social Sciences and Humanities SH1 Individuals, institutions & markets SH2 Institutions, values, beliefs and behaviour SH3 Environment & society SH4 The Human Mind and its complexity SH5 Cultures & cultural production SH6 The study of the human past

Physical Sciences & Engineering PE1 Mathematical foundations PE2 Fundamental constituents of matter PE3 Condensed matter physics PE4 Physical & Analytical Chemical sciences PE5 Materials & Synthesis PE6 Computer science & informatics PE7 Systems & communication engineering PE8 Products & process engineering PE9 Universe sciences PE10 Earth system science

Life Sciences LS1 Molecular & Structural Biology &

Biochemistry LS2 Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics &

Systems Biology LS3 Cellular and Developmental Biology LS4 Physiology, Pathophysiology &

Endocrinology LS5 Neurosciences & neural disorders LS6 Immunity & infection LS7 Diagnostic tools, therapies & public health LS8 Evolutionary, population & environmental

biology LS9 Applied life sciences & biotechnology

ERC Panel Structure: 25 PanelsERC Panel Structure: 25 Panels

European Research Council

• Panel Members appointed by the ERC; selected and recruited by ERC Scientific Council

• ScC has high “recruiting power”

• Recruited / attracted from all over the world: ~18% from outside the European Research Area

• High level Panel Members add credibility / visibility / prestige to the programme

Several Panel Members with Nobel Prizes

• All areas of human knowledge broken into 25 Panels with ~12 Panel Members, incl. a Panel Chair

Evaluation – Peer review

European Research Council

Submitted proposals

European Research Council

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ERC Starting grant calls 2007 - 2011Submitted proposals by domain

4406

1112 1205

1690

3399

927 1029

14401362

464639

950

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

5000

StG 2007 (9167) StG 2009 (2503) StG 2010 (2873) StG 2011 (4080)

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Life Sciences

Social Sciences and Humanities

European Research Council

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ERC Advanced grant calls 2008 - 2011Submitted proposals by domain

997

736

902 917

766

512

621

789

404335

486

578

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

AdG 2008 (2167) AdG 2009 (1583) AdG 2010 (2009) AdG 2011 (2284)

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Life Sciences

Social Sciences and Humanities

European Research Council

Selected proposals

European Research Council

Success rates ERC Starting & Advanced grant calls 2007 – 2010

3,3%

9,8%

15,0%

13,0%

15,5%

13,2%

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

18%

2007 2009 2010 2008 2009 2010

Starting grant Advanced Grant

ERC calls

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ERC 2011

European Research Council

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ERC Starting grant 2007 – 2010ERC Advanced grant 2008 - 2010

Origin of Grantees

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

UK FR DE CH NL IT ES IL SE BE AT FI DK HU NO EL PT IE CZ PL CY BG TR IS EE

Country of host institution

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of

Gra

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Grantees moving to the country ("European" & "non-European" nationals)

Grantees staying in the country: "Non-European" nationals

Grantees staying in the country: other "European" nationals

Grantees staying in the country: nationals of that country

ERC 2011

European Research Council

-110

-85

-60

-35

-10

15

40

65

90

115

140

UK CH FR DE NL ES AT SE IT DK BE FI IL NO IE PT HU BG CY CZ EL PL TR HR RO LU SL AL EE MT

Non-nationalsin host country

Nationals away from home country

ERC 2011: StG-07/299);09(245);10(431) & AdG-08(282);09(245)/10(266)

ERC Starting & Advanced grant calls 2007 - 2010

International exchange of researchers

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European Research Council

Early impacts

The European Research Council

European Research Council

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Fields Medals Fields Medals 2010 2010

Cédric VillaniInstitut Henri

Poincaré

Stanislav Smirnov

Geneva Uni.

Ngô Bảo Châu

Université Paris-Sud

Elon LindenstraussHebrew Univ.

*4 European winners in “Science” categories”

Wolf Prize Wolf Prize 2010* 2010*

ERC Grantee

AdG2008

ERC Grant holders feature prominently

in the announcements of

laureates of prestigious

research prizes.

David Baulcombe

Cambridge Univ.(Agriculture)

Axel Ullrich Max Planck (Medecine)

Alain AspectInst. d’Optique,

Palaiseau(Physics)

Anton ZeillingerVienna Univ.

(Physics)

ERC Grantee

AdG2008

AdG2010

ERC Grantee

AdG2008

AdG2010

Early impacts: ERC is reinforcing excellenceit attracts high calibre scientists

European Research Council

How to apply

The European Research Council

European Research Council

Evaluation and monitoring of ERC grants

Which advisory services did you use for preparing your proposal?

4,3

20,9

42,6

42,6

46,1

55,7

10,9

16,6

44,0

33,0

44,8

47,9

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

I didn't use any advisoryservices.

Service point hostinstitution

ERC

National Contact Point(NCP)

Service point institution(worked)

Colleagues

percentage

StG 2009_rejected (n=466)

StG 2009_funded (n=117)

Source: ERC CSA Project MERCI 2011

European Research Council

Planned deadlines for 2012 calls

• Tentative => check website for latest news

• Date of publication StG 2012: 19 July 2011 (tbc)

• Call closure deadline for submission:• Physical Sciences & Engineering: October 2011 (tbc)• Life Sciences: November 2011 (tbc)• Social Sciences & Humanities: November 2011 (tbc)

• Call budget: € 730 Mio

• Date of publication AdG 2012: November 2011 (tbc)

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European Research Council

Further information

•ERC website : http://erc.europa.eu

•ERC News Alerthttp://erc.europa.eu/newsalert

•ERC National Contact Pointsinform, raise awareness and provide advice on ERC funding opportunities, application, follow-up http://erc.europa.eu/ncp

•ERC helpdeskhttp://ec.europa.eu/research/enquiries

•Euraxess (EU portal for researchers) :http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess

European Research Council

Thank you!