Béatrice Thiry Information and Communication Assistant “Strategic matters and relations with the ERC Scientific Council” ERC-DIS / European Commission Verona/Italy, 1 October 2008 IDEAS, ERC Starting Grant

European Research Council │ 2 ERC, “Ideas” and FP7 ERC, “Ideas” and FP7 Main issues  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

European Research Council │ 3 ERC Grant schemes ERC Grant schemes 3R and 2 schemes 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): attract & retain the next generation of independent research leaders - up to € 2.0 Mio for 5 years  ERC Advanced Grant (AdG): attract & reward established independent research leaders - up to € 3.5 Mio for 5 years

European Research Council │ 4 ERC Starting Grant 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 ( ) Read the Guide for Applicants !

European Research Council │ 5 ERC Grant schemes ERC Grant schemes Strategic principles  All fields of science and scholarship are eligible  Investigator-driven, bottom-up  Excellence is the only valid criterion  Individual team + research project  Investment in research talent  Attractive, flexible grants, up to five years  Under control of the lead researcher (Principal Investigator)  Independent individual teams in Europe  Nationality and Age of researchers is not relevant  Host organisation to be located in EU or AS

European Research Council │ 6 ERC Grant schemes ERC Grant schemes Who can apply? – General requirements 1.Principal Investigator Nationality, age or current place of work not relevant 2.Host organisation To be located in MS or AS 3.Frontier Research Project All fields of science, engineering and scholarship are eligible (investigator-driven, bottom-up) 4.Individual research team PI has freedom to choose National or trans-national character, if scientific added value proven

European Research Council │ 7 ERC Grant schemes Operational Principles  Application in response to calls for proposals  Principal Investigators applies in conjunction and on behalf of a research-performing host institution  EPSS  Staged Evaluation Procedure  to manage large number of expected applications (almost 9167 proposals received in response to 1st Call for ERC Starting Grant proposals)  Panel-based international peer review process  Scientific Council selects panels and peer reviewers  Panels assess and select proposals

European Research Council │ 8 ERC Grant Schemes Evaluation: Scientific Excellence is the sole criterion Evaluation of Excellence at three levels: Quality of Principal Investigator Quality of Research Project Research Environment 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 per criterion  Threshold ≥ 2 per criterion Criteria under Heading 3 will be considered as "pass/fail" and commented but not scored

European Research Council │ 9 ERC Grant Schemes Peer Review Evaluation Panels  25(20) Panels covering all fields of science, technology and scholarship  3 sets of Panels: 1 StG Panels, 2 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  The Panel Chair gives high level credibility stamp and visibility to the whole evaluation process

European Research Council │ 10 ERC Grant Agreement ERC Grant Agreement Concept  Agreement between ERC and Principal Investigator’s (PI’s) hosting organisation (beneficiary)  Rights/obligations on scientific, financial, ethical conduct and monitoring, eligible costs, IPR, modifications, grant portability  Supplementary Agreement between PI and its hosting organisation  Rights/obligations: administration, project execution, IPR  Single grant holder approach  PI and members from same organisation  But: multi-partner/multi-national teams are possible

European Research Council │ 11 ERC Grant schemes Calls and Budget 2006 – 2011 (prospective schedule)

European Research Council │ 12 ERC Starting Grants: 2007 call Submitted proposals by domain DomainNumber of proposalsPercentage Life Sciences (LS) % Physical Sciences & Engineering (PE) % Social Sciences & Humanities (SH) % Total9167

European Research Council │ 13 Starting Grants 2007 Two step evaluation process ca. 300 anticipated grants Requested budget about € 300 M Stage 2 evaluation: Average success rate: ~54% 559 full proposals Requested budget about € 535 M Stage 1 evaluation: Average success rate: ~6% 8794 eligible proposals evaluated Requested budget about € 10 B Interviews

European Research Council │ 14 ERC Starting Grant Measures against oversubscription  Introduction of « benchmarks » clearly illustrating the profile of a competitive candidate  Single submission of full proposal  Minimal and symmetric reduction of eligibility window (3-8 years post PhD)

European Research Council │ 15  Indicative budget: ~ € 300 Mio.  Call launch end of July 2008 with 3 call deadlines  Physical Scienceson 29th October 2008  Social Scienceson 19th November 2008  Life Scienceson 10th December 2008  3 main research domains + interdisciplinary research domain, with separate indicative budgets -PE: Physical Sciences & Engineering (39%) – 10 panels -LS: Life Sciences (incl. medical) (34%) – 9 panels -SH: Humanities & Social Sciences (14%) – 6 panels -Interdisciplinary (13%) – Panel Chairs ERC Starting Grant ERC Starting Grant StG Preliminary information

European Research Council │ 16 ERC Starting Grant ERC Starting Grant StG Profile of the PI  Any nationality or age  Any current place of work – but: working or moving to work in Europe (EU member state, FP7 Associated country) read the Guide for Applicants!  3-8 years of experience after PhD - certain types of career breaks are accepted up to a maximum of 2 years read the Guide for Applicants!  Potential for research independence and evidence of maturity  at least one important publication without participation of PhD supervisor  Track-record of early research achievements appropriate to research field and career stage  Starters vs Consolidators  First StG call (300 grants, 21 host countries, 32 nationalities, 170 host institutes)  Average Age: 35 years (spans from 24, 28 to 44y)  Average experience: 6-7 years  Average grant size: €1 Mio  Gender: 26% women (as low as 12% in LS2 up to 71% in SH4)

European Research Council │ 17 ERC Starting Grant ERC Starting Grant Early research achievements track-record 1.Publications, as main author indicating those without the presence as co-author of their PhD supervisor) in major international peer- reviewed multi-disciplinary scientific journals and/or in the leading international peer-reviewed journals of their respective research fields, also indicating the number of citations (excluding self- citations) they have attracted. 2.Granted patent(s) (if applicable). 3.Invited presentations to peer-reviewed, internationally established conferences and/or international advanced schools (if applicable) 4.International Prizes/Awards/Academy memberships (if applicable)

European Research Council │ 18 ERC Starting Grants ERC Starting Grants Proposal content and submission (preliminary) ERC Starting Grant proposal PART A – online forms A1 Proposal and PI info “A1T” “Track Record” A2 Host institution info A3 Budget PART B1 – submitted as.pdf Section 1 Track Record of PI Scientific Leadership Potential2 p. CV (including “funding ID”) 2 p. Early achievements track record2 p. Extended synopsis5 p. PART B2 – submitted as.pdf Section 2 Scientific proposal15 p. Section 3 Research Environment2 p. Annexes – submitted as.pdf Statement of support by host PhD certificate (incl. supporting documents to extend the eligibility window)

European Research Council │ 19 Applications – Submission forms New features (a)  2 Step vs. 2 Stage (compared to StG1).  Separation into three deadlines by domain (compared to StG1).  Use of A1T form (compared to StG1).  Creation of an ID domain and budget (compared to StG1).  Change from 20 to 25 panels, with re-structuring of panels (compared to StG1).

European Research Council │ 20 Applications – Submission forms New features (b)  Self declaration / certification on the A1 from the applicant that is aware of and abides by all applicable resubmission rules.  Inclusion of the ethical table in part B2 template  Request for a simple year by year budget table in part B2 template  Separate uploading of parts B1 and B2 (to allow only B1 to be sent to reviewers in Step 1).  Form A1T: not all fields are compulsory which should lead to fewer submission problems (Compared to AdG1)

European Research Council │ 21 Applications – Submission forms New features (c)  Reduction of abstract length to 1800 characters from 2000 (to avoid certain EPSS submission problems related to character counting)  Tightening of rules regarding the Host institution letter: now it is specified in the WP that the model text has to be used  Supply online of the template for the HI letter of support ;  Separate uploading (and error messages if lacking) of the HI letter of support and the time since PhD documentation  Linking of the first key word identified in form A1 to the target panel

European Research Council │ 22 ERC Starting Grants ERC Starting Grants Proposal evaluation Step 2 Evaluation - Indiv. assessments - Interdisciplinary flag - Interviews - PANEL MEETINGS - Ranking Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Step 1 Evaluation - Indiv. Assessments - PANEL MEETINGS - Ranking Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Submission + Annexes Eligibility Check Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Proposal - BProposal – B1+B2Proposal – B1

European Research Council │ 23 ERC Starting Grant ERC Starting Grant „Similar type of funding“  Same/similar conceptual aim of the grant scheme  Establishing or consolidating a research team  Establishing or consolidating scientific independence  Similar scale of funding: € ’000 per year for up to 5 years, i.e. up to € 2 Mio  Same research project (similar/same objectives or approaches applied) e.g. Marie-Curie Excellence Grants European Young Investigators Awards (EURYI, € 0,75-1,25 Mio. for 5 years) NWO Innovational Research Incentives Scheme “Vidi” (up to € 600’000 for 5 years) DFG Emmy Noether Programme (funding of Independent Junior Research Group, for up to 5-6 years) SNSF Professorship Programme (establishment of independent team, for up to 4-6 years, in average: € 1 Mio.)

European Research Council │ 24 ERC Starting Grant ERC Starting Grant Multiple Applications/Resubmissions General  Only one ERC grant managed by a Principal Investigator (or Co- Investigator) can be active at any time  Only one application to the ERC during the same year Starting Grant  Principal Investigators can apply every second year  Exceptionnally no « fallow » for applicants whose proposals are over the quality threshold at the end of the second step of evaluation but not funded due to insufficient funds  StG Principal Investigators can compete during the last 2 years of their grant for an AdG Read the Guide for Applicants!

European Research Council │ 25  Specific text of “Call for Proposal”  ERC Work Programme  ERC Guide for Applicants (!)  ERC Grant agreement Other:  ERC Guide for Grant Holders  ERC Guide for Peer Reviewers  ERC Rules on submission, evaluation, selection and award procedures Read always the last published versions ! available at

European Research Council │ 26 Up-to-date Information ERC website at

European Research Council │ 27 Applicants Services Applicants Services Information and helpdesks ERC News Alert 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

European Research Council │ 28 ERC Starting grants: 2007 call Project examples Institute of Chemical Technology (CZ) Institut Curie (FR) Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (ES)

European Research Council │ 29 ERC Starting Grant Case Studies ERC Starting Grant Case Studies Other publications available or coming soon List with names of PIs and host institutions of 430 retained proposals, incl top ca.300 being funded ERC Starting Grant brochure with Case Studies Various brochures on Starting Grant case studies produced/published by national actors (such as in DE, AT, CH, FR) FP7 project database (FP IDEAS projects) ERC project database under development

European Research Council │ 30 Danke! Merci! Thank you! Gracie! Gracias! Ευχαριστώ!