Carl-Henrik Heldin Scientific Council The European Research Council Stockholm October 10, 2007

EU’s 7th framework program ( ) Cooperation Ideas (=ERC) People Capacities European Research Council (ERC) ERC The result of strong pressure from the scientists of Europe Aims of ERC Enforce basic research in Europe (retain, repatriate, recruit) Raise the level of ambition Establish a model for research funding Complement national support for basic research

ERC Scientific Council 22 members nominated by the scientific community and appointed by the commission Chair:Fotis Kafatos Vice Chairs:Helga Novotny Daniel Esteve Meetings every 1-2 months Role:Establish overall scientific strategy Control quality of operation and management Ensure communication with the scientific community

Budget ERC will obtain about 7.5 bn EUR for the period , i.e. 1 bn EUR per year Linear increase over the years, starting at 0.3 bn EUR 2007 and reaching 1.7 bn EUR 2013

General principles for ERC’s operation Autonomy Support to basic research in all fields ”Bottom up” principle Support to individual projects Evaluation by ”peer review” Quality and originality the only criteria No ”juste retour” Transparency Non-bureaucratic procedure Flexible grants Encourage ”cross-boundary” research

Integrating ERC European Commission providing financial means ERC Scientific Council 22 members independent scientific governance ERC Board 5 members Chair 2 Vice Chairs Secretary General Director EA Executive Agency practical implementation and management of operations

Who can apply? The principal Investigator should work in : An EU country (27 countries) An Associate country (NO, IS, CH, IL) A Candidate country (HR, TR) However, applications can be made from outside Europe Nationality not important

Distribution of budget The avavilable funds will initially be divided between the scientific domains: Humanities and social sciences15% Life sciences40% Natural sciences45% 80% of the funds will be allocated to the different panels. 20% of the funds will be withheld centrally and awarded to the projects of highest quality that was not founded in the first round.

ERC grants Only two types of research support 1.Starting Independent Researcher Grants (StG) (maximum 9 years after PhD) 2.Advanced Investigator Grants (AdG) Grants Large (100,000 – 500,000 EUR per year for up to 5 years) Flexible Portable Implementation 2007: Starting Independent Researcher Grants – deadline April 25, : Advanced Investigator Grants – deadline early 2008 From 2009: both AIG and SIRG

First call: ERC-2007-StG Indicative budget: € Call deadline: 25 April 2007 Two-stage evaluation 20 panels 9167 application recieved 559 finalists selected Proposals are evaluated on the basis of: –The potential of the Principal Investigator –The quality of the proposed research project –In addition, the Panels consider (as a pass/fail criterion): The research environment

ERC Advanced Investigator Grants 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  Up to ~500,000 Euro per year  Up to 5 years, i.e. up to ~2,5 MEuro per grant  ~ ⅔ of ERC annual budget, annual calls (= ~ 300 Advanced Grants per year)

ERC Advanced Grant Lessons learned from StG 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

Benchmarks of 10 year “track record” Senior author publications in major peer-reviewed multi- disciplinary scientific journals and/or in the leading peer- reviewed journals of their respective research fields Monographs and any translations of monographs (if applicable). Granted patents (if applicable) Invited presentations into peer-reviewed, internationally established conferences and/or international advanced schools (if applicable) Expeditions that the applicant has led (if applicable) International conferences in the field of the applicant that have been organised (member of the steering and/or organising committee) by him/her (if applicable) International Prizes/Awards/Academy memberships (if applicable)

Indicators of “leadership profile” Content and impact of the major scientific of the applicant to his or her own research field and/or neighbouring research fields and, if applicable, their wider societal impact; The international recognition and diffusion that these major contributions have received from others; Ability to productively change research fields and/or to establish new interdisciplinary approaches

ERC Advanced Grant Re-application restrictions  Only one ERC Grant per investigator may be active at any time  One submission may be made to AdG1 or AdG2  PIs submitting to AdG 1 or AdG 2 and not reaching step 2 of the evaluation will not be permitted to apply to AdG 3  Additional restrictions on multiple submissions

ERC Calls Indicative Schedule ( ) Work Programme Revision ERC Action Call open Call Deadline Estimated Call value (€ M) Budgetary year Evaluation Feb. 2007StG1Winter 06Spring Spring - Autumn 07 May 2008 StG2 Summer 08 Autumn Winter 08 - Spring 09 May 2009StG3 Summer 09 Autumn Winter 09 - Spring 10 May 2010StG4 Summer 10 Autumn Winter 10 - Spring 11 ERC Starting Grant Calls Indicative Schedule Work Programme Revision ERC Action Call open Call Deadline Estimated Call value (€ M) Budgetary year Evaluation Oct. 2007AdG1 Autumn 07 Spring Spring 08 - Autumn 08 May 2008AdG2 Autumn 08 Spring Spring 09 - Autumn 09 May 2009AdG3 Autumn 09 Spring Spring 10 - Autumn 10 May 2010AdG4 Autumn 10 Spring Spring 11 - Autumn 11 ERC Advanced Grant Calls Indicative Schedule

ERC Advanced Grant Lessons learned from StG 1 2.Evaluation –Methodology  Single stage application with 2-step peer review evaluation  Separate indicative budget for interdisciplinary and high risk proposals –Panel structure  25 panels across the 3 domains  Additional panels to take account of uneven demand and improve the boundaries between research areas

ERC Advanced Grant 1-stage submission / 2-step evaluation Proposals must contain:  CV + 10 year track record and scientific leadership profile + extended synopsis  Research proposal  Research Environment description “Twinning” proposals for interdisciplinary research Evaluation:  1 st step: Evaluation of CV (track record/leadership profile) & “Extended Synopsis”  2 nd step: Evaluation of Full Proposal (with referees, no interview)

─Physical Sciences & Engineering (39%) ─Life Sciences (incl. medical) (34%) ─Humanities & Social Sciences (14%) ─Interdisciplinary & High-gain/High-risk frontier research (13%) ERC Advanced grant Indicative budgets

ERC Advanced Grant Panel structure  Increase panels to 25  Provisionally, each panel consists of the panel chair and ca. 10 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 credibility and visibility to the whole evaluation process

Evaluation Criteria Scientific Excellence is the sole Criterion 1.Quality of Principal Investigator 2.Quality of research project 3.Research Environment and Resources  Referees and panels evaluate and score criteria 1 and 2 numerically, which will result in the ranking of the proposals  Criteria 3 will be considered on a "pass/fail" basis and commented but not scored