1. ERC in Horizon 2020
Ben Turner
ERC Executive Agency
November 2013

2. What is ERC?
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3. ERC mission: "to reinforce excellence, dynamism and creativity in European research"
Organisations' share of scientific articles in top 10% of most highly cited (in their respective research fields)

4. The ERC supports the best researchers
Budget
2007 – 2013
€ 7.5billion
1.1 billion €/year
2014 – 2020
€13 billion
1.9 billion €/year
What is ERC?
The ERC supports the best researchers
to do the best research.
The European Commission
Provides financing through the EU framework programmes
Guarantees autonomy, integrity and accountability of the ERC
Adopts annual work programmes as established by the Scientific Council
The ERC Scientific Council
22 prominent researchers proposed by an independent identification committee and appointed by the Commission (4 years, renewable once)
Establishes overall scientific strategy
Ensures communication with the scientific community
The ERC Executive 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
Carries out communications activities 4

5. ERC Grant schemes Advanced Grants Starting Grants Consolidator Grants
starters
(2-7 years after PhD) up to € 2.0 Mio
for 5 years
Consolidator Grants
consolidators
(7-12 years after PhD) up to € 2.75 Mio
for 5 years
Advanced Grants
track-record of significant research achievements in the last 10 years
up to € 3.5 Mio
for 5 years
Synergy Grants
2 – 4 Principal Investigators
up to € 15.0 Mio for 6 years
Proof-of-Concept
bridging gap between research - earliest stage of marketable innovation up to €150,000 for ERC grant holders

6. ERC evaluation - 25 panels for all areas of science
Physical Mathematics
Sciences Fundamental constituents of matter
& Condensed matter physics
Engineering Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Synthetic chemistry and materials
10 panels Computer science and informatics
Systems and communication engineering
Products and processes engineering
Universe sciences
Earth system science
Social Sciences & Humanities
6 panels
Individuals, institutions and markets
Institutions, values, beliefs and
behaviour
Environment, space and population
The Human Mind
Cultures and cultural production
The study of the human past
Life Molecular and structural biology and biochemistry
Sciences Genetics, genomics, bioinformatics and systems biology
Cellular and developmental biology
9 panels Physiology, pathophysiology and endocrinology
Neurosciences and neural disorders
Immunity and infection
Diagnostic tools, therapies and public health
Evolutionary, population and environmental biology
Applied life sciences and biotechnology

7. After first seven years…
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8. Over proposals
received

9. Christoforos Pissarides
Over world class researchers funded
2007
2009
2010
2010
2010
2012
2000
2005
Konstantin
Novoselov
Serge
Haroche
James Heckman
Theodor Hansch
2011
2012
2012
2012
1987
2010
2010
2009
Jean-Marie Lehn
Andre
Geim
Christoforos Pissarides
Ada
Yonath

10. Over 550 Host Institutions
in 29 countries

11. acknowledging ERC support
Over papers
acknowledging ERC support
Already over 20,000 papers acknowledging ERC support published in international, peer reviewed journals.

12. Lessons learned
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13. Highly competitive

14. European Institutions hosting at least 30 ERC Grantees by funding
Top
European Institutions
hosting
at least 30
ERC Grantees
by funding
Schemes
StG AdG
First legal signatories
of the grant agreement
Data as of 09/09/2013

15. Developing a new generation of excellent scientists

16. ERC grants - mobility of researchers
│ 16
Current host institutions; data as of 09/09/2013

17. ERC grants share to
population share

18. research investment share
ERC grants share to
research investment share
Expected
value
= 1,0

19. Success rate to applications

20. Looking ahead
│ 20

21. Horizon 2020 - ERC changes and continuity
Essential features maintained
Independent Scientific Council with full authority over funding strategy
Executive Agency with autonomous operation
Scientific excellence - the sole criterion on which ERC grants are awarded
Strengthening the Scientific Governance of the European Research Council
Strengthening the links between the Scientific Council and the Executive Agency
Merging positions of President of ERC and Secretary General
Full-time President based in Brussels
3 Vice-Chairs elected from amongst the Scientific Council members
Strengthening the role of Scientists in the Steering Committee of the ERCEA
Strengthening the relation of the Scientific Council and the ERCEA
Strengthening the links between ERC and other parts of H2020 which aim to reinforce European Science base
“Bringing ERC with Marie Curie, FET and Research Infrastructures together in a single programme will enable them to operate with greater coherence and in a rationalised, simplified and more focused way”

22. Horizon budget
H2020 budget € 77 billion ERC budget € 13 billion
FP7 budget € 50.5 billion ERC budget € 7.5 billion
Co-operation
(65 %)
Ideas
(15 %)
People
(9 %)
Capacities
(8 %)
JRC non-
nuclear (3 %)

23. Work Programme 2014 – summary of main features
Three ERC frontier research grants will be available under Work Programme 2014: Starting; Consolidator; and Advanced Grants.
The two streams of what was previously known as the ERC Starting Grant were divided into two separate calls under Work Programme 2013.
The Scientific Council will analyse the pilot phase of the ERC Synergy Grant (calls were made under Work Programmes 2012 and 2013) before deciding on the scope and timing of future calls. There will be no call under Work Programme 2014.
Extension of restrictions on applications will apply to the 2015 calls based on the outcome of the evaluation of the 2014 calls.
ERC Principal Investigators will also continue to be able to apply for the Proof of Concept Grant, first introduced under the revised Work Programme 2011.
Indicative budget for 2015 to help the research community to plan applications.

24. Work Programme 2014 – call planning
Starting
Grant
Consolidator
Advanced
Proof of Concept Grant
Call identifier
ERC-2014-StG
ERC-2014-CoG
ERC-2014-AdG
ERC-2014-PoC
Publication date
11 December 2013
17 June 2014
Deadline(s)
25 March 2014
20 May 2014
21 October 2014
1 April 2014
1 October 2014
Budget million EUR
(estimated number of grants)
485
(370)
713
(400)
450
(200) 15
(100)
Planned dates to inform applicants
21 July 2014
21 November 2014
31 October 2014
15 January 2015
10 March 2015
28 April 2015
31 July 2014
13 January 2015
Indicative date for signature of grant agreements
21 March 2015
15 May 2015
28 August 2015
31 November 2014
13 May 2015

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26. Additional slides
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27. ERC grants by host institution
ERC grants are concentrated
About 50 organisations host 50 % of the Grants.
There are 78 Organisations which host 10 or more Grants. Together they account for 60 % of all ERC Grants. 27

28. ERC grants by host institution
SCIMAGO Label of Research Impact
Nr Institutions
Nr Grantees
NI > 1.75 60
995
NI equal or above world average
275
1,719
NI lower than world average 57
115
ERC grants are concentrated …. BUT competitive research funding identifies "pockets of excellence"
Of the 392 Organizations hosting ERC
Grantees which could be matched to
SCIMAGO 2012
NB: 124 organizations hosting about 260 Grantees could not be matched in SCIMAGO 28

29. most cited publications worldwide
Contribution to 10%
most cited publications worldwide
(top ERA countries)
CH 18.2
IS 17.7
DK 17.5
NL 17.1
BE 15.8
US 15.3 SE UK AT IE NO DE FI IL FR
The performance of Austrian based researchers reflects Austria's generally strong scientific performance.
Bibliometric studies show that Austria is one of the top performing European countries in the production of high quality scientific publications.
Once again we see that it is the smaller, more research intensive countries which tend to produce the highest quality publications in Europe.
On the same basis the US scores 15.3 so the five countries in the darkest colour on the map are above this level.

30. ERC grants to top 10% publications
The absolute number of ERC grants hosted in a country correlates very closely (0.97) with the absolute number of scientific publications within the 10% most cited worldwide.
ERC Grants by country of host institution: StG 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and AdG 2008, 2009, 2010, Showing all host countries. "ERA" is EU27 plus AC host countries. Scientific publications within the 10% most cited worldwide from Commission Innovation Union Competitiveness Report (2007 publications Science Metrix/ Scopus -Elsevier full counting method).