The European Research Council

Stockholm October 10, 2007

Carl-Henrik Heldin

Scientific Council

European Research Council (ERC)

EU’s 7th framework program (2007-2013) Cooperation Ideas (=ERC) People Capacities 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

Role:

•

Establish overall scientific strategy

•

Control quality of operation and management

•

Ensure communication with the scientific community 22 members nominated by the scientific community and appointed by the commission Chair: Vice Chairs: Fotis Kafatos Helga Novotny Daniel Esteve Meetings every 1-2 months

Budget

ERC will obtain about 7.5 bn EUR for the period 2007-2013, 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 sciences Life sciences Natural sciences 15% 40% 45% 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 – 2008: Advanced Investigator Grants – deadline April 25, 2007 deadline early 2008 From 2009: both AIG and SIRG

• • • • • • •

First call: ERC-2007-StG

Indicative budget: € 289 500 000 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

applicable) (if

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 (2007-2010)

ERC Starting Grant Calls Indicative Schedule 2007 - 2010 Work Programme Revision

Feb. 2007 May 2008 May 2009 May 2010

Work Programme Revision ERC Action

StG1 StG2 StG3 StG4

ERC Action Call open

Winter 06 Summer 08 Summer 09 Summer 10

Call open Call Deadline

Spring 07 Autumn 08 Autumn 09 Autumn 10

Call Deadline

Oct. 2007 May 2008 May 2009 May 2010 AdG1 AdG2 AdG3 AdG4 Autumn 07 Autumn 08 Autumn 09 Autumn 10 Spring 08 Spring 09 Spring 10 Spring 11

Estimated Call value ( € M) 290 290 340 400 Estimated Call value ( € M) 517 480 741 869 Budgetary year

2007

2009 2010 2011 Budgetary year 2008 2009 2010 2011 Evaluation Spring - Autumn 07 Winter 08 - Spring 09 Winter 09 - Spring 10 Winter 10 - Spring 11 Evaluation Spring 08 - Autumn 08 Spring 09 - Autumn 09 Spring 10 - Autumn 10 Spring 11 - Autumn 11

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)

ERC Advanced grant

Indicative budgets

─

Physical Sciences & Engineering (39%)

─

Life Sciences (incl. medical) (34%)

─

Humanities & Social Sciences (14%)

─

Interdisciplinary & High-gain/High-risk frontier research (13%)

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