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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?
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The principal Investigator should work in
: • • •
An EU country (27 countries) An Associate country (NO, IS, CH, IL) A Candidate country (HR, TR)
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However, applications can be made from outside Europe
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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:
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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
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Maximise call budget
By combining budgets over 2 successive years (only one application per researcher in either 2008 or 2009)
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Encourage the best to apply
Excellent track record (in recent years)
Strong leadership profile
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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
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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%)
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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