Transcript Diapositive 1

FP7 IDEAS
The European
Research Council
European Commission
Research DG
Philippe Stalins
7th Framework Programme
• Cooperation
• Ideas
• People
• Capacities
FP7 Ideas Programme
 Creates European Research Council
 Provides funding
─ Budget (2007-2013) : € 7.51 bn
(around 15% of FP7 budget)
─ Average budget: € ~1 bn per year
 Sets overall objectives for research
and operating principles
European Research Council
The European
Union scientific
• Establishes
overall
(represented by the European Commission)
strategy
• Establishes
Executes annual
programme
workwork
programme
(incl.
•Provides
financing
through
the
EU
(as established
by theevaluation
Scientific Council)
calls
for proposals,
Role
framework calls
programmes
• criteria);
Implements
for proposals
Defines peer
review and
provide information and support to
methodology;
ensures
and
 applicants
to ensure theautonomy
integratedselection
operation
of ERC
•Guarantees
of
the ERC
expertsevaluation
to monitorpeer
theofimplementation
of the
•accreditation
Organises
review
•• Controls
quality
ofposition
scientific
ScC’s strategy
and
as executed
Establishes
manages
•Assures
theand
integrity
and grant
accountability
bythe
the ERC
dedicated
implementation structure
operations
and management
agreements
of
to participate
in the ERC
board
••Ensures
communication
with the
Administers
scientific
and
financial
aspects
follow-up
of grant
scientific
community
•Adoptsand
annual
work programmes
as
agreements
established by the Scientific Council
Prof.
Prof.
Fotis
Estève
Kafatos
Prof.
Elga
Chair
Nowotny
Dedicated Implementation Structure
Commission
Executive Agency
7th Framework Programme
• Cooperation
Funding schemes
• Ideas
• Support for ‘frontier’ research
• People
• Coordination and Support
• Capacities Actions
Support for ‘frontier’ research
•
Two streams of activity:
1. ERC Starting Independent Researcher Grant
scheme (ERC Starting Grant)
 1st call for proposals published, deadline 25 April 2007
2. ERC Advanced Investigator Researcher Grant
scheme (ERC Advanced Grant)
 1st call for proposals published later in 2007
•
Requirements
•
Evaluated on the sole criterion of excellence.
1. ERC Starting Grant
The objective :
• Is to support researchers at the start of their
independent research career and help them
establishing or consolidating their own independent
research team (or research programme);
• To provide a structure to researchers for transition
from working under a supervisor to becoming an
independent research leader;
• Up to 5 years; €100,000 to €400,000 per year.
2. ERC Advanced Grant
The objective :
• Is to support excellent investigator-initiated
research projects carried out by established
independent research leaders;
• To complement the ERC Starting Grant scheme
by attracting researchers who have already
established their independence as team leaders;
• Up to 5 years; €100,000 to €500,000 per year.
Evaluation criterion
Excellence is the sole criterion of evaluation:
• It will be applied to the evaluation of both the
researcher and the research project.
• The evaluation will also assess the extent to which
the research environment enables the excellence
of the project to be achieved.
ERC Requirements
• Principal Investigator:
Nationality of researchers
is not relevant.
• Host organisation:
To be located in MS
or AS.
• Frontier Research
Projects:
All fields of science
and scholarship are eligible
(investigator-driven, bottom-up).
ERC Grant Agreement
Supplementary
Agreement
ERC
Grant Agreement
Amendment
Amendment
Accession
forms
Supplementary
Agreement
ERC Grant Agreement Structure
• For activities supported by frontier research
actions, the Community contribution may reach a
maximum
of 100%
of the IItotal
eligible
costs.
Annex
IV V
Annex
I Annex
Annex
IIIAnnex
Core grant
•Principal
The
indirect
costs may
be reimbursed
by
Article 2:
II.2
Specific
performance
obligations
of the
Article
Investigator
(PI)
Financial
Terms
statement
of
reference
form
for the
ERC Accession form for
beneficiary
a flat-rate
of other
20% beneficiaries.
of the total
direct of
eligible
costs,
certification
costs
and
on
• Reference to supplementary
agreement
between
the
PI
and
the
Description of work (including financial
Article II.3 excluding
Specific performance
obligations
of thefor
the directbased
eligible
costs
the
methodology.
information):
on
the
beneficiary hosting
and
engaging him / her; proposal text
principal
investigator
subcontracting
the costs
resources made
taking up and
the results
of theof
evaluation.
• Supplementary agreement lists the main points establishing the
Article II.4 available
Reports by third parties which are not used on
relations between the PI and the beneficiary.
Article II.15the
Identification
and indirect
premises of
ofdirect
the beneficiary.
Article 4: Reporting
costs
•Article
Parallel
streams
forfunding
the scientific
II.16
Upper
limits reporting and the financial
management reporting.
Article II.34 Approval of amendments & termination
1st Call in Brief
ERC Starting Grants only
•
Two stage submission process (to avoid oversubscription)
 1st stage – Outline Proposal: max 8 Pages (deadline stage 1 submission:
April 25, 2007)
 2nd stage – Full Proposal: max 16 Pages (on invitation only if stage 1 proposal
evaluated positively)
 Proposal Components:
a) CV + self-evaluation + funding ID (3/4 pages)
b) Description of research project (4/10 pages)
c) Description of scientific environment + resources (1/2 pages)
•
•
Electronic Submission only, via EPSS (no paper submission)
Pre-registration (via EPSS)
 Providing ERC with indication on number & area of proposals
•
What? Any field of science, engineering and scholarship
•
Who? Principal Investigator (Individual Team) + Hosting Organisation
•
How? Consult « ERC Guide for Applicants » on http://erc.europa.eu
•
Evaluated on the sole criterion of scientific excellence
ERC covers all fields
of science, engineering and scholarship
 For operational reasons the ScC agreed on 3
main research domains:
─ Physical Sciences & Engineering
─ Biological & Life Sciences
─ Social Sciences and Humanities
 The first call budget for ERC Starting Grants
(€300 Mio) has been pre-allocated to these
areas as follows:
 45% - 40% - 15%
ERC Starting Grant Requirements
 PI
 2-9 years since completion of PhD: Special circumstances
will be taken into account, such as maternity/paternity leave,
military/civil service (+3 years max.)
 PI and team members
 Any nationality
 One ERC Grant per investigator only may be active at any
one time
 Hosting institution
 Located in a EU member state or associated country
Evaluation Criteria
Scientific Excellence is the sole Criterion


1.
Potential of Principal Investigator
2.
Quality of research project
3.
Research Environment and Resources
Referees and panels evaluate and score criteria
under Heading 1 and Heading 2 numerically
which will result in the ranking of the proposals:
 0-5 points, in increments of 0.5
 Threshold 8 / 10
Criteria under Heading 3 will be considered as
"pass/fail" and commented but not scored
ERC Starting Grant
Potential of Principal Investigator
a.
Quality of research output


b.
Has the Principal Investigator published in high quality peer reviewed
journals or the equivalent?
To what extent are these publications ground-breaking and
demonstrative of independent creative thinking and capacity to go
significantly beyond the state of the art?
Intellectual capacity and creativity

To what extent does the Principal Investigator's record of research,
collaborations, project conception, supervision of students and
publications demonstrate that he/she is able to confront major research
challenges in the field, and to initiate new productive lines of thinking?
ERC Starting Grant
Quality of research project
a. Ground-breaking nature of the research


Does the proposed research address important challenges in the field(s)
addressed?
Does it have suitably ambitious objectives, which go substantially
beyond the current state of the art (e.g. including trans-disciplinary
developments and novel or unconventional approaches)?
b. Potential impact

Does the research open new and important, scientific, technological or
scholarly horizons?
c. Methodology


Stage 1: Is the outlined scientific approach (including the activities to be
undertaken by the individual team members) feasible?
Stage 2: Is the proposed research methodology (including when
pertinent the use of instrumentation, other type of infrastructures etc.)
comprehensive and appropriate for to the project? Will it enable the
goals of the project convincingly to be achieved within the timescales
and resources proposed and the level of risk associated with a
challenging research project?
ERC Starting Grant
Research Environment and Resources
a. Transition to independence

Will the proposed project enable the Principal Investigator to make
or consolidate the transition to independence?
b. Host institution [normally applicant legal entity]


Does the institution hosting the project have most of the
infrastructure necessary for the research to be carried out?
Is it in a position to provide an appropriate intellectual environment
and infrastructural support and to assist in achieving the ambitions
for the project and the Principal Investigator?
c. Participation of other legal entities

If it is proposed that other legal entities participate in the project, in
addition to the applicant legal entity, is their participation fully
justified by the scientific added value they bring to the project?