The ERC: Funding Opportunities and the Evaluation Process€¦ · │ 7 ERC offers independence,...
Transcript of The ERC: Funding Opportunities and the Evaluation Process€¦ · │ 7 ERC offers independence,...
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European Research Council
The ERC:
Funding Opportunities and
the Evaluation Process
Dr Alejandro Martin-Hobdey
Head of Unit
Scientific Management Department
Zagreb
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Outline
What do we offer?
Funding schemes, opportunities
The Evaluation Procedure
How to prepare and submit a grant proposal
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What is special about the ERC?
• All fields of science and scholarship are eligible
• Investigator-driven, bottom-up
• Scientific Excellence is the only criterion
• Individual team + research project
• Irrespective of nationality, gender or age of researchers
• Attractive grants
• Significant, flexible grants, up to five years
• Under full control of the Principal Investigator
• Independent individual teams in Europe
• All nationalities can apply
• Host organisation to be located in EU or Associated
Country
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Starting Grants
starters (2-7 years after PhD) up
to € 2.0 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
Proof-of-Concept bridging gap between research - earliest stage of marketable
innovation up to €150,000 for ERC grant holders
ERC Grant schemes
Consolidator Grants
consolidators (7-12 years after PhD) up
to € 2.75 Mio for 5 years
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Extensions of eligibility window possible for StG and
CoG for documented situations of:
• Maternity – 18 months per child
• Paternity – effective time taken off
• Military service
• Medical specialty training
• No limit to the total extension
Extensions of eligibility window
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Researchers career development
and complementary funding schemes
Post-docs
Senior Professor
Students
Post Graduates
Junior Professor/ Junior Researcher
Associated Professor
Full Professor
Erasmus
Marie Curie
ERC AdG - Advanced
ERC StG - Starters
ERC CoG – Consolidators
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ERC offers independence, recognition & visibility
• to work on a research topic of own choice, with a team of own choice
• to gain true financial autonomy for 5 years
• to negotiate with the host institution the best conditions of work
• to attract top team members (EU and non-EU) and collaborators
• to move with the grant to any place in Europe if necessary (portability
of grants)
• to attract additional funding and gain recognition
• ERC is a quality label
Creative research freedom of the
individual ERC grantee
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Applicant legal entity: institution that engages and hosts
the PI for the duration of the project (25% overheads to HI)
Any type of legal entity: universities, research centres,
business research units … as long as it is in MS or AC
Commitment of HI: to ensure that the PI may
- apply for funding independently
- manage research and funding for the project
- publish independently as senior author
- have access to reasonable space and facilities
Host institution
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ERC Evaluation process (StG, CoG & AdG)
Panel structure : 3 domains and 25 panels
Each panel : Panel Chair and 10-15 Panel Members
Life Sciences (LS) 9
LS1 Molecular & Structural Biology &
Biochemistry
LS2 Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics &
Systems Biology
LS3 Cellular & Developmental Biology
LS4 Physiology, Pathophysiology &
Endocrinology
LS5 Neurosciences & Neural disorders
LS6 Immunity & Infection
LS7 Diagnostic Tools, Therapies & Public health
LS8 Evolutionary, Population & Environmental
Biology
LS9 Applied Life Sciences & Non-Medical
Biotechnology
Social Sciences and Humanities (SH) 6
SH1 Markets, Individuals & Institutions
SH2 The Social World, Diversity & Common Ground
SH3 Environment, Space & Population
SH4 The Human Mind and its Complexity
SH5 Cultures & Cultural Production
SH6 The Study of the Human Past
Physical Sciences & Engineering (PE) 10
PE1 Mathematics
PE2 Fundamental Constituents of Matter
PE3 Condensed Matter Physics
PE4 Physical & Analytical Chemical sciences
PE5 Synthetic Chemistry & Materials
PE6 Computer Science & Informatics
PE7 Systems & Communication Engineering
PE8 Products & Process Engineering
PE9 Universe Sciences
PE10 Earth System Science
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ERC Evaluation process : Submission of
proposals
Single submission
• one deadline per Call
• to a targeted panel of your choice
• electronically only
• proposals have two parts:
• Part A: administrative forms
• Part B: scientific proposal itself (pdf)
• Step 1: Look at only Part B1
• Step 2: Look at Part B1 + B2
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Remote assessment by Panel members of section 1 – Synopsis and PI
Panel meeting
Proposals retained for step 2
STEP 1
Remote assessment by Panel members and reviewers of full proposals
Panel meeting + interview (StG+ CoG)
Ranked list of proposals
STEP 2
Redress
Evaluation of proposals Evaluation procedure
Feedback to applicants
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PART A – online forms
A1 Proposal and PI info
A2 Host Institution info
A3 Budget
PART B1 – submitted as .pdf
Extended Synopsis 5 pages
CV 2 p.
Track Record 2 p.
Annexes – submitted as .pdf
• Statement of support of HI
• copy of PhD or equiv. (StG & CoG)
If applicable:
• document for extension of eligibility
window (StG & CoG)
• explanatory information on ethical
issues
PART B2 – submitted as .pdf
Scientific Proposal 15 p.
(incl. budget table)
Submission of proposals Proposal structure
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Excellence as sole criterion, to apply to:
Research Project
Ground breaking nature
Potential impact
Scientific Approach
Principle Investigator (PI)
Intellectual capacity
Creativity
Evaluation Criteria
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• Panel members: typically 600 PMs
involved per call
High-level scientists
Recruited by ScC from all over the world
About 10-15 members plus chair person
• Remote Referees: typically 2000 / call
Each evaluate only a small number of
proposals
Other
(7%)
Who evaluates the proposals ?
(7%)
USA
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ERC panel members by country of HI and
gender ERC Starting, Consolidator and Advanced grant calls 2007 - 2013
531
494
425
309
199
193
170
136
134
120
109
99
86
67
64
48
37
15
10
8
8
6
6
6
5
2
223
85
60
29
11
4
1
318
33
24
14
10
6
5
3
3
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
UK
DE
FR IT NL
ES
SE
BE
AT
DK FI
PL
HU
PT
CZ
EL IE
RO
SK
BG
CY
HR LT SI
EE
LU
CH IL
NO
TR
RS IS
MK
US
CA
JP
AU
HK
RU
CL
CU
TW AR IN SA
UA
BR
MX
ZA
EU Associatecountries
International
# p
an
el m
em
bers
/pan
el
ch
air
s
ERC StG, CoG, AdG panel members 2007-2013 by host institution country
Total
M (74 %)
F (26 %)
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Panel meeting – Step 1 Scoring
Result of Step 1:
A. Proposal is of sufficient quality to pass to Step 2
of the evaluation
B. Proposal is of high quality but not sufficient to
pass to Step 2 of the evaluation
C. Proposal is not of sufficient quality to pass to
Step 2 of the evaluation
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Feedback to applicants
Step 2 results
Result of Step 2:
A. Proposal fully meets the ERC's excellence criterion and
is recommended for funding if sufficient funds are
available
B. Proposal meets some but not all elements of the ERC's
excellence criterion and will not be funded
At the end of both steps, applicants will be informed
about the ranking range of their proposal out of all
proposals evaluated by the panel
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Resubmission restrictions
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• Ever increasing number of applications causes low
success rates and high panel workload
• New for 2014 call applicants:
• those who receive a B (Step 1 or Step 2) have to
wait out one year
• those who receive a C will have to wait out two
years
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0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78 83
# s
ub
mis
sio
ns
age of applications
ADG 2013
COG 2013
STG 2013
ERC StG, CoG, AdG 2013
Age of applicants at call publication date
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Age of StG, CoG & AdG grantees
From StG 2007-2013 (incl CoG) & AdG
2008-2013
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
222426283032343638404244464850525456586062646668707274
# f
un
ded
PIs
Age of grantees at call publication date
Age of grantees 2007-2013 inc COG
ADG 2008-2013
STG 2007-2013 incl COG
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StG 2012 - 2013
Years past PhD
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0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Fin
al su
ccess r
ate
# f
un
ded
pro
po
sals
Yrs passed phd on call publication date
funded 2012 (263) funded 2013 (300)
SR 2012 (13.7 %) SR 2013 (9.2 %)
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0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
16%
18%
20%
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Su
ccess r
ate
by a
ge a
t call
p
ub
lic
ati
on
da
te
# f
un
ded
pro
po
sals
age at call publication date
funded 2012 funded 2013 SR age 2012 SR age 2013
StG 2012 - 2013
Funded proposals by age (at call publication date)
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ERC performance
Grant distribution per HI country, StG 2013
f
60
46
32 29
26 21
14 12 8 8 8
5 4 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
UK DE IL FR NL CH ES BE AT IT SE PT FI NO EL HU IE CY CZ HR PL TR
Nu
mb
er
of
gra
nte
es
Country of host institution
Mobility - Incoming and staying grantees (287 proposals)
Grantee moving to the country - all nationalities
Grantee staying in the country - "non-European"
Grantee staying in the country - "European"
Grantee in the country - nationals of the country
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StG 2013 Proposals for funding
Applicant Nationality – applicant in own
country
-22
-3 -3 -2 -5
-10
-5
-13
-2 -3 -6 -4 -2 -1 -1 -3 -3 -3 -1 -3 -2 -3 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1
33 31
23 20
16
7 9 10
4 2
4 4 4 1 1 2 1 1 1 2
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
40
DE IL
FR
UK
NL IT ES
US
BE
CH
CA
EL
PT FI
SE
CZ
TR
AU IE IN PL
RU
AT
HR
HU
AR
BR
BY
CY
DK
EC
MK
PK
SG
Nu
mb
er
of
Gra
nte
es
Grantee nationality
National in country
National abroad
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Relation with National Agencies II
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Some funding agencies uses ERC evaluation results in support research
National initiatives
in support of
finalist projects
in the ERC calls
A new partnership between
National Funding Councils
and ERC
BE Flanders: FWO supports the best ranked PIs on the ERC-StG reserve list
CY: Research Promotion Foundation supported StG 2009 finalists
FI: support scheme for finalists in reserve lists since 2009 calls
FR: ANR launched an initiative to support unfunded StG2007 finalists
HU: Call for unfunded ERC finalists of StG2007 and StG2009
IE: New scheme opening in 2012. Previous scheme for StG2007 finalists
IT: Call open to all unfunded StG2007 finalists
LU: FNR supports unfunded StG and AdG finalists since 2009 calls
NO: The Research Council supports unfunded StG finalists
SI: Complementary scheme for unfunded finalists of 2010 calls
ES: support for unfunded finalists of StG calls since 2007
CH: SNSF launched an initiative to back unfunded StG2007 finalists
TR: Considers a scheme to support unfunded ERC finalists
PL: Support scheme for finalists of 2009 and 2010 calls. It might continue
EL: support for unfunded
StG and AdG finalists in
2010 and 2011 calls
BG: Develops a scheme to financially support projects in the ERC reserve list
CZ: opened support scheme for finalists in 2012
PT: New national initiative in support of ERC finalists being developed
RO: opened support scheme for finalists in 2012
SE: support for unfunded finalists of StG calls since 2007
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Call Planning 2015
• Planning 2015:
• StG 2015 currently open (2-7 yrs PhD)
• Deadline 3 Feb 2015
• CoG 2015 opens 13 November 2014 (7-12 yrs PhD)
• Deadline 12 March 2015
• AdG 2015 opens 10 Feb 2015
• Deadline 2 June 2015
• PoC 2015 opens 7 Nov 2014
• 1st deadline 5 February 2015
• Existing grant holders only
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Some take-home messages….
ERC Awards are:
• Very competitive: ~10% success rates
• Significant: €1.5M – €2.0M for Starters / Consolidators
• Bottom-up: Open to any topic
• Ambitious: Achieve or boost independence; form a group
• Looking for High-risk/ High-gain research
• Flexible: Can re-budget as necessary
• Portable: Can be moved anywhere in Europe
• Prestigious: Will boost a research career
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For further information…
• ERC Web site: http://erc.europa.eu/
• Documents:
• ERC Work Programme (published annually)
• Information for Applicants (published with each call)
• National Contact Points
• European Commission Research Participant Portal
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Thank you