Established by the European Commission
Opportunità di finanziamenti ERC
per progetti "high risk/high gain”
© Art & Build Architect / Montois Partners / credits: S. Brison
Monsurro Vladia, PhD MBA
Padova 13 October 2015 │ 1
Established by the European Commission
ERC achievements and Funding SCHEMES
ERC Evaluation process
HINTS and TIPS
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Structure
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Established by the European Commission
Evaluated > 40,000 proposals
Funded 4 300 top researchers (65% are at an early-career
stage); 66 nationalities represented
Highly competitive (success rate ~12%)
Working in almost 600 different institutions in 32 countries
Benchmarking effect: impact on national programmes and
agencies
Efficient and fast grant management
ERC achievements After 7 years of existence…
Established by the European Commission
ERC Budget
Co-operation (65 %)
Ideas (15 %)
People (9 %)
Capacities (8 %) JRC non-
nuclear (3 %)
FP7 budget € 50.5 billion
ERC budget € 7.5 billion
H2020 budget € 77 billion
ERC budget € 13 billion
JRC
(2.5%)
EIT
(3.6%)ERC
(17.1%)
Industrial
leadership
(23.1%)
Other Excellent
science (14.6%)
Societal
challenges
(39%)
Established by the European Commission
Features of ERC grants
All fields of science and scholarship are eligible
Investigator-driven, bottom-up
Scientific Excellence is the only criterion
Individual team + research project
Investment in research talent
Attractive, flexible grants (aims of the project can be modified through
amendments to the grant agreement), up to five years
Under control of the Principal Investigator
No constraints on eligible costs as long as they are for the execution of
the project
Grants have a light reporting along the project life-time: financial report
every 18 months, scientific report at mid-term and end of the project
Established by the European Commission
Independent individual teams in Europe
All nationalities can apply
Host organisation must be located in EU or AC
The PI should spend 50% in the EU or Associated Country
The PI should dedicate 50% (StG), 40% (CoG) and 30% (AdG) of
his/her time to the project
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Features of ERC grants
Established by the European Commission
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 Funding Schemes
Consolidator Grants
consolidators
(7-12 years after PhD)
up to € 2.75 Mio
for 5 years
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Established by the European Commission
Researchers career development
and complementary funding schemes
Senior Professor
Senior Postdoc/ Junior Professor/
Associated Professor
Associated Professor Full Professor
ERC AdG - Advanced
ERC StG - Starting
ERC CoG – Consolidators
Established by the European Commission
“… to support excellent Principal Investigators at
the stage at which they are starting their own
independent research team or programme.”
minimum of 50% time in Europe (MS + AC)
minimum of 50% working time on ERC project
ERC Work Programme 2016
Starting Grants
Objective
European Research Council
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Established by the European Commission
Potential for research independence
One publication without PhD supervisor
significant publications
invited presentations in conferences
funding, patents, awards, prizes
Starting Grants
Profile
European Research Council
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Senior postdoc/Junior Professor/ Junior
Researcher/Associated Professor
Established by the European Commission
2 years ≤ PhD date ≤ 7 years
Call 2016 counting from 1 January 2016
Extensions to this period are possible
paternity leave, maternity leave, long-term illness,
national military service
Starting Grants
Eligibility
European Research Council
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Established by the European Commission
€1.5M for 5 years
extra €0.5M
"start-up" costs PI moving from outside
EU+AC
purchase of major equipment
access to large facilities
100% total eligible direct costs (salaries, equipment, etc.)
Starting Grants
Possible requested amount
European Research Council
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Established by the European Commission
“…to support excellent Principal Investigators at
the career stage at which they may still be
consolidating their own independent research
team or programme.”
minimum of 50% time in Europe (MS + AC)
minimum of 40% working time on ERC project
ERC Work Programme 2016
Consolidator Grants
Objective
European Research Council
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Established by the European Commission
research independence (very often already
working with own group)
Several publications without PhD supervisor
Promising track-record of early
achievements
significant publications
invited presentations in conferences
funding, patents, awards, prizes
Consolidator Grants
Profile
European Research Council
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Assistant professor/Full Professor
Established by the European Commission
7 years < PhD date ≤ 12 years
Call 2016: counting from prior to 1 January 2016)
Extensions to this period are possible
paternity leave, maternity leave, long-term illness,
national military service
Consolidator Grants
Eligibility
European Research Council
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Established by the European Commission
€2M for 5 years
extra €0.75M
"start-up" costs PI moving from outside
EU+AC
purchase of major equipment
access to large facilities
100% eligible direct costs (salaries, equipment, etc.)
Consolidator Grants
Possible requested amount
European Research Council
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Established by the European Commission
Take place at Step 2 meetings
Panel evaluates interview + written proposal
Interviews between 20-30 minutes (panel dependent)
Consolidator & Starting Grants
Interviews
European Research Council
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Established by the European Commission
“… Advanced Grants are intended to promote
substantial advances in the frontiers of
knowledge, and to encourage new productive lines
of enquiry and new methods and techniques,
including unconventional approaches and
investigations at the interface between established
disciplines.”
minimum of 50% time in Europe (MS + AC)
minimum of 30% working time on ERC project
Advanced Grants
Objective
European Research Council
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Established by the European Commission
Active researchers (any age, nationality, and current
place of work)
Exceptional leaders in terms of the originality and
significance of their research contribution
Track-record of significant research achievements
(last 10 years, extension in case of career breaks
possible)
10 publications as senior author in major scientific
journals
Advanced Grants
Profile
European Research Council
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Established by the European Commission
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Advanced Grants
Profile
Exceptional leaders in term of mentorship
granted patents
invited presentations at international conferences
international conferences where Principal
Investigator was an organiser
International prizes/awards
Established by the European Commission
€2.5M for 5 years
extra €1M
"start-up" costs PI moving from outside
EU+AC
purchase of major equipment
access to large facilities
100% eligible direct costs (salaries, equipment, etc.)
Advanced Grants
Possible requested amount
European Research Council
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Established by the European Commission
LS1 Molecular & Structural Biology & Biochemistry
LS2 Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics & Systems
Biology
LS3 Cellular and 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 & biotechnology
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PE1 Mathematics
PE2 Fundamental constituents of matter
PE3 Condensed matter physics
PE4 Physical & Analytical Chemical sciences
PE5 Materials & Synthesis
PE6 Computer science & informatics
PE7 Systems & communication engineering
PE8 Products & process engineering
PE9 Universe sciences
PE10 Earth system science
SH1 Markets, individuals & institutions
SH2 The social world, diversity, institutions & values
SH3 Environment, space & population
SH4 The Human Mind and its complexity
SH5 Cultures & cultural production
SH6 The study of the human past
Life Sciences – 9 Panels Physical Sciences & Engineering – 10 Panels
Social Sciences and Humanities – 6 Panels
To which evaluation panel?
3 domains and 25 panels
Established by the European Commission
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ERC Calls 2007-2014
Grant distribution per panel
LS1
LS2
LS3
LS4
LS5
LS6
LS7
LS8
LS9
PE1
PE2
PE3
PE4
PE5
PE6
PE7
PE8
PE9
PE10
SH1
SH2
SH3
SH4
SH5
SH6
Numbers of grants
Established by the European Commission
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Budget available and distribution
for 2016
For StG, CoG and AdG calls an indicative budget will be allocated to each panel in
proportion to the budgetary demand of its assigned proposals.
Budget ERCEA 2016= 1667.02 million of Euro
For the Main Calls= 1645 million Euro
Established by the European Commission
Annexes - submitted as .pdf Host Institution support letter
Copy of PhD (or equivalent degree)
certificate (StG & CoG)
If applicable document for extension of
eligibility window (StG & CoG)
If applicable explanatory information
on ethical issues
Part B2 – submitted as .pdf
Scientific proposal 15p
a. State-of-the-art and objectives
b. Methodology
c. Resources (incl project cost)
Part B1 – submitted as .pdf
Extended Synopsis 5p
CV 2p
Early achievements (StG & CoG) or
10-year track record 2p
Part A - online forms General information on research
proposal
Host Institution (HI) and applicant
Budget
Ethics
Call specific questions
ERC proposals structure-What do you
have to submit?
Established by the European Commission
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Eligibility check
Step 1 (remote) evaluation on
the basis of section 1 of
proposal* by panel members
A proposals
passing to Step 2
Individual assessment of full
proposal by
panel members + referees
AdG : 2nd Panel
meeting
Submission of
full proposals
A proposals ranked and top
proposals
selected for funding
How does it work?
Submission, evaluation and selection
1st Panel meeting
CoG, StG: 2nd Panel meeting
incl. interviews
of applicants
Score:
B or C
Score:
B
Established by the European Commission
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Panel members: typically 375 / call
High-level scientists
Recruited by ScC from all over the world:
~14% from outside Europe
About 12-16 members plus a chair person
Referees: typically 2000 / call
Evaluate only a small number of proposals
Similar to normal practise in peer-reviewed
journals
EU and Associated
Countries
(86%)
US (7%)
Other
(7%)
How ERC research proposals are evaluated? Peers Review
Established by the European Commission
│ 28 * Number of instances that experts of a certain country of origin are contributing to the ERC peer review
FP7 ERC Panel Members by
Country of HI and Gender
Averaged over the first 13
ERC calls
Established by the European Commission
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Past evaluation panels
http://erc.europa.eu/funding-and-grants/apply-funding/evaluation-panels
Menu allows searching for previous Panel Members by Funding
Scheme and Call Year
Established by the European Commission
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Hints and tips
Administrative (part A)
Scientific (part B)
Established by the European Commission
Preparing an application
Administrative section Hints and tips
Register early, get familiar with the system and templates
and start filling in the forms
A submitted proposal can be revised until the call
deadline by submitting a new version and overwriting the
previous one
Follow the formatting rules and page limits
Download and proof-read the proposal before submitting
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Established by the European Commission
Preparing an application
Scientific section (Part B1)
Only the extended Synopsis is read at Step 1:
concise and clear presentation (evaluators are not necessarily all
experts in the field)
Pay particular attention to the ground-breaking nature of the
research project, highlighting its frontier/innovative aspects
Know your competitors – what is the state of play and why is your
idea and scientific approach outstanding?
Outline of the methodological approach (feasibility)
Show your scientific independence in your CV, highlighting
independence, originality, “feasibility”, mobility
Track-record : highlightining personal contributions
Avoid plagiarism
Established by the European Commission
Preparing an application
Scientific section (Part B2)
Provide sufficient detail on methodology, work plan etc.
(15 pages)
Check coherency of figures
Justify requested resources
Explain involvement of team members
Provide alternative strategies to mitigate risk
Established by the European Commission
Balancing Vision and Credibility
… the approach is in line with the previous activities of the
applicant but lacks new challenging hypotheses …
… this is a large-scale and well planned study which, however,
is over-ambitious and unfocused …
… the project's objectives are ambitious, but the methodology
is not innovative enough, rather a continuation of the existing
work …
… the project is not mature enough and further preliminary
work is necessary …
Established by the European Commission
Show dependencies
Mitigate risks: preliminary data; progress
criteria/measures; avoid high-risk objective
(e.g. method development) at early stages;
define pitfalls & alternatives
Clearly schedule the project: Gantt chart;
milestones/expected; Outcomes & timelines
Preparing an application
Scientific section (Part B1)
Established by the European Commission
Be mindful about…
Avoiding unrealistic projections and promises
Outsourcing with prudence (e.g. trivial/special
technicalities)
Matching format & terminology with the funding
scheme
Justifying budget: manpower (include
competencies); equipment; timeline
Established by the European Commission
- Awareness of regulatory environment
- Readiness to provide protocol approvals
- Understanding of historical context, political situation and
sensitivities, and social-anthropology, if in a foreign
country
Ethics
Be mindful about…
Established by the European Commission
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Step by step to ERC grants
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Animated infographics clip
Introduction to application
process, including tips &
tricks for the interview
Video:
https://vimeo.com/94179654
Established by the European Commission
Initiated to help ERC grant-holder to bridge the gap between their
research and the earliest stage of a marketable innovation
Supporting grant-holders during the pre-demonstration
Up to 150.000 Euro per grant
One step evaluation
ERC Proof of Concept (PoC)
Established by the European Commission
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H2020 ERC - PoC Grants
by Country of HI
Num
ber
of
PoC
gra
nte
d
Established by the European Commission
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Indicative summary main calls
2016
Established by the European Commission
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Browse ERC projects
Searchable repository of
ERC signed projects
Menu allows searching by
• Funding Scheme
• Call Year
• Domain/panel
• Country of Host
Institution
http://erc.europa.eu/projects-and-results/erc-funded-projects
Established by the European Commission
The European Research Council
Contact information
© Art & Build Architect / Montois Partners / credits: S. Brison
ERC website: erc.europa.eu
National Contact Point: http://erc.europa.eu/funding-and-
grants/national-contact-points
Sign up for news alerts: erc.europa.eu/keep-updated-erc
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www.facebook.com/EuropeanResearchCouncil
twitter.com/ERC_Research
www.linkedin.com/company/european-research-council
Established by the European Commission
The European Research Council
© Art & Build Architect / Montois Partners / credits: S. Brison
THANK YOU! │ 44