The European Research Council

ERC
The European Science Champion’s League© Art & Build Architect / Montois Partners / credits: S. Brison

13 October 2015

What is the European Research Council?

Strategy

 Support for individual scientists
 International peer-review
 No predetermined subjects (bottom-up)
 Support for frontier research in all fields of science and humanities
 Look for high gain/high risk ambitious projects

Legislation

A bottom-up, individual-based, pan-European competition
with host institution in EU or Associated Countries.

 Scientific governance by an independent 22-member
Scientific Council, which has full authority over funding and evaluation
 Support by the ERC Executive Agency (autonomous) Only criterion: quality of research aiming for excellence│2

ERC Structure
The European Commission••••

Provides financing through the EU framework programmes
Guarantees autonomy of the ERC
Assures the integrity and accountability of the ERC
Adopts annual work programmes as established bythe Scientific Council

The ERC Scientific Council•

22 prominent researchers proposed by an independent••

Appointed by the Commission (4 years, renewable once)
Establishes overall scientific strategy; annual work programmes

identification committee(incl. calls for proposals, evaluation criteria); peer review methodology;
selection and accreditation of experts••

Controls quality of operations and management
Ensures communication with the scientific community

The ERC Executive Agency

│3•
••
•
•
•

Executes annual work programme as established by the Scientific Council
Implements calls for proposals and provides information and support to applicants
Organises peer review evaluation
Establishes and manages grant agreements
Administers scientific and financial aspects and follow-up of grant agreementsCarries out communications activities and ensures information dissemination
to ERC stakeholders

ERC Grant Schemes

Starting Grants

Consolidator Grants

starters(2-7 years after PhD)
up to € 1.5 Miofor 5 years

consolidators(7-12 years after PhD)
up to € 2 Miofor 5 years

Advanced Grants
track-record ofsignificant researchachievements in thelast 10 years
up to € 2.5 Miofor 5 years

Proof‐of‐Concept
bridging gap between research - earliest
stage of marketable innovation
up to €150,000 for ERC grant holders│4Horizon 2020 Budget

ERC Budget for 2014-2020€ 13.1 billion

Priority to Young Scientists

Two-thirds of ERC
grants to early-stage
Principal
Investigators.

+ 22 000 PhD andpost-doc
researchers workingin ERC teams.
│6

Creative Freedom to Individual Grantee

ERC offers independence, recognition &visibility• to work on a research topic of own choice, with a team ofown choice• to gain true financial autonomy for 5 years• to negotiate with the host institution the best conditions ofwork• to attract top team members (EU and non-EU) andcollaborators• to move with the grant to any place in Europe if necessary(portability of grants)• to attract additional funding and gain recognition; ERC│7is a quality label

Evaluation Panel Structure (WP2015)
Life Sciences
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
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

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 & environmentalbiology
LS9 Applied life sciences & biotechnology

Physical Sciences & Engineering










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

Social Sciences and Humanities






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
│8

ERC achievements│9After 8 Years of Existence… A Success Story Highly recognised by the research community Over 4 300 top researchers funded during FP7 (2007-2013) 65% are at an early-career stage Other 937 researchers selected in the 2014 calls among which morethan 700 young ones
 66 nationalities represented
 Highly competitive (overall success rate tending to 10%)
 Working in almost 600 different institutions in 32 countries 50% of grantees in 50 institutions : “Excellence attracts excellence”
 Benchmarking effect: impact on national programmes and agencies;
national funding for best "runners-up"
 Efficient and fast grant management

ERC Delivers

 30 000 publications acknowledging ERC support by
September 2014
 7% of these publications were in the top 1% mostcited in their scientific field and year of publication
 20% of completed LS and PE projects reported atleast one patent (on average 2 patents reported perproject)│ 11

ERC achievements

Priority to Young Scientists+ 15 000 PhD
and post-doc
researchers workingin ERC teams

Two-thirds of ERCgrants to early-stage
Principal
Investigators│ 122014 Distinctions to ERC Grantees
The Nobel Prize in Economic
Sciences 2014 was awarded toJean Tirole "for his analysis
Artur Avila

Two of the Fields Medals
2014 awarded to researchers
based in Europe: Artur Avila"for his work in dynamicalsystems” and to Martin
Hairer “for his work onstochastic singularities”.

Jean Tiroleof market power andregulation".
The Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine 2014
was awarded to May-Britt Moser and Edvard
Moser, together with John O'Keefe,

May-BrittMoser"for their discoveries of cells that
constitute a positioning system in thebrain”.
The research leading to these discoveries wassupported by FP5. ("Spatial Representation in theEntorhinal Cortex” Science 2004)

Martin Hairer

EdvardMoser│ 13

Attracting Researchers to Europe
Nationality of ERC project teams (PIs not included)
Analysis of 1,901 Starting and Advanced Grants

EU: 71%
Assoc. Countries:
10%
non-ERA: 17%
unknown: 2%+ 6,500 non-ERA team members
most from
China, US, India, and Russia│ 14International Participation│ 15

Attracting Researchers from Outside Europe
Flexibility
Additional “start-up” funding for scientists moving to Europe
(EUR 500 000 for Starting and EUR 1 Million for Advanced grantees)Grantee can keep affiliation with home institute outside Europe(“significant part” of work time in Europe, at least 50%)

Team members can be based outside Europe
Grantee can move within Europe with the grant

Accompanying measures
Several European countries/host institutions assist applicantsand reward grantees with top-up funds

FP7 ERC 2007‐2013 calls
Evaluated Proposals from non‐ERA Nationals

H2020 ERC 2014 Calls
Evaluated Proposals from non‐ERA Nationals│ 18

Participation of non‐ERA Nationals in 2014
Proportion of evaluated proposals from non-ERA nationals by call year

│ 19

Grantees outside ERA at application
Mainly European researchers moving/returning from the US

Note: ERC grantees residing outside the European Research Area at the time of application

The European Research Council
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