Established by the European Commission

Jean Pierre BOURGUIGNONERC President© Art & Build Architect / Montois Partners / credits: S. Brison

June 2019

The European Research Council
Established by the European Commission

ERC: Achievements and Perspectives

Jean Pierre BOURGUIGNONERC President© Art & Build Architect / Montois Partners / credits: S. Brison

June 2019

What is the ERC?
Established by the European Commission

The ERC supports excellence in Frontier Research through a bottom-up,
individual-based, pan-European competition

Legislation

Strategy Support for the individual scientists – no networks!

 Global peer-review
 No predetermined subjects (bottom-up)
 Support of frontier research in all fields of science andhumanities
 Scientific governance: independent Scientific Council with 22

members including the ERC President; full authority over funding
strategy and evaluation
 Support by the ERC Executive Agency (autonomous) Scientific quality as the only criterion aiming for excellence│3

ERC Scientific Council in the Lead
Established by the European Commission• Prof. Manuel ARELLANO (Economics)• Prof. Jean-Pierre BOURGUIGNON (Mathematics), ERC President• Prof. Paola BOVOLENTA (Neurobiology)• Prof. Margaret BUCKINGHAM (Biology)• Prof. Eveline CRONE (Psychology)• Prof. Ben L. FERINGA (Organic Chemistry)• Prof. Andrzej JAJSZCZYK (Electronics and Communication Engineering)• Prof. Tomas JUNGWIRTH (Condensed Matter Physics)• Prof. Michael KRAMER (Astrophysics)• Prof. Kurt MEHLHORN (Computer Science)• Prof. Barbara ROMANOWICZ (Geophysics)• Prof. Martin STOKHOF (Philosophy), ERC Vice-President• Prof. Giulio SUPERTI-FURGA (Medical Systems Biology)• Prof. Nektarios TAVERNARAKIS (Molecular Systems Biology)• Prof. Janet THORNTON (Bioinformatics and Structural Biology), ERC Vice-President• Prof. Isabelle VERNOS (Molecular and Cell Biology)• Prof. Lene VESTERGAARD HAU (Nanophysics)• Prof. Michel WIEVIORKA (Sociology)• Prof. Fabio ZWIRNER (Theoretical and High-Energy Physics), ERC Vice-President│4

ERC Grant Scheme
Established by the European Commission

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

Consolidator Grants

Advanced Grants

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

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

Proof-of-Concept
bridging gap between research andearly stage of marketable innovation
up to €150,000 for ERC grant holders

Synergy Grants (re-launched 2018)
2 – 4 Principal Investigators
up to € 10.0 Mio for 6 years│5Covering All Domains of Science
Established by the European Commission

Life Sciences

Physical Sciences & Engineering

 PE1 Mathematics
 LS1 Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Structural  PE2 Fundamental Constituents of Matter
Biology and Molecular Biophysics
 PE3 Condensed Matter Physics
 LS2 Genetics, ‘Omics’, Bioinformatics and PE4 Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences
Systems Biology PE5 Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
 LS3 Cellular and Developmental Biology PE6 Computer Science and Informatics
 LS4 Physiology, Pathophysiology and PE7 Systems and Communication Engineering
Endocrinology
 PE8 Products and Process Engineering LS5 Neurosciences and Neural Disorders PE9 Universe Sciences LS6 Immunity and Infection
 PE10 Earth System Science LS7 Applied Medical Technologies, Diagnostics,
Therapies and Public HealthSocial Sciences and Humanities
 LS8 Ecology, Evolution and Environmental
 SH1 Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Biology SH2 Institutions, Values, Environment and Space LS9 Applied Life Sciences, Biotechnology and SH3 The Social World, Diversity, Population
Molecular and Biosystems Engineering SH4 The Human Mind and Its Complexity
 SH5 Cultures and Cultural Production
 SH6 The Study of the Human Past

│6

Priority to Young Scientists
Established by the European Commission> 40 000 PhD and post-doc
researchers working in
ERC teams

Two-thirds of ERC grants toearly-stage
Principal Investigators│7

International Peer Review
Established by the European Commission

ERC Panel Members byCountry of HI and Gender* Number of instances that experts based in a certain country contributed to the ERC peer review│8Established by the European Commission

ERC Impact│9

A European Success Story
Established by the European Commission“Europe must keep being a leader
in fundamental science… this is why
increasing the ERC budget from 13
to 17 billion € is a Europeanpriority”"Today's event is one of the most important Carlos MOEDAS,Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation,in my tenure as a Commissioner for one
ERC Press conference on black hole images taken bysimple reason: You are our jewel in theEvent Horizon Telescope - 11 April 2019crown. You are one of the best things tohappen in Europe in the last 10 years."
ERC 10th anniversary speech by
Commissioner MOEDAS, 21 March 2017
│ 10After 10 Years,a Success Story
Breakthroughs
75%
Key figures> 9000

top researchers funded

Established by the European Commissionof completed projects
led to breakthroughs or
major advances> 6,000

60,000researchers & other professionals
hired in ERC teams

articles among 1%
most cited scientificjournals

Open to the world

ERC as a model1711
international initiatives
for non-EU talent tojoin ERC teams

Scientific impact

Prestigious prizes, e.g.

65EU countries set up
ERC-likestructures/funding
schemes

4Nobel Wolf Fields
Prizes Prizes Medals│ 11Highest Prizes to ERC Grantees
Established by the European Commission

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016 wasawarded to Bernard L. FERINGA "forthe design and synthesis of molecular
Bernardmachines". jointly with Jean-Pierre
FERINGANobel 2016
SAUVAGEand Sir J. Fraser STODDART
22/10/2014

22/10/2014

Stanislas
SMIRNOV

Artur AVILA

f3.jpg (300×358)

Martin HAIRER

JeanTIROLENobel 2014

The Nobel Prize inEconomics 2014 wasawarded to Jean TIROLE"for his analysis of market
power and regulation".

Hairer.jpg (310×233)

Alessio FIGALLI

Fields Medals: in 2010 Stanislav SMIRNOV for”the conformal invariance of the percolationmodel”; in 2014 Artur AVILA and Martin HAIRER”for their work in stochastic singularities anddynamical systems and”, and in 2018 to Alessio
FIGALLI “for his work on Calculus of Variations”

Konstantin
NOVOSELOV

Nobel 2010

Serge
HAROCHE
Nobel 2012

May-Britt
MOSER
Nobel 2014

Edvard
MOSER
Nobel 2014

The Nobel Prize in Physiology orMedicine 2014 awarded to MayBritt MOSER and Edvard MOSER,
together with John O'KEEFE, "fortheir discoveries of cells constituting│ 12
a positioning system in the brain".

Impact of Publications in Horizon 2020
Established by the European Commission│ 13

Impact in IPR for Horizon 2020
Established by the European Commission│ 14

Funding Breakthrough Research
Established by the European Commission

Source: 2018 Ex-post Analysis of ERC-funded studies│ 15

Established by the European Commission

ERC Open to the World│ 16

Attracting Brilliant Minds with no Boundaries
Established by the European Commission

 Additional “start-up” funding for scientists moving toEurope (EUR 500 000 for Starting, EUR 750 000 forConsolidator and EUR 1 Million for Advanced grantees), Grantee can keep affiliation with home institute outside
Europe (“significant part” of work time in Europe, at least50%).
 Team members can be based outside Europe.
 Grantee can move within Europe with the grant.

│ 17

ERC Synergy Open to the World (I)Established by the European Commission

A feature of the ERC Synergy programme?
Objective: to foster research at the intellectual frontiers byenabling a group of two to four Principal Investigators and theirteams, to bring together complementary skills, knowledge, andresources in new ways to jointly address ambitious research
problems.
Applicants must demonstrate synergies, complementarities andadded value that could lead to breakthroughs that would not be
possible by the individual Principal Investigators working alone.
Synergy Grants may be awarded up to a maximum of 10 M
for a period of 6 years.
│ 18

ERC Synergy Open to the World (II)Established by the European Commission

ERC 2019 Work Programme introduced the possibility for one
Principal Investigator in a Synergy Grant Group to be based
anywhere in the world, including outside the territory of theEuropean Union (EU) Member States and Associated Countries.

│ 19

Implementing Arrangements (IA)
Established by the European Commission• Opportunity for non-European researchers
supported by foreign agencies to visit ERC
research teams (unilateral approach).

Implementing
arrangements signed withthe following countries:
 USA (2012)• The foreign researchers are expected to be Republic of Korea (2013)
excellent ("national version" of the ERC grantee).  Argentina (2015)• The foreign scientist should take the initiative in  China (2015)
 Japan (2015, 2018)the "matchmaking”.
 South Africa (2015)
 Mexico (2015)• The ERC does not intervene in the selection of Brazil (2016)the visitors.
 Canada (2016)• In general terms, travel costs of the visit are India (2017)
mostly covered by the foreign agency.
 Australia (2018, 2019)│ 20

IA: Structure and Process
Established by the European Commission

Principal Investigator

ERC
launches a call for
expression of interest

Partner funding agency
launches a call for
proposals to their eligible
scientists

Partner funding agency
evaluates the proposals
and funds the successful
ones

ERC

expresses interest in
hosting one or morescientists supported bypartner funding agency

sends the list of interested
PIs to the partner funding
agencies

Non-ERA based scientist

Principal Investigator

contacts the Principal
Investigators to seek
agreement on a possible
research visit

accepts or not the research
visit; If accepted, thePrincipal Investigator and theHost Institution provide a
letter of support

Non-ERA based scientist
plans an executes theresearch visit in agreementwith the Principal
Investigator

Action taken by…

ERCERC grantee
Partner Funding agency abroa
Visiting scientist│ 21

Established by the European Commission

ERC Perspectives│ 22

Industry and Scientists Support the ERC
Established by the European Commission

On 30 November 2018 Nobel
Prize laureates and leaders ofEurope’s largest companies
have joined to urge politicalleaders across the EU to
support an ambitious European
research and innovation
programme in the forthcoming
EU budget cycle.

“The innovative research funded by the EU, notably via
the European Research Council, is critical - now morethan ever - to deliver scientific breakthroughs andtechnological advances that improve people's quality oflife and helps Europe face the ever-increasing global
European Round Table of Industrialists competition. [...] We are convinced that the next
generation of Nobel Prize winners and life-changing
advances in research won't come unless leaders acrossEurope commit to the investment needed over the │ 23
coming years.” Nobel laureate Ben FERINGAERC Scientific Council Statement on ERC in FP9
Established by the European Commission

 Continuity: Continuity
 Agility
 Scale-up

Of structure from the current legal framework
Of governance arrangements: independence ofScientific Council and operational autonomy

 Agility:

To innovate and adapt its scientific strategy
To manage its resources flexibly
To use tailor made tools and procedures whennecessary

 Scale-up:

To turn ERC into one of Europe's main funders
To ensure appropriate success rates
To support more Europe's top-performing
researchers│ 24More Top Talent to Fund!
Established by the European Commission

With a higher budget, ERC could fund much more excellence across Europe.
In recent years, there has been an average of >400 unfunded top projects each year.
This talent may leave/have left Europe.
│ 25

What is Next!
Established by the European Commission

June 2018

Parliament and Council consideration of Horizon Europe legislation

December
2018

Parliament agrees its position on Horizon Europe legislation

January
2019

Parliament, Council and Commission start trilogues
with a view to agreeing Horizon Europe legislation

March
2019

Partial Political Agreement on Horizon Europe
legislation (passed in Parliament on 17 April).
Brexit (October)? EP Elections (May). New Commission (November).

Autumn2019

Agreement to overall EU budget?

1st January
2021

Start of Horizon
Europe│ 26

The European Research Council
Established by the European Commission• More information: www.erc.europa.eu• Follow us on:
www.facebook.com/EuropeanResearchCouncil
twitter.com/ERC_Researchwww.linkedin.com/company/european-research-council│ 27