The European Research Council

Study on Career Impacts ofERC Funding: Key results© Art & Build Architect / Montois Partners / credits: S. Brison

T. Papazoglou, PhD
HoU A1: Support to the ERC ScC│1ERC has a unique mission

To encourage the highest quality
research in Europe through competitive
funding and to support investigatordriven frontier research across all fields,on the basis of scientific excellenceWhat does ERC offer?
Creative Freedom of the Individual Grantee
ERC offers selective and generous grants,
independence, recognition & visibility Work on any research topic: bottom-up
 Gain financial autonomy for 5 years
 Negotiate the best work conditions with thehost institution
 Attract top team members and collaborators(EU and non-EU) , flexible team structure Portability of grants
 Attract additional funding and gain
recognition: ERC is a quality label

Researchers career development
and complementary funding schemes
ERC Advanced

ERC StG – Consolidators
ERC StG - Starters

PoC

PoC

SeniorProfessor

PoC
Full Professor

Marie Skłodowska Curie
ErasmusJunior Professor/Junior Researcher
Associated Professor

Post-docs
PostGraduates

Students│4Career Paths ofEuropean-based Researchers

Source: Bonetta, 2009 (Science Careers, from the Journal Science)(DOI: 10.1126/science.opms.r0800058)

2017-2019: A Thorough Investigation ofERC Impact on Careers Objectives:
──

provide a comprehensive overview of the impact of ERC
funding on the careers of ERC PIs and their team members(all ERC FP7 projects considered)provide insights on the impact on career advancement, butalso on the type of careers that team members embark on
after the end of the project Contractor:
─ICF with subcontractors University of Twente CHEPS, Vitae
and Elsevier

 Important Dates: 01/03/2017 – 31/03/2019 (including
1+6 months extensions)│6Approach
Impact of ERC funding on careers measured at three levels:
 Individual ERC funded researchers, i.e. PIs (~1400,32.5%), in particular early career, and team members(~3000)- with counterfactual analysis (CG: ~2600)
 ERC funded teams as units linked to a research activity
 ERC Host Institutions and their practices in promoting
the careers of their researchers
Target population: all ERC frontier research grants funded under FP7(ERC calls 2007-2013)• PI survey• PI control survey• TM survey• TM control survey+ Interviews• Survey of research
offices• Survey of HRdepartments+ Interviews

Key results:Career impact expectations (1) StG/CoG PIs
 Establish/consolidate research group, raise visibility and reputation
 Positive impact on personal autonomy/research independence andstatus/standing amongst peers and within their organisation
 Positive impact on personal career position (full professorship, stable
employment, higher remuneration)
 Career-enabling outcomes, including development of emerging
research areas, high risk/high return research and deeper knowledgeof their research areas

 Expectations typically fulfilled to a large extent;
positive effects occurred even when expected│8Key results:Career impact expectations (2) AdG PIs
 Similar expectations with StG/CoG + freedom to focus
 Only few AdG PIs expected positive impacts on their career, asalready achieved All PIs
 High degree of career satisfaction, depending on career level andgender (male more likely to be satisfied than female PIs)

│9