REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT On the European Research Council’s operations and realization of the objectives set out in the Specific Programme “Ideas" in 2013
Date: 2014-08-25
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU financing, EU programme, economic support, operation of the Institutions, research programme, scientific research













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52014DC0531

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT On the European Research Council’s operations and realization of the objectives set out in the Specific Programme “Ideas" in 2013 /* COM/2014/0531 final */









REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE
COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
On the European Research Council’s
operations and realization of the objectives set out in the Specific Programme
“Ideas" in 2013

1.                      
Introduction and Legal Base

The European Research Council (ERC),
established by Commission Decision 2007/134/EC[1], has as its essential task
the implementation of the Specific Programme "Ideas", with an overall
budget of € 7.51 billion.
The ERC consists of an independent
Scientific Council supported by a dedicated implementation structure, which
took the form of the ERC Executive Agency (ERCEA), created under the general
regime of executive agencies[2]. Responsibility for
implementing the "Ideas" programme and supporting the Scientific
Council was delegated to the Agency by the Commission in 2008 and autonomy was
granted to the Agency in July 2009. 
In conformity with Article 4.4 and Annex I
of the Council Decision on the Specific Programme "Ideas", this
Annual Report of the Commission, drawn up in co-operation with the ERC
Scientific Council and the ERC Executive Agency, presents the Commission's
assessment of the ERC's operations and the achievement of its objectives in
2013. This report is complemented by a report from the Scientific Council on
the scientific implementation and achievements of the programme during the year
2013[3].

2                        
Strategy Matters

The Scientific Council is responsible for
setting the ERC's scientific strategy, including establishing the ERC's most
important strategy document, the annual Ideas Work Programme.

2.1       Types of action

Two types of grant form the core of the
Ideas Work Programme: 
Starting Grants, supporting researchers at the early stage of their careers, with
the aim of providing working conditions that enable them to become independent
research leaders. 
Advanced Grants, designed to support outstanding and established research leaders
by providing resources necessary to enable them to continue the work of their
teams, seeking new breakthroughs in their line of research.
In 2012, the Scientific Council introduced,
on a two-year pilot basis, the Synergy Grants, addressed to small groups
of Principal Investigators and their teams. In contrast to consortia,
the Synergy Grant targets individual investigators whose complementary skills,
knowledge and resources enable them to jointly address research problems at the
frontier of knowledge, going beyond what the individual researchers could
achieve alone. Synergy Grants follow the strict ERC excellence-only approach,
and are open to proposals from all fields of science and scholarship.
An additional granting opportunity – the Proof
of Concept – is offered to ERC grant holders to establish the innovation
potential of ideas arising from their ERC-funded projects. It aims to cover a
funding gap in the earliest stage of an innovation.

2.2                  
2013 Work Programme for the Specific Programme
"Ideas"

The 2013 Work Programme for the Specific
Programme "Ideas" was established by the Scientific Council on 12
March 2012 and subsequently adopted by the Commission on 9 July 2012[4].
In
2013, in response to the rapidly rising number of applications, the Starting
Grant scheme was divided into two separate calls, ‘starters’ and
‘consolidators’. Consolidator Grants support researchers who are still at the
early stage of their careers (7-12 years after the award of their PhD), very
often already working with their own group, while the ‘starters’ are at an
earlier stage (2-7 years after the award of their PhD) of the road to research independence.
In
addition the Scientific Council formalizes its approach on scientific
misconduct. 

2.3                  
Peer review methodology

The
ERC’s evaluation is based on a structure of high-level peer review panels whose
members are selected by the Scientific Council. It involves scientists,
engineers and scholars from both within the EU and beyond. These panels cover
all research disciplines and are organised in a framework of three main
research domains: Physical Sciences and Engineering, Life Sciences, and Social
Sciences and Humanities. Consistent with previous calls, the number of panels
was 25 for all Starting, Consolidator and Advanced Grants. Proof of Concept
proposals were evaluated by a specific set of peer reviewers working remotely.
These experts were selected for their familiarity with the process of helping
projects getting closer to the market or to fulfilling societal needs. The
Synergy Grants were evaluated by five different panels in a 2-step evaluation
procedure specifically designed for this purpose. 

3.                      
Programme Implementation

In 2013 the ERC Executive Agency managed
its biggest operational budget. The commitment credits amounted to € 1.8
billion and the payment credits to € 1.1 billion. Both payment and commitment
credits were fully consumed at the end of 2013.

3.1                  
Grants

Since the 2008 Work Programme, ERC calls
involve a one-stage submission process, where applicants are required to submit
their full proposal, and a two-step evaluation.
Grants are offered to the best proposals
depending on the budget available. The offer is made on the basis of the
proposal itself and the funding recommended by the peer review evaluation. 

3.1.1 ERC Starting
Grants 2013

The
2013 ERC Starting Grant call was published in July 2012 with an indicative
budget of EUR 398 million. In total, 3 329 proposals were received, distributed
by domain as follows:  1 486 proposals in Physical Sciences and Engineering (45
%), 1 073 in Life Sciences (32 %) and 770 (23 %) in Social Sciences and
Humanities. A total of 300 proposals were selected for funding (data as of
December 2013). More than EUR 430 million was awarded with an overall average grant
size of around EUR 1.5 million.

3.1.2      ERC Consolidator Grants
2013

The
2013 ERC Consolidator Grant call was published in November 2012 with an
indicative budget of EUR 523 million. In total, 3 673 proposals were received,
distributed by domain as follows: 1 668 proposals in Physical Sciences and
Engineering (45 %), 1 203 in Life Sciences (33 %) and 802 (22 %) in Social
Sciences and Humanities. A total of 312 proposals were selected for funding
(data as of December 2013). More than EUR 590 million was awarded with an
overall average grant size of around EUR 1.9 million.

3.1.3      ERC Advanced Grants 2013

The
2013 ERC Advanced Grant call was published in July 2012 with an indicative
budget of EUR 662 million. A total of 2 408 proposals were received, distributed
by domain as follows: 1 053 proposals in Physical Sciences and Engineering (44
%), 788 in Life Sciences (33 %) and 567 in Social Sciences and Humanities (23
%). The evaluation process resulted in a total of 289 proposals being retained
for funding (data as of December 2013) for a total of about EUR 670 million and
an overall average grant size of around EUR 2.4 million.

3.1.4      ERC Proof of Concept 2013

The
2013 ERC Proof of Concept call was published in January 2013, with a first
deadline on 24 April and a second one on 3 October and a budget of EUR 10
million, approximately half per deadline. A total of 145 proposals were
received at the first deadline and 147 at the second one. The evaluation
process resulted in a total of 33 proposals being retained for funding at the
first deadline and 34 at the second.

3.1.5      ERC Synergy Grants 2013

In
its 2012 and 2013 work programmes, the ERC Scientific Council launched on a
pilot basis a new funding opportunity, the ERC Synergy Grant. The number of
applications submitted to the second Synergy Grant call (2013) was 449, down
from more than 700 in 2012. Thirteen Synergy projects were selected for funding
in 2013. As each Synergy Grant project involves between two and four Principal
Investigators, 45 outstanding researchers are being supported through these 13
grants. Nine proposals out of the 13 retained were resubmitted from the 2012
Synergy call. The total budget allocated to the Synergy call in 2013 was EUR
150 million.

3.2                  
Co-operation between the ERC and the NSF

Following
the signature on 13 July 2012, by the European Commission and the National
Science Foundation of USA (NSF), of an ''implementing arrangement'' between the
ERC and the NSF, further steps were taken to enable top talent, based in the
U.S. and pre-selected by the NSF, to spend some time – between 6 and 12 months
– in Europe, hosted as members of ERC grantees' teams. The initiative aims to
connect researchers with shared interests and complementary strengths in their
endeavour to advance the frontiers of science and to enhance scientific and
technological cooperation between the two continents. The first expression of
interest resulted in 12 USA-based researchers scheduled to join 12 ERC grants
as team members; a second call is under way.
A
similar initiative to boost opportunities for early-career Korean scientists to
come to Europe and join the research teams of ERC grantees was signed by the Ministry
of Science, ICT and Future Planning of the Republic of Korea and the European
Commission on 8 November 2013.

3.3                  
Programme Committee

The Programme Committee of the Specific
Programme "Ideas" serves, in addition to its formal duties, as an
important communication channel between the Member States and FP7 Associated
Countries, the Scientific Council, the ERC Secretary General and the
Commission. In 2013 meetings of this committee were held on 16 April and 15
October.

3.4                  
Ethical review

In
2013, four proposals involving research on Human Embryonic Stem Cells were
cleared following the ethics review and the regulatory comitology. Another two
have just cleared the ethics review.
As
regards the monitoring of ethics aspects in running grants, the internal
control system has  implemented an Ethics Monitoring Clearance procedure, which
ensures that the proposed research complies with the ethical principles
referred to in the rules for submission. Around 270 Ethics Monitoring Clearance
Notes were issued in 2013.

3.5                  
Redress

With 261 requests for redress received, the
number of redress cases as a percentage of proposals submitted in 2013 remained
stable compared to 2012 (around 2,5%). Although 2 redress cases were
successfully re-evaluated in 2013, they did not reveal any systemic weakness of
the evaluation process.
 

3.6                  
Communication 

The
year 2013 saw significant initiatives which were developed in the context of
the future Horizon 2020 programme and aimed at raising the ERC’s visibility in Europe and beyond. The ERC issued several press announcements covering its calls, as well
as a great number of stories featuring ERC-funded research which were all
actively shared on social media networks. Certain events lent themselves well
to communication and press activities: the celebration of the 3 000th ERC
grantee, the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos,  the “Summer Davos” meeting
in China and the ERC/European Round Table of Industrialists joint letter in
support of the European research budget. In September, the Lithuanian
Presidency organised a conference addressing the benefits of investing in
Social Sciences and Humanities in Europe, with the active participation of the
ERC. 
 
The
international awareness-raising campaign, ‘ERC goes Global’, led by the ERC
Secretary General, continued to Argentina, Chile, Mexico, India, China as well
as Australia and New Zealand, to inform researchers about the ERC funding and
to forge closer ties with key representatives and researchers from the leading
universities in these countries.
In
addition to these visits, the ERC was present at major international scientific
conferences, events and exhibitions, as well as career fairs and workshops: the
European Month of the Brain, the 63rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, the
European Society for Cognitive Psychology conference, the European Economic
Association, the European Sociological Association, the European Alpbach
Technology Forum, the EMBO meeting, the Annual meeting of the Young Academy of
Europe, as well as the annual meeting of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS) held in Boston in February 2013. 
The National Contact Points (NCPs), based
across Europe and serving as information multipliers to potential applicants,
were continuously kept informed about ERC calls and events, also through
biannual meetings organised in Brussels (in June and November 2013). As a
result of the 'ERC goes Global' campaign, the NCP network is gradually being
expanded with delegates of interested third countries. For the first time, an
ad hoc meeting for NCPs based outside the European Research Area was organised
in Brussels.

3.7                  
Monitoring, Assessment and Evaluation of the
Specific Programme "Ideas"

On 15 January 2013, the ERC celebrated its
3 000th grantee. The continuous monitoring of the Ideas Programme
has provided the following findings for the year 2013:
·                        
The ERC counts eight Nobel laureates and three
Fields Medalists among its grant holders. A total of 134 ERC grantees have
received other prestigious international scientific prizes and awards.
·                        
Over 20 000 articles acknowledging ERC-funding
have appeared in peer-reviewed high impact journals between 2008 and 2013.
·                        
Each ERC grantee employs on average six other
researchers, contributing in this way to the training of a new generation of
excellent researchers.
·                        
The analysis of a significant sample of projects
shows that around half of all ERC team members hold a nationality that is
different from that of the Principal Investigator of their project.
Furthermore, ERC team members are represented by nationalities of almost all of
the European Research Area (ERA) countries and another 55 nationalities from
outside the ERA. This surely demonstrates the global appeal of the ERC. The
same analysis shows positive figures in terms of gender balance:  Current
estimates show that some 38 % of team members are women, which is a higher
share than the number of women grantees (20 %). The share of female team
members in Life Sciences as well as in the Social Sciences and Humanities is
already reaching 50 % of all team members (23 % in Physical Sciences and
Engineering). The majority of them are postdocs or PhD students at the start of
their research career. .
·                        
In July 2012, the ERC Executive Agency completed
3 years of autonomous existence and underwent an external evaluation, which
included a cost-benefit analysis. The evaluation report was completed in 2013
and was transmitted on 27 January 2014 to the Budget Authority (European
Parliament and Council[5]) as well as to the Court of
Auditors[6]. 

4                        
Structure of the European Research Council
4.1                  
The Scientific Council

A staged renewal of the members of the
Scientific Council took effect in February and April 2013 and the new members
were announced in the previous annual report of the Commission to the Council
and the European Parliament[7]. 
The Scientific Council held five plenary meetings in 2013, three in
Brussels, one in Bratislava (Slovakia) and one in Utrecht (the Netherlands).
The members of the Scientific Council also meet in working groups addressing
specific issues: innovation and relations with industry, open access,
internationalisation and gender balance. A new working group on key performance
indicators started its activities in 2013, with mandate to develop a roadmap
for monitoring and evaluating the ERC’s accomplishment of its mission as can be
approached by such tools. In accordance with the ERC policy on scientific misconduct
adopted by the Scientific Council in October 2012, the ERCEA and the Scientific
Council’s Standing Committee on conflicts of interest, scientific misconduct
and ethical issues analysed 10 cases of scientific misconduct in 2013.
The Scientific Council's plenary meetings
and the meetings of its members with ERC stakeholders are prepared with the
organisational and administrative support of the Executive Agency. The Agency
also provides advice and analysis to facilitate the Scientific Council fulfilling
its tasks as described in Annex 1 of the Ideas Specific Programme, as
well as support to the operational activities of its Working Groups and
Standing Committees.
To further assure its liaison with the
European Commission and the Executive Agency, the Chair and vice Chairs of the
Scientific Council, the ERC Secretary General and the Director of the Agency
meet regularly as the ERC Board. These meetings are also attended by the senior
management of the Agency. The Board met in Brussels 10 times in 2013, in
particular to prepare or to follow up the meetings of the Scientific Council.

4.2                  
The ERC Executive Agency

Since July 2009 the Agency has been
responsible for all aspects of administrative implementation and programme
execution as provided for in the Work Programme. 
The operations of the Agency are supervised
by a Steering Committee, appointed by the Commission. It is chaired by the
Director-General of DG Research and Innovation and includes as members two
members of the Scientific Council. In 2013, the Steering Committee held three
meetings and adopted decisions related to the Agency's Annual Work Programme,
budget and accounts, as well as its organisational structure.

4.2.1 Agency Staff

The 2013 operating budget provided for the
employment of 100 temporary agents, 281 contract staff and 8 seconded national
experts, adding up to a total of 389 agents. At the end of December 2013, the
agency employed a total of 379 agents: 99 temporary agents, 270 contract agents
and 10 seconded national experts.
Statistics of December 2013 show that the
agency employs approximately 35% men and 65% women. As regards the gender
balance of highly specialised staff (temporary agents and contract agents
function group IV), 59% of the posts are occupied by women. At the end of 2013,
the ERCEA employed nationals from 25 EU Member States.

5                        
Conclusions and Outlook for the ERC under
Horizon 2020

In
2013 and for the first time since its creation, the ERC ran four major calls in
one year, with an overall budget of EUR 1.8 billion and 900 grants awarded
across Europe. With over 4000 grantees to date and an ever-increasing number of
applicants, the ERC is already generating a host of new discoveries, knowledge
and ideas. In its six years of existence, it has earned a world-class
reputation, rapidly becoming the point of reference for excellent frontier
research in Europe.
The
year 2013 has also seen the consolidation and finalisation of the next EU
multi-annual financial framework and the adoption of Horizon 2020, the next
framework programme for research and innovation. The increase in the ERC budget
acknowledges that the ERC has been a success story of European integration and
confirms its position in the global research landscape.
As announced in the previous annual report
and in line with the recommendations of the ERC Task Force, incorporated in its
proposals for Horizon 2020, the Commission set up a high level independent
search committee for the next ERC President[8]. Under Horizon 2020, the
ERC President, who will also ensure the tasks of the ERC Secretary General,
will be based in Brussels and devote most of his time to ERC activities. The
search committee, chaired by Lord Sainsbury of Turville, reported back to the
Commission in July 2013 and this led to the appointment of Professor Jean-Pierre
Bourguignon as the first ERC President under Horizon 2020[9].

The
legal framework of the ERC under Horizon 2020 was established in December 2013
by Commission Decision 2013/C 373/09[10], which also renewed the
membership of the Scientific Council, with the appointment of three new
members: Professor Nils Christian Stenseth (Centre for Ecological and
Evolutionary Synthesis, University of Oslo), Professor Martin Stokhof
(Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam) and 
Professor Michel Wieviorka (Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme, École des
hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris). Finally, the Commission renewed the
mandate of the ERC Executive Agency by its Decision 2013/779/EU[11].

[1]               OJ
L 57, 24.02.2007, p.14.
[2]               2008/37/EC:
Commission Decision of 14 December 2007 setting up the European Research
Council Executive Agency for the management of the specific Community programme
Ideas in the field of frontier research in application of Council Regulation
(EC) No 58/2003 (OJ L9, 12.01.2008, p.15).
[3]               erc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/publication/files/erc_annual_report_2013.pdf
[4]               C(2012)4562
of 9.07.12, not published
[5]               Ares(2014) 181203
[6]               Ares(2014)
181052
[7]               COM(2013)
318 of 30.5.2013
[8]               europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-12-1393_en.htm
[9]               europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-1260_en.htm
[10]             OJ C 373, 20.12.2013, p.23.
[11]             OJ L 346, 20.12.2013, p.58