European Research Council

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FP7 IDEAS ProgrammeThe European Research
Council the champions league for research
funding in Europe
Pavel Exner Member of the European Research
Council Scientific Council Research
Connection Prague, 7 May 2009
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Europe can only compete through the knowledge
triangle
Education
Innovation
Research

• Leadership in Science, the true frontier of our
  time
• Investment in excellent people researchis an
  imperative, not an option for a society which
  does not want to lose in global competition

StG grant
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To become more competitive,Europe must

• Generate, attract retain top talent
• Integrate internationalise our efforts
• Encourage trust the young
• Create attractive career paths
• Stimulate a continent-wide competition, a
  Champions League, that sets standards

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StG grant
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ERC Aim StrategyPut Excellence at the Heart
of European Science Policy

• by investing in the best researchers ideas
• through investigator-driven projects
• through competition at European level
• on the basis of scientific excellenceas the sole
  criterion

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ERC Grant schemes3Rs and 2 schemes

• Aim Retain Repatriate Recruit
• Favour brain gain reverse brain drain
• improve career opportunities independence
  (esp.for the young)
• increase competition, recognition international
  visibility for individual top researchers in
  Europe
• Raise aspiration achievement of basic research
  in Europe - benchmark for researchers research
  systems
• Activities 2 funding schemes
• ERC Starting Grant (StG) attract retain the
  next generation of independent research leaders -
  up to 2.0 Mio for 5 years
• ERC Advanced Grant (AdG) attract reward
  established independent research leaders - up to
  3.5 Mio for 5 years

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StG grant
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ERC Grant schemesWho can apply? General
requirements

• Principal Investigator
• Nationality / age / current place of work - not
  relevant
• Host organisation
• located in EU member state/ associated country
• Frontier Research project
• All fields of science, engineering scholarship
  (investigator-driven, bottom-up)
• Interdisciplinary projects encouraged
• Individual research team
• In contrast to other FP7 programmes, ERC puts
  emphasis on PI who can act alone or as a part of
  a team, national or international

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ERC Grant schemesAll fields, budget
pre-allocation in 3 1 areas

• All fields of science, engineering scholarship
• For operational reasons the ERC ScC agreed on
• 3 main research domains to pre-allocate budget
  to these domains, incl. a 4th budget area for
  interdisciplinary research (interdisciplinary
  proposals which are cross-domain or cross-panel)
• Physical Sciences Engineering
• Life Sciences (incl. medical)
• Social Sciences Humanities
• Interdisciplinary Research
• The call budgets are pre-allocated to these areas
  as follows
• 39 - 34 - 14 - 13

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ERC Starting GrantProfile of the PI

• Any nationality / age
• Any current place of work but working / moving
  to work in Europe (EU MS/ AS)
• 3-8 years after PhD - some career breaks accepted
  (up to a max 2 years)
• Potential for research independence evidence of
  maturity
• at least one important publication without
  participation of PhD supervisor
• Track-record of early research achievements
  appropriate to their research field career
  stage ? Starters vs Consolidators
• First StG call
• 9167 proposals received - 559 interviews
  conducted - 299 grants21 host countries, 32
  nationalities, 170 host institutions
• Average Age 35 yrs (spans from 28 44 yrs)
• Average post-PhD experience 6-7 yrs
• Average grant size 1.1 Mio.
• Gender 26 women (varying from 12-71 across the
  different panels)

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ERC Advanced GrantProfile of the PI

• Same as for StG (Any nationality / age / current
  place of work working / moving to work in
  Europe)
• and
• Strong leadership profile (impact, recognition)
• Excellent track record(in recent years,
  achievements no older than 10 years)
• First AdG call
• 2167 proposals received - 280 grants
• Average Age 51 yrs (spans from 36 - 76yrs)
• Average post-PhD experience 23 yrs
• Average requested grant PE-1.9 M, LS-2.1 M,
  SH-1.7M
• Gender 14 women (varying from 3 - 29 across
  panels)

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Complementarity of StG AdG Academic Age of
Grantees (Years after PhD)
No PhD 15 men, AdG-08
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Repatriation and Recruitment Grantees moving to
Europe from overseas
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Argentina
Japan
Australia
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Visibility of Frontier Research in
EuropeGrantees and host institutions in the media
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StG grant
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ERC / National Funding Organisations Interactions

• Complementarity and synergies
• NFO responsible for building up excellence in the
  national research community (National League)
• ERC responsible for building up excellence across
  Europe without regard to nationality (European
  Champions League)
• ERC as benchmark/indicator for excellence in
  frontier research
• NFOs annual budget ca 20 bn in total (DFG
  1733,8 Mio, NSF 6430 Mio, SNF 295 Mio, NWO
  385Mio)
• ERC annual budget ca 1.1bn in average (for
  2007-2013)
• Mutual support and cooperation
• National support for StG runners-up (CH, IT, SE,
  FR, CY, AT, Flanders, HU, ES, NO, ), or extras
  to winners (Poland)
• NFO collaborate on expert level, other ways are
  sought

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StG grant
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• Thank you!

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