The European Research Council

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The European Research Council Call 1 Starter
Grants

• UL, 13-03-07
• UCC, 14-03-07
• NUI-G, 15-03-07

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Agenda
1. ERC Background Context
2. ERC Grants, Eligibility Evaluation
3. SFI ERC Support
4. Q A
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A History of Integrated European Research
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What is FP-7, ERC, IDEAS how do they relate to
each other?

• FP-7 is the short name for the Seventh Framework
  Programme for Research and Technological
  Development. This is the EU's main instrument for
  funding research in Europe
• It has 4 programmes within it COOPERATION,
  PEOPLE, CAPACITIES, IDEAS.
• Cooperation funds collaborative research in
  targeted, thematic areas. Top-down.
• People funds mobility, training
• Capacities funds infrastructures
• IDEAS is a completely new programme. It funds
  bottom-up research.what we used to call basic
  research, now frontiers research
• The programme IDEAS is run by the body called
  the ERC.

ERC
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Whats new with the ERC/IDEAS? (Remember ERC is
the body, IDEAS is the programme)

• For the first time, broader interpretation of
  research as a source of European competitiveness
• Frontier research,
• Bottom-up / investigator-driven (complements
  top-down approach elsewhere in FP-7)
• Centered solely on scientific quality.
• Not bureaucratic, flexible.
• High-quality evaluation, organised by the
  scientific community.

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ERC FP-7

• FP-7 budget 50 billion over 2007-2013
• ERC 15 of the budget of FP7
• 7.5 billion
• 1 billion a year
• NSF 4 billion Euros a year
• Natural complementarity bottom-up versus
  targeted research.

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Agenda
1. ERC Background Context
2. ERC Grants, Eligibility Evaluation
3. SFI ERC Support
4. Q A
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Objectives of ERC Grants

• Keep (young) researchers in Europe
• Favour brain gain and reverse brain drain
• Improve career opportunities and independence -
  especially for young researchers ERC Starting
  Grant? attract retain the next generation
• Increase competition, recognition and
  international visibility for excellent individual
  scientists and scholars in Europe ERC Advanced
  Grant? attractive prestigious grants for
  established leaders

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ERC Starting Grant(ERC Starting Independent
Researcher Grant)
RRR!

• Key ideas Retain, Repatriate, Recruit
• Support researchers at the start of their
  independent research career and establishment of
  their first research team
• Provide a structure for transition from working
  under a supervisor to independent research
• Supply grants to support the creation of
  excellent new teams of which bring energy and new
  ideas to their disciplines

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ERC Starting Grant(ERC Starting Independent
Researcher Grant)

• 300M p.a. (approximately ? of ERC annual
  budget)
• 100k 400k per year (increments of 50k)
• 250 Starting Grants per year, each for up to 5
  years
• 1400 Starting Grants over 7 years of FP7

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ERC Advanced Grant (ERC Advanced Investigator
Researcher Grant)

• Designed to support excellent investigator-initiat
  ed research projects by established investigators
• Should complement the ERC Starting Grant scheme
  by targeting researchers who have already
  established their independence as team leaders
• 100k-500k per year
• max 2-3 million per grant (ca. 200 grants per
  year)

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ERC budget 2007-2013

• Total (FP7 IDEAS budget) 7.5 billion
• 1/3 Starting Grants
• 2/3 Advanced Grants
• Less than 5 for operational ERC management
• 1st Call
• Starter Grants only, deadline April 25, 2007,
  300 million
• 2nd Call
• Advanced Grants only, late 2007, 550 Million
• 3rd call onwards
• 1/3 Starter Grants 2/3 Advanced Grants

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Who can apply ? Individual Teams

• The Team Leader (Principal Investigator) has
  the
• power to assemble his/her research group
• freedom to choose the research topic.
• Individual teams should consist of a grouping of
  researchers which meets the needs of the project,
  without artificial administrative constraints
  thus members may be drawn from one or several
  legal entities, from either within or across
  national boundaries, including third countries

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Who can apply? European and International Teams

• Ideas (ERC specific programme) encourages
  participation of researchers from European and
  non-European countries
• Level of participation varies with regard to
  roles and funding
• Roles
• Principal Investigator
• Can be of any nationality
• But PIs host organisation needs to be
  established in EU Member States or Associated
  Countries, or be a international European
  Interest Organisations (such as CERN, EMBL, etc.)
  or the JRC
• Team Members
• Can be of any nationality and established in
  almost any country
• International Cooperation Partner Countries
  (ICPC)
• Industrialised Countries, e.g. Australia, Canada,
  Japan, USA

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Applications for Grants

• Two-step application procedure (risk of
  oversubscription)
• 1st stage - Outline Proposal max 8 Pages (341)
• 2nd stage Full Proposal max 16 Pages (4102)
• Proposal Components
• CV self-evaluation of the PIs research
  achievements funding ID
• Brief Description of scientific and technical
  aspects of the project
• Description of the scientific environment and
  resources
• Electronic Submission only (via EPSS)
• Pre-registration (via EPSS) indication of
  number /area of proposals

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Eligibility (ERC Starting Grant)

• Principal Investigator (PI)
• 2-9 years since completion of PhD Special
  circumstances will be taken into account, such as
  maternity/paternity leave, military/civil service
  (3 years max.)
• PI and contributing investigators (team members)
• Any nationality
• One ERC Grant per investigator only may be
  active at any one time
• Hosting institution
• Located in a EU member state or associated
  country
• Intra-European grant portability allowed

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Evaluation criteria (I)Scientific Excellence is
the sole Criterion
PERSON PROJECT PLACE

• Potential of applicant
• Quality of proposal
• Research environment
• Referees and panels evaluate and score criteria
  under Heading 1 and Heading 2 numerically which
  will result in the ranking of the projects
• Criteria under Heading 3 will be considered as
  "pass/fail" and commented but not scored

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Evaluation criteria (II)ERC Starting Grant

• Principal Investigator Potential to become a
  world class research leader
• a. Quality of research output
• Has the Principal Investigator published in high
  quality peer reviewed journals or the equivalent?
• To what extent are these publications
  ground-breaking and demonstrative of independent
  creative thinking and capacity to go
  significantly beyond the state of the art?
• b. Intellectual capacity and creativity
• To what extent does the Principal Investigator's
  record of research, collaborations, project
  conception, supervision of students and
  publications demonstrate that he/she is able to
  confront major research challenges in the field,
  and to initiate new productive lines of thinking?

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Evaluation criteria (III)ERC Starting Grant

• Quality of the research proposal
• a. Ground-breaking nature of the research
• Does the proposed research address important
  challenges in the field(s) addressed?
• Does it have suitably ambitious objectives, which
  go substantially beyond the current state of the
  art (e.g. including trans-disciplinary
  developments and novel or unconventional
  approaches)?
• b. Potential impact
• Does the research open new and important,
  scientific, technological or scholarly horizons?
• c. Methodology
• Stage 1 Is the outlined scientific approach
  (including the activities to be undertaken by the
  individual team members) feasible?
• Stage 2 Is the proposed research methodology
  (including when pertinent the use of
  instrumentation, other type of infrastructures
  etc.) comprehensive and appropriate for to the
  project? Will it enable the goals of the project
  convincingly to be achieved within the timescales
  and resources proposed and the level of risk
  associated with a challenging research project?

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Evaluation criteria (III)ERC Starting Grant

• Research Environment
• a. Transition to independence
• Will the proposed project enable the Principal
  Investigator to make or consolidate the
  transition to independence?
• b. Host institution normally applicant legal
  entity
• Does the institution hosting the project have
  most of the infrastructure necessary for the
  research to be carried out?
• Is it in a position to provide an appropriate
  intellectual environment and infrastructural
  support and to assist in achieving the ambitions
  for the project and the Principal Investigator?
• c. Participation of other legal entities
• If it is proposed that other legal entities
  participate in the project, in addition to the
  applicant legal entity, is their participation
  fully justified by the scientific added value
  they bring to the project?

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Evaluation Stage 1

• Stage 1
• Submission and reception of proposal
• Allocation to relevant Panel(s)
• Assignment of best-matched Panel members by Panel
  Chair(s)
• Stage 1 panel meeting
• Outcome Proposal rejected or retained for Stage
  2

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Evaluation Stage 2

• Stage 2
• Submission of complete and updated proposal
• Panels may be assisted by
• Referees
• Interviews with applicants
• Stage 2 Panel meeting
• Outcome Consolidated ranking list of retained
  proposals

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Peer review evaluation

• Approx. 20 high level panels (10 members), based
  on
• Coherence across all broad research domains and
  fields
• A forward-looking approach
• Encouragement to interdisciplinarity
• Funding allocations independent of the panel
  structure
• Flexibility and inclusiveness
• Multidisciplinary projects appraised by all
  appropriate panels
• ScC members monitoring quality of the process

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Panel Structure (I)

• PHYSICAL SCIENCES, ENGINEERING SCIENCES, UNIVERSE
  AND EARTH SCIENCES (8 panels)
• BIOLOGICAL AND LIFE SCIENCES (7 panels)
• SOCIAL AND HUMAN SCIENCES (5 panels)
• Each panel consists of one Panel Chair and
  approximately 10 panel members
• Panel Chair oversees evaluation process for the
  proposals assigned to his/her panel in
  collaboration with the ERC staff
• The Panel Chair gives high level stamp of
  credibility and visibility to the whole
  evaluation process

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Panels

• Several hundred submissions have been received
  from organisations and institutions proposing
  over 5500 names for possible panel members
• Eleven members per panel X 20 panels 220
• Absolute minimum of 20 panel female members in
  each domain, with the objective being closer to
  40
• A reasonable geographical spread
• A maximum of 2 panel members from any one country
  in any panel, with some exceptions

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ERC Grant Agreement

• Key Principles
• Financially Attractive
• 100 direct costs plus 20 flat rate for indirect
  costs
• Up to 5 year duration
• Flexible in application
• Easy to adjust during execution
• Portability
• Administration simple and transparent
• Preparation of grant agreements without
  negotiations
• Short annual reports plus detailed final report

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Just how competitive is the ERC?

• Approx 200 projects will be funded in Call 1
  across the entire EU Austria Switzerland
• Ireland approx 1 of EU population
• Pro Rata on population Ireland might expect 2
  projects in Call 1 i.e. fiercely competitive!
• However, grants will be based on excellence only.
  No consideration given to area, geography etc.

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Timeline for Call 1 Starter Grants
Late May Assignment of proposals to panels
Oct/Nov Stage 2 Panels
March 19 EPSS available
April 25 Submission Deadline
June/July Stage 1 Panels
Early 2008 First Awards
Late Summer/Early Autumn Call 2 Advanced Grants
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Agenda
1. ERC Background Context
2. ERC Grants, Eligibility Evaluation
3. SFI ERC Support
4. Q A
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Key Contacts in Ireland for the ERC
Dr. Graham Love Science Foundation Ireland T
353 (0)1 6073284 F 353 (0)1 6073201 E
graham.love_at_sfi.ie W www.sfi.ie
Serving the SFI community
Mr. Martin Hynes IRCSET T 353 (0)1 2315000 
E mhynes_at_ircset.ie W www.ircset.ie
Serving the Humanities Social Sciences
Ms. Sorcha Carthy Irish Research Council for the
Humanities Social Sciences T 353 (0)1
6603652  F 353 (0)1  6603728 E
scarthy_at_irchss.ie W www.irchss.ie
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What Resources are available to you?

• Your Research Office
• Irish Universities Association
• http//erc.europa.eu/index.cfm
• http//cordis.europa.eu/en/home.html
• SFI Community
• ERC National Contact Point Graham Love
• http//groups.google.com/group/erc-ireland?hlen
• Notifications
• Key documents
• Mailing list!!!

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SFI ERC Google Grouphttp//groups.google.com/gro
up/erc-ireland
By invitation One stop shop! E-mail
alerts graham.love_at_sfi.ie
noreply_at_googlegroups.com
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SFI ERC Support Services
Applies to the SFI Community only

• Current Services
• Dedicated National Contact Point i.e. Graham Love
• Irish ERC information source i.e. google group
  website/mailing list
• Incentives
• SFI will provide a 10 15 top up to every
  successful ERC grantee
• E.g. ERC grant 2 million. SFI top up 200k
  300k
• To be used in whatever way the PI deems necessary
  to boost research productivity e.g. fund a PhD
  studentship, fund a lab manager
• Services under consideration
• Training courses
• Pre-read services

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Agenda
1. ERC Background Context
2. ERC Grants, Eligibility Evaluation
3. SFI ERC Support
4. Q A
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Appendix
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PANELSPHYSICAL SCIENCES, ENGINEERING SCIENCES,
UNIVERSE AND EARTH SCIENCES

• PE1 Mathematical foundations
• PE2 Fundamental constituents of matter
• PE3 Structures and reactions
• PE4 Material sciences and methods
• PE5 Information and communication
• PE6 Engineering sciences
• PE7 Universe sciences
• PE8 Earth system science

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PANELSBIOLOGICAL AND LIFE SCIENCES

• LS1 Molecular, cellular and developmental
  biology
• LS2 Genetics, genomics, bioinformatics and
  system biology
• LS3 Organismic physiology, including infection
  and immunity
• LS4 Neurosciences
• LS5 Evolutionary, population and environmental
  biology
• LS6 Applied medical and health sciences
• LS7 Applied biology and bioengineering,
  including agricultural sciences and biotechnology

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PANELSSOCIAL AND HUMAN SCIENCES

• SH1 Individuals and organisations
• SH1 Institutions, behaviour, values and beliefs
• SH1 The human mind and its complexity
• SH1 Cultures and cultural diversity
• SH1 The study of the past and of cultural
  artifacts