fp7 ideas programme the european research council … and its funding schemes. ana beramendi...

FP7 IDEAS Programme

The European Research Council… and its funding schemes.

Ana BeramendiVETENSKAPSRÅDET

European Research Council

│ 2

ERC Grant schemesERC Grant schemes3R and 2 schemes

Aim: Retain – Repatriate – Recruit exceptional researchers in any field of science, engineering and scholarship to pursue pioneering frontier research

Activities: Two complementary 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

Call Budget for Starting Grant 2010: € 528 Mio

Call Budget for Advanced Grant 2010: € 590 Mio


│ 3

ERC Grant schemesERC Grant schemesWho can apply? – General requirements

1. Principal Investigator (PI) Nationality, age or current place of work not relevant - but: working or

moving to work in Europe (EU member state, FP7 Associated Country)

2. In conjunction with a Host organisation Legally recognised public or private research organisation

To be located in MS or AC

3. Frontier Research Project All fields of science, engineering and scholarship are eligible

(investigator-driven, bottom-up)

4. Individual research team PI has freedom to choose National or trans-national character, if

scientific added value proven


What is frontier research?What is frontier research?

Research at the frontiers is:

Intrinsically risky

Characterised by an absence of disciplinary boundaries

of ground-breaking nature: addresses important challenges, has ambitious objectives, has novel or unconventional concepts and/or approaches

The ERC wants to avoid outmoded distinctions:

Between “basic” and “applied” research

Between “science” and “technology”

Between “traditional” disciplines


│ 5

ERC Grant schemesERC Grant schemesOperational PrinciplesOperational Principles

Application in response to calls for proposals Principal Investigators applies in conjunction and on

behalf of a research-performing host institution

Electronic Proposals Submission System (EPSS)

Single submission, staged evaluation procedure

to manage a large number of applications

Panel-based international peer review process Scientific Council selects panels and peer reviewers

Panels assess and select proposals


│ 6

ERC covers all fields of science, engineering and scholarship

3 main research domains + interdisciplinary research:

Physical Sciences & Engineering – 10 Panels

Life Sciences (incl. medical) – 9 Panels

Social Sciences & Humanities – 6 Panels

Interdisciplinary Research (cross-panel / cross-domain) – Panel Chairs meeting

The call budget will be pre-allocated to these areas as follows:

39% - 34% - 14% - 13%

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


ERC PERC Panel structureanel structure

Social Sciences and Humanities (SH) SH1 - Individuals, institutions & markets SH2 - Institutions, values, beliefs and behaviour SH3 - Environment & society SH4 - The Human Mind and its complexity SH5 - Cultures & cultural production SH6 - The study of the human past

Physical Sciences & Engineering (PE) PE1 - Mathematical foundations PE2 - Fundamental constituents of matter PE3 - Condensed matter physics PE4 - Physical & Analytical Chemical sciences PE5 - Materials & Synthesis PE6 - Computer science & informatics PE7 - Systems & communication engineering PE8 - Products & process engineering PE9 - Universe sciences PE10 - Earth system science

Life Sciences (LS) LS1 - Molecular & Structural Biology & Biochemistry LS2 - Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics & Systems

Biology LS3 - Cellular and Developmental Biology LS4 - Physiology, Pathophysiology & Endocrinology LS5 - Neurosciences & neural disorders LS6 - Immunity & infection LS7 - Diagnostic tools, therapies & public health LS8 - Evolutionary, population & environmental

biology LS9 - Applied life sciences & biotechnology


│ 8

ERC Grant SchemesERC Grant SchemesEvaluation: Scientific Excellence is the sole criterionEvaluation: Scientific Excellence is the sole criterion

Evaluation of Excellence at three levels:

• Quality of Principal Investigator

• Quality of Research Project

• 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:

1-4 per criterion (4:Outstanding, 3: Excellent, 2:Very Good, 1: Non-Competitive)

Threshold ≥ 2 per criterion. Note: Proposals passing quality thresholds and which lie above the budgetary cut-off level will be retained.

Criteria under Heading 3 will be considered as "pass/fail" and commented but not scored


│ 9

ERC Grant AgreementERC Grant AgreementConcept

Agreement between ERC and Principal Investigator’s (PI’s) hosting organisation Rights/obligations on scientific, financial, ethical conduct and

monitoring, eligible costs, IPR, modifications, grant portability

Supplementary Agreement between PI and its hosting organisation Rights/obligations: administration, project execution, IPR


│ 10

ERC Grant ERC Grant The concept of ‘portability’

“Money follows the researcher”

The Principal Investigator (PI) is entitled to transfer the grant to another institution

normally after a minimum 2 years at the sponsoring institution

Proper justification and ERC approval required


│ 11

ERC Starting GrantERC Starting GrantProfile of the PI

• Eligibility window: 2-10 years after PhD award - certain types of career breaks are accepted up to a maximum of 4.5 years read the Guide for read the Guide for Applicants! Applicants!

Starters : award of PhD from 2 to 6 years prior to call publication Consolidators : award of PhD over 6 and up to 10 years prior to call

publication.

Note: Note: In order to assure comparable success rates for the starters and the In order to assure comparable success rates for the starters and the consolidators the indicative budget of each panel will be divided in proportion to the consolidators the indicative budget of each panel will be divided in proportion to the budgetary demand of the proposals submitted by these two categoriesbudgetary demand of the proposals submitted by these two categories

• Potential for research independence and evidence of maturity at least one important publication without participation of PhD supervisor and

significant publications as main author. Monographs, invited presentations in well-established international

conferences, granted patents, awards, prizes, etc


│ 12

ERC Advanced GrantERC Advanced GrantProfile of the PI

• Any nationality or age

• Any current place of work – but: working or moving to work in Europe (EU member state, FP7 Associated Country)

• Applicants must be scientifically independent

• Strong leadership profile (impact, recognition)

• Excellent track record (in recent years, achievements not older than 10 years) read the Guide for Applicants!read the Guide for Applicants!


ERC Starting Grant 2010ERC Starting Grant 2010Reapplication rules

• Major change for StG 2010 applicants (ERC-2010-StG): Every other call, unless proposal was evaluated above the quality treshold at

the end of step 1 of the evaluation.

• Note that for StG 2 (ERC-2009-StG) previous rule of reapplication still applies: no PI can apply to the StG 3 (ERC-2010-StG) unless proposal was evaluated

above the quality threshold during the step 2 but not funded due to insufficient budget

│ 13

European Research Council ERC Advanced Grant 2010Reapplication rulesModifications for AdG 2010

WP 2009 WP 2010Re-application rule: Applicants of either ERC-2008-AdG or ERC-2009-AdG calls need to have met the quality threshold after step 1 to be eligible for the ERC-2010-AdG call.

Re- application rule unchanged: Applicants of either ERC-2008-AdG or ERC-2009-AdG calls need to have met the quality threshold after step 1 to be eligible for the ERC-2010-AdG call.

Re-application rule changed: only allowed to re-apply for ERC-2011-AdG if proposal is evaluated above quality threshold at step-2 but not funded.

Involvement of PI: recommendation in Guide for Applicants

Involvement of PI: at least 30% of working time to the ERC-funded project while spending at least 50% of the total working time in an EU Member State or Associated Country


│ 15

ERC ERC Starting GrantStarting GrantProposal content and submission

ERC Grant proposal StG 2010

PART A – online forms

A1 Proposal, PI and HI dataA2 Host institution infoA3 Budget

PART B1* – submitted as .pdfCover page 1 p.Section 1 The Principal Investigator Scientific Leadership Potential 2 p.CV (including “funding ID”) 2 p.Early achievements track record 2 p.Extended synopsis 5 p.

PART B2* – submitted as .pdf

Section 2 Scientific proposal 15 p.Objectives, methodology, resources, ethical issues tableSection 3 Research Environment 2 p.

Annexes*– submitted as .pdf-Statement of support by host- If applicable: explanatory info and docs on ethical issues

- Ethical Issues Table

* use templates !* use templates !


│ 17

ERC Grant schemesERC Grant schemesProposal evaluation

Step 2

Evaluation- Indiv. assessments- Interdisciplinary flag- Interviews (StG only)- PANEL MEETINGS- Ranking

Step 1

Evaluation- Indiv. Assessments- PANEL MEETINGS- Ranking

Submission

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Part – B

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Part – B

+ Annexes

Eligibility Check

Part - A

Form A2

Form A3

Form A1


│ 18

ERC Advanced Grant 2010 Guide for Applicants AdG 2010

Structure: separated from the ERC Starting Grants Adjustments related to the WP 2010 changes Reference to the new Co-Investigator annex (to be uploaded with

personal data of Co-I e.g. Name/Gender/Address/Nationality) Increased emphasis on various aspects of proposal preparation

and submission such as: ─ ONLY Part B1 (not Part B2) is reviewed in Step 1 of the

evaluation ─ Strongly encourage to use costing table template to facilitate

the assessment of resources by the panels─ Download submitted EPSS documents to check their

completeness and integrity before the deadline


│ 19

ERC Advanced Grant 2010 EPSS - examples of changes

Additional information/ questions A 1 form: Yes/No: Permission to use the title and abstract when

contacting remote referees Yes/No: Agreement to devote at least 30% of the

working time to the ERC-funded project (50% in Europe) Contact person for the ERC at the Host Institution to

communicate results


│ 20

ERC Advanced Grant 2010 Lessons learnt for AdG 2010

Synopsis of Part B 1 should be carefully written (this is the only proposal information that is accessible and judged at step 1!)

Coherency of budget figures (A3 and Part B2, in case of doubt usually A3 figures serves as a reference)

Individual reviews are done remotely and are not harmonised (PIs sometimes do not seem to be aware of that)

Evalution report Evaluation report consists of panel comments summarising the Panel decision (incl. key strength and weaknesses) and individual comments (Panel Members, remote referees) which may not be necessarily convergent!


Deadlines Deadlines

Starting Grant 2010Starting Grant 2010• Physical Sciences and Engineering 28-10-2009• Life Sciences 18-11-2009

• Social Sciences and Humanities 09-12-2009

• Advanced Grant 2010Advanced Grant 2010• Physical Sciences and Engineering 24-02-2010• Life Sciences 17-03-2010

• Social Sciences and Humanities 07-04-2010

│ 21


│ 22

Specific text of “Call for Proposal”

ERC Work Programme

ERC Guide for Applicants (!)

ERC Grant agreement

Other:

ERC Guide for Grant Holders

ERC Guide for Peer Reviewers

ERC Rules on submission, evaluation, selection and award procedures

Read always the last published versions !

available at http://erc.europa.eu

DocumentationDocumentation


│ 23

Up-to-date InformationUp-to-date InformationERC website at ERC website at http://erc.europa.eu

NEW SECTION

Funded Projects


│ 24

Applicants ServicesApplicants ServicesInformation and helpdesks

• ERC News Alerthttp://erc.europa.eu/newsalert

• ERC National Contact PointsIn Sweden: Ana Beramendi, VR ([email protected]) and Gunnar Sandberg, Vinnova ([email protected])

• ERC helpdeskhttp://ec.europa.eu/research/enquiries

• EPSS helpdesktechnical support on electronic proposal submissionhttps://www.epss-fp7.org/epss/helpdesk.jsp


│ 25

ObrigadoDanke!Merci!

Thank you!Gracie!Gracias!

Ευχαριστώ!

fp7 ideas programme the european research council … and its funding schemes. ana beramendi...

Documents

applied research

frontier research project

private research organisation

grant stg

starting grant

mio stg grant slide

individual research

years erc advanced grant