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The European Research Council

Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Economic and Social Research Council

Medical Research Council

Natural Environment Research Council

Arts and Humanities Research CouncilU

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Central Laboratory of the Research Councils

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To promote effective UK participation in EU-funded research programmes, higher education

programmes, and other related activities

UKRO aims

Based in Brussels, UKRO:

Provides early insight and briefing;• Disseminates EU funding opportunities; • Provides high quality guidance and training;• Exchanges information between the UK and EU

Subscriber services

• Website: www.ukro.ac.uk

• Enquiry service

• Annual visit from an UKRO European Advisor

• Meeting room in Brussels

• Specialist training courses and information events

• Annual conference for European officers

• National Contact Point (Marie Curie and ERC)

• European RTD Insight

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http://ims.ukro.ac.uk

Personalised Information Service

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FP7 Background

FP7 is designed to complement activities in Member States, as well as other Community actions to implement the Lisbon objectives

7-year programme (2007 -2013)Budget of €50 521 million

FP7 Specific Programmes

Co-operation – Collaborative Research

Ideas – Frontier Research (ERC)

People – Human Potential (Marie Curie)

Plus JRC and EURATOM

Capacities – Research Capacity

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Strategic Aims of ERC

European Excellence and Frontier research

• Invest in best researchers and ideas• Competition at European level• Scientific excellence as sole criterion• Raising incentives towards quality and

aspirations of individual researchers (Investigator-driven)

• Provide benchmarks and leverage towards broader, structural improvements in European research

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How is the ERC Organised?

• Scientific Council • Main decisions, created by EC, propose ‘work programme’,

establish peer review, oversight, annual report

• Secretariat• Provide day-to-day support to the Scientific Council

• Implementation body • Responsible to EC, information and support, registration of

proposals, organise peer review, follow-up, annual implementation report

• European Commission • No major decisions, approve programmes, legal signatories

• Programme Management Committee • Member State Representatives, no say in evaluations or in topic

areas, view oversight reports by EC

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Who sits on the Scientific Council?

• The Scientific Council (ScC) members are independent; respected scientific personalities, reflecting the full scope of European research; acting in their personal capacity

• 22 Members announced on 18 July 2005 • Nominated by EC decision following an independent

identification procedure (Patten Committee)• Fotis Kafatos – Imperial College – Chairman of ERC

• UK Members Wendy Hall - Southampton, Lord Robert May,

• Secretary Generals of the ERC. • Professor Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker from University of Munich 2 ½ years• Professor Andreu Mas-Colell from University Pompeu Fabra in

Barcelona takes over in July 2009.

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Ideas – Frontier Research (€7.51 bn)

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• Starting Independent Research Grant • (=1/3 Starting Grants)• 1st call in 2007, €300M

• Advanced Investigator Grant• (=2/3 Advanced Grants)

What is Frontier research?

• Research at the frontier of knowledge increasingly important to competitiveness and welfare;

• Research at and beyond the frontiers of understanding is an intrinsically risky venture, progressing on new and exciting research areas;

• New knowledge and understanding;

• Cuts across disciplines.

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Investigator driven research

• The Principal investigator (any nationality)

- chooses the research topic

- assembles the research team to best meet the requirements of the research

• ‘Teams’ can be of national or trans-national character (but this is not a collaborative project type network)

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European Research Council (ERC)A Quick Recap – Starting Grants

Call First call launched Dec 06, annual calls to 2013

1st Stage Deadline: 25 April 2007 (17:00 CET)

Call budget Around €300 million ~ 200 grants

Eligibility Between 2 and 9 years post PhD (some allowance for maternity and other reasons), any nationality but PI must be based in EU or Associated State (once awarded ERC grant), any legal entity (incl industry)

Project Size € 100,000 to €400,000 per year up to 5 years

Evaluation Panels

Projects submitted to 20 panels split across Social Sciences and Humanities, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Engineering

Evaluation Process

Two stage, strict page limits for each stage, reserve of 20% to promote interdisciplinarity

Evaluation Criteria

Potential of the Principal Investigator, Quality of the research project and the research environment

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ERC StG Review Process - Proposal Content

• Deadline Second Stage 17 September (17.00 Brussels time) • Stage 2 – Full Proposal (16 pages max) on EPSS• Overall components of the application

• Administration forms (A1, A2 and A3)• Research Proposal• Supporting Documentation

• Interview

Research Components of application Stage 1 Stage 2- CV- Self-evaluation of the PI’s achievements- Funding ID

3 pages 4 pages

Description of objectives and scientificand technical content of the project

4 pages 10 pages

Description of scientific environment and resources

1 page 2 pages

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ERC Panels – Starting Grants

SH1 Individuals and organisations: Economics, management, demography, geography, urban and environmental studies

SH2 Institutions, behaviour, values and beliefs: Anthropology, sociology, political sciences, law, communication, social studies of science and technology

SH3 The human mind and its complexity: Cognition, linguistics, psychology and philosophy

SH4 Cultures and cultural diversity: Literature, visual and performing arts, music and cultural studies

SH5 The study of the past and cultural artefacts: Memory, history and archaeology

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ERC Panels – Starting grants

PE1 Mathematical foundations: Pure and applied mathematics, theoretical computer science

and mathematical physics.

PE2 Fundamental constituents of matter: High energy, particle, nuclear, plasma, atomic,

molecular, gas and optical physics.

PE3 Structures and reactions: Condensed matter (structure, electronic properties, fluids,…),

statistical physics, nanosciences, reactions.

PE4 Material sciences and methods: Material sciences, molecular architecture, analytical

chemistry, synthesis (both inorganic and organic) and theory, physical and environmentalchemistry, method development.

PE5 Information and communication: Informatics and information systems, communication

technology, computer science, intelligent systems.

PE6 Engineering sciences: Electronics, product design, process design & control,construction methods, fluid and solid mechanics, energy systems, bio-engineering.

PE7 Universe sciences: Astro-physics/chemistry/biology/geology; solar system; stellar,galactic and extragalactic astronomy; cosmology; space sciences, instrumentation.

PE8 Earth system science: Physical geography, geology, geophysics, oceanography,climatology, ecology, global change, biogeochemical cycles, natural resources.

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ERC Panels – Starting Grants

LS1 Molecular, cellular and developmental biology: Biochemistry, molecular biology, metabolism, cell biology, signal transduction, embryology, structural biology

LS2 Genetics, genomics, bioinformatics and systems biology: Molecular genetics, cell genetics, genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, computational biology, biostatistics, biological modelling

LS3 Organismic physiology, including infection and immunity: Organogenesis, organ physiology, endocrinology, ageing, toxicology, parasitology, microbiology, virology, immunology

LS4 Neurosciences: Neurobiology, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neurochemistry, neuropharmacology, systems neurosciences, neuroimaging

LS5 Evolutionary, population and environmental biology: Evolution, adaptation, population biology, biodiversity, ecotoxicology, marine biology, radiation biology, environmental risks, environmental medicine

LS6 Applied medical and health sciences: Clinical medicine, public health, psychiatry, surgery, epidemiology, biomedical engineering, veterinary medicine, pharmacology, medical ethics

LS7 Applied biology and bioengineering, including agricultural sciences and biotechnology: genetic engineering, GMOs, synthetic biology, plant biology, fisheries, forestry, environmental biotechnology, industrial biotechnology, biomaterials, biohazards.

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First Stage Statistics - Overall

• 9167 first stage (outline) proposals

• Average grant requested ~ €1 Million (indicated range €500k to €2 million)

• 559 invited to submit second stage applications

• Approximately 50% success rate at the second stage

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First Stage Experience What do we know about?

• Nationality of PI• Current Country of Residence of PI• PI Age and Experience• PI Gender• Host Institution Location • No of Institutions Involved in Proposal• Scientific Domains (by Number of PIs)• Feedback on EPSS• Feedback on eligibility issues EPSS• Lessons learned

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First Stage Statistics- Nationality of PI

Successful Stage 1 Applicants- 85% were nationals of EU Member States

- 8% were nationals of FP7 Associated Countries (AC)

- 7% were third country nationals- More information is given in Table A

All Stage 1 Applicants- The ERC has not released this statistic for all applicants

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First Stage Statistics- Current Country of Residence of PI

Successful Stage 1 Applicants

- About 4% are currently based outside the EU

- The majority of these are Europeans willing to move back to Europe

- Whilst just under 1% are researchers of a third country nationality not yet living in Europe

All Stage 1 Applicants- 3.2% of all PIs were resident outside the EU

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First Stage Statistics- PI Age and Experience

Successful Stage 1 Applicants - 87% have 4-9 years of experience after their PhD- Average age ~36 years

All Stage 1 Applicants- 80.6% of the applicants had 4-9 years experience from their PhD (PhDs between 1998 and 2003)- Most people received their PhDs 2-9 years ago- The distribution was quite spread out over this range

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Year 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

% 1.7 8.7 13.6 14.6 15.1 15.0 13.6 12.4 4.2

First Stage Statistics- PI Gender

Successful Stage 1 Applicants - 24% Female and 76% Male - However, this ratio differs largely between the various research domains

All Stage 1 Applicants- 30% Female and 70% Male

No statistics available on gender of team members

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First Stage Statistics- Host Institution Location

Successful Stage 1 Applicants - 89% of the host institutions are in the EU.- 11% of the host institutions are in FP7 Associated Countries.

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Country  All

applicantsSuccessful at Stage 1

Founding Member States(BE, DE, FR, IT, LU, NL)

46.2% 49%

Member States joining the EC/EU 1973-1995(AT, DK, EL, ES, FI, IE, PT, SE, UK)

37.2% 36%

Member States joining the EU 2004-2007(BG, CY, CZ, EE, HU, LT, LV, MT, PL, RO, SI, SK)

8.8% 4%

Associated countries (to FP7)(CH, CS, HR, IL, IS, MK, NO, RS, TR)

7.8% 11%

Third countries (non EU and non AC) 0% 0%

Total 100% 100%

First Stage Statistics- No of Institutions Involved in Proposal

Successful Stage 1 Applicants

- No statistics released yet

All Stage 1 Applicants- Most applications only few institutions involved- 87% involved 1 institution-7% involved 2 institutions, 2% had 3, only 4% had >3- ERC’s desire to support ‘individual teams’ has been largely understood by applicants

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No. of Inst. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 17 22

No. of Prop.

8011 578 268 124 74 41 20 20 12 6 3 2 4 1 2 1

First Stage Statistics- Scientific Domains (by Number of PIs)

Successful Stage 1 Applicants: - 45% in ‘Physics, Mathematics and Engineering’ (PSE)

- 37% in ‘Life Sciences’ (LS)

- 18% in ‘Social Sciences and Humanities’ (SH)

All Stage 1 Applicants:- 48.1% in PSE

- 37% in LS

- 14.9% in SH

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First call statistics- Split between domains

Domain

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Life Sciences 3,396 37,0 40

Physical Sciences & Engineering

4,408 48,1 45

Social Sciences & Humanities

1,363 14,9 15

Total 9,167

*Indicative budget established by ScC (Work programme 2007)

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Feedback on EPSS

• High Demand on the FP7 Electronic Proposal Submission System (EPSS)

• Problems at Submission (~100 proposals)• Late submission (tentative uploads after deadline)• Some failure to comply with technical requirements

(invalid format of the proposal: not PDF format, protection by password)

• Late download of annexes (statements of support not signed by HI on time)

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Feedback on Eligibility Issues

• Eligibility criteria issues• Completeness (including statement of support from institution)• Related to the ERC Starting Grant scheme: PhD, Host country

• Around 350 non-eligible proposals• Mainly for missing or invalid statement of support (more than 250

cases)• Also for ineligibility of PI (PhD outside eligibility period)

• Eligibility Committee• In case of doubt on eligibility, evaluation may proceed after a

decision by the eligibility review committee (~ 50 proposals)• Invalid statement of support (statement signed by the applicant on

behalf of the host)

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ERC First Call‘Starting Independent Research Grant’

Evaluation

• scientific excellence as the sole criterion • The potential of the people and their track record

(research excellence of the applicant at PhD level and subsequently, achievements, publication list).

• Excellence of the project (in terms of the scientific value, innovativeness and feasibility of the objectives sought, the methodology proposed, the project management and research environment)

• Exact criteria and weightings still tbc…..

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ERC Project Management

• Independence of researchers• Research direction – change in scientific goals• Role in department• Financial management• Staff recruitment

• Transfers of Principal Investigators?• If other institutions involved, how will

networks operate?• Dissemination specifics• Different costing and reporting regimes

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Some Lessons

• Often applicants did not fully understand ERC concepts (frontier research, ‘individual team’)

• Applicants often not ambitious enough

• Often applicants did not explain why the research is important or what the impacts would be

• Many applications resembled job description written by a supervisor rather than showing the PI’s ideas

• Many people already fairly experienced (i.e. having UK fellowships)

• Applicants should aim their proposal at generalist reviewers (panel members) in Stage 1

• The top ranked proposals were outstanding, but many average ones were also submitted

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European Research Council (ERC)Advanced Grants

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Objective• encourage and support excellent, innovative investigator-initiated research projects

Eligibility• leading advanced investigators across EU and Associated Countries• targeting researchers already established as independent research leaders in their own right

Research Areas• ‘bottom up’ approach - any research area (except Fission & Fusion)

Implementation • up to €500k per grant per year over 5 years• ca. 200 grants per year?• One Stage Submission, 2 Step Evaluation

Advance Grants (Provisional)

• Scientific Council are defining strategy • Call to be launched in November 2007• Deadlines spring 2008• Open to top rate, senior researchers• Starting Grant applicants are not eligible• ERC will look to limit over-subscription• Adjusted panel structure

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ERC Second Call ‘Advanced Investigator Grant’

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Lessons learned from StG first call• Maximise the call budget• Limit oversubscription• Adjust Panel Structure

Latest News• Call (and documentation) expected ~November 2007• Deadlines will depend on panel and expected to be Spring 2007 with the first closing date expected late February• Expected to be similar panel structure to StG but with ~25 panels. Different individual Members• Expected to be one stage full application process but 2 step review process. No interviews

Advance Grants (Provisional)

• Proposals must contain:• CV + 10 year track record and scientific

leadership profile• Proposal and extended synopsis• Evaluation:

- 1st step: Evaluation of CV (track record and leadership profile) & “Extended Synopsis”

- 2nd step: Evaluation of full proposal

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ERC Second Call ‘Advanced Investigator Grant’

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Possible benchmarks of “10 year track record”

• Senior author publications in major peer-reviewed multi-disciplinary scientific journals and/or leading peer-reviewed journals of their respective research fieldsAnd if applicable• Monographs and any translations of monographs (if applicable)• Granted patents• Invited presentations into peer-reviewed, internationally established conferences and/or international advanced schools• Expeditions that the applicant has lead• International conferences in the field of the applicant that have been organised by PI (member of the steering and/or organising committee)•International Prizes/Awards/Academy Memberships

ERC Second Call ‘Advanced Investigator Grant’

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Possible indicators of “leadership profile”• Content and impact of the major scientific or scholarly contributions of the applicant to his/her own research field and/or neighbouring research fields and, if applicable, the wider societal impact• The international recognition and diffusion that these major contributions have received from others (publications or appropriate equivalents /additional funding/ students /international prizes and awards /institution building /other)• Ability to productively change research fields and/or establish new interdisciplinary approaches

Keeping up to date with the latest?

• UKRO information Services: http://ims.ukro.ac.uk

• UKRO website: www.ukro.ac.uk• ERC for Subscribers:

http://www.ukro.ac.uk/subscriber_services/fp7/ideas/index.htm• ERC page UKRO NCP: http://www.ukro.ac.uk/erc/index.htm• Sign up to receive our ERC Newsletter at:• http://www.ukro.ac.uk/erc/events_ukro/events_alerts.htm• UKRO ERC NCP Advanced Grants Information Events:

(Dec 2007/Jan 2008 – dates TBC)

• ERC website: http://ec.europa.eu/erc/index_en.cfm

Documentation, FAQs, events, key issues, etc.

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