10 years of ERC

dr Piotr KwiecińskiHead of Sector – Social Sciences

Scientific Management Department

The European Research Council

Celebrating ERC-10 in Europe and beyond

� ERC Week: 13-19 March� >100 events in 35 countries� Twitter: #ERC10yrs� More information:

erc.europa.eu/ERC10yrs/erc-week

The ERC in a Nutshell

The ERC in a Nutshell

Frontier researchExcellence onlyAutonomous governanceIndependent evaluationBottom-upAll fieldsGenerousSimpleCompetitiveOpen to the world

│ 4

10 Reasons to Celebrate

│ 6

1. Advancing the frontier of knowledge

� ERC grantees won prestigious awards:6 Nobel Prizes, 3 Fields Medals, 5 Wolf Prizes…

� 73% of completed ERC projects resulted in scientificbreakthroughs or major advances

� 100.000 publications from ERC projects ininternational peer-reviewed journals

� 7% of these publications ranks in the top 1% mostcited worldwide

│ 7

2. Visibility of European research results

│ 8

ERC Grants versus top publications

│ 9

ERC publications in top 1% most cited worldwide

� 2/3 grants to early career researchers� Strong positive effect on grantees' careers� Contribute to consolidating research teams� Key role in training and developing a new

generation of top scientists

│ 10

3. Boosting research careers

│ 11

Two-thirds of grants to early-stage PIs

4. Supporting research talent

� 7,000 "research champions" andtheir teams supported

� 50,000 team members, mostly PhDsand postdocs, working on ERCprojects

│ 12

│ 13

ERC Teams

│ 14

� The ERC tackles the brain drain� +/- 17% of team members from non-EU

countries� Agreements with 9 countries (including US,

China, Korea, Brazil) to allow ERC granteesto cooperate with young scientists fromaround the world

5. Attracting scientific talent

│ 15

6. Promoting innovation

� Almost 600 Proof of Concept grants� 800 patent applications and� 75 new ventures

│ 16

Promoting Innovation (2)

Proof of Conceptgrant :Polish example

� The ERC funds projects related tomajor health challenges, energyefficiency, demographic changes…

│ 17

7. Addressing societal challenges

� The ERC has set the benchmark� New scientific councils and funding

schemes in EU Member States� 17 countries have launched initiatives

to finance their best unfundedapplicants

│ 18

8. Inspiring reforms in Europe

� Research integrity� Open access� Gender balance� Widening participation to ERC calls

│ 19

9. Leading the scientific community

Events around the world

Wide media coverage

> 500.000 visitors of the ERC webside per year

10.000 media articles everyyear

10. Engaging with world audiences

Poland and the ERC

│ 22

ERC Funded Projects by Country of HI

│ 23

Success Rate by Country of HI

│ 24

POLAND: evaluation results (2013-2016)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

2013201420152016 2013201420152016 2013201420152016

STG COG ADG

# ev

alu

ated

pro

po

sals

call

CStep 1 BStep 2 BA

POLAND: funded proposals 2008-16

0 5 10 15

INSTYTUT BIOCHEMII I BIOFIZYKI POLSKIEJ AKADEMII NAUK

INSTYTUT BIOLOGII DOSWIADCZALNEJ IM. M. NENCKIEGO…

INSTYTUT CHEMII FIZYCZNEJ POLSKIEJ AKADEMII NAUK

INSTYTUT FIZYKI POLSKIEJ AKADEMII NAUK

INSTYTUT MATEMATYCZNY POLSKIEJ AKADEMII NAUK

NICOLAUS COPERNICUS ASTRONOMICAL CENTRE OF THE…

SZKOLA GLOWNA GOSPODARSTWA WIEJSKIEGO

UNIWERSYTET GDANSKI

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MOLECULAR AND CELL…

UNIWERSYTET WARSZAWSKI

# Funded proposals

STG COG ADG

26

Polish applicants: mobility (2012-16)

7468

53

7266

38

27

45

37

19

3732 33

24

01020304050607080

2012

2014

2016

2013

2015

2013

2015

STG COG ADG

# ev

alu

ated

pro

po

sals

# Evaluated proposals

Pole out of Poland, staying in the samecountry

Pole out of Poland moving to anothercountry

Pole in Poland, moving away

Pole out of Poland, coming back

Pole in Poland, staying in Poland

Polish project examples (1)

• Europe and America in contact: a multidisciplinary study of cross-cultural transfer in the New World across time (CULTURECONTACT)

• The "Nahuatl" world, more often known as the "Aztec" world, is a fascinating culture, with countless intriguing aspects that remain to be explored. This project identifies of mutual language transfers between Europeans and the Nahuatl people during and after the colonial period and the implications of these transfers leading to the exploration of cross-cultural transfer as a way of studying culture.

• Researcher: Justyna OLKO-BAJER• Host institution: University of Warsaw• ERC call: Starting Grant 2012 ; € 1.3 million for five years

│ 27

Polish project examples (2)

• Functional connectomics of the amygdala in social interactions of different valence (CoSI)

How does the amygdala—the centre for emotions in the brain—controls socially transmitted emotions such as joy and fear. Identifying these mechanisms could help explain dysfunctions in social interactions in people suffering from autism or psychopathy.

• Researcher: Ewelina Knapska

• Host institution: Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology (Polish Academy of Sciences – PAN)

• ERC call: Starting Grant 2016; € 1.3 million for five years

│ 28

Polish project examples (3)

• Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment: New Frontiers in Observational Astronomy (OGLEIV)

Search for extrasolar planets thanks to gravitational microlensing technique, which allows the study of objects with a mass between that of a planet and that of a star, regardless of the light they emit.

• Researcher: Andrzej Udalski

• Host institution: University of Warsaw (UW)

• ERC call: Advanced Grant 2009; € 2.5 million for five years

│ 29

30

Thank you!