FP7 IDEAS Programme
European Research Council
The European Research Council
UNICA-ENCS Rectors Seminar
"Europe-Canada: The Future of Academic Cooperation"
Prof Donald Dingwell
ERC Secretary General
ERC EA Unit A1 Support to the Scientific Council
European Research Council
What is ERC?
The ERC supports excellence in frontier research through
a bottom-up, individual-based, pan-European competition
Legislation
Scientific governance: independent Scientific Council
with 22 members; full authority over funding strategy
Support by the ERC Executive Agency (autonomous)
Excellence as the only criterion
Strategy
Budget: € 7.5billion (2007-2013) - 1.1 billion €/year
Support for the individual scientist – no networks!
Global peer-review
No predetermined subjects (bottom-up)
Support of frontier research in all fields of science
and humanities
│2
After 5 years of existence…
A success story
European Research Council
 Highly recognised by the research community
 ~3 000 top researchers selected (65% are at early-career
stage); 56 nationalities represented
 Working in >500 different institutions in 27 countries
 Highly competitive (average success rate 12%)
 50% of grantees in 50 institutions; “Excellence attracts
excellence”
 Benchmarking effect, e.g. pan-European competition
among researchers; EU value added
 Efficient and fast grant management
│3
Research Council
"Despite being a new, European
and thus
untried instrument,
the ERC has manifestly succeeded in attracting and
funding world-class research and is playing an
important role in anchoring research talent." .
Prestige
The independent interim evaluation of FP7
4 Nobel Prize
laureates
among ERC
grantees
3 Fields Medalists
currently funded
by ERC
Konstantin
Novoselov
Nobel 2010
Theodor
Hansch
Stanislav Smirnov
AdG 2008
Simon Donaldson
AdG 2009
Elon Lindenstrauss
AdG 2010
James
Heckman
Jean-Marie
Lehn
Other Prizes awarded
to ERC grantees
EMBO GOLD MEDAL 2010 –
Jason W CHIN - StG 2007
2011 Prizes awarded to ERC grantees
EMBO GOLD MEDAL 2011 - Simon Boulton - AdG 2010
THE SHAW PRIZE IN MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES 2011 - Christodoulou Demetrios - AdG 2009
CRAFOORD PRIZE IN BIOSCIENCES 2011 - Ilkka Hanski - AdG 2008
L'ORÉAL-UNESCO AWARD FOR WOMEN IN SCIENCE 2011 - Anne L'Huillier - AdG 2008
PRINCE OF ASTURIAS AWARD FOR TECHNICAL AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH 2011 –
Giacomo Rizzolatti - AdG 2009
FEBS|EMBO WOMEN IN SCIENCE AWARD 2011 - Carol Robinson - AdG 2010
BALZAN PRIZE 2011 - Joseph Silk - AdG 2010
MILLENIUM AWARD 2010 –
Michael GRATZEL - AdG 2009
WOLF PRIZE 2010 –
Anton ZEILINGER - AdG 2008
David BAULCOMBE - AdG 2008
Alain ASPECT – AdG 2010
EUROPEAN LATSIS PRIZE 2010 –
Ilkka HANSKI - AdG 2008
│4
European Research Council
Future perspectives
ERC’s role in the Innovation Union 2020
 HORIZON 2020 structure:
 Excellence Science
 Industrial leadership
 Societal challenges
 EIT
 JRC
 Excellent Science: reinforcing and extending the excellence of the
EU’s science base and consolidating ERA to make EU’s R&I system
more competitive on a global scale




European Research Council (proposed budget: 15 billion euro)
Future and Emerging Technologies
Marie Curie
Research Infrastructures
│5
European Research Council
Budget proposal under HORIZON 2020
H2020 budget € 88 billion
ERC budget € 15 billion
FP7 budget € 50.5 billion
ERC budget € 7.5 billion
JRC nonnuclear (3 %)
Co-operation
(65 %)
Capacities
(8 %)
Societal
challenges
(39%)
EIT
(3.6%)
JRC
(2.5%)
ERC
(17.1%)
People
(9 %)
Ideas
(15 %)
Industrial
leadership
(23.1%)
Other Excellent
science (14.6%)
European Research Council
ERC Grant schemes
Starting Grants
Consolidator Grants
starters
(2-7 years after PhD)
up to € 2.0 Mio
for 5 years
consolidators
(7-12 years after PhD)
up to € 2.75 Mio
for 5 years
Synergy Grants
2 – 4 Principal Investigators
up to € 15.0 Mio for 6 years
Advanced Grants
track-record of
significant research
achievements in
the last 10 years
up to € 3.5 Mio
for 5 years
Proof-of-Concept
bridging gap between research - earliest
stage of marketable innovation
up to €150,000 for ERC grant holders
European Research Council
Creative freedom of the individual grantee
ERC offers independence, recognition & visibility
• to work on a research topic of own choice, with a team of own choice
• to gain true financial autonomy for 5 years
• to negotiate with the host institution the best conditions of work
• to attract top team members (EU and non-EU) and collaborators
• to move with the grant to any place in Europe if necessary (portability
of grants)
• to attract additional funding and gain recognition; ERC is a quality
label
│8
European Research Council
Attractive features
for researchers from outside Europe
Flexibility:

Additional “start-up” funding for scientists moving to Europe
(EUR 500 000 for Starting and EUR 1 Million for Advanced grantees)

Grantee can keep affiliation with home institute outside Europe
(“significant part” of work time in Europe, at least 50%)


Team members can be based outside Europe
Grantee can move within Europe with the grant
Negotiation:

Several European countries/host institutions assist applicants
and reward grantees with top-up funds or long-term
professorships
European Research Council
25 panels for all areas of science
Physical
Sciences
&
Engineering
10 panels
Life
Sciences
9 panels
Mathematics
Fundamental constituents of matter
Condensed matter physics
Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Synthetic chemistry and materials
Computer science and informatics
Systems and communication engineering
Products and processes engineering
Universe sciences
Earth system science
Social Sciences & Humanities
6 panels
Individuals, institutions and markets
Institutions, values, beliefs and
behaviour
Environment, space and population
The Human Mind
Cultures and cultural production
The study of the human past
Molecular and structural biology and biochemistry
Genetics, genomics, bioinformatics and systems biology
Cellular and developmental biology
Physiology, pathophysiology and endocrinology
Neurosciences and neural disorders
Immunity and infection
Diagnostic tools, therapies and public health
Evolutionary, population and environmental biology
Applied life sciences and biotechnology
European Research Council
International participation to proposals evaluation
350
321
308
300
Men
Women
Number of assignments*
266
250
200
196
194
150
114
100
50
125
105 101
85 81
77
66 65
55
41 36
44
27 21
9
5
5
5
37
16
4
3
3
6
4
3
15 11
6
5
3
3
3
1
1
1
0
UK DE FR IT ES NL SE BE AT DK FI PL HU CZ PT EL IE RO BG CY SK LT EE SI CH IL NO TR RS HR IS US JP CA AU TW CL HK RU UA AR MX
EU Member States
Associated C.
International
Country of Panel Member's Host Institution
Based on the eight ERC StG and AdG calls 2007 - 2011
* Number of instances that experts of a certain country of origin are contributing to the ERC peer review
│ 11
European Research Council
ERC Competitions 2007-2012
Total number
of applications
received
of which
Evaluated*
success
rates**
Funded
Starting Grant 2007
9.167
8.787
299
3,4
Starting Grant 2009
2.503
2.392
245
10,2
Starting Grant 2010
2.873
2.767
436
15,8
Starting Grant 2011
4.080
4.005
487
12,2
Starting Grant 2012***
4.741
4.654
536
11,5
23.364
22.605
2.003
10,6
Advanced Grant 2008
2.167
2.034
282
13,9
Advanced Grant 2009
1.583
1.526
245
16,1
Advanced Grant 2010
2.009
1.967
271
13,8
Advanced Grant 2011
2.284
2.245
301
13,4
8.043
7.772
1.099
14,3
Proof of Concept 2011 - 1&2
151
139
51
36,7
Proof of Concept 2012 - 1***
75
60
33
55,0
226
199
84
45,8
Starting Grant
Advanced Grant
Proof of Concept
* withdrawn and ineligible proposals not taken into account
** percentage of funded proposals in relation to evaluated proposals
*** selected
Data as of 30/07/2012│ 12
Evaluated proposals from researchers
with non-ERA* nationality
European Research Council
ERC Starting Grant calls 2009 – 2012
* ERA = European Research Area
100
Evaluated applications
80
60
40
20
0
US
Russia
StG-2009
China
India
StG-2010
Canada Australia Ukraine
Japan
Nationality
StG-2011
StG-2012
Brazil Argentina Other
Evaluated proposals from researchers
with non-ERA* nationality
European Research Council
ERC Advanced Grant calls 2008 – 2012
* ERA = European Research Area
Evaluated applications
80
60
40
20
0
US
Russia
Canada Australia Ukraine
NZ
Japan
India Argentina China
Nationality
AdG-2008
AdG-2009
AdG-2010
AdG-2011
AdG-2012
Other
European Research Council
Applications from Canadian researchers
ERC Starting grant calls 2007 - 2012
ERC Advanced grant calls 2008 – 2012
Canadian applications evaluated
ERC call
LS
PE
StG-2007
6
18
StG-2009
2
1
StG-2010
8
5
StG-2011
9
13
StG-2012
15
9
AdG-2008
2
7
AdG-2009
2
2
AdG-2010
3
5
AdG-2011
3
2
AdG-2012
1
2
Total:
51
64
SH
8
1
2
5
4
4
5
4
5
38
All domains
32
3
14
24
29
13
8
13
9
8
153
Country of Host Inst
UK
55
FR
19
DE
14
CH
14
NL
14
IE
11
ES
7
SE
6
IT
4
Other
9
Total:
153
 27 of the Canadian applicants had residence in Canada at the time of application
 44 applications from foreign researchers with residence in Canada (of which 39
are Europeans)
*) nationality as last declared by the principal investigator
ERC grantees with a non-ERA* nationality
European Research Council
ERC Starting Grant calls 2007-2012
ERC Advanced Grant calls 2008 – 2011
* ERA = European Research Area
60
Number of Grantees
50
Starting
grants
40
Advanced
grants
TOTAL number of grantees with non-ERA nationality :
153 StG and 58 AdG
30
20
10
0
USA
Australia
Russia
Canada
India
Japan
Argentina
China
Ukraine
Others
Starting
grants
53
14
14
12
12
11
7
7
7
16
Advanced
grants
41
3
3
5
0
0
0
0
0
6
Nationality
*) nationality as last declared by the principal investigator
Data as of 30/07/2012
European Research Council
ERC grants awarded to Canadian researchers
ERC Starting Grant calls 2007-2012
ERC Advanced Grant calls 2008 – 2011
Geographical distribution
Thematic distribution
number of grants
8
6
AdG
1
StG
4
6
3
1
2
2
2
2
DE
NL
CH
0
UK
Country of host institution
ERC call
LS
PE
StG-2007
1
StG-2011
2
3
StG-2012
3
1
SH
Total
1
2
5
1
5
AdG-2008
2
2
AdG-2010
1
1
2
AdG-2011
1
1
Total
7
8
2
17
European Research Council
Few grantees from outside ERA
Mainly researchers moving/returning from the US
Country of residence
Argentina
Australia
Brazil
Canada
India
Japan
International grantees
1
1
1
1
2
1
Korea
USA
Total
16
23
ERA nationals
2
1
1
1
54
59
Total
1
3
1
2
2
2
1
70
82
Note: Researchers residing outside the European Research Area at the time of application
European Research Council
Team members: internationalisation
a sample of 383 on-going projects
about 2200 team members without principal investigators
•
the best represented non-ERA nationalities are: Chinese - 65 (3%),
Americans - 52 (2%), and Indians - 51 (2%)
• 1% of the team members are Canadians
Others non Associated; 9,3
Unknow n/Double; 3,3 BE; 2,4
DE; 10,8
US; 2,4
India; 2,3
CN; 2,9
Others Associated; 1,7
ES; 4,9
FR; 9,7
CH; 2,4
IL; 8,4
FI; 3,0
IT; 13,0
Others EU; 11,3
UK; 4,4
EU: 67%
Assoc. Countries: 13%
SE; 2,5 PL; 1,8
NL; 3,7
Other Countries: 17%
Unknown: 3%
Attracting excellent researchers worldwide
European Research Council
”ERC goes global” campaign
targeting top and emerging research locations
Canada
Russia
Feb.2012
US South West
& Mexico
2012
2012
Japan , S.-Korea, Taiwan,
Hong Kong
China
US East Coast
July 2012
2013
2013
India
2013
South Africa
Brazil, Chile
May 2012
March 2012
Singapore, Australia,
New Zealand
2013
European Research Council
More information on ERC

Ideas NCPs http://erc.europa.eu/national-contact-points

ERC Website http://erc.europa.eu

ERC Helpdesk http://erc.europa.eu/about-erc/links

Quarterly ERC e-newsletter and e-News Alerts

Euraxess-Jobs http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/jobs/index
New ERC calls
Expected Publication
Deadline
Starting 2013
Consolidator 2013
10 July 2012
7 Nov. 2012
17 Oct. 2012
21 Feb. 2013
Advanced 2013
10 July 2012
22 Nov. 2012
Synergy 2013
10 Oct. 2012
10 Jan. 2013
PoC 2013
10 Jan. 2013
24 April 2013
3 Oct. 2013