The European Research Council
Established by the European Commission
Achievements,
Opportunities and Challenges
Jean-Pierre
Jean
Pierre BOURGUIGNON
ERC President
© Art & Build Architect / Montois Partners / credits: S. Brison
March 2015
What is the European Research Council?
Established by the European Commission
Strattegy
 Support for individual scientists
 International peer-review
 No predetermined subjects (bottom-up)
(bottom up)
 Support for frontier research in all fields of science and humanities
 Look for high gain/high risk ambitious projects
L
Legislat
tion
A bottom-up, individual-based, pan-European competition
with host institution in EU or Associated Countries.
 Scientific governance by an independent 22-member
S i tifi Council,
Scientific
C
il which
hi h has
h full
f ll authority
th it over funding
f di
and
d evaluation
l ti
 Support by the ERC Executive Agency (autonomous)
 Only criterion: quality of research aiming for excellence
│2
ERC Grant Schemes
Established by the European Commission
Starting Grants
Consolidator Grants
starters
(2-7 years after PhD)
up to € 1.5 Mio
for 5 years
consolidators
(7 12 years after PhD)
(7-12
up to € 2 Mio
for 5 years
Ad
Advanced Grants dG t
track-record of
significant research
achievements
hi
t in
i the
th
last 10 years
up to € 2.5 Mio
for 5 years
Proof‐of‐Concept bridging gap between research - earliest
stage of marketable innovation
up to €150,000
€150 000 for ERC grant holders
│3
ERC funding
g schemes
Complementarities
Established by the European Commission
ERC AdG - Advanced
ERC CoG – Consolidators
ERC StG - Starters
Full Professor
Marie Curie
Erasmus
Post-docs
Postt
P
Graduates
Students
Junior Professor/
Junior Researcher
Associated Professor
Senior
Professor
ERC in the H2020 Structure
Established by the European Commission
 The HORIZON 2020 main components:

Excellent Science
 World class science is foundation of technologies, jobs, well-being
 Europe needs to develop, attract, retain research talent
 Researchers need access to the best infrastructures


Industrial leadership
Societal challenges
 Excellent Science:

European Research Council (budget under H2020: € 13 billion)

Future and Emerging Technologies

Marie Skłodoswka Curie Actions

Research Infrastructures
│5
ERC H2020 Budget
g
Established by the European Commission
ERC Budget
€ 13 billi
billion
│6
Evaluation Panel Structure (WP2015)
Established by the European Commission
Physical Sciences & Engineering
Life Sciences









LS1 Molecular & Structural Biology &
Biochemistry
LS2 Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics &
Systems Biology
LS3
S Cellular
C
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










PE1 Mathematics
PE2 Fundamental constituents of matter
PE3 Condensed matter physics
PE4 Physical & Analytical Chemical sciences
PE5 Materials & Synthesis
PE6 C
Computer
t science
i
& iinformatics
f
ti
PE7 Systems & communication engineering
PE8 Products & process engineering
PE9 Universe sciences
PE10 Earth system science
Social Sciences and Humanities






SH1 Markets,
Markets indi
individuals
id als & instit
institutions
tions
SH2 The social world, diversity, institutions & values
SH3 Environment, space & population
SH4 The Human Mind and its complexity
SH5 Cultures & cultural production
SH6 The study of the human past
│7
Established by the European Commission
ERC Achievements
│8
After 8 Years,, A Success Story
y
Established by the European Commission
 Highly recognised by the research community
p researchers funded during
g FP7 ((2007-2013))
 Over 4 300 top
 65% are at an early-career stage
 Other 375 Starting and 372 Consolidator grantees selected 2014
 66 nationalities represented
 Highly competitive (overall success rate tending to 10%)
 Working in almost 600 different institutions in 32 countries
 50% of grantees in 50 institutions : “Excellence attracts excellence”
 B
Benchmarking
h
ki
effect:
ff t impact
i
t on national
ti
l programmes and
d agencies;
i
national funding for best "runners-up"
 Efficient and fast grant management
│9
Priority to Young Scientists
Established by the European Commission
+ 15 000 PhD and
post-doc
td
researchers working
in ERC teams.
teams
Two-thirds of ERC
grants
t to
t early-stage
l t
Principal
Investigators
Investigators.
│ 10
2014 Distinctions to ERC Grantees
Established by the European Commission
The Nobel Prize in
Economic Sciences 2014
was awarded to Jean
Tirole "for his analysis
Martin Hairer
Jean Tirole
Two of the Fields Medals
2014 awarded to researchers
based in Europe: Artur Avila
"for his work in dynamical
systems”
t
” and
d tto Martin
M ti
Hairer “for his work on
stochastic singularities”.
Artur Avila
May-Britt
Moser
Edvard
Moser
of market power and
regulation".
The Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine
2014 was awarded to May-Britt Moser
and Edvard Moser,
Moser together with John
O'Keefe, "for their discoveries of cells
that constitute a positioning system
in the brain
brain”.
The research leading to these discoveries
was supported by FP5. ("Spatial
Representation in the Entorhinal Cortex”
Science 2004)
│ 11
Achievements
Established by the European Commission
 30 000 publications acknowledging ERC support by
September 2014
 7% of these publications were in the top 1% most cited in
their scientific field and year of publication
 20% of completed LS and PE projects reported at least one
patent (on average 2 patents reported per project)
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ERC Grants vs Overall National Quality
y
Established by the European Commission
*) Host institution refers to the organisation with which the first grant agreement was signed
│ 13
ERC Grants versus National R&D Effort
Established by the European Commission
│ 14
FP7 - Success Rates
Established by the European Commission
*) First legal signatories of the first grant agreement taken into account
│ 15
FP7 Top
European
Institutions
Hosting
at least 30
ERC
Grantees
by Funding
Schemes
Established by the European Commission
ERC calls 2007-2013
First legal
signatories
of the grant
agreement
D t as off 12/01/2015
Data
│ 16
Positive Image
g & International Visibility
y
Established by the European Commission
Events around the world
User-friendly website
and social media
activities
Wide media coverage
g
NCPs
AV products
e-newsletter
Brochures
& more
│ 17
Established by the European Commission
ERC Opportunities
│ 18
Creative
C
eat e Freedom
eedo to Individual
d dua Grantee
G a tee
Established by the European Commission
ERC offers independence, recognition & visibility
•
t workk on a research
to
h topic
t i off own choice,
h i
with
ith a tteam off own choice
h i
•
to gain true financial autonomy for 5 years
•
t negotiate
to
ti t with
ith the
th host
h t institution
i tit ti the
th best
b t conditions
diti
off workk
•
to attract top team members (EU and non-EU) and collaborators
•
tto move with
ith the
th grantt to
t any place
l
in
i E
Europe if necessary ((portability
t bilit
of grants)
•
to attract additional funding and gain recognition; ERC is a quality
label
│ 19
National initiatives
in support of
finalist projects
in the ERC calls
NO: The Research Council
supports unfunded StG
finalists (until 2014)
A new partnership between
National Funding Councils
and ERC
FI: support scheme
for finalists in reserve
lists since 2009 calls
Established by the European Commission
SE: support for unfunded
finalists of StG calls since 2007
IE: New scheme open since 2012
for proposals that obtained A in
step 2 in ERC calls. Previous
scheme for StG2007 finalists
FR: ANR launched
an initiative to
support unfunded
StG2007 finalists
BE Flanders: FWO
supports the best
ranked PIs on the StG
reserve list (until 2014)
LU: FNR supports
unfunded StG and
AdG finalists since
2009 calls
CH: SNSF launched
an initiative to back
unfunded StG2007
finalists
PT: New national initiative
in support of ERC finalists
being developed
ES: support for unfunded
finalists of StG calls since
2007 until 2012
PL: Support scheme for
finalists since 2009 calls
CZ: opened
support scheme
for finalists in 2012
HU: Call for unfunded
ERC finalists of
StG2007 and StG2009
RO: opened support scheme
for finalists of 2011 calls
SI: Scheme for
unfunded finalists in
step
t 2 since
i
2010 calls
ll
IT: Call open to all
unfunded StG2007
finalists
BG: Considers a
scheme to financially
support projects in the
ERC reserve list
EL: support for unfunded
StG and AdG finalists in
2010, 2011 and 2012 calls
TR: Considers a
scheme to support
unfunded ERC finalists
CY: Research
Promotion
Foundation
supported StG
2009 finalists
Non-ERA Nationals ERC Grantees
Established by the European Commission
Current host institutions; data as of 12/01/2015
│ 21
Attracting
g Researchers to Europe
p
Established by the European Commission
Nationality of ERC project teams (PIs not included)
Analysis of 995 Starting and Advanced Grants
EU: 67%
Assoc. Countries: 12%
non-ERA: 18%
unknown: 3%
%
Most non-ERA from
China, US, India,
and Russia
53% of non-ERA team members ''attracted'' to
E
Europe
with
ith the
th ERC grantt (10% off all
ll team
t
members)
b
)
│ 22
Established by the European Commission
ERC Challenges
│ 23
Three
ee Main
a C
Challenges
a e ges
Established by the European Commission
• Gender balance
• Deal with lower performing countries
• Make sure enough budget is available
│ 24
H2020 StG 2014 Projects
j
by
y HI
Established by the European Commission
Success rate: 11.7 %
15 StG2014 grants in Italy
First ERC g
grants
in RO and RS
│ 25
H2020 CoG 2014 Projects
j
by
y HI
Established by the European Commission
CoG2014 success rate: 15%
16 CoG2014 grants in Italy
│ 26
H2020 PoC2014 Projects by Country
Established by the European Commission
7 PoC2014 grants in Italy
│ 27
Forthcoming ERC Calls
Established by the European Commission
ERC calls
Advanced Grants
ERC-2015-AdG
ERC
2015 AdG
Proof of Concept
ERC-2015-PoC
Budget
Call Publication
Submission
Deadline(s)
630 M€
10 February 2015
2 June 2015
7 November 2014
DL1: 5 Feb. 2015
DL2: 28 May 2015
DL3: 1 Oct. 2015
20 M€*
*) full-year budget
│ 28
The European Research Council
Established by the European Commission
More information on
erc europa eu
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y
erc.europa.eu/national-contact-points
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