European Research Council (ERC) Edward Ricketts [email protected] University of Edinburgh 13 November 2013.

Horizon 2020European Research Council (ERC)

Edward Ricketts [email protected] University of Edinburgh13 November 2013

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The European Union’s funding instrument for research and innovation from 2014-2020

• Budget of EUR 70,2 billion• From research to innovation – from basic research to bringing ideas to the

market• Focus on societal challenges EU society is facing (e.g. health, clean energy,

food security, integrated transport)• Concentration of resources on areas of high growth and innovation potential• Provides key measures to support industrial leadership, particularly

innovative SMEs• Significant investment in excellence

Horizon 2020 overarching priority:

Exiting the economic crisis through sustainable growth

What is Horizon 2020?

Excellent Science

European Research Council (ERC)

Future and Emerging Technologies (FET)

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Research Infrastructures

Industrial Leadership

Leadership in Enabling and

Industrial Technologies (LEIT) -

ICT, KETs, Space

Access to Risk Finance

Innovation in SMEs

Societal Challenges

Health and Wellbeing

Food security

Transport

Energy

Climate action

Societies

Security

Widening Participation; Science with and for Society

European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT)

Joint Research Centre (JRC)EURATOM

Horizon 2020 structure

Excellent Science: Rationale

Total budget 30% of Horizon 2020

Overall objective: “to strengthen the excellence of European research”

• New research and ideas are drivers of competition

• Attract and retain high potential individuals

• Fund the most talented and creative researchers

• Develop and maintain world-class research infrastructures

European Research Council

Marie Sklodowska-

Curie Actions

Research Infrastructur

es

Future and Emerging

Technologies

Excellent Science

ERC in Horizon 2020

“The ERC shall provide attractive and flexible funding to enable talented and creative individual researchers and their teams to pursue the most promising avenues at the frontier of science….. scientific excellence shall be the sole criterion on which ERC grants are awarded. The ERC shall operate on a ‘bottom-up’ basis without predetermined priorities”.

Horizon 2020 proposal text

The ERC seeks to fund the best ‘frontier research’ proposals submitted by excellent researchers in the area of their choice

Will fund projects led by a Principal Investigator, if necessary supported by a research team (no requirement for collaboration or forming consortia across different EU countries)

25 panels in 3 domains which proposals can be submitted to:

Physical Sciences and Engineering (PE) Life Sciences (LS) Social Sciences and Humanities (SH)

Total ERC budget: €11.6bn

ERC in Horizon 2020 – What can be funded?

Starting Grants 2-7 years post-PhD Up to €2m for 5 years

Consolidator Grants 7–12 years post-PhD Up to €2.75m for 5 years

Advanced Grants Leading researchers Up to €3.5m for 5 years

Synergy Grants 2 – 4 PIs Up to €15m for 6 years

Proof of Concept ERC grant holders €150k for up to 18 months

ERC in Horizon 2020 – Five schemes

Career Stages

Post-docs

Senior Professor

Students

Post Graduates

Junior Professor/ Junior Researcher

Associate Professor

Full Professor

Erasmus

Marie Curie

ERC Starters

ERC Consolidators

ERC Advanced

Team members in ERC projects

Scientific excellence is the sole evaluation criterion

Significant funding is provided to attract exceptional research leaders

Grants are awarded to the host institution that engages and hosts the Principal Investigator – the PI will be employed by the host institution

The host institution guarantees the PI’s independence and provides the research environment to carry out the project and manage its funding

ERC: guiding principles

ERC Starting / Consolidator Grants

• Aim to support excellent researchers at the stage of starting or consolidating their own independent research team or programme

• Eligibility windows for PIs (same as for 2013 calls):

• Starting Grants: 2 to 7 years after the PhD award • Consolidator Grants: 7 to 12 years after the PhD award

• This is measured from the publication date of the call, and extensions are permitted only in a few strict cases (parental leave, long-term illness, etc)

ERC in Horizon 2020 – What type of researcher are the ERC targeting?

Starting Grants and Consolidator Grants

• The ERC panel will evaluate the PI’s “intellectual capacity, creativity and commitment”. This includes:

• ability to propose and conduct ground-breaking research and achievements going beyond the state-of-the-art

• abundant evidence of creative independent thinking

• the ERC grant would contribute significantly to the establishment and/or further consolidation of the PI's independence

• commitment to the project (minimum 50% of the PI’s total working time)

* please note that this is the wording from the 2013 ERC calls

ERC in Horizon 2020 – should I apply?

Starting Grants

Who is a competitive candidate?

Must be able to show potential for excellence and evidence of maturity:

• expectation for at least one important publication without the participation of the PhD supervisor

• promising track record of early achievements appropriate to field and career stage, including:

• significant publications (as main author) in major international peer-reviewed journals

• and/or monographs• invited presentations, granted patents, awards, prizes etc

• good leadership potential and must convince the ERC panel that the PI will be able to lead an ambitious ‘frontier research’ project

ERC in Horizon 2020 – should I apply?

Consolidator Grants

Who is a competitive candidate?

Must be able to show potential for excellence and evidence of maturity:

• it is expected that applicants will have produced several important publications without the participation of their PhD supervisor

• promising track record of early achievements appropriate to field and career stage, including:

• significant publications (as main author) in major international peer-reviewed major scientific journals

• and/or monographs• invited presentations, granted patents, awards, prizes etc

• good leadership potential and must convince the ERC panel that you will be able to lead an ambitious ‘frontier research’ project

ERC Advanced Grant

• Aims to support excellent, leading researchers to pursue groundbreaking research which opens up new directions in the field of their choice

• Aims to “encourage substantial advances at the frontier of knowledge; as well as new productive lines of enquiry, methods and techniques”

• No eligibility requirement concerning a PhD, but the PI must have an excellent track record of research achievements during the last 10 years

ERC in Horizon 2020 – What type of researcher are the ERC targeting?

Advanced Grants

• The ERC panel will evaluate the PI’s “intellectual capacity, creativity and commitment” and their track record should be characterised by:

• groundbreaking research & achievements going beyond the state-of-the-art

• abundant evidence of creative independent thinking

• sound leadership in the training and advancement of young scientists

• commitment to the project (minimum 30% of the PI’s total working time)

* please note that this is the wording from the 2013 ERC calls

ERC in Horizon 2020 – should I apply?

Advanced Grants

Who is a competitive candidate?

• track record of significant achievements in last 10 years:• 10 publications (as senior author) in major international journals • or 3 major research monographs

• if appropriate to the research field, also: • granted patents • invited presentations• led expeditions• organised international conferences • international recognition (awards, prizes)• contributions to launching the careers of outstanding researchers

• an “exceptional leader in terms of originality and significance of research contribution, with international recognition”

* please note that this the wording from the 2013 ERC calls

ERC Synergy Grants

• Pilot scheme which funds ambitious, groundbreaking proposals submitted by a group of between 2 to 4 PIs (and their teams)

• Very low success rate for first call in 2012, and the 2013 call results expected to be announced in late 2013

• No call is expected to be launched in 2014 /15 ……

• But the scheme could continue within Horizon 2020, as a limited part of the ERC’s portfolio of schemes (tbc)

ERC Proof of Concept

• Scheme for ERC grant holders to undertake further work to establish the innovation potential of an idea developed during the course of an ERC-funded project

• Maximum grant: €150,000

• Project duration: up to 18 months

• Original ERC grant must be either ongoing or have ended less than 1 year before the publication date of the call

Applications submitted online through the Research Participant Portal

Apply to discipline-specific panel

Applications are in three parts

• Part A: Admin forms

• Part B1: Information on applicant and extended synopsis (5 pages) of proposal

• Part B2: Detailed proposal (15 pages)

ERC grant application process

Life Sciences• LS1:Molecular and

Structural Biology and Biochemistry

• LS2: Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology

• LS3: Cellular and Developmental Biology

• LS4: Physiology, Pathophysiology and Endocrinology

• LS5: Neurosciences and Neural Disorders

• LS6: Immunity and Infection

• LS7: Diagnostic Tools, Therapies and Public Health

• LS8: Evolutionary, Population and Environmental Biology

• LS9: Applied Life Sciences and Non-Medical Biotechnology

Physical Sciences and Engineering• PE1: Mathematics• PE2: Fundamental

Constituents of Matter• PE3: Condensed Matter

Physics• PE4: Physical and Analytical

Chemical Sciences• PE5: Synthetic Chemistry

and Materials• PE6: Computer Science and

Informatics• PE7: Systems and

Communication Engineering

• PE8: Products and Process Engineering

• PE9: Universe Sciences• PE10: Earth System

Science

Social Sciences and Humanities• SH1: Individuals,

institutions and markets• SH2: Institutions, values,

beliefs and behaviours• SH3: Environment, space

and population• SH4: The human mind and

its complexity• SH5: Cultures and cultural

production• SH6: The study of the

human past

ERC Evaluation panels

ERC in Horizon 2020 – What type of research projects can be funded?

Proposals evaluated solely on the basis of excellence (excellence of the PI and of the research project), and should address:

B1 Extended Synopsis (5 pages)B2 Scientific Proposal (15 pages)

• To what extent does the proposed research address important challenges?• To what extent are the objectives ambitious and beyond the state of the art?• How much is the proposed research high risk/high gain?• To what extent is the outlined scientific approach feasible?

• To what extent is the proposed research methodology appropriate to achieve the goals of the project?

• To what extent does the proposal involve developing novel methodology?• To what extent are the proposed timescales and resources necessary and

properly justified?

* please note that this is the wording from the 2013 ERC calls

Evaluation on excellence of PI and excellence of project

One stage application, two stage peer review evaluation

First stage evaluation looks only at Part B1

StG and CoG feature an interview at second stage

See here for lists of panel members for previous ERC calls: http://erc.europa.eu/evaluation-panels

ERC evaluation process

Step 1 evaluation applicants notified: • A: sufficient quality to pass to step 2 of the evaluation • B: high quality but not sufficient to pass to step 2 • C: not sufficient quality to pass to step 2 of the evaluation

Step 2 evaluation applicants notified: • A: fully meets the ERC’s excellence criterion and is

recommended for funding if sufficient funds are available• B. meets some but not all elements of the ERC’s excellence

criterion and will not be funded.

Projects funded in ranking order – not all “A” projects funded

Application results

• Single beneficiary nature of projects

• Innovative/unconventional/invention/new/emerging research

• High risk/high gain

• No nationality or mobility requirements

• Pursuit of questions at or beyond the frontiers of knowledge

• Any field of research (except nuclear)

• Interdisciplinary proposals encouraged

• Grants portable

• Max grant amounts/ max length of project / min PI time

What is not changing in Horizon 2020

A change in balance of funding between schemes:• Indicative budgets for 2014:

Starting Grants €485m (22% increase compared to 2013) Consolidator Grants €713m (36% increase compared to 2013) Advanced Grants €450m (32% decrease compared to 2013)

Overhead rate 25% not 20% • Note that maximum grant levels have not changed.

Open access to be the norm: “the terms and conditions laid down in the ERC Model Grant Agreement will address how scientific publications must be made available through open access”

What IS changing in Horizon 2020

Different resubmission rules

• Applicants scoring A at step 1 = will be able to resubmit to the next year’s call

• Applicants scoring B at step 1 = will not be able to resubmit to the next year’s call

• Applicants scoring C at step 1 = will not be able to resubmit to the next two years’ calls

• Takes effect from 2015. Existing rule applies for 2014.

What IS changing in Horizon 2020

Starting Grants: opens 11 December 2013, deadline 25 March 2014

Consolidator Grants: opens 11 December 2013, deadline 20 May 2014

Advanced Grants: opens 17 June 2014, deadline 21 October 2014

Synergy Grants: no call launched in 2014

Proof of Concept: opens 11 December 2013, two deadlines on 1 April and 1 October 2014

ERC Calls in 2014 (very likely call dates)

ERC allocated around €12.7 billion for Horizon 2020 (compares to the allocation of €7.5 billion for FP7). Highest amount of funding to go to the Starting Grants and Consolidator Grants schemes.

But due to the progressive increases in the annual ERC budget until 2013, the amount allocated for the 2014 calls will in fact be lower than in 2013:

ERC in Horizon 2020 – Budget

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 20200

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1000

1500

2000

2500

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ERC since 2007: a few statistics

• UK was the most successful country in applying to the ERC in FP7:

Over 800 grants based in around 75 different UK

institutions

Around 15% success rate for proposals submitted by UK institutions (about

11% average overall)

Around 20% of all ERC grants based in the UK

6 of the 11 Synergy Grants projects funded in 2012 feature at least one

UK-based PI

• See here for examples of funded projects: http://erc.europa.eu/erc-funded-projects

Sign up to the UKRO portal and you will receive:

• Updates on content of programme• Information on call dates and management/financial

issues• Proposal writing workshops from January 2014 onwards

ERC website contains information on previous calls, guides to applicants, Q&A and details of evaluation panels for previous years’ calls http://erc.europa.eu

Staying informed

Questions? ERC National Contact Point helpdesk

• Email: [email protected] • Tel: +32 2289 6121

Contact Email: [email protected] Phone: +32 2 286 9056

Thank you!