Transcript erc and belgium

European Research Council
An information session
on the ERC Advanced Grants calls
Dr Vaida Bankauskaite
Scientific Officer
Brussels
16 June 2016
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Outline
• What is the ERC?
• How ERC research proposals are
evaluated?
• ERC and Belgium
• Preparing an ERC proposal
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What is ERC
• An autonomous funding body set up by the EU in 2007 and led by
scientists
• Funding excellent researchers of any nationality, to carry out frontier
research in Europe, via annual competitions
• In all fields of science and humanities, without thematic priorities
• 1 team, 1 Host Institution, 1 project, 1 selection criterion
• Substantial grants and a recognised label of excellence
International, top level peer-review process
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What do ERC grants offer?
Creative Freedom of the Individual Grantee
ERC offers independence, recognition & visibility
• fund research on any topic: completely "bottom-up"
• financial autonomy for 5 years
• ability to negotiate with the host institution the best
conditions of work
• to attract top team members and collaborators
• portability
• ability to attract additional funding
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What is the ERC?
Horizon 2020 Budget € 77 billion
ERC Budget € 13 billion
FP7
H2020
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After 9 Years, a Success Story
6,000
40,000
€ 13 billion
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90,000
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What does ERC offer?
ERC Grant Schemes
Starting Grants
Consolidator Grants
starters
2-7 years after PhD
(≥ 50% commitment)
up to € 2.0 Mio
for 5 years
consolidators
7-12 years after PhD
(≥ 40% commitment)
up to € 2.75 Mio
for 5 years
Advanced Grants
track-record of
significant research
achievements in the
last 10 years
(≥ 30% commitment)
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
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ERC grants- size
 €2.5M (AdG) - possibility of additional €1.0M
 Reasons for additional funds:
 start-up costs when moving to Europe
 major equipment
access to large facilities
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Advanced Grant – profile (Work
Program)
 Expected: to demonstrate
appropriate to the field:
a
record
of
achievements
 10 publications as senior author in major international peer-reviewed
journals, and/ or peer-reviewed conferences of their respective field
 3 major research monographs, of which at least one is translated into
another language
 Other alternatives:
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5 granted patents
10 invited presentations in international conferences
3 research expeditions led by the PI
International recognition
Recognized leadership in industrial innovation
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Evaluation Panel Structure (WP2016)
Physical Sciences & Engineering
Life Sciences
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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
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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
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SH1 Individuals, Markets and Organisations
SH2 Institutions, Values, Environment and Space
SH3 The Social World, Diversity, Population
SH4 The Human Mind and Its Complexity
SH5 Cultures and Cultural Production
SH6 The Study of the Human Past
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Who evaluates the proposals?
•
USA
Panel members: typically 600 / call
(7%)
 High-level scientists
 Recruited by ScC from all over the world
 About 12 members plus a chair person
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Referees: typically 2000 / call
 Evaluate only a small number of proposals
 Similar to normal practise in peer-reviewed
journals
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Other
(7%)
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How ERC research proposals are evaluated?
Evaluation of proposals: review procedure
STEP 1
STEP 2
Remote assessment by Panel members of
section 1 – PI and synopsis
Remote assessment by Panel members and
reviewers of full proposals
Panel meeting + interview (StG and CoG)
Panel meeting
Proposals retained
for step 2
Ranked list of proposals
Feedback to
applicants
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Right balance between generalist + specialized review
Appropriate treatment of interdisciplinary proposals
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How ERC research proposals are evaluated?
Excellence is the sole evaluation criterion
Evaluation of excellence at two levels:
• Excellence of the Research Project
 Ground breaking nature
 Potential impact
 Scientific Approach
• Excellence of the Principal Investigator
 Intellectual capacity
 Creativity
 Commitment
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ERC Grants – Proposal Submission
 Online
(via
the
Participant
Portal)
http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/
desktop/en/home.html
 One deadline per call
 Submit to a specific panel (one of 25) but the applicant
can indicate a secondary panel
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ERC grants- funded projects
Menu allows
searching by
Funding Scheme,
Call Year and
Country of Host
Institution.
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ERC AND BELGIUM
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FP7 ERC Grants versus Top Publications
4,354 Starting, Consolidator and Advanced
grants awarded by ERC during FP7
148 ERC grants in Belgium in FP7
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*) Host institution refers to the current host organisation of the grant; data as of 27/04/2016
H2020 ERC
Funded Projects by Country of HI
57 ERC grants in Belgium in H2020
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Success Rate by Country of HI
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Success Rate of Belgium by Domain
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ERC calls 2007-2015
Host Institutions in Belgium
Note: University of Antwerp also hosts one Synergy grantee
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Current host institutions; data as of 27/04/2016
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ERC calls 2007-2015
Host Towns in Belgium
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Current host institutions; data as of 27/04/2016
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Top
European
Institutions
Hosting
ERC Grantees
by Funding
Schemes
ERC calls 2007-2015
Current signatories
of the grant
agreement
Data as of 27/04/2016
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Grantees at Home and Abroad
28 foreign grantees in BE: DE(5), NL(5), FR(4), IT(4), UK(4)…
177 PIs with Belgian nationality in Belgium
74 Belgian PIs abroad in NL(21), UK(14), FR(13), CH(9) …
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ERC Panel Members by
Country of HI and Gender
Averaged over the first 19
ERC calls 27% of the ERC
panel members were women
* Number of instances that experts of a certain country of origin are contributing to the ERC peer review
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ERC AdG 2016: State of play
 Call opened for submission of proposals on 24 May 2016
 Deadline date: 1 September 2016
 Budget 540 million Eur (WP2015: 630 million Eur)
 Anticipated grants 235 (277 funded in 2015)
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ERC grants- general tips (1)
 Allow sufficient time to prepare your application
 Submit well in advance of the deadline – you can
overwrite any version submitted with a new one
 Double and triple check that all documents are correct
and have been submitted
 Respect the page limits and proof-read your proposal
well
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ERC grants- general tips (2)
• Panels instructed to seek out high-risk research
• Remember that Part B1 will be seen by "generalists" (panel
members)
• If you make it to Step 2, reviewers see both B1 and B2, so do
not repeat / duplicate part B1 in part B2
• Do not include unnecessary partners and collaborators; it is
not supposed to be a "consortium"
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Common reasons for rejection:
project
• Objectives
• Scope
• Hypothesis
• Preliminary data
• Incremental vs groundbreaking research
• Work plan/team composition
• Insufficient risk management
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Common reasons for rejection:
principal investigator
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Track-record
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In case of interdisciplinary proposal, track record of
the colloborators
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Questions to be asked yourself as an applicant
• Am I internationally competitive as a researcher at my career
stage and in my discipline?
• Am I able to work independently, and to manage a 5-year
project with a substantial budget?
• Why is my proposed project important?
• Does it promise to go substantially beyond the state of the art?
• Why am I the best/only person to carry it out?
• Is it timely? (Why wasn't it done in the past? Is it feasible now?)
• What's the risk? Is it justified by a substantial potential gain? Do I
have a plan for managing the risk?
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The European Research Council
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