Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 Theodore Papazoglou, PhD European Research Council Executive Agency UNIT A1 – SUPPORT TO THE ERC SCIENTIFIC COUNCIL FP7 IDEAS Programme The European Research Council … current state of play

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 2 ERC, “Ideas” and FP7 ERC, “Ideas” and FP7 Main issues  An “integrated structure” with a specific vocation  Independent scientific governance Scientific Council with 22 members  Dedicated Implementation Structure Executive Agency with 389 employees by 2013  Part of the “family” of FP7 and complementary to other FP7 supports to research  Bottom-up vs targeted research  Individual teams vs consortia  FP7 “Ideas” programme provides funding  Budget ( ) : € 7.51 bn (around 15% of FP7 budget)  Average budget: € ~1 bn per year

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 3 The Scientific Council Organisation  22 Members of the Scientific Council elected the Chair and Vice-Chairs  One Chair: Prof. Fotis Kafatos  Two Vice-Chairs: Prof. Helga Nowotny and Dr Daniel Estève +Regular Plenary Meetings (every 1-2 months) +Secretariat of the ScC (Directorate S)

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 4 The Agency - ERCEA  Executes annual work programme as established by the Scientific Council  Implements calls for proposals and provides information and support to applicants  Organises peer review evaluation  Establishes and manages grant agreements  Administers scientific and financial aspects and follow-up of grant agreements  Legally existing since 12/07, expected autonomy 07/09

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 5 ERC Building: Covent Garden

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 6 The ERC Board Prof. Fotis Kafatos President of the ERC Prof. Helga Nowotny Dr Daniel Esteve Vice-Presidents of the ERC Prof. Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker ERC Secretary-General Jack Metthey Director of ERC DIS

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 7 ERC Grant schemes ERC Grant schemes Strategic principles  All fields of science and scholarship are eligible  Investigator-driven, bottom-up  Excellence is the only valid criterion  Individual team + research project  Investment in research talent  Attractive, flexible grants, up to five years  Under control of the lead researcher (Principal Investigator)  Independent individual teams in Europe  Nationality and Age of researchers is not relevant!  Host organisation to be located in EU or AS

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 8 ERC Grant schemes ERC Grant schemes 3R and 2 schemes Aim: Retain – Repatriate – Recruit  Favour “brain gain” and “reverse brain drain”  improve career opportunities and independence - especially for young researchers  increase competition, recognition and international visibility - for excellent individual scientists and scholars in Europe  Raise aspiration and achievement of basic research in Europe - comparability/benchmark for researchers and research systems Activities: Two complementary funding schemes  ERC Starting Grant (StG): attract & retain the next generation of independent research leaders - up to € 2.0 Mio for 5 years  ERC Advanced Grant (AdG): attract & reward established independent research leaders - up to € 3.5 Mio for 5 years

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 9 ERC Grant schemes ERC Grant schemes Who can apply? – General requirements 1.Principal Investigator Nationality, age or current place of work not relevant 2.Host organisation To be located in MS or AS 2.Frontier Research Project All fields of science, engineering and scholarship are eligible (investigator-driven, bottom-up) 4.Individual research team PI has freedom to choose National or trans-national character, if scientific added value proven

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 10 ERC Grant schemes Operational Principles  Application in response to calls for proposals  Principal Investigators applies in conjunction and on behalf of a research-performing host institution  Electronic Proposals Submission Service (EPSS)  Staged Evaluation Procedure  to manage a large number of applications  Panel-based international peer review process  Scientific Council selects panels and peer reviewers  Panels assess and select proposals

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 11  ERC covers all fields of science, engineering and scholarship  For operational reasons the ScC agreed on 3 main research domains + 1 horizontal domain:  Physical Sciences & Engineering – 10 Panels  Life Sciences (incl. medical) – 9 Panels  Social Sciences & Humanities – 6 Panels  Interdisciplinary Research (cross-panel / cross-domain) – Panel Chairs  The call budget will be pre-allocated to these areas as follows:  39% - 34% - 14% - 13% ERC Grant schemes All fields, budget pre-allocation in areas

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 12 ERC Grant Schemes Peer Review Evaluation Panels  25 Panels covering all fields of science, technology and scholarship  3 sets of Panels: 1 StG Panels, 2 AdG Panels  Each Panel consists of the Panel Chair and Panel Members  Panel Chair oversees evaluation process for the proposals assigned to his/her panel in collaboration with the ERC staff  The Panel Chair gives high level credibility stamp and visibility to the whole evaluation process

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 13 ERC Grants Panel structure Social Sciences and Humanities  SH1 Individuals, institutions & markets  SH2 Institutions, values, beliefs and behaviour  SH3 Environment & society  SH4 The Human Mind and its complexity  SH5 Cultures & cultural production  SH6 The study of the human past Physical Sciences & Engineering  PE1 Mathematical foundations  PE2 Fundamental constituents of matter  PE3 Condensed matter physics  PE4 Physical & Analytical Chemical sciences  PE5 Materials & Synthesis  PE6 Computer science & informatics  PE7 Systems & communication engineering  PE8 Products & process engineering  PE9 Universe sciences  PE10 Earth system science Life Sciences  LS1 Molecular & Structural Biology & Biochemistry  LS2 Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics & Systems Biology  LS3 Cellular 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

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 14 ERC Annual Budget Evolution 2007 – 2013: Total 7.51 BN €

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 15 ERC Grant Schemes Evaluation: Scientific Excellence is the sole criterion Evaluation of Excellence at three levels: Quality of Principal Investigator Quality of Research Project Research Environment Referees and panels evaluate and score criteria under Heading 1 and Heading 2 numerically which will result in the ranking of the projects:  1-4 per criterion  Threshold ≥ 2 per criterion Criteria under Heading 3 will be considered as "pass/fail" and commented but not scored

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 16 ERC Grant Agreement ERC Grant Agreement Concept  Agreement between ERC and Principal Investigator’s (PI’s) hosting organisation (beneficiary) Rights/obligations on scientific, financial, ethical conduct and monitoring, eligible costs, IPR, modifications, grant portability  Supplementary Agreement between PI and its hosting organisation Rights/obligations: administration, project execution, IPR  Single grant holder approach PI and members from same organisation But: multi-partner/multi-national teams are possible

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 17 ERC Grants are portable: “Money follows researcher” PI is entitled to transfer the grant to another institution, normally after a minimum 2 years at the sponsoring institution Proper justification and ERC approval required ERC Grant Agreement ERC Grant Agreement Grant Portability

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 18 ERC Starting Grant ERC Starting Grant Profile of the PI  Any nationality or age  Any current place of work – but: working or moving to work in Europe (EU member state, FP7 Associated Country)  3-8 (2-9) years after PhD award - certain types of career breaks are accepted up to a maximum of 3 years  Potential for research independence and evidence of maturity  at least one important publication without participation of PhD supervisor  Track-record of early research achievements appropriate to their research field and career stage  “Starters” vs “Consolidators”  First StG call (9167 proposals received, 559 interviews conducted, 299 grants, 21 host countries, 32 nationalities, 170 host institutes)  Average Age: 35 years (spans from 28 to 44y)  Average experience: 6-7 years  Average grant size: €1.1 Mio.  Gender: 26% women (as low as 12% in LS2 up to 71% in SH4)

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 19 ERC Advanced Grant ERC Advanced Grant Profile of the PI  Any nationality or age  Any current place of work – but: working or moving to work in Europe (EU member state, FP7 Associated Country)  Strong leadership profile (impact, recognition)  Excellent track record (in recent years, achievements not older than 10 years)  First AdG call  First AdG call (2167 proposals received, 275 grants, 23 host countries, 26 nationalities)  Average Age: 51 years (spans from 38 to 66y, some: 36y, up to 76y)  Average experience: 23 years after PhD (spans mainly from 7 to 45y)  Average requested grant: PE-1.9 M€, LS-2.1 M€, SH-1.7M€  Gender: 14% women (as low as 3% in PE7 up to 29% in SH5)

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 20 ERC / National Funding Organizations Interactions Complementarity and synergies  NFO responsible for building up excellence in the national research community (‘National League’)  ERC responsible for building up excellence across Europe without regard to nationality (‘European Champions League’)  ERC as benchmark/indicator for excellence in frontier research  NFOs annual budget: ca €20 bn in total (DFG: €1733,8 Mio, SNF: €295 Mio, NWO: €385Mio but NSF: 6430 Mio)  ERC annual budget: ca €1.1bn in average (for ) Mutual support and cooperation  National support for StG runners-up (CH, IT, SE, FR, CY, AT, Flanders, HU, ES, NO, …)  NFO contribute National Detached Experts StG grant

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 21 ERC Starting Grant 2007: Overview

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 22 ERC Starting Grant: 2007 call Applications from researchers with a residence outside Europe Source: 9167 submission proposals

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 23 Armenia 2 Argentinia 16 (2) Australia 28 (1) Bangladesh 4 Bosnia 2 Canada 33 (2) Congo 1 Cuba 4 Chile 2 Brasilia 14 Algeria 6 Belarus 7 Egypt 3 Colombia 2 Ethiopia 1 Hongkong 1 India 38 Kenya 1 Japan 18 (4) Lebano 2 Korea 7 Sri Lanka 1 Morocco 2 Mauritius 1 Malawi 1 Mexico 10 Malaysia 1 Nigeria 1 New Zealand 7 Phillipines 1 Peru 3 Russia 109 (1) Pakistan 2 Singapore 7 Togo 1 Thailand 1 Tunisia 8 Taiwan 3 Cisjordanie 1 Tanzania 1 USA 85 (5) Ukraine 32 Uruguay 2 Uzbekistan 3 Venezuela 4 Viet Nam 1 South Africa 2 Zimbabwe 1 ERC Starting Grant: 2007 call Submissions from nationals of third countries: Note: 536 proposals and (17) successful grantees China 47 (2) Source: STG 07: 9167 submitted proposals

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 24 ERC Advanced Grant 2008 Preliminary results TOP 275 proposals

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ ERA 32 ERC Advanced Grant: 2008 call Submissions from researchers with a residence outside Europe Source: 2167 submission proposals

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 26 ERC Advanced Grant: 2008 call Submissions from nationals of third countries: Note: 114 proposals and (15) successful grantees Argentinia 3 Australia 7 (3) Canada 15 (2) Chile 1 Brasilia 2 India 1 Japan 4 Lebanon 1 New Zealand 1 Russia 23 USA 46 (10) Ukraine 6 Uganda 1 Azerbeidshan 3

Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 Call comparison: StG 2007 & AdG 2008 The European Research Council

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 28 ERC calls Submitted proposals by domain Number of proposalsPercentage by domain

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 29 ERC StG 2007 & ERC AdG 2008 Age of the grantees

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 30 ERC StG 2007 & ERC AdG 2008 Selected projects: Years after PhD No PhD: 15 men, AdG-08

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 31 ERC StG 2007 & ERC AdG 2008 Selected projects: Repatriation and Recruitment Starting Grant 2007 Advanced Grant 2008 ArgentinaJapanAustralia

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ ERC StG 2007 & ERC AdG 2008 Successful proposals by country of host institution Source: 299 StG AdG selected proposals

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 33 ERC StG 2007 & ERC AdG 2008 Mobility of grantees

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 34 Physical Sciences & Engineering Social Sciences & Humanities Life Sciences ERC StG 2007 Principal Investigators by domain 299 selected proposals

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 35 ERC Advanced Grant: 2008 call Geographical distribution of principal investigators Top 275 proposals Physical Sciences & Engineering Status Social Sciences & Humanities Life Sciences Interdisciplinary

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 36 ERC Starting Grant 2007 TOP 25 European research institutions: ERC StG hosts, THES ranking 2008 & Shanghai ranking 2007 in all three rankingsin ERC & THES ranking in ERC & Shanghai

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 37 ERC Advanced Grant 2008 TOP 25 European research institutions: ERC AdG hosts, THES ranking 2008 & Shanghai ranking 2007 in all three rankingsin ERC & THES ranking in ERC & Shanghai

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 38 ERC Advanced Grant 2008 ERC StG 2007 & ERC AdG 2008 Success rate by country of host institution ERC Starting Grant 2007

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 39 ERC StG 2007 & ERC AdG 2008 Nationality and host country

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 40 ERC StG 2007 & ERC AdG 2008 Low national R&D funding in some countries

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 41 Conclusions I ERC has succeeded in gaining European & worldwide recognition as a world-class research-funding agency ERC has made pioneering steps towards research innovation (e.g., interdisciplinarity) & attracted many very-high-quality proposals Success rate of applicants is limited by the current funding level Several national funding agencies decided to fund the researchers listed in the reserve list. This underpins the confidence on ERC as a pan-European funding agency that sets standards of excellence Countries that systematically invest large funds into their own R&D are more successful in creating research environments that attract outstanding investigators

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 42 Wide variations exist within EU/AC in research, research support & institutional reputation Individual excellence requires excellent "infrastructures and framework conditions" provided by the organisation which hosts the individual researcher. Countries and host institutions should establish framework conditions that guarantee the sustainability of the ERC incentives, e.g. by offering long-term contracts (tenure track positions) or dual career programmes (e.g. ETH Zurich) etc. Conclusions II

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 43 ERC – International Relations Relation to other funding agencies & research institutions Mutual support and cooperation National institutions responsible for building up excellence in the national research community ERC responsible for building up excellence across Europe without regard to nationality Substantial opportunities for synergy National support for researchers who passed the ERC quality threshold but who will not get ERC funding (Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, France, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Region of Flanders etc.). Incentive scheme for PIs: Gent University offers tenure track for successful grantees National Detached Experts (currently 11 Ends')

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 44 Up-to-date Information ERC website at

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 45 Applicants Services Information and helpdesks  ERC News Alert  ERC National Contact Points ge.ncpList ge.ncpList  ERC helpdesk

European Research Council Research Potential in Europe, Brussels May 2009 │ 46 Danke! Merci! Thank you! Gracie! Gracias! Ευχαριστώ!