Frontier Research in Europe with an ERC grant The European Research Council Frontier Research in Europe with an ERC grant Theodore Papazoglou, PhD ERCEA/A1: Support to the Scientific Council Nanyang Technological University 30 November 2017 © Art & Build Architect / Montois Partners / credits: S. Brison

"….to reinforce the excellence, dynamism and creativity of European research" FP7 & H2020 Legal Basis

ERC in the H2020 Structure 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 │ 3

What is the ERC? The ERC supports excellence in frontier research through a bottom-up, individual-based, pan-European competition Support for the individual scientists – no networks! Global peer-review No predetermined subjects (bottom-up) Support of frontier research in all fields of science and humanities Strategy Scientific governance: independent Scientific Council with 22 members including the ERC President; full authority over funding strategy and evaluation Support by the ERC Executive Agency (autonomous) Scientific quality as the only criterion aiming for excellence Legislation │ 2 4

ERC: a Radical Step Forward for Europe To raise the level, dynamism and creativity of the whole European research system by: Supporting the emergence of research leaders in Europe capable of opening new avenues in their disciplines and of training and inspiring others Improving the career prospects of early stage researchers in Europe so as to reduce brain drain and promote institutional change Providing a benchmark for all of Europe’s national research authorities and individual institutions encouraging further efforts, reforms and investments, thereby sustaining structural reforms across Europe.

Scientists in the Driver's Seat

Horizon 2020 Budget and ERC ERC Budget 2014-2020 13 billion €

ERC Grant Schemes Starting Grants Advanced Grants Consolidator Grants starters (2-7 years after PhD) up to € 1.5 Mio for 5 years Consolidator Grants consolidators (7-12 years after PhD) up to € 2 Mio for 5 years Advanced Grants track-record of significant research achievements in the 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 for ERC grant holders Synergy Grants (re-launched 2018) 2 – 4 Principal Investigators up to € 10.0 Mio for 6 years

Evaluation Panel Structure (WP2018) Physical Sciences & 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 Life Sciences LS1 Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics LS2 Genetics, ‘Omics’, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology LS3 Cellular and Developmental Biology LS4 Physiology, Pathophysiology and Endocrinology LS5 Neurosciences and Neural Disorders LS6 Immunity and Infection LS7 Applied Medical Technologies, Diagnostics, Therapies and Public Health LS8 Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology LS9 Applied Life Sciences, Biotechnology and Molecular and Biosystems Engineering Social Sciences and Humanities 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 │ 9

ERC Panel Members by Country of HI and Gender Averaged over 2007-2017 29% of the ERC panel members were women │ 10 * Number of instances that experts of a certain country of origin are contributing to the ERC peer review

Evaluation of proposals: Review procedure for StG, CoG, AdG STEP 1 STEP 2 Remote assessment by Panel members of section 1 – PI and synopsis (part B1) Remote assessment by Panel members and reviewers of full proposal (B1+B2) Panel meeting + interview (StG and CoG) Panel meeting Score: B or C Score: B Proposals retained for step 2: Score A Ranked list of proposals: Score A Feedback to applicants

European Institutions Hosting ERC Grantees by Funding Schemes Top European Institutions Hosting ERC Grantees by Funding Schemes ERC calls 2007-2016 and StG2017 Current signatories of the grant agreement Data as of 21/08/2017

ERC Funded Projects by Country of HI

Grantees at Home and Abroad

Priority to Young Scientists + 30 000 PhD and post-doc researchers working in ERC teams. Two-thirds of ERC grants to early-stage Principal Investigators.

'ERC-Open to the World'

China, US, India, and Russia Attracting Researchers to Europe Nationality of ERC project teams (PIs not included) Analysis of 1,901 Starting and Advanced Grants EU: 71% Assoc. Countries: 10% non-ERA: 17% unknown: 2% In all ERC grants + 9,000 non-ERA team members most from China, US, India, and Russia

After 10 Years, a Success Story 7,500 50,000 € 13 billion 90,000 738 72

2016 Nobel Prize Laureate Chemistry Prof Bernard L. Feringa The European Research Council awarded Professor Bernard Feringa, based at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, the prestigious ERC Advanced Grant in 2008 and 2015 for his projects exploring nano-machines and molecular motors. Photo: ERCEA / Kacper Pempel │ 19

INTERNATIONAL PARTICIPATION TO ERC

Attracting Researchers from Outside Europe Flexibility Additional “start-up” funding for scientists moving to Europe (EUR 500 000 for Starting, EUR 750 000 for Consolidator 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 Accompanying measures Several European countries/host institutions assist applicants and reward grantees with top-up funds

FP7 ERC 2007-2013 Evaluated Proposals from non-ERA Nationals

ERC Calls 2014-2016 Evaluated Proposals from non-EU/AC Nationals

38 Non-EU/AC Nationalities Almost 8% of all ERC grants to principal investigators of non-EU/AC nationality

Implementing arrangements signed with the following countries: Key Facts Opportunity for non-European researchers supported by foreign agencies to visit ERC research teams (unilateral approach) The foreign researchers are supposed to be excellent ("national version" of the ERC grantee) The foreign scientist is the one taking the initiative in the "matchmaking" (it is not the ERC/the ERC PI/the foreign agency…) The ERC does not intervene in the selection of the foreign visitors In general terms, costs of the visit are mostly covered by the foreign agency Implementing arrangements signed with the following countries: USA (2012) Republic of Korea (2013) Argentina (2015) China (2015) Japan (2015) South Africa (2015) Mexico (2015) Brazil (2016) Canada (2016) India (2017) │ 25

Implementing Arrangements The Process ERC launches a call for expression of interest Principal Investigator expresses interest in hosting one or more scientists supported by a non-EU funding agency sends the list of interested PIs to the non-EU based funding agencies Non-EU based funding agency launches a call for proposals to their eligible scientists Non-EU based scientist contacts the Principal Investigators to seek agreement on a possible research visit accepts or not the research visit; If accepted, the Principal Investigator and the Host Institution provide a letter of support evaluates the proposals and funds the successful ones plans an executes the research visit in agreement with the Principal Investigator

More Information ERC funding activities 2007 – 2013 Science Behind The Projects Ex-post evaluation of FP7 https://erc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/publication/files/ERC_funding_activities_2007_2013.pdf https://erc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/publication/files/ERC_Science_behind_the_projects_FP7-2007-2013.pdf https://ec.europa.eu/research/evaluations/index_en.cfm

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