The European Research Council 07/05/12 The European Research Council Jose Manuel Fernandez de Labastida Head Scientific Department Valencia, 28-3-2019

The European Research Council Outline: ERC basics ERC funding schemes Evaluation ERC achievements Work Programme 2019 Horizon Europe ERC and Physics ERC and Spain

ERC basics

ERC basics Main features The ERC supports frontier research pan-European competition Support for individual or small groups of principal investigators No predetermined subjects (bottom-up) Support of frontier research in all fields of knowledge Scientific quality as the only criterion aiming for excellence Global peer-review

ERC basics ERC Governance The European Commission Provides financing through the EU framework programmes Guarantees autonomy of the ERC Assures the integrity and accountability of the ERC Adopts annual work programmes as established by the Scientific Council The ERC Scientific Council 22 prominent researchers proposed by an identification committee President appointed following recommendation of a search committee Appointed by the Commission (4 years, renewable once) Establishes overall scientific strategy and annual work programmes Identifies evaluators Controls quality of operations and management Ensures communication with the scientific community The ERC Executive Agency Executes annual work programme Implements calls for proposals Organises peer review evaluation Signs and monitors grant agreements Carries out communications activities Provides support to the Scientific Council

ERC basics Key figures The ERC is a key component of Horizon 2020, the EU programme for Research and Innovation €13 billion budget for 2014-2020, i.e. 17% of the Horizon 2020 budget Over 80,000 applications received and around 9,000 projects funded Highly competitive calls: overall success rate is 11.4 %

ERC funding schemes

ERC funding schemes Starting Grants 1 Principal Investigator (2-7 years after PhD) up to € 2.0 Mio for 5 years Consolidator Grants 1 Principal Investigator (7-12 years after PhD) up to € 2.75 Mio for 5 years Advanced Grants 1 Principal Investigator up to € 3.5 Mio for 5 years Synergy Grants 2 – 4 Principal Investigators up to € 14.0 Mio for 6 years Proof-of-Concept Inquiring on the innovation potential up to €150,000 for ERC grant holders

ERC funding schemes Principal investigator and commitment PI Profile: Any current place of work but working or moving to work in Europe (EU member state or H2020 Associated Country) Any nationality or age StG: 2 and up to 7; CoG: 7 and up to 12 years of experience after PhD; AdG: no constraints Potential (StG) or evidence (CoG) for independence and maturity; strong leadership (AdG) Good track-record appropriate to their research field and career stage PI Commitment: Minimum 50% (StG), 40% (CoG), 30% (AdG) of PI working time on ERC project Minimum 50% of PI working time in a EU Member Sate or Associated Country │ 9

ERC funding schemes Funding Starting Grant (StG): Up to 1.5 million € for a period of 5 years (pro rata for projects of shorter duration). Up to 0.5 million € additional Consolidator Grant (CoG): Up to 2.0 million € for a period of 5 years (pro rata for projects of shorter duration). Up to 0.75 million € additional Advanced Grant (AdG): Up to 2.5 million € for a period of 5 years (pro rata for projects of shorter duration). Up to 1.0 million € additional to cover (a) eligible "start-up" costs for Principal Investigators moving from a another country to the EU or an Associated Country as a consequence of receiving the ERC grant and/or (b) the purchase of major equipment and/or (c) access to large facilities. additional │ 10

ERC funding schemes Role of host institution Is located in an EU Member State or an Associated Country Hosts the PI for the duration of the project Is a legal entity: university, research center, business research unit, etc. Is committed to ensure that the PI may: Apply for funding independently Manage research and funding project Publish independently as senior author Have access to reasonable space and facilities Signs Grant Agreement Overhead: 25% │ 11

ERC funding schemes Features of the ERC grants No constraints on eligible costs as long as they are for the execution of the project Rules of the HI apply High flexibility: aims of the project can be modified through amendments to the grant agreement Grants have a light reporting along the project life-time: financial report every 18 months, scientific report at mid-term and end of the project Grants have 25-40% pre-financing PI is empowered to manage the research activity and the funds of the project Grants are portable │ 12

ERC funding schemes Synergy grants: principles For small groups of 2 to 4 Principal Investigators (PIs) with complementary skills, knowledge and resources. Appropriate configuration of PIs to jointly identify and tackle research objectives aiming at breakthrough discoveries. Excellence is the sole criterion of evaluation. Good track-record appropriate to their research field and career stage. ‘Bottom-up’ - research priorities and the configuration of the group determined by the individual investigators. Projects expected to cover more than one discipline or research field, but not obligatory. Why was it designed: meets scientific demand: ERC mission to provide excellent investigators with the resources to pursue ground breaking, frontier research. Increasing complexity and interdisciplinarity of frontier research. Requires new ways of working - bringing together complementary skills, knowledge and resources. The emphasis here is on the unique combination of PIs to jointly address exciting research problems

ERC funding schemes Synergy grants: commitment and funding PIs must be strongly committed to the project and engage in a genuine collaboration. One of the PIs will act as ‘Corresponding PI’ PIs may apply from any country, institution worldwide. PIs must devote at least 30% of their working time on the project All but at most one PI (who cannot be the corresponding PI) is expected to devote 50% of their working time in an EU Member State or Associated Country. Attractive, long-term funding - maximum grant of 10 million € for a period of up to six years. Up to 4 million € additional. Synergy Groups can be based in the same country, city, campus, institution or alternatively in various countries and/or organisations. to cover (a) eligible "start-up" costs for Principal Investigators moving from a another country to the EU or an Associated Country as a consequence of receiving the ERC grant and/or (b) the purchase of major equipment and/or (c) access to large facilities. additional

Evaluation

Evaluation Proposal structure PART A – online forms Info on Proposal, PI, HI and overall budget PART B1 – submitted as .pdf Extended Synopsis 5 p. CV 2 p. Track Record 2 p. Funding ID beyond the 2 page limit for the CV Explanatory comment if interdisciplinary Optional template for the CV Annexes – submitted as .pdf Statement of support of HI If applicable: explanatory information on ethical issues; copy of PhD (StG, CoG); document for extension of eligibility window (StG, CoG) PART B2 – submitted as .pdf Scientific Proposal 15 p. Template for the budget Read the Information to Applicants

Evaluation Evaluation panels Physical Sciences & Engineering PE1 Mathematics PE2 Fundamental Constituents of Matter PE3 Condensed Matter Physics PE4 Physical & Analytical Chemical Sciences PE5 Synthetic Chemistry and Materials PE6 Computer Science & Informatics PE7 Systems & Communication Engineering PE8 Products & 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 Organizations SH2 Institutions, Values, Environment and Space SH3 The Social World, Diversity and Population SH4 The Human Mind and Its Complexity SH5 Cultures and Cultural Production SH6 The Study of the Human Past

Evaluation Main features Goal of the evaluation: select the best frontier research proposals Only evaluation criteria: excellence Method: peer review Structure: 25 panels distributed in 3 scientific domains (10 Physical Sciences, 9 Life sciences and 6 Social Sciences and Humanities) Each panel consists of 1 panel chair and 12-16 panel members 44, 39 y 17 Antes 40, 35, 15, 10 What makes ERC evaluation successful? Peers Review procedure

Evaluation Peers Panel members: typically 375 / call Other (7%) Panel members: typically 375 / call High-level scientists Recruited by ScC from all over the world: ~14% from outside Europe About 12-16 members plus a chair person Referees: typically 2000 / call Evaluate only a small number of proposals Similar to normal practise in peer-reviewed journals US (7%) EU and Associated Countries (86%)

Evaluation Review procedure (StG, CoG and AdG) 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 Panel meeting + interview (StG and CoG) Proposals retained for step 2 Ranked list of proposals Feedback to applicants Right balance between generalist + specialized review Appropriate treatment of interdisciplinary proposals Good cost-benefit ratio

Evaluation Review procedure (SyG) STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3 Remote assessment by Panel members of PI and synopsis Remote assessment by Panel members and reviewers of full proposals Re-assessment by Panel members Panel meetings (dynamically arranged) Panel chair meeting Interviews Proposals retained for step 2 Ranked list of proposals Proposals retained for step 3 Feedback to applicants Feedback to applicants * Dynamically arranged Right balance between generalist + specialized review Appropriate treatment of interdisciplinary proposals Good cost-benefit ratio

Evaluation Ranking and scoring in Step 1 In Step 1 proposals are ranked by the panels on the basis of the individual reviews and the panels' overall appreciation of their strengths and weaknesses. Proposals will be retained for Step 2 based on the ranked list and the determined budgetary cut-off level. Applicants will be informed on the score attained by their proposal: A: is of sufficient quality to pass to Step 2 of the evaluation,. B: is of high quality but not sufficient to pass to Step 2 of the evaluation. C: is not of sufficient quality to pass to Step 2 of the evaluation. In addition, applicants will be told the ranking range of their proposal out of the proposals evaluated by the panel. 22

Evaluation Ranking and scoring in Step 2 (and Step 3 for SyG) In step 2 (and Step 3 for SyG) proposals are ranked by the panels on the basis of the individual reviews and an overall appreciation of their strengths and weaknesses. Proposals will be recommended for funding based on the ranked list and the funds available. Applicants will be informed on the score attained by their proposal: 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. In addition, applicants will be told the ranking range of their proposal out of the proposals evaluated by the panel. 23

Evaluation Resubmission restrictions StG, CoG and AdG funding schemes: Those who receive B in Step 1 have to wait out one year to apply again to the StG, CoG or AdG calls Those who receive a C will have to wait out two years to apply again to the StG, CoG or AdG calls SyG funding scheme: Those who receive B (Step 1 or Step 2) have to wait out one year to apply again to the SyG call Those who receive a C will have to wait out two years to apply again to the SyG call, and one year to apply to the StG, CoG or AdG calls

ERC achievements

ERC achievements Narrowing the EU-USA gap The first reported ERC publications began to appear in 2008 and since then publications acknowledging ERC funding have gone from contributing less than 0.1% of EU top 1% more cited publications in 2008 (2) to nearly 7% in 2014 (973). In 2014, for the first time authors based in the EU appeared on more top 1% more cited publications (14,172) than authors based in US (14,093) in absolute numbers. 1% most cited Publications Elsevier Scopus abstract and citation database, accessed January 2016

ERC achievements Clarivate Analytics worldwide ranking of research funders 2007-16 Papers Category normalized citation impact Percentage top 1% papers Percentage of international collaborations European Research Council (ERC) 40.422 2,46 4,84% 59,24% Wellcome Trust 41.040 2,10 3,60% 55,62% US Department of Energy (DOE) 123.864 2,09 3,92% 39,39% UK Medical Research Council 38.442 2,08 3,76% 48,81% Swiss National Science Foundation 50.598 1,90 3,01% 59,03% US National Institutes of Health (NIH) 617.950 1,73 2,61% 28,37% US National Science Foundation (NSF) 380.893 2,76% 36,36% French National Research Agency 41.385 1,62 2,04% 47,65% German Research Foundation (DFG) 171.959 1,55 1,92% 48,56%

ERC achievements Ex-post peer review evaluation

ERC achievements Priority to young scientists + 40 000 PhD and post-doc researchers working in ERC teams. Two-thirds of ERC grants to early-stage Principal Investigators.

Work Programme 2019

(cut-off dates for PoC) Work Programme 2019 Indicative summary of WP 2019 calls   Starting Grant Consolidator Advanced Synergy Proof of Concept Call identifier ERC-2019-StG ERC-2019-CoG ERC-2019-AdG ERC-2019-SyG ERC-2019-PoC Call closes (cut-off dates for PoC) October 2018 February 2019 August 2019 November 2018 January 2019 April 2019 September 2019 Budget million EUR (estimated number of grants) 580 (390) 602 (314) 390 (166) 400 (48) 25 (167)

Work Programme 2019 Main novelties Synergy Grant: budget increase and possibility to include up to one Principal Investigator based in a third country ERC Proof-of-Concept: lump sum pilot and budget increase Adjustment for the extensions of eligibility windows in StG and CoG

Horizon Europe

Horizon Europe Objectives and structure Specific objectives of the Programme Foster all forms of innovation and strengthen market deployment Strengthen the impact of R&I in supporting EU policies Support the creation and diffusion of high-quality knowledge Optimise the Programme’s delivery for impact in a strengthened ERA Strengthening the European Research Area Reforming and Enhancing the European R&I system Sharing excellence Pillar 1 Open Science European Research Council Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Research Infrastructures Pillar 3 Open Innovation European Innovation Council European innovation ecosystems European Institute of Innovation and Technology Pillar 2 Global Challenges and Industrial Competitiveness Health Inclusive and Secure Society Digital and Industry Climate, Energy and Mobility Food and natural resources Joint Research Centre Clusters

Horizon Europe Budget: €100 billion* (2021-2027) * This envelope includes EUR 3.5 billion allocated under the InvestEU Fund.

Horizon Europe Pillar 1, Open Science: reinforcing and extending the excellence of the Union's science base European Research Council Frontier research by the best researchers and their teams Marie Skłodowska- Curie Actions Equipping researches with new knowledge and skills through mobility and training Research Infrastructures Integrated and inter-connected world-class research infrastructures € 16.6 billion € 6.8 billion € 2.4 billion * This envelope includes EUR 3.5 billion allocated under the InvestEU Fund.

ERC and Physics

ERC and Physics Funding allocated Three of the 25 ERC evaluation panels contain Physics-related areas: PE2 – Fundamental Constituents of Matter PE3 – Condensed Matter Physics PE9 – Universe Siences Million € FP7 H2020 TOTAL EU+AC ES % All panels 7.449 371 5,0% 8.797 474 5,4% 16.246 845 5,2% Physics panels 1.018 50 1.212 63 2.230 113 5,1% PE2 391 22 5,6% 437 20 4,5% 828 42 PE3 376 5,8% 426 31 7,2% 802 53 6,6% PE9 251 7 2,7% 349 12 3,4% 600 19 3,1%

PE2 - Fundamental Constituents of Matter ERC and Physics PE2 - Fundamental Constituents of Matter The 10 more relevant topics in PE2 (243 projects funded in H2020) For each project, the major/minor qualifiers given to a specific topic are considered to calculate the normalised weight of the topic. Major is counted as 1 and minor as 0.5. For all projects selected by the query filters, the normalised weight is summed to obtain the list of the most relevant topics.

PE3 - Condense Matter Physics ERC and Physics PE3 - Condense Matter Physics The 10 more relevant topics in PE3 (237 projects funded in H2020)

ERC and Physics PE9 - Universe Sciences The 10 more relevant topics in PE9 (194 projects funded in H2020)

ERC and Physics Geographical distribution

ERC and Spain

Spain at ERC ERC funded projects by country HI

Spain at ERC Top HIs in Spain

Spain at ERC Grantees at home and abroad 117 foreign grantees in ES from 29 countries 362 PIs with Spanish nationality in Spain 128 Spanish PIs abroad in UK(42), FR(26), DE(18), CH(14) ...

Spain at ERC ERC Proof of Concept 2011-18 Overall PoC share 12%

Spain at ERC Success rates by country of HI Overall success rate 11,4%

Spain at ERC ERC grants versus GERD Overall success rate 11,4%

Spain at ERC ERC panel member by country of HI and gender

Spain at ERC Evolution of the number of grants with Spanish HI Total: 483 grants 2013: 14 StG and 20 CoG 2014: 22 StG and 32 CoG 2015: 12 StG and 18 CoG 2016: 23 StG and 23 CoG 2017: 22 StG and 13 CoG 2018: 17 StG and 17 C0G

Spain at ERC Evolution of the % of grants with Spanish HI 2013: 4,7% in StG and 6,4% in CoG 2014: 6,7% in StG and 8,6% in CoG 2015: 3,4% in StG and 6,0% in CoG 2016: 5,9% in StG and 7,3% in CoG 2017: 5,4% in StG and 4,0% in CoG 2018: 4,2% in StG and 5,8% in CoG

Spain at ERC Evolution of the % of applications with Spanish HI 2013: 10,7% in StG and 12,4% in CoG 2014: 8,6% in StG and 11,8% in CoG 2015: 6,9% in StG and 8,3% in CoG 2016: 7,7% in StG and 8,7% in CoG 2017: 7,4% in StG and 9,3% in CoG 2018: 6,9% in StG and 8,1% in CoG 2019: 7,6% in StG and 8,8% in CoG

Spain at ERC Evolution of the number of applications with Spanish HI 2013: 354 StG + 445 CoG 2014: 283 StG + 298 CoG 2015: 203 StG + 171 CoG 2016: 226 StG + 200 CoG 2017: 228 StG + 236 CoG 2018: 218 StG + 194 CoG 2019: 237 StG + 217 CoG

Some final messages For the researcher: For the institution: Do not exclude your-self from participating in ERC calls. If you have an idea that make a significant change in your field of research, or in some other field, consider writing it down an apply to ERC. Take risks, explain the high scientific impact of your project if you reach your aims, and provide evidence that you can do it. For the institution: Provide support to researchers to work on the proposal. Offer benefits to grantees. Play strategically.

Thank you for your attention ERC is dedicated to selecting and funding the excellent ideas that have not happened yet and the scientists that are dreaming them up.