Established by the European Commission The European Research Council © Art & Build Architect / Montois Partners / credits: S. Brison │ 1 Programa ERC: una oportunidad para impulsar investigaciones excelentes? Núria Sebastián, Vicepresidenta Consejo Científico ERC 30 Octubre 2014

Established by the European Commission  Support for the individual scientist – no networks!  Global peer-review  No predetermined subjects (bottom-up)  Support of frontier research in all fields of science and humanities The ERC supports excellence in frontier research through a bottom-up, individual-based, pan-European competition │ 2 Legislation Strategy  Scientific governance: independent Scientific Council with 22 members including the ERC President; full authority over funding strategy  Support by the ERC Executive Agency (autonomous)  Excellence as the only criterion Budget: € 13 billion ( ) billion €/year € 7.5 billion ( ) billion €/year ERC basics What is ERC?

Established by the European Commission  Support for the individual scientist – no networks!  Global peer-review  No predetermined subjects (bottom-up)  Support of frontier research in all fields of science and humanities The ERC supports excellence in frontier research through a bottom-up, individual-based, pan-European competition │ 2 Legislation Strategy  Scientific governance: independent Scientific Council with 22 members including the ERC President; full authority over funding strategy  Support by the ERC Executive Agency (autonomous)  Excellence as the only criterion Budget: € 13 billion ( ) billion €/year € 7.5 billion ( ) billion €/year ERC basics What is ERC?

Established by the European Commission ERC basics What is ERC? Standing Committees and Working groups Standing committees: the 2009 Mid-Term Review Report on the ERC's Structures and Mechanisms recommended the setting up of two subcommittees to deal with conflict of interest issues and to steer and control the selection of reviewers and panellists. Working groups: non-permanent structures created ad-hoc to address specific tasks of strategic importance with the involvement of the Scientific Council members who are more interested and competent on the particular issue. Both Working groups and Standing committees report to the Scientific Council plenary meetings │ 4

Established by the European Commission ERC Scientific Council Working groups & Standing committees Internationalisation Open Access Widening Participation Innovation and relations with industry Key Performance Indicators CoIME (Conflict of Interest & Research integrity) Committee on Panels Gender balance

Established by the European Commission Standing committees CoIME Formulate guidelines on conflict of interest, fraud and ethical matters related to any facet of the ERC's competences, clarifying criteria and considering any particular instance or situation where ethical concerns may arise important consultative role in cases of scientific misconduct within ERC promote culture of research integrity  ERC Strategy on Scientific Misconduct (October 2012) Committee on Panels Formulate policies & procedures for selecting ERC evaluators Steer the setting up and monitoring of a data base of experts Prepare and approve specific proposals for panel composition Development of norms and rules for the functioning of the ERC peer evaluation system and of panels. │ 6

Established by the European Commission Working groups (1) Gender balance Ensure that male and female excellent researchers are well aware of what ERC grants offer and promote gender mainstreaming by: Raising awareness about ERC gender policy; Identifying and removing potential gender bias; Monitoring gender distribution within the ERC’s peer review system; Considering the gender dimension in ERC processes.  Gender Equality Plan  Gender Equality Plan Open Access Support the implementation of the principle of open access to the results from ERC funded research (publications and research data)  ERC Open Access Guidelines (latest revision: Oct 2013)  Workshops with stakeholders (OA in the SH domain, Research data management and sharing, OA to monographs, …)  Initiation of support mechanisms for OA infrastructures (Europe PubMed Central, OAPEN, arXiv)  Direct interaction with relevant com- munities through participation in events │ 7

Established by the European Commission Working groups (2) Strengthening Internationalisation Increase the participation in ERC calls of researchers from countries outside of the EU by: Monitoring the number of applications from third country nationals Monitoring ERC teams compositions  "ERC goes Global" international awareness-raising campaign (launched in 2012)  ERC implementing arrangements with third countries Widening participation Contribute to a truly inclusive European culture of competitiveness in science Increase participation in ERC calls of researchers from the EU’s less research-performing regions Facilitate systematic debate and interactions among ERC grantees and young promising scientists from EU’s less research- performing regions │ 8

Established by the European Commission Working groups (3) Innovation & relations with industry Support the ERC in its relationship with business sector in terms of: demonstration of the ERC's contribution to innovation and European socio-economic growth conduct of frontier research (e.g. industrial organisations as HIs for ERC-funded projects)  very active in establishing good relations with industry  design, development, implementation and follow-up of the Proof-of-Concept (PoC) scheme Key performance indicators Develop a roadmap for monitoring and evaluating ERC’s accomplishment of its mission building on the ERC Monitoring and Evaluation Strategy endorsed by the Scientific Council in June 2009 and focussing on: o direct impact, o structural impact, o socio-economic impact, o operational performance │ 9

Established by the European Commission Starting Grants starters (2-7 years after PhD) up to € 2.0 Mio for 5 years Advanced Grants track-record of significant research achievements in the last 10 years 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 Consolidator Grants consolidators (7-12 years after PhD) up to € 2.75 Mio for 5 years ERC basics ERC funding schemes

Established by the European Commission ERC offers independence, recognition & visibility to work on a research topic of own choice, with a team of own choice to gain true financial autonomy for 5 years to negotiate with the host institution the best conditions of work to attract top team members (EU and non-EU) and collaborators to move with the grant to any place in Europe if necessary (portability of grants) to attract additional funding and gain recognition; ERC is a quality label │ 11 ERC basics Creative freedom of the individual grantee

Established by the European Commission Evaluation of excellent quality at two levels:  Excellence of the Research Project Ground-breaking nature Potential impact Scientific approach Added-value of the Group (only Synergy Grant)  Excellence of the Principal Investigator Intellectual capacity Creativity Commitment Referees and panels evaluate and score each criterion, and then rank the proposals according to these results. │ 12 ERC basics Evaluation of proposals: main features

Established by the European Commission │ 13  The ERC Scientific Council is responsible for proposing independent experts  Structure: 25 panels distributed across 3 scientific domains (10 Physical Sciences and Engineering, 9 Life Sciences and 6 Social Sciences and Humanities) What makes ERC evaluation exceptional? Highly international participation in panels Full autonomy of panels to decide ERC basics Evaluation of proposals: main features

Established by the European Commission │ 14  Over researchers funded (65% at an early-career stage); 64 nationalities ERC After Seven Years  Highly competitive (average success rate tending to 10%)  Grants located in almost 600 different institutions in 30 countries  50% of grantees in 50 institutions  Benchmarking effect: impact on national programmes and agencies; national funding for best "runners-up" also for Structural Funds  Efficient and fast grant management  Highly recognized by the research community beyond Europe  Over publications acknowledging ERC publication so far; 12% published between were in the top 1% most cited in 2012

Established by the European Commission │ 15 Priority to Young Scientists Two-thirds of ERC grants to early-stage Principal Investigators PhD and post-doc researchers working in ERC teams.

Established by the European Commission H2020 budget € 77 billion ERC budget € 13 billion ERC in H2020 Budget Horizon 2020 │ 16

Established by the European Commission │ 17 Spain at ERC ERC grant distribution to countries of HI ERC StG, CoG and AdG calls *) Host institution refers to the organisation with which the first grant agreement was signed

Established by the European Commission │ 18 Spain at ERC Success rates per country of Host Institution

Established by the European Commission │ 19 Spain at ERC Mobility of researchers ERC StG, CoG and AdG calls Current host institutions; data as of 21/08/ foreign PIs in Spain 47 Spanish PIs abroad 174 Spanish PIs in the country 59 foreign PIs in Spain from 21 different nationalities, mainly IT (16), DE (10), UK (4), NL (4), US (4) 47 Spanish PIs abroad, mainly in UK (20), CH (7), FR (7), DE (6)

Established by the European Commission │ 20 Spain at ERC Host institutions in Spain ERC StG, CoG and AdG calls Current host institutions; data as of 21/08/2014

Established by the European Commission │ 21 Spain at ERC Core grant schemes ERC StG, CoG and AdG calls

Established by the European Commission Jean-Marie Lehn ERC Grantee AdG 2011 │ 22 James Heckman ERC Grantee AdG 2010 Theodor Hansch ERC Grantee AdG 2010 Christoforos Pissarides ERC Grantee AdG 2012 Andre Geim ERC Grantee AdG 2012 Ada Yonath ERC Grantee AdG 2012 Konstantin Novoselov Nobel 2010 ERC Grantee StG 2007 Serge Haroche Nobel 2012 ERC Grantee AdG 2009 ERC Grantee SyG 2012 May-Britt Moser Nobel 2014 ERC Grantee AdG 2010 The Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine 2014 was awarded to May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser, together with John O'Keefe, "for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain". The research leading to these discoveries* was supported by FP5. * "Spatial Representation in the Entorhinal Cortex" – Science 2004 Edvard Moser Nobel 2014 ERC Grantee AdG 2013 ERC Grantee AdG 2008 Nobel Prize to ERC grantees The Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 2014 was awarded to Jean Tirole "for his analysis of market power and regulation". Jean Tirole Nobel 2014 ERC Grantee AdG 2009

Established by the European Commission A few examples of ERC projects in Spain Photonics to see through cataractous eyes Towards safer constructions in water calamities Project: Seeing through cataracts with advanced photonics (SEECAT) PI: Pablo Artal HI: University of Murcia Call: Advanced Grant 2013 Funding: € 2.5 million for 5 years Project: New Computational Methods for Predicting the Safety of Constructions to Water Hazards accounting for Fluid-Soil- Structure Interactions (SAFECON) PI: Eugenio Oñate HI: CIMNE Barcelona Call: Advanced Grant 2010 Funding: € 2.4 million for 5 years Project: Origins and spread of agriculture in the south- western Mediterranean region (AGRIWESTMED) PI: Leonor Peña-Chocarro HI: CSIC Madrid Call: Advanced Grant 2008 Funding: € 1.5 million for 4 years Understanding the origins and spread of agriculture in the western Mediterranean

Established by the European Commission A few examples of ERC projects in Universitat Pompeu Fabra The movie optometrist: clearer vision for cameras Decoding the mechanism behind learning languages Project: Image Processing for Enhanced Cinematography (IP4EC) PI: Dr Marcelo Bertalmío Call: Starting Grant 2012 Funding: € 1.5 million for 5 years Project: Mechanism of cognitive control and language learning (UNDER CONTROL) PI: Núria Sebastián Gallés Call: Advanced Grant 2012 Funding: € 2.5 million for 5 years Project: Stratified family dynamics: polarising trends in couple behaviour and parenting (Family Polarisation) PI: Prof Gøsta Esping- Andersen Call: Advanced Grant 2010 Funding: € 2.1 million for 5 years Is family break-up turning a corner? Miradas cruzadas sobre el ERC Video:

Established by the European Commission Feedback from Successful Applicants at Spanish Host Institutions "Be bold, be daring" ERC Advanced grant, Physical Sciences and Engineering, First time applicant - selected for funding "Believe in your competitiveness" ERC Consolidator grant, Life Sciences, Reapplying - selected for funding "Poor English is a handicap" ERC Starting grant, Social Sciences and Humanities, First time applicant - selected for funding "Coaching and support from close colleagues is crucial" ERC Advanced grant, Social Sciences and Humanities, Reapplying - selected for funding "Seek solid administrative support" ERC Starting grant, Social Sciences and Humanities, Reapplying - selected for funding

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