About the European Science Foundation 1

Status briefing to NuPECC Emmanouil DETSIS Athens, 13 March

3 ESF Member Organisations ESF is an independent association of 66 Member Organisations ● research funding organisations ● research performing organisations ● academies and learned societies in 29 countries About the European Science Foundation

4 A time of change In parallel with the development of Science Europe – the Brussels-based policy organisation launched early 2012 – ESF is continuing the winding-down of a number of its activities in accordance with the Multi-annual Plan The Multi-annual Plan takes into consideration the commitments that ESF has made until the end of 2015 with the aim of ensuring that they are honoured and executed with the level of quality that ESF has always delivered.

Institutional visibility If the viability check that will run from end March to end April is positive, ESF will be able to continue but with a different format (sciences services)  the Successor Organisation will have the capacity to continue hosting EBCs An offer has been made to Member Organisations to remain in this case, with a different fee model  this would provide continued institutional visibility, including for Expert Boards and Committees 5

6 Expert Boards and Committees (EBCs) Currently hosted at ESF (European Polar Board left in 2014) ● Nuclear Physics European Collaboration Committee (NuPECC) ●European Space Sciences Committee (ESSC) ●Marine Board (EMB) ●Committee on Radio Astronomy Frequencies (CRAF) ●Materials Science and Engineering Expert Committee (MatSEEC) About the European Science Foundation

7 Science Management ESF serves the academic community by creating synergies between funding agencies and by assisting cross-border cooperation: ●Peer Review support for funding organisations ●Coordination of ERA-NETs and other EC projects About the European Science Foundation SERVICES

8 ESF is eager to serve the needs of the European research community and is currently developing offers of valued services to science and research in Europe through, for example: ●Peer review services ●Evaluation services for Research Organisations ● Project Management services for framework programmes ●Mapping Research Infrastructures of European interest – MERIL ●Developing the Career Tracking and Monitoring Platform About the European Science Foundation SERVICES

Peer Review services for third parties ●Professional services to support competitive calls for proposals ●Modular approach: o From external expert evaluation of proposals only to end-to-end management of competitive calls o Approach tailored to the size and scope of the projects to be supported Why ESF? ●Integrity and independence ●Tremendous network of independent, highly-skilled reviewers ●Strong experience and know-how (>5,000 research proposals evaluated since 2005) ●Quality controlled and optimised process and infrastructure ●Experienced scientific staff and efficient management of workflow processes About the European Science Foundation 9 SERVICES 

Evaluation services ●Ex-ante evaluation (of programmes or schemes) ●Monitoring and mid-term evaluation (activities or programmes) ●Ex-post evaluation and strategy (schemes, organisations, etc) Why ESF? ●Independence and neutrality of the ESF ●Tailored evaluation of proven quality ●Clear criteria and indicators based on EU standards ●ESF is a privileged actor between Academia and funders About the European Science Foundation 10 SERVICES 

11 Science Management – H2020 projects ESF offers Project Office services for consortia applying for H2020 projects. 1.Assume 100% of the coordination activities (FP7 MEGAHIT, H2020 DEMOCRITOS) and proposal preparation. 2.Offer project office support to the project coordinator [FP7 ASTROMAP, H2020 EFFICACy (in preparation)]. 3.Assume Communication and dissemination activities in the frame of a project (conferences, workshops, publications, websites etc). 4.Lead various project tasks when appropriate (i.e. large scientific surveys, high level networking and strategic aspects, peer review and evaluation tasks). About the European Science Foundation SERVICES Why ESF? Long experience in proposal preparation and project coordination Flexibility Large network of experts and EC officials Attractive rates

12 About the European Science Foundation

BACKUP SLIDES 13

14 Scientific Committees ESF has replaced its former Scientific Standing Committees with smaller Scientific Review Groups. Scientific Review Group domains: ● Humanities (HUM) ● Life, Earth & Environmental Sciences (LEE) ● Biomedical Sciences (MED) ● Physical and Engineering Sciences (PEN) ● Social Sciences (SOC) About the European Science Foundation

Budget in Total budget managed by ESF: 36 M€ ●Allows for the completion of on-going commitments until end of 2015 ●3 M€ for core scientific activities facilitated by 21.4 full-time equivalent staff ●33 M€ for the following other activities: o ‘à la carte’ activities (Research Networking Programmes, EUROCORES, Expert Boards & Committees) funded by Member Organisations on a voluntary basis o Institutional partnerships (e.g. Conferences) o External contracts, mainly with the European Commission (including COST) About the European Science Foundation

16 About the European Science Foundation ●Exploratory Workshops ●Research Networking Programmes ●EUROCORES Programmes ●Research Conferences ●Science Policy Briefings ●COST ●Finalising EURYI awards ONGOING COMMITMENTS

Career tracking and management About the European Science Foundation 17 SERVICES ●International Research Career Tracking and Monitoring Platform (CTMP) for surveys, studies and/or developing career tracking systems ●Tracking the quality of research training and skills ●Tracking to find out where researchers move in their careers ●Tracking for accountability & impact assessment ●Running joint international or national pilot projects ●Developing manuals 

●A continuously updated inventory of the most excellent research infrastructures (RIs) in Europe of more-than-national relevance, covering all scientific domains. ●A unique source of publicly available information for policy makers and scientists. ●Initial development of the database and portal supported by the European Commission ( ) – further development and exploitation in 2013 and 2014 supported by ESF member organisations. Why ESF? ●Built on expertise of Member Organisation Forum on RIs. ●Able to mobilise and coordinate pan-European, multi-stakeholder effort. About the European Science Foundation 18 SERVICES Mapping of the European Research Infrastructure Landscape (MERIL) 