1. Information about ERC – the European Research Council What is ERC? Call for Advanced Investigator Grants Outcome first call for Starting Independent Researcher Grants

2. Why ERC?  Initiative came from researchers in Europe  Enforce basic research in Europe (retain, repatriate, recruit)  Increase quality by competing on an international level  Raise the level of ambition  Complement national support for basic research  On the basis on excellence as the sole criterion  First pan-European funding agency for frontier research

3. FP7 Ideas Programme Part of the Seventh EU Research Framework Programme (FP7  Creates the ERC (new “institution”) – Feb 2007:  Scientific Council (ScC)  Dedicated Implementation Structure (DIS)  Provides funding – € 7.51 bn (2007-2013):  around 15% of FP7 budget  average budget: € ~1 bn per year  Sets overall objectives for research and operating principles

4. Development of the budget €

5. ERC Actors The Scientific Council Independent scientific governance Consists of 22 eminent researchers (incl. 3 Nobel laureates) The Agency (Dedicated Implementation Structure, ERC-DIS) Practical implementation and management of operations The European Union Providing the financial means, guarantor of ERC’s autonomy

6. Organisation ERC Board (5) President 2 Vice Presidents Secretary General Director EA Executive Agency (EA) EA Director European Commission Commissioner Director General ERC Scientific Council 22 members President 2 vice presidents Senior EC Officials Identification Committee

7. The ERC Board Prof. Fotis Kafatos ERC President and Chair of the ScC Prof. Helga Nowotny, Dr Daniel Esteve ERC Vice-Presidents and Vice-Chairs of ERC ScC Prof. Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker ERC Secretary-General Jack Metthey Director of ERC DIS (Directorate S)

8. ERC Grant schemes Strategic principles  All fields of science and scholarship are eligible  investigator-driven, bottom-up, frontier research  Excellence is the only valid criterion  Principal Investigator + research project  Investment in research talent  Attractive, flexible grants, up to five years  under control of the Principal Investigator  Independent individual teams in Europe  nationality of researchers is not relevant  host organisation to be located in EU or Associated Country

9. ERC Grant schemes “Individual Research Team” Concept –Individual Research Teams headed by a single team leader who is the “Principal Investigator” (PI) PI can be of any age, nationality or country of residence if necessary, the PI can include additional team members meeting the needs of the project Advanced Grants only: for interdisciplinary projects, the PI can choose a co-investigator(s) from related discipline(s) –PI’s host institution Located in an EU Member State or Associated Country

10. ERC Grant Schemes Launch Strategy of ERC Scientific Council Retain – Repatriate – Recruit  Favour “brain gain” and “reverse brain drain”  increase competition, recognition and international visibility for excellent individual scientists and scholars in Europe  ERC Advanced Grant: attract & reward established independent research leaders  Keep (young) researchers in Europe  improve career opportunities and independence - especially for young researchers  ERC Starting Grant: attract & retain the next generation of independent research leaders

11. 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 1 and 2 numerically, which will result in the ranking of the proposals Criteria 3 will be considered on a "pass/fail" basis and commented but not scored

12. ERC Grant Schemes Peer Review Evaluation Panels  25 Panels covering all fields of science, technology and scholarship  Each Panel consists of the Panel Chair and 10-15 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

13. ERC Advanced Grant (ERC Advanced Investigator Researcher Grant)  Designed to support excellent investigator-initiated frontier research projects by established independent research leaders  Targeting researchers who have already established their independence as team leaders and are exceptional leaders in terms of significance of their research achievements (in the last 10 years) up to 5 years, up to € 2,5 (3,5) Mio. per grant ~2500 Advanced Grants over 7 years of FP7 (2007-2013)

14. ERC Advanced Grant First call: ERC-2007-AdG1 (30 Nov 2007)  Indicative Budget: € 517 Mio (39 % PE, 34 % LS, 14 % HS & 13% interdisciplinary domain)  Single submission (1 stage, 2 step evaluation)  Electronic submission via EPSS  3 deadlines, 3 domains, 25 panels (10 PE, 9 LS, 6 SH)  Physical Sciences and Engineering (PE) on 28 th February (907)  Social Sciences and Humanities (SH) on 18 th March (403)  Life Sciences (LS) on 22 nd April (?)  If same success rate as in FP6 (4,3%), 11 AdG to Sweden (4 PE, 4 LS, 2 HS, 1 “interdisciplinary”?)

15. ERC Advanced Grant Managing high demand for grants  Maximise call budget  By combining budgets over 2 successive years (only one application per researcher in either 2008 or 2009)  Encourage the best to apply  Excellent track record (in recent years)  Strong leadership profile  Discourage trivial or low-quality applications  Applications should be substantive (one-stage submission with two stage evaluation)  Re-application rules: Disincentives to submission of not well prepared or not highest quality application

16. ERC Starting Grant (ERC Starting Independent Researcher Grant )  Support researchers at the beginning of their career, establishing or consolidating their own independent research team  Provide a structure for transition from working under a supervisor to an independent research leader up to 5 years, up to € 2 million per grant ~1400 Starting Grants over 7 years of FP7 (2007-2013)

17. ERC-2007-StG Evaluation: overview 334 M€ available for this call  ~ 300 projects (~ 3 %) Stage 2 evaluation: ~ 50% was retained 559 retained proposals representing about 535 M€ Stage 1 evaluation: ~ 6 % retained 8794 proposals evaluated representing about 10 B€ value of requested funding

18. Proposals related to population related to the 8794 proposals Sweden

19. Statistics all applications  9167 applications recieved  386 applications were ineligble  Scientific domains:  48 %Physics, Mathematics & Engineering (45 %)  37 % Life Science (40 %)  15 % Social Sciences & Humanities (15 %)  Host institutions in 34 countries  Average age 36 years  30 % ♀

20. Statistics stage 2 (559 applications)  Scientific domains:  45 %Physics, Mathematics & Engineering (45 %)  37 % Life Science (40 %)  18 % Social Sciences & Humanities (15 %)  Host institutions in 21 countries  Average age 36 years  24 % ♀  85 % from EU  4 % researchers active ouside of EU (> 1 % non- EU nationality)

21. Applications from Sweden 454 eligible applications from Sweden (5 % of total) 19 applications to stage 2 (3 % of the selected) Scientific domains of the 19 applications: –10 % (2) Social Sciences (18 %) –42 % (8) Physics, Mathematics and Engineering (45 %) –47 % (9) Life Science (37 %) 21 % ♀ (24 %)

22. The 19 applications came from….

23. Preliminary outcome  32 nationalities  ~ 170 host institutions  21 countries  26 % ♀  Average age: 35 år  To Sweden ~ 11 grants (3,7 % if 300 grants)

24. Preliminary outcome for Sweden 11 grants –4 LS (36 %), 5 PE (45%) & 2 HS (18 %) –9 % ♀ (1)

25. More information…. Next call will open summer 08 with deadline(s) in the fall 08 Information day about next call 2 or 3 of June (see vr.se) ERC website http://erc.europa.eu (News alerts)http://erc.europa.eu ERC helpdesk (https://www.epss- fp7.org/epss/helpdesk.jsp)https://www.epss- fp7.org/epss/helpdesk.jsp