1. Research and Innovation Research and Innovation Prof. Donald B. Dingwell ERC Secretary General ''Destination Europe'' conference, San Francisco, 6-7 December 2012

2. Policy Research and Innovation Research and Innovation What is ERC? ERC supports excellence in frontier research through a bottom-up, individual-based, global competition Budget: 7.5 billion (2007-2013)- 1.1 billion /year Motivation: making Europe more attractive for global scientific talent Principles: - Excellence - Bottom-up/all fields - Individuals Structure - Council - Agency Catch: 50% of time in Europe Average success rate: 12%

3. Policy Research and Innovation Research and Innovation Jean-Marie Lehn ERC Grantee AdG 2011 3 ERC success stories 5 Nobel Prize laureates funded by ERC 3 Fields Medalists currently funded by ERC Stanislav Smirnov AdG 2008 Simon DonaldsonAdG 2009 Elon LindenstraussAdG 2010 Other Prizes awarded to ERC grantees EMBO GOLD MEDAL 2011 – Simon BOULTON - AdG 2010 FEBS|EMBO WOMEN IN SCIENCE 2011 - Carol ROBINSON - AdG 2010 EMBO GOLD MEDAL 2010 – Jason W CHIN - StG 2007 THE SHAW PRIZE IN MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES 2011 - Christodoulou Demetrios - AdG 2009 CRAFOORD PRIZE 2011 and EUROPEAN LATSIS PRIZE 2010 – Ilkka Hanski - AdG 2008 L'ORÉAL-UNESCO AWARD FOR WOMEN IN SCIENCE 2011 - Anne L'Huillier - AdG 2008 WOLF PRIZE 2010 – Anton ZEILINGER, David BAULCOMBE-AdG 2008, Alain ASPECT–AdG 2010 MILLENIUM AWARD 2010 – Michael GRATZEL - AdG 2009 2012 Prizes awarded to ERC grantees EMBO GOLD MEDAL 2012 Jiri FRIML - StG 2011 Royal Society of Edinburgh KELVIN PRIZE 2012 Colin McINNES - AdG 2008 LEIBNIZ PRIZE 2012 Michael BRECHT - AdG 2008 & Joerg WRACHTRUP - AdG 2010 CNRS SILVER MEDAL 2012 Paolo SAMORI - StG 2010 Ehrlich-Darmstaedter Prize Young 2012 Kathrin MAEDLER - StG 2010 James Heckman ERC Grantee AdG 2010 Theodor Hansch ERC Grantee AdG 2010 Konstantin Novoselov Nobel 2010 ERC Grantee StG 2007 Serge Haroche Nobel 2012 ERC Grantee AdG 2009

4. Policy Research and Innovation Research and Innovation Independence research topic of own choice financial autonomy portability of grants Visibility prestige Flexibility negotiate with the host attract top team members Attractive features for researchers from outside Europe Additional start-up funding for scientists moving to Europe Grantee can keep affiliation with home institute outside Europe Team members can be based outside Europe Creative freedom of the individual grantee: ERC offers

5. Policy Research and Innovation Research and Innovation Attracting excellent researchers Countries with at least 50 foreign members of staff

6. Policy Research and Innovation Research and Innovation Composition of ERC team Breakdown by nationality (97) (sample of 636 Starting and Advanced projects) EU: 69% Ass. Countries: 11% non-ERA: 17% unknown: 3% 661 non-ERA researchers among the 3,845 team members Most non-ERA from China, US, India, and Russia 50% of non-ERA ''attracted'' to Europe

7. Policy Research and Innovation Research and Innovation Gender distribution Dependent on PI gender and project domain Female PIs in the sample* LS:22% PE:15% SH:32% *) similar for all grants

8. Policy Research and Innovation Research and Innovation To provide opportunities for US-based scientists and engineers with NSF-funded CAREER awards and Postdoctoral Research Fellowships to pursue research collaboration with European colleagues already supported through ERC grants Signed on 13 July 2012 at ESOF in Dublin by NSF Director Dr. Subra Suresh and the European Commissioner for RTD Máire Geoghegan-Quinn Implementation Single and long-term (6-12 months) or multiple short-term visits (e.g. for joint experiments) from researchers based in the U.S., and preselected by the NSF, to ERC-funded projects. NSF to launch a call for expressions of interest addressed at CAREER awardees and Postdoctoral Fellows (January 2013) Time spent in Europe additional to the NSF-funded postdoc fellowship Agreement between NSF and EC