1. Established by the European Commission FP7 IDEAS Programme The European Research Council International participation to ERC calls 11 th November 2013 ERCEA Unit A1 Support to the Scientific Council Donald Dingwell Annual Meeting of the African Science Academies Addis Abeba

2. 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 What is ERC? Legislation Strategy  Scientific governance: independent Scientific Council with 22 members; full authority over funding strategy  Support by the ERC Executive Agency (autonomous)  Excellence as the only criterion Budget: € 7.5billion (2007-2013) - 1.1 billion €/year

3. Established by the European Commission FP7 budget € 50.5 billion ERC budget € 7.5 billion; Increase by € 250 M/year Co-operation (65 %) Ideas (15 %) People (9 %) Capacities (8 %) JRC non- nuclear (3 %)

4. Established by the European Commission ERC Structure 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 Executive Agency Executes annual work programme as established by the Scientific Council Implements calls for proposals and provides information and support to applicants Organises peer review evaluation Establishes and manages grant agreements Administers scientific and financial aspects and follow-up of grant agreements Carries out communications activities and ensures information dissemination to ERC stakeholders The ERC Scientific Council 22 prominent researchers proposed by an independent identification committee Appointed by the Commission (4 years, renewable once) Establishes overall scientific strategy; annual work programmes (incl. calls for proposals, evaluation criteria); peer review methodology; selection and accreditation of experts Controls quality of operations and management Ensures communication with the scientific community

5. Established by the European Commission ERC Scientific Council Members Prof. Don Dingwell ERC Secretary General Prof. Klaus BOCK (Chemistry) Prof. Nicholas CANNY (History) Prof. Sierd A.P.L. CLOETINGH (Earth Sciences) Prof. Tomasz DIETL (Physics) Prof. Daniel DOLEV (Computer Sciences) Prof. Athene DONALD (Biological Physics) Prof. Carlos M. DUARTE (Biology) Dr. Barbara ENSOLI (Medicine) Prof. Daniel ESTEVE (Physics) Prof. Pavel EXNER (Applied Mathematics & Mathematical Physics), ERC Vice President Prof. Reinhard GENZEL(Astrophysics) Prof. Carl-Henrik HELDIN (Molecular Cell Biology), ERC Vice President Prof. Timothy HUNT (Biology) Prof. Matthias KLEINER (Engineering) Prof. Eva KONDOROSI (Biology) Prof. Helga NOWOTNY (Science and Technology Studies), ERC President Prof. Alain PEYRAUBE (Linguistics) Prof. Mart SAARMA (Biology) Prof. Nuria SEBASTIAN GALLES (Psychology) Prof. Anna TRAMONTANO (Biochemistry) Prof. Isabelle VERNOS (Molecular and Cell Biology) Prof. Reinhilde VEUGELERS (Economics)

6. 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 Synergy Grants 2 – 4 Principal Investigators up to € 15.0 Mio for 6 years Proof-of-Concept bridging gap between research - earliest stage of marketable innovation up to €150,000 for ERC grant holders ERC Grant schemes Consolidator Grants consolidators (7-12 years after PhD) up to € 2.75 Mio for 5 years

7. 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 │ 7 Creative freedom of the individual grantee

8. Established by the European Commission Flexibility:  Additional “start-up” funding for scientists moving to Europe (EUR 500 000 for Starting and EUR 1 Million for Advanced grantees)  Grantee can keep affiliation with home institute outside Europe (“significant part” of work time in Europe, at least 50%)  Team members can be based outside Europe  Grantee can move within Europe with the grant Negotiation:  Several European countries/host institutions assist applicants and reward grantees with top-up funds or long-term professorships Attractive features for researchers from outside Europe

9. Established by the European Commission │ 9 ERC funding process Peer Review Evaluation Starting, Consolidator and Advanced Grants Panel Members are appointed by the ERC Scientific Council  25 Panels covering all fields of science, technology and scholarship  3 sets of Panels: StG Panels, CoG Panels, AdG Panels  Each Panel consists of the Panel Chair and 11-15 Panel Members  Panel Chair oversees evaluation process for the proposals assigned to his/her panel in collaboration with the ERC staff  Evaluation criteria: Principal Investigator  Intellectual capacity and creativity  Commitment Research project  Ground-breaking nature and potential impact  Methodology

10. Established by the European Commission Social Sciences & Humanities 6 panels Individuals, institutions and markets Institutions, values, beliefs and behaviour Environment, space and population The Human Mind Cultures and cultural production The study of the human past 25 panels for all areas of science Physical Mathematics Sciences Fundamental constituents of matter & Condensed matter physics Engineering Physical and analytical chemical sciences Synthetic chemistry and materials 10 panels Computer science and informatics Systems and communication engineering Products and processes engineering Universe sciences Earth system science LifeMolecular and structural biology and biochemistry SciencesGenetics, genomics, bioinformatics and systems biology Cellular and developmental biology 9 panelsPhysiology, pathophysiology and endocrinology Neurosciences and neural disorders Immunity and infection Diagnostic tools, therapies and public health Evolutionary, population and environmental biology Applied life sciences and biotechnology

11. Established by the European Commission │ 11 International participation to proposals evaluation * Number of instances that experts of a certain country of origin are contributing to the ERC peer review

12. Established by the European Commission │ 12 ERC Competitions Data as of 09/09/2013

13. Established by the European Commission │ 13 ERC grant distribution to countries of HI ERC Starting grant calls 2007-2013 ERC Advanced grant calls 2008 -2013 *) Host institution refers to the organisation with which the first grant agreement was signed

14. Established by the European Commission Top European Institutions hosting at least 30 ERC Grantees by funding Schemes StG 2007-2013 AdG 2008-2013 First legal signatories of the grant agreement Data as of 09/09/2013

15. Established by the European Commission Evaluated proposals from researchers with non-ERA* nationality ERC Starting Grant calls 2009 – 2013 (including Consolidator 2013) * ERA = European Research Area *) all submitted for StG and CoG 2013

16. Established by the European Commission Evaluated proposals from researchers with non-ERA* nationality ERC Advanced Grant calls 2008 – 2013 * ERA = European Research Area

17. Established by the European Commission │ 17 3 2 1 16 2 2 7 1 1 9 1 13 4 12 1 1 Evaluated proposals by African* researchers Ineligible and withdrawn proposals not taken into account for calls 2007-2012 2 1 *) Nationality as last declared by Principal Investigator

18. Established by the European Commission │ 18 African applicants to ERC ERC Starting grant calls 2007 - 2013 (including Consolidator 2013) ERC Advanced grant calls 2008 – 2013 Ineligible and withdrawn proposals not taken into account for calls 2007-2012

19. Established by the European Commission ERC grantees with a non-ERA nationality* ERC Starting Grant calls 2007-2013 ERC Advanced Grant calls 2008 – 2013 *) nationality as last declared by the principal investigator Data as of 09/09/2013 TOTAL number of grantees with non-ERA nationality : 188 StG and 101 AdG

20. Established by the European Commission │ 20 ERC grantees with African nationality ERC Starting Grant calls 2007-2012 ERC Advanced Grant calls 2008 – 2012

21. Established by the European Commission Partners from third countries 9 African partners out of 29 third-countries partners

22. Established by the European Commission Few grantees from outside ERA Mainly researchers moving/returning from the US Note: Researchers residing outside the European Research Area at the time of application

23. Established by the European Commission │ 23 Developing a new generation of excellent scientists 2/3 of staff are people in the training phase of their career Analysis of 995 ERC projects

24. Established by the European Commission │ 24 Attracting excellent researchers Composition of ERC teams (PIs not included) Analysis of 995 Starting and Advanced Grants EU: 67% Assoc. Countries: 12% non-ERA: 18% unknown: 3% 53% of non-ERA team members ''attracted'' to Europe with the ERC grant (10% of all team members) Most non-ERA from China, US, India, and Russia

25. Established by the European Commission │ 25 'ERC goes Global' campaign 2012 and 2013 Mexico and Texas February 2013 Australia and New Zealand October 2013 Argentina and Chile January 2013 India March 2013 China September 2013 US East coast 2013 US West coast 2013 Canada February 2012 Brazil and Chile May 2012 South Africa March 2012 Russia September 2012 Japan, S-Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong September 2012

26. Established by the European Commission │ 26 NCPs in non-ERA countries NEW Non-ERA NCPs established as a result of the global campaign Other non-ERA NCP's *provisional NCP; official NCP tba

27. Established by the European Commission ERC prospects for the future Rising applications

28. Established by the European Commission Future perspectives HORIZON 2020  HORIZON 2020 structure:  Excellent Science  Industrial leadership  Societal challenges  EIT; Spreading excellence and widening participation; Science with and for society  JRC  Excellent Science: reinforcing and extending the excellence of the EU’s science base and consolidating ERA to make EU’s R&I system more competitive on a global scale  European Research Council (budget under H2020: € 13 billion)  Future and Emerging Technologies  Marie Curie  Research Infrastructures │ 28

29. Established by the European Commission Budget Horizon 2020 after trilogue Co-operation (65 %) Ideas (15 %) People (9 %) Capacities (8 %) JRC non- nuclear (3 %) FP7 budget € 50.5 billion ERC budget € 7.5 billion H2020 budget € 77 billion ERC budget € 13 billion

30. Established by the European Commission More information on http://erc.europa.eu To subscribe to ERC newsletter and newsalerts http://erc.europa.eu/keep-updated-erc Follow us on https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanResearchCouncil https://twitter.com/ERC_Research

31. Established by the European Commission Getting to the roots of better crops FUTUREROOTS Project Research: crops root architectures ERC funded a unique root imaging platform operational in January 2014 (with Wolfson Foundation and the University of Nottingham, UK) 20 people in ERC research team incl. six PhD students co-funded by ERC Objective: to improve crop yields accessing- and absorbing water and nutrients more efficiently │ 31 Project details Prof. M. Bennett, University of Nottingham (UK) Redesigning root architecture for improved crop performance (FUTUREROOTS) ERC Advanced grant 2011 Funding: EUR 3.5 million for 5 years

32. Established by the European Commission Creating green chemicals and medicines with soil bacteria SYM-BIOTICS project Research: the symbiotic relationship between legume plants and soil bacteria (Rhizobia) Natural plant peptides with potent antimicrobial activities are promising candidates for novel types of antibiotics Potential applications: green chemicals for plant protection and in food industry (e.g. for the decontamination of meat samples (Listeria/Salmonella) │ 32 Project details Prof. E. Kondorosi, Biological Research Centre, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Dual exploitation of natural plant strategies in agriculture and public health: enhancing nitrogen-fixation and surmounting microbial infections (SYM-BIOTICS) ERC Advanced grant 2010 Funding: EUR 2.3 million for 5 years