1. Ministerial Conference on Horizon 2020 – Workshop 3: Excellent Science Dieter Imboden, 1 February 2012

2. SNSF Research creates knowledge. European Commission proposal Excellent Science part will include support for curiosity- driven research without pre-determined priorities, as well as career development, mobility and infrastructure European Research Council (ERC): stays more or less the same, budget supposed to be doubled, change in leadership structure (full-time president) Future and Emerging Technologies (FET): activities expanded to cover all thematic domains Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions on skills, training and career development: to be streamlined, focusing on three objectives (initial training, mobility and short-term staff exchanges), priority on increased use of national co-funding

3. SNSF Research creates knowledge. European Commission proposal European research infrastructures: focus on operation costs and supporting access for researchers to large-scale infrastructures, access to national infrastrucutres, e-infrastructure Envisaged budget: about 28 billion Euros for Excellent Scinece part of Horizon 2020 planned at the moment, ERC funding doubled. Likely to change? Still a number of open questions: e.g. which funding instruments to be used.

4. SNSF Research creates knowledge. View of a national funding organisation and topics to be discussed For the SNSF the following principles are key: basic, investigator-driven research as the basis of all applied research and innovation achievements and of a dynamic innovative economy excellence is prime criterion of research funding in all Horizon 2020 instruments (cohesion different goal) strong, independent ERC with excellence as only selection criterion and the possibility to fund high risk/high reward projects. No priority for specific research topics or target groups! Marie Curie actions to facilitate sucessful research careers: solve tax, pension fund and social security issues to enable mobility

5. SNSF Research creates knowledge. View of a national funding organisation and topics to be discussed co-operative, international and interdisciplinary research: flexible consortium sizes and management to be attractive for all research areas research infrastructure with clear European added-value: helps attract research talent to Europe Gender Equality: gender balance in review panels, avoidance of gender bias in all assessment procedures simplification: ensures best researchers to participate, restrict number of instruments crucial: collaboration and trust among all ERA stakeholders multidirectional dialogue between science and policy

6. SNSF Research creates knowledge. Questions for discussion The ERC has proven to be a success. How can it strike the right balance between developing the excellence of young reserarchers and consolidating the excellence of more experienced ones? The support of Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) is a new part of Excellent Science. How can we ensure that FET complements the other parts within Excellenc Science and provides a bridge to industrial leadership and addressing societal challenges? What is the most efficient role for Horizon 2020 to ensure the the priority of European infrastructures, e.g. those identified for ESFRI, is brought forward?

7. SNSF Research creates knowledge. Thank you for your attention! www.snsf.ch