ESF greets and welcomes you in Obergurgl!

www.esf.org

Dr. Aigars Ekers

ESF-EUROCORES Coordinator PESC - Physical and Engineering Sciences Unit

ESF and its instruments

ESF Conference“Quantum Engineering of States and Devices”

Obergurgl, Austria, 5 - 10 June 2010

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www.esf.org

Outline

• What is ESF?

• What are the ESF instruments?

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www.esf.org

ESF in Setting Science Agendas for Europe

European Science Foundation provides a common platform to its Member Organisations in order to:• advance European research• explore new directions for research at the European level

ESF’s purpose to serve the needs of European research community in a global context through a range of activities

ESF’s values: excellence, openness, responsiveness, pan-European, ethical awareness and human values.

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www.esf.org

ESF Member Organisations

ESF is an independent association of 79 Member Organisations research funding organisations research performing organisations academies and learned societies

in 30 countries

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www.esf.org

About ESF

• Established in 1974

• Offices in Strasbourg, Brussels, Ostend

• ESF budget: 58M€ in 2009 including COST

• Staff: equivalent to 170 full time in 2009 including COST Office

• ESF headquarters, Strasbourg

• Marine Board, Ostend

• Research Conferences Unit,15th floor and COST, 21st floor, Tour Generali, Brussels

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www.esf.org

ESF covers all scientific domains

Standing Committee domains•Humanities •Social Sciences •Life, Earth & Environmental Sciences •Medical Sciences •Physical and Engineering Sciences

Expert Board/Committee domains•Marine Sciences•Polar Sciences •Space Sciences

•Radio Astronomy•Nuclear Physics•Materials Science and Engineering

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www.esf.org

ExploratoryWorkshops

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Member Organisation Fora

Science PolicyBriefings

ResearchConferences

Research Networking Programmes

Forward Looks

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Implementing agent for the COST office

through EC contract

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Implementing agent for the COST office

through EC contract

Strategic Plan 2006-2010

Coordination ofERA projects

Peer Reviewsupport

Coordination ofEUROHORCs projects

EUROCORES Research Programmes

ESF Activities

SCIENCESTRATEGY

SCIENCESYNERGY

SCIENCEMANAGEMENT

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www.esf.org

Open Calls for Proposals

ESF issues annual calls for proposals for:

• Exploratory Workshops

• Research Conferences

• Research Networking Programmes

• EUROCORES themes and projects

www.esf.org/calls

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www.esf.org

Range of InstrumentsFunding available to researchers

Exploratory

Workshops

Conferences

RNPs

EUROCORES

Fund

ing

leve

l

Number of researchersper instrument

10 30 100

15 k€

100 k€

1 m€

10

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Forward Looks

• Medium to long-term scientific perspectives• Multidisciplinary topics viewed at a European level• Bring together scientists with policy makers• Wide consultation• Result in major

reports and actionplans

www.esf.org/flooks

www.esf.org• 12

• Address science policy issues of key concern to the ESF Member Organisations and the wider scientificcommunity

• Draw on the advice and expertise of researchers

• Provide consensus on strategy recommendations to policy makers

www.esf.org/spb

Science Policy Briefings

www.esf.org• 13

• Small specialist ‘think-tank’ meetings

• ‘Bottom-up’ topics based on open calls

• To determine next necessary steps in the development of new topics

• Should catalyse significant and/or strategic activities

• 25-30 scientists involved

• ESF grant per event: 15k€

• Annual calls open beginning of March with deadline end of April

www.esf.org/workshops

Exploratory Workshops

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• Networking to enable major scientific endeavours over a four- to five-year period

• Supported by Member Organisations according to interest

• Typically include workshops, conferences,exchange visits, summer schools and dissemination

• Can link to other initiatives, including the EC Framework Programme

• Financing in the range of 100k€-130k€ per year

• 6,500 participants per year in 45-50 programmes

• For new programmes starting January 2012 call opens on July 1, 2010 with deadline on October 14

www.esf.org/programmes

Research Networking Programmes

www.esf.org• 15

Research Conferences

• Cover the latest topics, proposed by the scientific community and aimed at its benefit

• Stimulate dialogue between early-stage researchers and established scientists

• Full organisational support by ESF conference organisers

• 4-5 day events, 20-25 invited speakers, up to 120 selected participants

• Grants of 20-60k€ per conference, including support earmarked for early-stage researchers

• Conference Chairs select participants and may distribute grants to young researchers

www.esf.org/conferences

www.esf.org• 16

Research Conferences

www.esf.org/conferences

25-45 conferences per year in 10 scientific domains:● Basic Science ● Global Change Research

● Biomedicine ● Humanities & Social Sciences

● Chemistry ● Life Sciences: Biology+

● Mathematics ● Environmental Sciences

● Global Health ● Physics/Biophysics & Environmental Sciences

Calls for 2012 conferences is open with deadline 15 September

www.esf.org

• European-scale bottom-up collaborative research scheme in all scientific disciplines

• Topics for new EUROCORES submitted by scientists, peer-reviewed and recommended by ESF standing committees

• Topics with sufficient support from national funding agencies developed in new EUROCORES programmes in an open call procedure

• Research funding remains national, networking & coordination via ESF

• Typical EUROCORE: up to 80 research groups arranged in 5-15 collaborative research projects; budget 5–10M€ over 3 years

• Annual calls for new topics (called Themes) open 1 March with deadline end of May

www.esf.org/eurocores

EUROCORES(European Collaborative Research Programmes)

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www.esf.org

No EUROCORES:spontaneous

national research

events

EUROCORES:coherent

transnational research

effort

Objective: to achieve major advances of cutting-edge topics and ensure a leading position of European research

Topics: bottom-up, all disciplines

Preconditions: hot topics and critical mass of researchers to achieve a breakthrough

Selection criteria: scientific quality, strategic importance

Mechanism: synchronous launch of national projects; reinforced collaboration and networking

EUROCORES Vision

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www.esf.org

EUROCORES structure (in ideal case a complete graph)

Individual research groups national funding

Research and networking activities within CRPs individual project budget

Programme coordination and networking across the CRPs ESF (programme N&C budget)

CRP5 CRP2

CRP4 CRP3

CRP1

EUROCORES Programme

EUROCORES-wide networking: conferences, workshops, schools, exchange visits, dissemination

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ESF wishes you a productive eventand

welcomes future applications!