opportunità di finanziamenti erc per progetti high risk ... · established by the european...

Established by the European Commission

Opportunità di finanziamenti ERC

per progetti "high risk/high gain”

© Art & Build Architect / Montois Partners / credits: S. Brison

Monsurro Vladia, PhD MBA

Padova 13 October 2015 │ 1


ERC achievements and Funding SCHEMES

ERC Evaluation process

HINTS and TIPS

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Structure

│ 2


Evaluated > 40,000 proposals

Funded 4 300 top researchers (65% are at an early-career

stage); 66 nationalities represented

Highly competitive (success rate ~12%)

Working in almost 600 different institutions in 32 countries

Benchmarking effect: impact on national programmes and

agencies

Efficient and fast grant management

ERC achievements After 7 years of existence…


ERC Budget

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

JRC

(2.5%)

EIT

(3.6%)ERC

(17.1%)

Industrial

leadership

(23.1%)

Other Excellent

science (14.6%)

Societal

challenges

(39%)


Features of ERC grants

All fields of science and scholarship are eligible

Investigator-driven, bottom-up

Scientific Excellence is the only criterion

Individual team + research project

Investment in research talent

Attractive, flexible grants (aims of the project can be modified through

amendments to the grant agreement), up to five years

Under control of the Principal Investigator

No constraints on eligible costs as long as they are for the execution of

the project

Grants have a light reporting along the project life-time: financial report

every 18 months, scientific report at mid-term and end of the project


Independent individual teams in Europe

All nationalities can apply

Host organisation must be located in EU or AC

The PI should spend 50% in the EU or Associated Country

The PI should dedicate 50% (StG), 40% (CoG) and 30% (AdG) of

his/her time to the project

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Features of ERC grants


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

Proof-of-Concept bridging gap between research - earliest

stage of marketable innovation

up to €150,000 for ERC grant holders

ERC Funding Schemes

Consolidator Grants

consolidators

(7-12 years after PhD)

up to € 2.75 Mio

for 5 years

│ 7


Researchers career development

and complementary funding schemes

Senior Professor

Senior Postdoc/ Junior Professor/

Associated Professor

Associated Professor Full Professor

ERC AdG - Advanced

ERC StG - Starting

ERC CoG – Consolidators


“… to support excellent Principal Investigators at

the stage at which they are starting their own

independent research team or programme.”

minimum of 50% time in Europe (MS + AC)

minimum of 50% working time on ERC project

ERC Work Programme 2016

Starting Grants

Objective

European Research Council

│ 9


Potential for research independence

One publication without PhD supervisor

significant publications

invited presentations in conferences

funding, patents, awards, prizes

Starting Grants

Profile


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Senior postdoc/Junior Professor/ Junior

Researcher/Associated Professor


2 years ≤ PhD date ≤ 7 years

Call 2016 counting from 1 January 2016

Extensions to this period are possible

paternity leave, maternity leave, long-term illness,

national military service

Starting Grants

Eligibility


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€1.5M for 5 years

extra €0.5M

"start-up" costs PI moving from outside

EU+AC

purchase of major equipment

access to large facilities

100% total eligible direct costs (salaries, equipment, etc.)

Starting Grants

Possible requested amount


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“…to support excellent Principal Investigators at

the career stage at which they may still be

consolidating their own independent research

team or programme.”



ERC Work Programme 2016

Consolidator Grants

Objective


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research independence (very often already

working with own group)

Several publications without PhD supervisor

Promising track-record of early

achievements

significant publications

invited presentations in conferences

funding, patents, awards, prizes

Consolidator Grants

Profile


│ 14

Assistant professor/Full Professor


7 years < PhD date ≤ 12 years

Call 2016: counting from prior to 1 January 2016)

Extensions to this period are possible

paternity leave, maternity leave, long-term illness,

national military service

Consolidator Grants

Eligibility


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€2M for 5 years

extra €0.75M


EU+AC



100% eligible direct costs (salaries, equipment, etc.)

Consolidator Grants



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Take place at Step 2 meetings

Panel evaluates interview + written proposal

Interviews between 20-30 minutes (panel dependent)

Consolidator & Starting Grants

Interviews


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“… Advanced Grants are intended to promote

substantial advances in the frontiers of

knowledge, and to encourage new productive lines

of enquiry and new methods and techniques,

including unconventional approaches and

investigations at the interface between established

disciplines.”



Advanced Grants

Objective


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Active researchers (any age, nationality, and current

place of work)

Exceptional leaders in terms of the originality and

significance of their research contribution

Track-record of significant research achievements

(last 10 years, extension in case of career breaks

possible)

10 publications as senior author in major scientific

journals

Advanced Grants

Profile


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Advanced Grants

Profile

Exceptional leaders in term of mentorship

granted patents

invited presentations at international conferences

international conferences where Principal

Investigator was an organiser

International prizes/awards


€2.5M for 5 years

extra €1M


EU+AC



100% eligible direct costs (salaries, equipment, etc.)

Advanced Grants



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LS1 Molecular & Structural Biology & Biochemistry

LS2 Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics & Systems

Biology

LS3 Cellular and Developmental Biology

LS4 Physiology, Pathophysiology & Endocrinology

LS5 Neurosciences & neural disorders

LS6 Immunity & infection

LS7 Diagnostic tools, therapies & public health

LS8 Evolutionary, population & environmental

biology

LS9 Applied life sciences & biotechnology

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PE1 Mathematics

PE2 Fundamental constituents of matter

PE3 Condensed matter physics

PE4 Physical & Analytical Chemical sciences

PE5 Materials & Synthesis

PE6 Computer science & informatics

PE7 Systems & communication engineering

PE8 Products & process engineering

PE9 Universe sciences

PE10 Earth system science

SH1 Markets, individuals & institutions

SH2 The social world, diversity, institutions & values

SH3 Environment, space & population

SH4 The Human Mind and its complexity

SH5 Cultures & cultural production

SH6 The study of the human past

Life Sciences – 9 Panels Physical Sciences & Engineering – 10 Panels

Social Sciences and Humanities – 6 Panels

To which evaluation panel?

3 domains and 25 panels


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ERC Calls 2007-2014

Grant distribution per panel

LS1

LS2

LS3

LS4

LS5

LS6

LS7

LS8

LS9

PE1

PE2

PE3

PE4

PE5

PE6

PE7

PE8

PE9

PE10

SH1

SH2

SH3

SH4

SH5

SH6

Numbers of grants


│ 24

Budget available and distribution

for 2016

For StG, CoG and AdG calls an indicative budget will be allocated to each panel in

proportion to the budgetary demand of its assigned proposals.

Budget ERCEA 2016= 1667.02 million of Euro

For the Main Calls= 1645 million Euro


Annexes - submitted as .pdf Host Institution support letter

Copy of PhD (or equivalent degree)

certificate (StG & CoG)

If applicable document for extension of

eligibility window (StG & CoG)

If applicable explanatory information

on ethical issues

Part B2 – submitted as .pdf

Scientific proposal 15p

a. State-of-the-art and objectives

b. Methodology

c. Resources (incl project cost)

Part B1 – submitted as .pdf

Extended Synopsis 5p

CV 2p

Early achievements (StG & CoG) or

10-year track record 2p

Part A - online forms General information on research

proposal

Host Institution (HI) and applicant

Budget

Ethics

Call specific questions

ERC proposals structure-What do you

have to submit?


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Eligibility check

Step 1 (remote) evaluation on

the basis of section 1 of

proposal* by panel members

A proposals

passing to Step 2

Individual assessment of full

proposal by

panel members + referees

AdG : 2nd Panel

meeting

Submission of

full proposals

A proposals ranked and top

proposals

selected for funding

How does it work?

Submission, evaluation and selection

1st Panel meeting

CoG, StG: 2nd Panel meeting

incl. interviews

of applicants

Score:

B or C

Score:

B


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Panel members: typically 375 / call

High-level scientists

Recruited by ScC from all over the world:

~14% from outside Europe

About 12-16 members plus a chair person

Referees: typically 2000 / call

Evaluate only a small number of proposals

Similar to normal practise in peer-reviewed

journals

EU and Associated

Countries

(86%)

US (7%)

Other

(7%)

How ERC research proposals are evaluated? Peers Review


│ 28 * Number of instances that experts of a certain country of origin are contributing to the ERC peer review

FP7 ERC Panel Members by

Country of HI and Gender

Averaged over the first 13

ERC calls


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Past evaluation panels

http://erc.europa.eu/funding-and-grants/apply-funding/evaluation-panels

Menu allows searching for previous Panel Members by Funding

Scheme and Call Year


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Hints and tips

Administrative (part A)

Scientific (part B)


Preparing an application

Administrative section Hints and tips

Register early, get familiar with the system and templates

and start filling in the forms

A submitted proposal can be revised until the call

deadline by submitting a new version and overwriting the

previous one

Follow the formatting rules and page limits

Download and proof-read the proposal before submitting

│ 31



Scientific section (Part B1)

Only the extended Synopsis is read at Step 1:

concise and clear presentation (evaluators are not necessarily all

experts in the field)

Pay particular attention to the ground-breaking nature of the

research project, highlighting its frontier/innovative aspects

Know your competitors – what is the state of play and why is your

idea and scientific approach outstanding?

Outline of the methodological approach (feasibility)

Show your scientific independence in your CV, highlighting

independence, originality, “feasibility”, mobility

Track-record : highlightining personal contributions

Avoid plagiarism




Provide sufficient detail on methodology, work plan etc.

(15 pages)

Check coherency of figures

Justify requested resources

Explain involvement of team members

Provide alternative strategies to mitigate risk


Balancing Vision and Credibility

… the approach is in line with the previous activities of the

applicant but lacks new challenging hypotheses …

… this is a large-scale and well planned study which, however,

is over-ambitious and unfocused …

… the project's objectives are ambitious, but the methodology

is not innovative enough, rather a continuation of the existing

work …

… the project is not mature enough and further preliminary

work is necessary …


Show dependencies

Mitigate risks: preliminary data; progress

criteria/measures; avoid high-risk objective

(e.g. method development) at early stages;

define pitfalls & alternatives

Clearly schedule the project: Gantt chart;

milestones/expected; Outcomes & timelines




Be mindful about…

Avoiding unrealistic projections and promises

Outsourcing with prudence (e.g. trivial/special

technicalities)

Matching format & terminology with the funding

scheme

Justifying budget: manpower (include

competencies); equipment; timeline


- Awareness of regulatory environment

- Readiness to provide protocol approvals

- Understanding of historical context, political situation and

sensitivities, and social-anthropology, if in a foreign

country

Ethics

Be mindful about…


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Step by step to ERC grants

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Animated infographics clip

Introduction to application

process, including tips &

tricks for the interview

Video:

https://vimeo.com/94179654




Initiated to help ERC grant-holder to bridge the gap between their

research and the earliest stage of a marketable innovation

Supporting grant-holders during the pre-demonstration

Up to 150.000 Euro per grant

One step evaluation

ERC Proof of Concept (PoC)


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H2020 ERC - PoC Grants

by Country of HI

Num

ber

of

PoC

gra

nte

d


│ 41

Indicative summary main calls

2016


│ 42

Browse ERC projects

Searchable repository of

ERC signed projects

Menu allows searching by

• Funding Scheme

• Call Year

• Domain/panel

• Country of Host

Institution

http://erc.europa.eu/projects-and-results/erc-funded-projects


The European Research Council

Contact information


ERC website: erc.europa.eu

National Contact Point: http://erc.europa.eu/funding-and-

grants/national-contact-points

Sign up for news alerts: erc.europa.eu/keep-updated-erc

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[email protected]

www.facebook.com/EuropeanResearchCouncil

twitter.com/ERC_Research

www.linkedin.com/company/european-research-council

mailto:[email protected]








The European Research Council


THANK YOU! │ 44

opportunità di finanziamenti erc per progetti high risk ... · established by the european...

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