ERC – European Research Council · European Research Council │ 3 ERC Grant Schemes Strategic...
Transcript of ERC – European Research Council · European Research Council │ 3 ERC Grant Schemes Strategic...
ERC – European Research Council
Alejandro MARTIN HOBDEYERC
Florence, 24 November 2010
Overview:ERC Starting Grants
Main Points
• Opportunities for funding Emphasis on the Starting Grants With practical considerations
• Overview of the Outcome of StG-2010 Call
• Policy considerations?
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ERC Grant SchemesERC Grant SchemesStrategic principles
All fields of science and scholarship are eligibleInvestigator-driven, bottom-up
Excellence is the only valid criterionIndividual team + research project
Investment in research talentAttractive, flexible grants, up to five yearsUnder control of the lead researcher (Principal Investigator)
Independent individual teams in EuropeNationality and Age of researchers is not relevantHost organisation to be located in MS or ACPortability of grants
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ERC Grant SchemesERC Grant SchemesFunding Strategy
Aim: Retain – Repatriate – Recruit Favour “brain gain” and “reverse brain drain”
improve career opportunities and independence - especially foryoung researchers
increase competition, recognition and international visibility - forexcellent individual scientists and scholars in Europe
raise aspiration and achievement of basic research in Europe
Activities: Two complementary funding schemes
ERC Starting Grant (StG)
ERC Advanced Grant (AdG)
StG grant
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ERC Grant schemesERC Grant schemesTwo complementary funding schemes
ERC Starting Grant (StG):• Researchers starting or consolidating their own independentresearch team (or research programme)• Transition from working under a supervisor to an independentresearch leader• Up to €2M over 5 years
ERC Advanced Grant (AdG):• Established independent research leaders• Track record over the last 10 years• Up to €3.5M Million over 5 years
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• A"ract/retainnext‐genera)onleaders
• Establishindependentresearchteam&program
• A"ract/retaincurrentworld‐leaders
• S4mulateinves4gator‐driven,breakthroughresearch
Star)ngGrants AdvancedGrants
Call for proposalsTwo calls
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StG & AdG Call 2011: deadlines
• Total budget for Call (2011): ~€660M (StG & AdG) StG Deadlines:
• PE: 14 October• LS: 9 November• SH: 24 November
AdG deadlines:• PE: 9 February 2011• LS: 10 March 2011• SH: 6 April 2011
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Scientific domainsScientific domains
For operational reasons : 25 panels in 3 main domainsPE: Physical Sciences, Engineering (10 panels)LS: Life Sciences (9 panels)SH: Social Sciences and Humanities (6 panels)
Allocation of Call budget per domain as follows:
PE domain: 40%LS domain: 35%SH domain: 15%Interdisciplinary domain: 10%
Within domains, indicative budget is allocated to panels on a demand basis► probability of success independent of panel
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ERC GrantsPanel structure : 25 panels
Social Sciences and Humanities SH1 Individuals, institutions & markets SH2 Institutions, values, beliefs and behaviour SH3 Environment & society SH4 The Human Mind and its complexity SH5 Cultures & cultural production SH6 The study of the human past
Physical Sciences & Engineering PE1 Mathematical foundations 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
Life Sciences 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
Each panel : Panel Chair and
10-15 Panel Members
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Submission is to Panels
• Applicant submits to a Targeted Panel (of PI choice) Can flag one “Alternative Review Panel”
• Applicant chooses his/her panel, that panel is “responsible”and takes ownership for the evaluation of that proposals
• Only switch proposals between panels in case of clearmistake on part of applicant
• Switching proposals between domains (deadlines) notpossible
• But: In case cross-panel or cross-domain proposals,evaluation by members of other panels possible
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• Single submission “1 stage, 2 step” evaluation
• Electronic submission via EPSS only• Deadlines strictly enforced• Proposals have two parts:
Part A: Administrative forms Part B: Scientific proposal itself
Submission of proposals
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Proposal structure: Part A
• Part A: “Administrative forms” containing A1 Information on PI
• Request for change of stream (StG only)
A2 Information on Host Institution A3 Budget breakdown by year and partner
• Not detailed
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Proposal Structure: Part B
• Section 1 = “The PI”• Scientific Leadership profile (1 page)• CV (including “funding ID”) (2 page)• 10-year track record (or “early achievements” for StG) (2
page)• Extended synopsis (5 page)
• Section 2 = Full Scientific proposal (15 page)• Ethical Review information (where appropriate)• Separate additional document:
Host Institution Support Letter (compulsory StG + AdG) Copy of Ph.D. (compulsory StG) Documents to prove extension to 10 year eligibility window (StG)
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ERC Grant SchemesERC Grant SchemesEvaluation: Scientific Excellence is the sole criterionEvaluation: Scientific Excellence is the sole criterion
Evaluation of Excellence at two levels:• Criterion 1: Quality of Principal
Investigator• Criterion 2: Quality of Research Project
Referees and panels evaluate and score criterianumerically which will result in the ranking of the projects:
− 1- 4 per criterion− Threshold : ≥ 2 for both criteria
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Two step evaluation
• Step 1: Section 1 of Part B evaluated against Criterion 1 (PI)
and 2 (Research Project) Proposal needs to pass threshold for both criteria to
pass to second step Evaluated by Panel Members + possibly “alternate”
panel members where necessary• Step 2:
Sections B1 + B2 evaluated Evaluated by Panel Members + Remote Referees StG: Step 2 includes interviews in all cases
European Research Council
Eligibility check
Step 1 (remote) evaluation onthe basis of section 1 of
proposal* by panel members
Proposalspassing to step 2
Individual assessment of fullproposal by panel members &
referees
AdG :2nd Panelmeeting
Panel chairs´ meetingConsolidation of 3 main domains &
interdisciplinary/high risk – high gainprojects rank lists
Submission offull proposals
Proposalsselected for funding
ERC Grants: how does it operate?Submission, evaluation and selection
* Profile of PI, projects extended synopsis
1st Panel meeting
StG: 2ndPanel meetingincl. interviewsof applicants
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Remote part of evaluation
• Remote part of evaluation takes part completelyelectronically
• Step 1: proposals assigned to ~4 PMs
• Step 2: proposals also sent to specialized remoteexperts (to be determined at Step 1 panelmeeting)
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What are panels looking for in an interview? (StGonly)
• Maturity, leadership and vision
• Proposal is the applicant’s (not his/hersupervisor’s)
• Answer lagging technical questions anduncertainties / feasibility
• Mastery of detail
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Interdisciplinary Proposals
• Primary approach for Interdisciplinary proposals: “mainstreaming”• Proposal submitted to a target panel primarily responsible for its
evaluation• Both Step 1 and Step 2:
Assigned for reviews from PMs outside primary panel, ifnecessary
• Step 2: Remote reviewers: any reviewer in the world (hence any domain)
• If panel not comfortable in Step 2 meeting to take final decision, this isleft to a final Panel Chair Meeting
• Interdisciplinary Research domain (cross-domain & cross-panel) indicative budget of 10% total budget
• Decision taken by combined panel of all Panel Chairs
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Approach taken for “streaming” (StG only)
• “By default”: people fall into the stream that corresponds by thenumber of years past Ph.D. (covers 90-95% of cases) Starters 2 – 6 years past Ph.D Consolidators: 7 – 12 years past Ph.D
• Can request of change of stream: take rather strict / conservativeapproach
• Applicants need to argue their case for different consideration.• All “objective” (parental leave, military service, long term illness, etc)
reasons that apply for extending the eligibility window apply by analogyto extending the “starter” window.
• Subjective reasons: “Career break” outside science/research (e.g. volunteerwork, professional activity completely unrelated to research career,unemployment, etc)
• Applicant requested needs to attach a minimum amount of documentation tomake claim credible
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Distribution of proposal by year past PhD.
StG2010 vs StG2009 Submitted proposals distribution
by PhD Year from Call date
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Funded proposals by years past Ph.D.
StG2010 vs StG2009 Fundable (Main+Reserve) proposals
distribution by years past Ph.D.
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Success rate as years past Ph.D.
StG2010 vs StG2009 Success rate distribution by PhD Date
Main List + Associated States (tentative data)
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StG2010 8,5% 16,5% 12,5% 17,0% 17,7% 14,8% 16,6% 17,0% 15,6%
StG2009 0,0% 6,1% 8,6% 10,7% 10,8% 11,5% 12,7% 0,0% 0,0%
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Overall success rate by panel (440 proposals)
StG 2010 % Success rate (average 15.32%)
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StG 2010 Proportion of grants by country of HI
ERC STG 2009-10 % Funded Proposals by Country of HI(preliminary analysis)
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StG 2010 – Proportion of grants by nationality
ERC STG 2009- 10 %Funded proposals by PI Nationalitypreliminary analysis
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% of Grantees 2010
European Research Council ERC Starting Grant: 2010 callGrantees by country of host institution & domainSource: 427 proposals
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ERC 2010: StG-10-427
21 countries
European Research Council ERC Starting Grant: 2010 callMobility: Incoming & staying candidatesSource: 427 proposals
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Grantees staying in the country: "Non-European" nationals
Grantees staying in the country: other "European" nationals
Grantees staying in the country: nationals of that country
ERC 2010: StG-10-427
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Gender distribution by panel for fundedproposals
ERC STG 2010 Funded Proposals - % Gender Distribution
(Average % - 25.9 % female, 74.1 % male)
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Grantees by Country of HI and Gender
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StG 2010 - Success of female grantees
StG 2010 Domain
% Female Applicants vs % Female Grantees
19,75%
43,04%
29,59%32,75%
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TotalDomain
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Age distribution Grantees
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Age at Call Closure
% F grantees
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ERC STG 2010 Age of GranteesAverage: Men: 35.34 yrs; Women: 35.28 yrs
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StG 2011 – Average size of requested andawarded amount of funded proposals by domain
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ERC STG 2010 Average Amount Requested and Awarded
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StG 2009 - 2010 – Success rate by country of HI
ERC STG 2009-10 % Success rates by Country of Host Institution(preliminary analysis)
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StG 2010 – Number of applications vs. Successrate by Country of HI
ERC STG 2010 Submissions by Country of Host Institution Vs
Success Rate(excluding countries with less than 10 submissions; preliminary analysis )
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StG2010 – Success rate by nationality
ERC STG 2009-10 % Success Rate by Nationality(preliminary analysis)
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success rate 2010
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StG 2010 – Number of applications vs. Successrate by nationality of PI
ERC STG 2010 Submissions by Nationality Vs Success Rate(excluding nationalities with less than 10 submissions; preliminary analysis )
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