European Research Council Established by the European Commission The European Research Council IFA...

European Research Council

Established by theEuropean Commission

The European Research Council

IFA ConferencePrague, 31 May 2012

Alessandra FerrariResearch Programme Officer

European Research Council Executive AgencyUNIT B.1 - Process Management and Review



Main points

Some Background on the ERC

Types of grants & evaluation process

What is so special about the ERC?

Some ERC funded projects in aging-related areas



ERC is the first pan European funding body to support excellence in frontier research and with a bottom-up approach

• Scientific Council with 22 members

• Support by the ERC Executive Agency

• Significant budget (1.6 billion €/year)

• Excellence as the only valid criterion

• Support for the individual scientist – no networks!

• International peer-review

• No predetermined subjects (bottom-up)

• Support of frontier research in all fields of science and humanities

│ 3

What is the ERC?L

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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 %)



ERC: a radical new approach to funding research at EU level

Pan-European competition between individual teams.

Open to any researcher in the world based on the sole criterion of excellence.

Support investigator-driven or ‘bottom-up’ research projects in all fields of science, engineering and scholarship.

Encourage creativity, risk-taking and ambition.

Raise the status, attractiveness and visibility of frontier research in Europe and its top scientists of today and tomorrow.



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 move with the grant to any place in Europe if necessary (portability of grants)

recognition: ERC has become the ‘gold standard’

│ 6

Creative freedom for the individual grantee



Achievements of the ERC - so far

more than 2.600 funded proposals in total

in more than 480 different host institutions in 26 countries, total 4 billion

but “excellence attracts excellence”: 50% of PIs in 50 institutions

highly competitive: average success rate 12 %

strong structuring effects: competition between European universities for first time ever, EU value added

strengthening merit-based evaluation systems in Europe

│ 7



Starting and Consolidator GrantsStarters (2-7 years after PhD) up to € 2.0 Mio for 5 years

Consolidators (7-12 years after PhD) up to € 2.75 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 Grants2 – 4 Principal Investigatorsup 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



Researchers Career development and funding schemes

Post-docs

Senior Professor

Students

Post Graduates

Junior Professor/ Junior Researcher

Associated Professor

Full Professor

Erasmus

Marie Curie

ERC Advanced

ERC StG - Starters

ERC StG – ConsolidatorsERC SyG– Synergy



│ 10│ 10

ERC Grant schemes:Who can apply?

Excellent Researchers (PIs)

Any nationality, any age or any current place of work

In conjunction with a Host Institution

Based in EU or associated countries



│ 11│ 11

ERC Grant Schemes (StG, CoG, AdG) Panel structure : 3 domains and 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 & LS1 Molecular & Structural Biology &

BiochemistryBiochemistry LS2 Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics & LS2 Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics &

Systems BiologySystems Biology LS3 Cellular and Developmental BiologyLS3 Cellular and Developmental Biology LS4 Physiology, Pathophysiology & LS4 Physiology, Pathophysiology &

EndocrinologyEndocrinology LS5 Neurosciences & neural disordersLS5 Neurosciences & neural disorders LS6 Immunity & infectionLS6 Immunity & infection LS7 Diagnostic tools, therapies & public LS7 Diagnostic tools, therapies & public

healthhealth LS8 Evolutionary, population & environmental LS8 Evolutionary, population & environmental

biologybiology LS9 Applied life sciences & biotechnologyLS9 Applied life sciences & biotechnology

Each panel : Panel Chair and

10-15 Panel Members



│ 12

Excellence as sole criterion, to apply to:

1. Research Project (RP)─ Ground breaking nature ─ Potential impact─ Scientific Approach ─ Added value of the Group (only SyG)

2. Principle Investigator (PI)─ Intelectual capacity─ Creativity─ Commitemnet

Evaluation Criteria



ERC Starting Grant: 2011 CallGrantees by country of host Institution, 21 countries Source: 486 proposals

│ 13

124

6458

49

29 2722 22 21

14 13 10 106 5 4 3 2 1 1 1

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

UK DE FR NL IT ES CH IL BE SE AT DK FI IE NO EL HU PL CZ EE SI

Country of Host Institution

# F

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ded

Pro

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Social Sciences and Humantities

Physical Sciences and Engineering

Life Sciences



ERC Starting Grant: 2011 CallGrantees by nationality – 38 nationalitiesSource: 486 proposals

│ 14

ERC STG 2011 Results Of Call% Funded proposals, and # proposals, by Applicant Nationality

83

57

504843

31

2521

141010 9 8 8 7 6 5 5 5 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

18%

DE

UK IT FR NL

ES IL BE

US

DK FI

SE

CH IE EL

PT

CA

HU

NO AT

RU

CZ

HR IN RO

UA

AU

BG EE JP MX PL

BY C LT NZ

RS

TR

Applicant Nationality

% F

un

ded

Pro

po

sals

0

90



What is special about the ERC?

It is a young organisation:

─ Simple approach

─ Simple rules

─ Simple evaluation

We have a independent Scientific Council with considerable autonomy

The time was right for the EU

Completely bottom up with no priorities

─ Few and “large” panels

Strong reliance on personal interviews (StG)

Simple evaluation criteria



Some examples of

ERC funded

research projects



Improving health and sports performance through the brain’s control

Cathy Craig studies how sensory guides can improve balance and walking in

people with Parkinson’s disease

As people age, balance ability declines. New technologies can be exploited to

develop games that are more suited to older adults and people with

Parkinson’s so that they can use it to train their balance

The latest results have shown significant progress in functional balance in older

adults (>65 years) after playing these games for four weeks. These findings

have major implications on/for falls prevention programmes and general

healthier active older lives

(see BBC report: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-14484516).

Temporal Enhancement of Motor Performance Using Sensory Guides

Cathy Craig - StG07- SH3Queen’s University Belfast, UK

€ 0.86 million



Social change and an ageing population

- Education-specific forecasts to assess which kinds of jobs allow older workers to have a better chance in the labour market

- This analysis is vital to capitalise on the experience and skills which older workers can offer

- The aim is to generate significant new insights into the potential social and economic challenges associated with ageing, and wider demographic shifts

- Results will support governments to improve their social policies for the future on the basis of their wider knowledge of what that future might look like

http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/POP/ACC/index.html?sb=3

The demography of skills and beliefs in Europe with a focus on cohort change

Vagard Skirbekk - StG 2009 – SH3International Institute for Applied Systems

Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria€ 1 million



The economic evaluation of end of life care

Joanna Coast - StG 2010 – LS7University of Birmingham, UK

€ 1 million

- Health economics concentrates on the appropriate allocation of resources: these assessments are known as Quality-Adjusted Life-Years

- Cost effectiveness should not be the only determinant of health care

- New evaluative approach for end of life care to take into account autonomy, dignity, spirituality, lack of suffering and preparation for death

- Creation of a new set of indices to measure quality of life

- The aim is to develop appropriate measures which can accurately estimate the holistic benefits of end of life care, and in doing so contribute to a dignified end of life for both patients and their families.

http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/mds/projects/HaPS/HE/ICECAP/index.asp

http://consensus.nih.gov/2004/2004EndOfLifeCareSOS024html.htm



Evolution of Alzheimers Disease: From dynamics of single synapses to memory loss

Inna Slutsky - StG 2011 – LS5Tel Aviv University, Israel

€ 2 million

The disintegration of neuronal circuits is observed in Alzheimer's Disease (AD).

The amyloid-beta peptide (Abeta) plays a central role in synaptic dysfunctions of AD,

however still unknown.

The project aims at unravelling mechanisms that regulate Abeta and uses an

integrative approach to :

- correlate structure and function at the level of single synapses

- study the relationship between neuronal activity, temporo-spatial dynamics and

molecular composition of Abeta, structural rearrangements within the Abeta signalling

complexes and plasticity of single synapses and whole networks-elucidate fundamental principles of neuronal circuits function and identify critical

steps that initiate primary synaptic dysfunctions at the very early stages of AD

http://www2.tau.ac.il/nano/researcher.asp?id=aceggggjk



These were only a few examples of ERC funded research!

Please check for more on our website:

http://erc.europa.eu/

and

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



Thank You for your attention!

[email protected]

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