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European Research Council

The European Research Council] (ERC) is a pan-European research funding organisation. It was created by the EU in 2007. Researchers from any field can compete for the substantial grants that support pioneering projects. The ERC competitions are open to top researchers from anywhere in the world, provided that they will conduct their research in Europe. The average success rate is about 12%. Grant applications are assessed by high-level international experts. Excellence is the sole criterion for selection; there are neither thematic priorities, nor geographical quotas for funding. The aim is to recognise the best ideas, and confer status and visibility to the best research in Europe, while also attracting talent from abroad.

The ERC programme as a whole is seen as an investment into the future quality of life and economic growth of the European Union. Many of the ERC funded-projects, although addressing basic rather than applied research, are already producing scientific and technological breakthroughs. Two ERC grantees have won Nobel Prizes.

The ERC budget is over €13 billion from 2014 – 2020 and comes from the Horizon 2020 programme, a part of the European Union's budget. Under Horizon 2020 it is estimated that around 7,000 ERC grantees will be funded and 42,000 team members supported, including 11,000 doctoral students and almost 16,000 post-doctoral researchers.

The ERC is an independent body, led by scientists, that is part of the EU's Research and Innovation Framework Programme Horizon 2020and of its predecessor, the Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7). The ERC is composed of an independent Scientific Council, its governing body consisting of distinguished researchers, and an Executive Agency, in charge of the implementation.

History

The idea of having a funding mechanism for basic research at the EU level has been discussed and supported among European scientists for a long time. However, its realisation was held back at the political level because the European Treaty, which is the document that forms the legal basis of the EU, was interpreted as allowing EU funding only to strengthen the scientific and technological base of European industry – that is, only funding for applied research rather than basic research. In conjunction with the Lisbon declaration in 2000, leaders of the EU, in particular the European Commissioner for Research at the time, Philippe Busquin, realised that the European Treaty had to be reinterpreted; a transformation of European economy from traditional manufacturing to a knowledge-based economy has to involve the enhanced support at the European level for science of all kinds, including both fundamental and applied research.

In 2003, a report from the ERC Expert Group (ERCEG), chaired by Professor Federico Mayor, described how the ERC could take shape. In 2004, a high-level expert group was commissioned to further explore the possibilities of creating a European Research Council. This group concluded that the EU should establish an institution to support frontier research. A number of other expert groups, such as one commissioned by the European Science Foundation, another charged with the task of analysing the economic implications of the Lisbon declaration and a high level group commissioned by the European Commission, also arrived at a similar conclusion and boosted the idea. With the ice broken, scientists and politicians have since strongly supported the establishment of an ERC. In 2006, the European Parliament and EU Council of Ministers accepted the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) for the European Union's support for research, of which the ERC was a flagship component. In the ERC kick-off conference in Berlin, various speakers talked of 'an idea whose time has come', 'a European factory of ideas', 'a champions' league’, 'a great day for Europe and a great day for science', and the beginning of a 'snowball effect'.

Governance & structure

The ERC is governed by the Scientific Council (ScC), consisting of 22 eminent European scientists and scholars (including Nobel prize laureates), and supported operationally by the European Research Council Executive Agency (ERCEA), based in Brussels. The ScC acts on behalf of the scientific community in Europe to promote creativity and innovative research. It is responsible for setting the ERC's scientific strategy, including establishing the annual Work Programmes, designing the peer review systems, identifying the peer review experts, and communicating with the scientific community. The first Scientific Council members were nominated by Commissioner Potočnik in July 2005 and worked intensively to define the key principles and scientific operating practices of the ERC in preparation for the start-up. Following its formal establishment, the Scientific Council reaffirmed the election of its Chair and ERC president, Professor Fotis Kafatos, and the two Vice-Chairs and ERC Vice-Presidents, Professor Helga Nowotny and Dr. Daniel Estève. After the highly successful Presidency of Fotis Kafatos, Helga Nowotny took over as President in March 2010 with Prof. Carl-Henrik Heldin and Prof. Pavel Exner as Vice-Presidents. In January 2014, after the end of Helga Nowotny's term of office, Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon became ERC President. Since then, the ERC also has a third Vice-President, Professor Nuria Sebastian Galles, alongside the two vice-presidents already in office (each of them in charge of one of the ERC scientific domains).

The members of the Scientific Council are selected by an Identification Committee, consisting of highly respected personalities in European research, and appointed by the European Commission. The ScC members term of office lasts four years.

The implementing pillar of the ERC, the ERC Executive Agency (ERCEA), is responsible for supporting the peer review process, implementing the ERC strategy as set by the ScC, executing all financial operations and communicating about the ERC. The ERCEA is currently headed by the Director, Pablo Amor. It employs some 400 staff of which more than 50 hold PhDs.

To create an integrated institution consisting of the ScC and the ERCEA, two integrative mechanisms were initially put in place:

1. The Secretary General (SG), selected by the ScC, was located in Brussels with the goal of interacting closely with the ERCEA. This post no longer exists. The first SG was Professor Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker (link: http://en.wikipedia.org/Ernst-Ludwig_Winnacker ) (2007 – 2009). The second SG was Professor Andreu Mas-Colell (link: http://en.wikipedia.org/Andreu_Mas-Colell ) (2009 – 2010). The third and the last SG was Professor Donald Bruce Dingwell (2010 – 2013). The Secretaries General have been instrumental in the successful setting-up of the ERC, and have worked closely and fruitfully together with the two consecutive Directors ad interim of the ERCEA, Jack Metthey and thereafter Pablo Amor. During the first half of 2011, a Task Force chaired by the European Commission's Research Director-General, Robert-Jan Smits, decided to give further suggestions regarding the governance structure of the ERC in the European Commission's Framework Programme (Horizon 2020), 2014 - 2020. It inter alia suggested to merge the positions of the President and of the Secretary General into a full-time President based in Brussels. This recommendation was implemented as of January 2014; since then, the ERC President is permanently based in Brussels and there is no Secretary General.
2. The ERC Board currently consists of the ERC President, the three Vice-Presidents, and the Director of the ERCEA .

There is also a five-member ERCEA Steering Committee, chaired by the European Commission's Director-General for Research and Innovation, two ScC members, and two Commission officials.

Budget

Under the EU's Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 the ERC has a budget of over €13 billion from 2014 - 2020. That is a substantial increase from its initial seven-year budget under the EU's seventh Research Framework Programme from 2007 to 2013, when a the total allocated to the ERC was €7.5 billion.

The ERC budget is supported by the European Commission and is supplemented by contributions from the EU associated countries. Together, the 28 EU member states and the associated countries comprise the European Research Area (ERA).

Founding principles: Frontier research based on peer-reviewed excellence

The first founding principle of the ERC is that research grant applications should be judged using the sole criterion of peer-reviewed excellence, independent of political, geographic or economic considerations. All ERC competitions for funding are open to top researchers from any country in the world, as long as they are committed to work at least half of their time in Europe. The quality and originality of the research project and the qualifications of the applicant( as shown, for example, by their publication record) are the only evaluation criteria. This means that there will be no juste retour, in other words there are no guarantees that the individual countries contributing to the programme will receive any part of the funding.

The second founding principle of the ERC is to target frontier research by encouraging high-risk, high-reward proposals that may revolutionise science and potentially lead to innovation if successful. With its bottom-up approach, the Scientific Council does not pre-determine thematic priorities, but challenges applicants to identify them themselves. Funding is provided for individual projects initiated in an investigator-driven, ‘bottom‑up’ process. Although collaborations within a project are welcome, there is no formal demand to collaborate.

The ERC asks researchers to think big, and provides generous support for ambitious projects. It does not want its carefully selected grantees to waste their time by taking on numerous peripheral projects, or constantly having to seek additional money to fund their research. The grants are flexible, so that all costs for a specific project can be covered, and portable, meaning that if grant holders move to another university or institute, the grant moves with them.

Types of grants offered

The ERC offers three core grant schemes:

• ERC Starting Grants support up-and-coming independent research leaders with over 2 and up to 7 years of experience after PhD award (*). This is targeted at promoting early scientific independence of promising talent.

Funding: Up to €2 million per grant for up to five years

• ERC Consolidator Grants target excellent researchers with over 7 and up to 12 years of experience after PhD award (*).

Funding: Up to €2.75 million per grant for up to five years

• ERC Advanced Grants support outstanding advanced researchers (*).

Funding: Up to €3.5 million per grant for up to five years

The following applies to all three core funding schemes: The applicant can be of any nationality and age, and needs to demonstrate an excellent track record and present a ground-breaking research proposal. The research must be conducted in a Host Institution located in an EU Member State or associated country.

There are two additional ERC funding initiatives:

• 'ERC Proof of Concept grants': top-up funding open only to ERC grant holders to bring their research ideas closer to market (Up to €150,000 per grant);
• 'ERC Synergy Grants': introduced on a pilot basis to support a small groups of outstanding researchers working together on the same project. After the first two calls, this scheme is currently under review. (Up to €15 million per project).

Success rates

This chart shows success rates.

ERC peer review

The ERC's peer-review evaluation process must command the confidence of the research community and is central to the achievement of the ERC's objectives. The ERC Scientific Council divided the full range of scientific disciplines into three major domains, with budgets allotted as follows: 34% for Life Sciences, 17% for Social Sciences and Humanities; and 39% for Physical andEngineering. The ScC encourages interdisciplinary proposals. The peer review in the three domains is carried out by a total of 25 panels led by Panel Chairs whose scientific status gives credibility to the selection process. The peer review experts come from all over the world, which makes the ERC peer review process one of the most international of its kind on this scale. There are currently about 900 ERC panel members; together with the 2000 external reviewers, they constitute the backbone of the ERC evaluation structure.

European Research Council: domains and panels

Domain PE: Physical Sciences & Engineering

PE1 Mathematical foundations: all areas of mathematics, pure and applied, plus mathematical foundations of computer science, mathematical physics and statistics
PE2 Fundamental constituents of matter: particle, nuclear, plasma, atomic, molecular, gas, and optical physics
PE3 Condensed matter physics: structure, electronic properties, fluids, nanosciences
PE4 Physical and analytical chemical sciences: analytical chemistry, chemical theory, physical chemistry/chemical physics
PE5 Materials and synthesis: materials synthesis, structure-properties relations, functional and advanced materials, molecular architecture, organic chemistry
PE6 Computer science and informatics: informatics and information systems, computer science, scientific computing, intelligent systems
PE7 Systems and communication engineering: electronic, communication, optical and systems engineering
PE8 Products and processes engineering: product design, process design and control, construction methods, civil engineering, energy systems, material engineering
PE9 Universe sciences: astro-physics/chemistry/biology; solar system; stellar, galactic and extragalactic astronomy, planetary systems, cosmology, space science, instrumentation
PE10 Earth system science: physical geography, geology, geophysics, meteorology, oceanography, climatology, ecology, global environmental change, biogeochemical cycles, natural resources management.

Domain SH: Social Sciences & Humanities

SH1 Individuals, institutions and markets: economics, finance and management
SH2 Institutions, values and beliefs and behaviour: sociology, social anthropology, political science, law, communication, social studies of science and technology
SH3 Environment and society: environmental studies, demography, social geography, urban and regional studies
SH4 The Human Mind and its complexity: cognition, psychology, linguistics, philosophy and education
SH5 Cultures and cultural production: literature, visual and performing arts, music, cultural and comparative studies
SH6 The study of the human past: archaeology, history and memory.

Domain LS: Life Sciences

LS1 Molecular and Structural Biology and Biochemistry: molecular biology, biochemistry, biophysics, structural biology, biochemistry of signal transduction
LS2 Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology: genetics, population genetics, molecular genetics, genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, bioinformatics, computational biology, biostatistics, biological modelling and simulation, systems biology, genetic epidemiology
LS3 Cellular and Developmental Biology: cell biology, cell physiology, signal transduction, organogenesis, developmental genetics, pattern formation in plants and animals
LS4 Physiology, Pathophysiology and Endocrinology: organ physiology, pathophysiology, endocrinology, metabolism, ageing, regeneration, tumorigenesis, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome
LS5 Neurosciences and neural disorders: neurobiology, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neurochemistry, neuropharmacology, neuroimaging, systems neuroscience, neurological disorders, psychiatry
LS6 Immunity and infection: immunobiology, aetiology of immune disorders, microbiology, virology, parasitology, global and other infectious diseases, population dynamics of infectious diseases, veterinary medicine
LS7 Diagnostic tools, therapies and public health: aetiology, diagnosis and treatment of disease, public health, epidemiology, pharmacology, clinical medicine, regenerative medicine, medical ethics
LS8 Evolutionary, population and environmental biology: evolution, ecology, animal behaviour, population biology, biodiversity, biogeography, marine biology, ecotoxicology, prokaryotic biology
LS9 Applied life sciences and biotechnology: agricultural, animal, fishery, forestry and food sciences; biotechnology, chemical biology, genetic engineering, synthetic biology, industrial biosciences; environmental biotechnology and remediation.

Relations with stakeholders in Europe

Through its existence, the ERC aims to enhance the performance of the European research system. The ERC and national funding bodies have important objectives in common – improving the climate for frontier research in Europe and increasing the attractiveness of the European research environment. The Scientific Council has been keen to learn from the ERC’s peers in national research councils (European and overseas) and to engage in dialogue and appropriate collaboration. Also, some countries – such as Poland - have used the ERC model to establish national basic research funding bodies.

Open access

The Scientific Council has engaged actively in the debate on access and availability of publications and research results. It has adopted an ‘open access’ policy by requiring that all peer-reviewed publications from ERC-funded research projects are deposited in the appropriate Internet-accessible libraries within six months of publication.

Notes

1. E.-L. Winnacker, "On Excellence through Competition", European Educational Research Journal 7, 124 (2008)
2. C.-H. Heldin, "The European Research Council – a new opportunity for European science", Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 9, 417 (2008)
3. H. Nowotny, Frontier Research in the Social Sciences and Humanities: what does it mean, what can it mean? (PDF) (PDF)
4. "ERC calls 2013: What's new?".(registration required)
5. basic statistics for ERC funding activities

See also

• Lisbon Strategy
• Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development
• European Institute of Technology (EIT)
• European Research Area (ERA)
• Directorate-General for Research
• Directorate-General of the Joint Research Centre (European Commission)
• European Research Advisory Board (EURAB)
• European Council of Applied Sciences and Engineering (Euro-CASE)
• Information Society Technologies Advisory Group (ISTAG)

References

• December 2003, Report from Expert Group The European Research Council A Cornerstone in the European Research Area
• Frontier Research: The European Challenge, High Level Expert Group Report, February 2005
• BBC News story of ERC launch – Feb 2007
• Webpage of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council
• EU press release IP/05/956, Scientific Council of the European Research Council announced, released 18 July 2005.
• CORDIS – FP7 (Ideas)

External links

• Official Website
• Athenaweb – European science research

• Use dmy dates from March 2013
• European Union and science and technology
• Science and technology in Europe
• 2007 establishments in the European Union
• Organizations established in 2007
• Agencies of the European Union